John 6:53, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.” Quoted by the Rev. John Stock in his handbook of Revealed Theology, to prove that “until a man by Faith receives the sacrifice of Christ he has no life, not even its first elements in his soul.” The question here discussed by our Lord, however, is not how spiritual life is obtained, but how it is maintained. Jesus proclaims Himself as the only food of heaven-born souls. All living creatures are so constituted that their life is nourished by some appropriate form of food—and they are described by what they eat. Some are carnivorous or flesh-eaters. Others graininivorous, and subsist on grass. A Christian lives on Christ by Faith. He that eateth (is an eater of) the flesh and blood of Christ has life eternal, verse 54. It will be sent hat the word “until” in the sentence quoted above, perverts the passage. The Lord does not say that until a man believes he has no life, but that except he subsists on Christ’s flesh and blood—i.e., except Christ is as really a vital and daily necessity to his soul as food is to his body—he is spiritually lifeless.
