How Men Eat the Flesh and Drink the Blood of Jesus

John 6:52-58; How do men eat the Lord's flesh and drink his blood? Is this literal or figurative? Does it have reference to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper or to something else?

John 6:52-59; In these words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, Jesus reaches the climax of his great discourse on the Bread of Life. Since he is the Bread of Life (meaning the Son of God), which came down from the Father, and since men must eat this spiritual bread in order to gain salvation, it follows that eternal life is gained only by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, or in other words, eternal life is gained only by accepting Jesus as the Christ and keeping his commandments.

John 6:52-59; To eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God is, first, to accept him in the most literal and full sense, with no reservation whatever, as the personal offspring in the flesh of the Eternal Father; and, secondly, it is to keep the commandments of the Son by accepting his gospel, joining his Church, and enduring in obedience and righteousness unto the end. Those who by this course eat his flesh and drink his blood shall have eternal life, meaning exaltation in the highest heaven of the celestial world. Speaking of ancient Israel, for instance, Paul says: They "did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:3-4.)

John 6:52-59; In the waters of baptism the saints take upon themselves the name of Christ (that is, they accept him fully and completely as the Son of God and the Savior of men), and they then covenant to keep his commandments and obey his laws. (Mosiah 18:7-10.) To keep his saints in constant remembrance of their obligation to accept and obey him—or in other words, to eat his flesh and drink his blood—the Lord has given them the sacramental ordinance. This ordinance, performed in remembrance of his broken flesh and spilled blood, is the means provided for men, formally and repeatedly, to assert their belief in the divinity of Christ, and to affirm their determination to serve him and keep his commandments; or, in other words, in this ordinance—in a spiritual, but not a literal sense—men eat his flesh and drink his blood. Hence, after instituting the sacramental ordinance among the Nephites, Jesus commanded: "Ye shall not suffer any one knowingly to partake of my flesh and blood unworthily, when ye shall minister it; For whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul; therefore if ye know that a man is unworthy to eat and drink of my flesh and blood ye shall forbid him." (3 Nephi 18:25-29.)

John 6:52; 52. How can this man give us his flesh to eat?] This querulous, unbelieving attitude on the part of the Jews was, not only wholly unwarranted, but from Jewish lips it bordered on absurdity. Probably no people in all history understood better or had made more extensive use of symbolical and figurative language than they had. Further, Jesus had just taught them the doctrine of the Bread of Life. For them to pretend not to know that eating the flesh of Jesus meant accepting him as the Son of God and obeying his words could only mean that they were wilfully closing their eyes to the truth. Their lack of spiritual understanding was comparable to that of modern sectarians who profess to find in our Lord's statements, about eating and drinking his own flesh and blood, justification for the false doctrine of transubstantiation.

John 6:52; In substance and effect Jesus then said to the Jews:

John 6:53; 53. 'Solemnly and soberly I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of God, and drink his blood, by accepting me and my mission and obeying my gospel, ye have no spiritual life in you, but rather are spiritually dead and are not born again.'

John 6:54; 54. 'Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood—by accepting me, keeping my commandments, and enduring unto the end—shall have eternal life; and I will raise him up in the resurrection of the just to an inheritance of exaltation in my Father's kingdom.'

John 6:55; 55. 'For my flesh is spiritual meat indeed, and my blood is spiritual drink indeed.'

John 6:56; 56. 'He that spiritually eateth my flesh by accepting me as the Son of God, and spiritually drinketh my blood by keeping all my commandments, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he shall dwell in me and I in him; yea, we shall then be one, in that we are perfectly united in character, perfections, and attributes; we shall then have the same mind and the same judgment in all things.' (1 Corinthians 1:10; 2:16.)

John 6:57; 57. 'As the living Father, who himself hath spiritual and eternal life, hath sent me; and as I have spiritual life and shall have eternal life because I keep my Father's commandments; so he that spiritually eateth me by keeping my commandments, even he shall gain spiritual life and eternal life because of me and my atoning sacrifice.'

John 6:58; 58. 'These things which I have told you are the true doctrine of the Bread of Life, that bread which came down from heaven. This true bread from heaven is not, as you falsely supposed, that manna which your fathers (who are dead) ate to sustain themselves temporally, for he that eateth of this true bread from heaven shall have spiritual and eternal life forever.'