"These things have I WRITTEN unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."

This said, I will answer what Jesus meant when He said we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Let's turn to John Chapter 6 in our Bibles and go through it. The eternal Word will leave no doubt as to its meaning.

JOHN 6, VERSES 1 THROUGH 21

In this first part of the chapter Jesus feeds 5,000 people with just five barley loaves and two little fish.

JOHN 6, VERSES 22 THROUGH 25

The following day, the people went looking for Jesus.

JOHN 6, VERSES 26 THROUGH 27

When the people found Jesus, He told them that they didn't look for Him because of the miracle they had just experienced. They came looking for Him because they wanted some more food (v. 26). Then He told them not to labour for the meat that perishes but for the meat which would give them everlasting life. Jesus said He would give to them.

JOHN 6, VERSES 28 THROUGH 29

Then the people said, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?"

Jesus' response in v. 29 is very important to understand...

"This is the work of God, that ye
BELIEVE on him whom he hath sent."

JOHN 6, VERSES 30 THROUGH 31

Look at the hardness of the peoples' hearts in v. 30. They said, "What SIGN shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?" Did you see it? Only the day before He performed that huge miracle before them and they totally ignored it saying, "Show us something so we'll believe you". They did not believe in Jesus.

Then in vs. 31 the people mention how their fathers, the Israelites, ate manna in the desert. Remember God fed them out there for 40 years. The people now expected Jesus to feed them all the food they wanted.

JOHN 6, VERSES 32 THROUGH 33

Jesus then told them that God is giving them the TRUE bread from Heaven. Jesus told them "The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and GIVETH LIFE unto the world." In other words, Jesus is the bread that gives nourishment to the world. But what kind of nourishment? We shall soon see.

JOHN 6, VERSES 34 THROUGH 35

Then the people said, "Lord, evermore give us this bread." Jesus responded by telling them, "I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE: he that COMETH TO ME shall never hunger; and he that BELIEVETH ON ME shall never thirst."

We all know that no physical bread can make us full for the rest of our lives, and no physical drink can quench our thirst for the rest of our lives. Then what did He mean? We shall soon see.

JOHN 6, VERSES 36 THROUGH 40

Jesus then plainly tells the people that even though they had SEEN Him they did not believe in Him. In verse 40 He told them once again, "And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and BELIEVETH on him, may have everlasting life."

Jesus said if we come to Him and BELIEVE on Him, we will get everlasting life, just like eating physical bread gives us physical life. The people were talking about physical life; Jesus was talking about the spiritual--where we will spend eternal life.

JOHN 6, VERSES 41 THROUGH 42

The people didn't want to hear this "believing" business because they didn't believe in Him. They murmured at him because he said that he was the bread that came down from Heaven. They started thinking back about His supposed family (Joseph was not His earthly father). They basically said in verse 42, "We know his mother and father. How can he say he came down from heaven?"

JOHN 6, VERSES 43 THROUGH 47

Jesus then told the people that anyone who hears and learns from God the Father will come to Him, others won't. He told them what they needed to do, and they ignored it, and even got indignant about it. Once again, Jesus tells them what to do, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that BELIEVETH on me hath everlasting life."

JOHN 6, VERSES 48 THROUGH 51 -- THE BREAKDOWN

Now Jesus breaks it all the way down in these verses. These greedy ol' people were just concerned with having their stomach's full so He spoke to them on that level which seemed to be the only they could understand. He basically told them, "Your fathers ate manna and they are DEAD. I am the living bread, eat me and YOU WILL LIVE FOREVER. My body is the bread I will give for the life of the world."

What did He mean by "eateth my flesh"?

Remember He told them that the work of God was to BELIEVE on Jesus.

To believe is to accept, internalize, and absorb ... which is what eating is--allowing an outside substance to come inside of you. But unlike physical bread which is eaten and cast out through the digestive system, the spiritual bread, the word of God, is eaten/internalized through belief and never cast out. It remains inside of us. In verse 58, Jesus explains that when we eat Him it is "NOT as your fathers did eat manna and are dead". It is not the same kind of eating. It is INTERNALIZING, ACCEPTING, BELIEVING HIM.

Jesus' flesh is food because His flesh was crucified on the cross to pay for our death penalty of hell and the lake of fire--this is eternal death. If we believe that this happened and confess Him, we will not experience spiritual death. We will go to heaven--this is eternal life. Believing/internalizing/eating this fact gives us eternal life. We need physical bread to stay alive, we need belief in His sacrifice (spiritual bread) so we can live forever.

What about the blood? Jesus blood is drink because the shedding of blood is required to forgive our sins. The blood forgives our sins and washes them away forever, so we can live with a Holy and Just God who NEVER sins and can't live with sin. Hebrews 9:22 says blood is required in order to get forgiveness of sins/remission,

"And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."

Once again, if we believe upon Jesus, i.e., eat Him so-to-speak, we will have ETERNAL LIFE. The people were talking about physical life; Jesus was talking about SPIRITUAL life. Remember, when asked what we have to do, to do the works of God, Jesus said ...

"He that BELIEVETH on me hath everlasting LIFE."

When we believe on Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, the Holy Spirit of God actually comes to live inside of us, never to be purged like the physical bread of the Eucharist (which goes out in the dung)! A Catholic who believes they are digesting Jesus at Eucharist, must also believe that Jesus is in their feces! This is how ridiculous the Catholic religion is!

Because I believe, Jesus lives in me.

JOHN 6, VERSES 52 THROUGH 69

This caused the unbelieving Jews to say, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They are still thinking about physical life and physical bread. Jesus is talking about spiritual life and spiritual bread. He has told them over and over that the work of God is to believe on Him and they repeatedly refuse to believe on Him and persist in seeking physical bread.

In vs. 55, Jesus said, "My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." Many people were offended at the thought of what they perceived as cannibalism. Because of their unbelief, they were still thinking in the physical realm.

What about the disciples that left him? Was it because they had to literally eat His flesh and drink His blood? No! They left because they did not believe the claims that Jesus made, just like the greedy people, who didn't believe either. Because they did not believe, they could not understand what Jesus was saying (see 1st Corinthians 2:14).

In verse 63, Jesus asked the disciples that murmured, "Doth this offend you? It is the SPIRIT that quickeneth (gives life); THE FLESH PROFITETH NOTHING: the words that I speak unto you, THEY ARE SPIRIT, and they are life." He told them plainly that He was not talking literally. He said, "...the words that I speak unto you, THEY ARE SPIRIT." He also told them here that the physical flesh profits NOTHING, ZERO, ZILCH, NIL, NADA--NOTHING!

The Catholic religion purposely leaves out verses 63-64 when claiming that John 6 is about the Eucharist. The word, "Eucharist" is not even in the Bible. There is no concept of the Eucharist in Bible--but there is in pagan religion...

What we've done here is straight exposition from the Bible. You don't have to take my word for it, you can get your Bible and do the exact same thing--compare this to your Bible. We are talking about the difference between life and death here. It would behoove any Catholic to check this out and decide if they want to continue trusting the Eucharist for their eternal life, instead of trusting the real Jesus who loves them and died for them.