Words being "spirit" and "life" means that you don't have to take them literally? Do you have an example from elsewhere in Scripture where "spirit" is used to mean "metaphor" or "symbolic"?
Spiritual doen't mean 'metaphorical' or 'symbolic'. It means spiritual. If refers to another realm of being, ... that which God is.
Jesus tells us, plainly, that God is a Spirit. Therefore, when the scripture speaks of the eyes of God ...Amos 9:8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the LORD.... do we understand that God has physical eyes. Of course not. We understand that God has spiritual eyes ... not 'metaphoric' ... not 'symbolic', but spiritual eyes.
Likewise, when Jesus responds to His disciples confusion over His previous statements with ...John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.... He is saying that it is by His Spirit, ... not His flesh, ... that we have His life and that it is through belief in His words, ... by which He has taught us, ... that we receive our spiritual life.John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
1 John 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Good. I'm glad we agree on that much.
... do we understand that God has physical eyes. Of course not. We understand that God has spiritual eyes ... not 'metaphoric' ... not 'symbolic', but spiritual eyes.
Yeah. Not sure why this is relevant, honestly. God the Father does not really have eyes at all. "Spiritual" or otherwise.
... He is saying that it is by His Spirit, ... not His flesh, ... that we have His life
So you are saying that Jesus is saying that His own flesh is useless? Is the Incarnation pointless? Does Jesus being human, taking on flesh mean anything? Or is it all just "profit nothing?"
and that it is through belief in His words, ... by which He has taught us, ... that we receive our spiritual life.
And now we're right back where we started. We both agree that we can receive spiritual life by Jesus' words. Now, why do you think that this means that we must take Him to be speaking metaphorically?
To me, knowing how important Jesus' words are, I do not automatically say "well, He might have said that, but He doesn't really mean it to be taken literally." I mean, absent any other evidence.
SD