June 6
From the desk of Pastor Ben
Promises To Those Who Receive Christ – Part 1

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”         (John 6:53b-54)

Here Jesus begins mentioning several promises to those who spiritually receive His body and blood. First, those who reject Christ have no genuine spiritual life within themselves; therefore, those who do receive Him by faith have such spiritual life. The Lord Himself guarantees them abundant life even now (John 5:24; 10:10).

Second, Jesus promises eternal life to all who receive Him (eat His flesh, drink His blood). The believers’ present experience of abundant life does not end at death, but it simply expands into completeness and lasts forever. In John 6:40, resurrection and eternal life result from beholding and believing in Jesus, and here, the same blessings occur from spiritually eating His flesh and drinking His blood. So, our Lord gives us a genuine parallel between these two expressions.

Third, the Son of God promises to “raise up on the last day” everyone who eats His flesh and drinks His blood. This resurrection to eternal life is the Christian’s greatest hope (Acts 23:6, 24). It should be a certain reminder to us that without resurrection, the gospel is meaningless. As the apostle Paul writes, “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.”     (1 Corinthians 15:12-14)

Ask Yourself:
The fullness of what Christ has won for us by conquering death and rising up to eternal life is often lost amid the hectic ness of the average day. Stop today to meditate on the abundance He has bought for you. What are some of the blessings you most often overlook?