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
Yeah. Not sure why this is relevant, honestly. God the Father does not really have eyes at all. "Spiritual" or otherwise.
Why do you say this ? On what do you base such a statement ?
Scripture says that He does have eyes (obviously spiritual eyes).
He just doesn't have physical eyes like you do.
What do you think God's definition of an eye would be ?
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?"
Jesus' flesh is offered to and is of value to God, not to us.
Having His justice satisfied by the offering of the body and blood of Jesus, ... God quickens (gives life to) our spiritual life with His Spirit.
If you will, God is profitted (as to the accomplishment of His will) by the offereing of the body and blood of Jesus.
We (believers) are profitted through the life endowed to us by His Spirit.
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.
Jesus, Himself stated that His method of speaking to the multitudes was through parables (i.e. metaphorically). It was common in His teaching.
Further, when Jesus privately taught His disciples the meaning of His statements to the multitude (as He did in John 6:63), ... it is a good indication that those teachings to the multitudes were metaphoric in nature.