Examining Scripture Carefully
The Bible is a wonderful gift from God. It is a treasure full of wisdom and truth. Every word was inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that men wrote down the very words of God in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Today, we have excellent literal translations which show us what God has said to us, and of course, we can read them in the original languages. God had it written for us so we could understand it and live by it. However, it does have passages that are challenging to understand. So, how to we deal with those passages?
One such passage is in John 6 where Jesus is teaching the people that He is the Bread of Life. He went on to say, "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed." (John 6:54,55) Sounds pretty straight forward, so the people wondered how they could eat His flesh. However, He followed up by clarifying what He had said. (John 6:63) "The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life." How are we to understand this teaching?
We always have to read Scripture in context and consider it carefully. If we stop after verse 55, we might come to the conclusion that when we take communion the bread and wine turn into the body and blood of Jesus, so that when we eat and drink them, we have eternal life. There are a lot of people in the world who believe that. I believe it is a misunderstanding of what Jesus was saying based on the context and a careful reading of verse 63 and other verses in the Bible. Jesus says very clearly that "the Spirit alone gives eternal life," and it is not by human effort or by the flesh. Therefore, I don't believe taking communion can give us grace for salvation.
The rest of the Bible is very clear, as well. We are saved and are given eternal life as a free gift from God as He sees our faith. It is not by works. (Ephesians 2:8,9) We see this from Abraham's life and all through the rest of the Bible. So, when we read the end of verse 63 we have to realize that Jesus was talking spiritually. His words were "spirit and truth." He was saying we have to fully accept Him to have eternal life. We have to receive Him so fully that it is like eating and drinking. What we eat and drink becomes a part of us. The problem here and in many passages is that people hear what they want to hear, and most people want a way to have salvation by works, not by the Spirit. That is impossible.
Tomorrow, I intend to read John 7-9.