“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.”
This is a favorite verse of protestants. But, it doesn’t mean what you think it means and it certainly is not the Lord’s way of saying what He said earlier in John regarding the true life giving nature of His Body and Blood is symbolic.
What Jesus is saying here is that one cannot enter heaven through works of the flesh. One must have the Spirit of Life within them. He also tells us how we can have the Spirit of Life, HIS VERY SELF, within us,
John 6:56 “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”
If what you think this means is true, then why is it that it was FLESH which suffered and died on the cross?
Why do you think it is a "favorite" with Protestants? Do we not celebrate the Lord's Supper with broken unleavened bread and grape juice? Do we not say first that everyone should examine himself before he partakes of the elements? Do we not speak the same words Jesus said to his disciples, this is my body which is broken for you, take and eat of it in remembrance of me? Do we not also take the cup and repeat the words of Jesus, this cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes?
And do we not do this many times during the year, not just at Easter? Do we not preach that to participate unworthily is a sin? That no one should partake who has not received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior? The true life-giving nature of Jesus' flesh and blood is in the fact that he died for our sins upon the cross. His body was broken for us, his blood shed for our sins and without his sacrifice we would be without hope in a dying world full of sin. He also rose again from the grave so that we know our sin debt is paid. If Christ be not risen, we are dead in our sins, Paul said. And because he is risen, so shall we be raised spotless and unblemished, clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
As I have said before, Jvette, it is not so much that some want to believe that the elements are spiritually changed - spiritually because the elements remain bread and wine - into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus, but that they insist that all must partake of this sacrament in order to be saved. That no one who has not received Christ, believed on him, can be saved, I fully accept because it is Biblical truth. What I object to most of all is the dogma that this observance itself is propitiatory. Paul said as often as you do this, you do "show the Lord's death until he comes". That no one was supposed to partake who was not already a believer, is plain, so why would Paul imply - which I don't believe he ever did - that the repeated partaking was what saved one?
Jesus died once for all, Scripture says, and Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of the Father until he comes again. He sacrifice was complete, "it is finished", he said, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. It does not need to be repeated again and again, because by one offering he has perfected forever those who are saved. We, by faith, receive him and we are found IN CHRIST. God counts his righteousness in the place of our righteousness and we are perfected in his sight. We are justified and sanctified by grace through faith and we have eternal life through Jesus Christ. The observance of the Eucharist was for thanksgiving, for remembrance, for reminding the saved what Jesus did for them so that we are encouraged to share our faith and to live righteous and holy lives through the power of grace through Christ.
Do you get hungry or thirsty? Or whoops, we don't take this one literally......do we?
John 6:51, 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever."
Hmmm, didn't Jesus have a human flesh and blood body? Oh? He ISN'T made out of dough even though He says He's bread? Not taking that one literally either?
What about living forever? Catholics claim that they eat the actual flesh and blood of Jesus but here He says that anyone who does will never die. Are we switching between literal and spiritual in mid-sentence? Or do Catholics plan on literally living forever in the physical bodies that physically eat the physical body and blood of Jesus?