© 11 Colin Melbourne
Jesus’ Words
Are God’s Spirit and God’s Life
Please read John chapter six in the Holy Bible, especially noting Jn. 6:63b KJV;
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
“Spirit” can be capitalised because it refers to God the Holy Spirit, and the two words “they”, added by the KJV translators, are not present in the Greek Textus Receptus. Significantly, William Tyndale did not include them in his 1534 translation, because they are not strictly necessary. The statement is more powerful and forthright without the additional words.
The literal English translation of what Jesus actually said is:
The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and are life.
God Tells Us To Eat Him
Here’s the immediate context of this divine declaration.
Almighty God manifested in human flesh; miraculously fed a crowd of five thousand with a boy’s lunch, walked across Lake Galilee, and told a crowd of Jews on the other side they had to eat Him, and drink His Blood, in order to live. Jn. 6:54-56 KJV;
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
You won’t find human flesh and blood on Jewish menus, cannibalism is against man’s law, and God’s Law. So naturally they got upset when they heard Jesus say this, and that He was the real Bread of Heaven typified in the manna supplied to the Exodus.
Jesus allowed them to misunderstand and get flustered.
If He’d wanted to, He could have turned the screws by reminding them that He was the actual Lamb of God typified in the Jewish Passover.
The Jews of the Exodus had to eat the Passover Lamb to avoid judgment and survive the journey out of Egypt into the Promised Land.
The point is the same; everyone must eat the Bread of Heaven, God’s Passover Lamb, The LORD Jesus Christ, in order to receive eternal life.
Born of God: Not Rituals
Some people still misinterpret God’s word. They think they receive eternal life by partaking of Holy Communion, and eating the physical emblems of bread and wine representing His Body and Blood.
No, you can take communion every day of your life, but you’ll still go to Hell. Communion is only a representation, a reminder, of the reality of what needs to have already occurred in the believer. The Lord’s Supper symbolises the spiritual birth by which we became new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Sinners are born of God’s Spirit, born again, the moment they repent of unbelief, believe on Christ, and receive the Living Word into their heart as LORD and Saviour.
This is the actual eating His flesh, and drinking His Blood that God’s Son meant. Believers must also continue to spiritually; receive, consume, and assimilate, God’s word to Grow in Christ.
The eating and drinking that Jesus spoke of refers to spiritual consumption not physical consumption.
It is easy to see now, from our perspective, but it was a very hard saying for those who first heard the Messiah’s statement.
Roman Catholics still haven’t understood the Lord’s Supper, and have made it into the idolatrous doctrine of transubstantiation.
Many Reject The Truth and Life
The Jews were agitated, and many of His disciples stopped following Him, because they misunderstood His preaching (Jn. 6:66).
I find it very interesting that He let them go.
He hasn’t changed.
Instead of carefully explaining His teaching, Jesus simply confirmed His own words were God’s Life;
The words that I speak unto you are Spirit, and are life.
Halleluia! Each word Christ spoke was, and remains, God’s Spirit and Life.
The eternal Life of God is in His word.
Believers Eat God’s Word
Therefore His words are Spiritual food for our spirits, nourishing our hearts with the life of God. They feed our spirits, build us up in the LORD, fortify our souls and bodies, and best of all, His word keeps us in the Kingdom.
Have you noticed how powerful God’s words are? They have everlasting power, even on your lips when spoken in faith and love.
His words change lives, transform situations, and make the impossible, possible.
We treasure the promise of John 15:7 KJV;
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
We abide in Him because God put us there in the New Birth, we were spiritually baptised into Christ, we became children of God. He did that, and He alone keeps us there.
Our obligation is to abide and walk in His love and ensure His words abide in us; they fill our thoughts, are written on our hearts, we meditate on them, and obey them all the time.
His Words are Spirit and Life
When you want to see God: Look at Jesus.
When you want to hear God: Listen to Jesus’ words.
When you want to know and please God: Obey His word.
If you want to live with God: Do what His word says, and His life will flow through you.
Then you will be eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood, just like the Living Word declared, because;
The words that I speak unto you are Spirit, and are life.
Discover Christ’s Secret Food and how you can Eat the food God provides and really live.
William Tyndale’s work is unequalled, and will never be surpassed. The KJV translators used 84% of Tyndale’s translation word for word. They were an ad hoc Committee: Tyndale was God’s chosen and anointed translator.
He burned with passion to get the Truth into our hands, and Catholics murdered him for doing so. You owe it to yourself to study the life and work of William Tyndale: God’s Secretary and Outlaw.
© 11 Colin Melbourne