Flesh of His Flesh

Continued from previous page. . .

 

The manna came to be called "the bread from heaven."  However, Jesus corrected some misconceptions concerning it: he made the point that it couldn't actually be "bread from heaven," because the Israelites who ate it all died.  The true bread from heaven, Jesus said, is he which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.  He then claimed that title for himself (John 6:31-35).

Therefore we may conclude that manna represents the gift of life. It actually represents two kinds: the daily portion that could not be kept typifies our present fleshly life, a life that cannot be preserved indefinitely. Our flesh, like the manna, will breed worms and stink if any attempt is made to keep it beyond its appointed time.  New generations of flesh must be born each day to replenish life upon the earth.

That portion of manna which was stored in the holy of holies, however, represents the flesh of Jesus Christ.  The holy place itself typifies heaven where Jesus has entered as our High Priest to make intercessions for us (Heb. 9:24).  As the pot of manna was miraculously preserved in the tabernacle, so does the glorified Son of Man dwell immortal in heaven.  (He is the "hidden manna" mentioned in Revelation 2:17.)

Christ is depicted in Proverbs as "the highest part of the dust of the ground" (8:26).¹ Christ has been exalted above the highest heaven (Eph. 4:10) that he might fill all things (meaning, fill his disciples with the Holy Spirit—Col. 3:11; Acts 2:33).  He is truly the Most High, the High Priest that mediates between God and man.  He came into our world as one of us, that he might lead us to the new world to be like him.   An actual bit of the earth's dust, in the form and body of Jesus Christ, has escaped this world and is now preserved in the heavens.  Of no other living being can this be said to be true.

The Israelites ate the manna and died.  We must eat the true bread from heaven to have eternal life.  Jesus said,

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6:51).

When he said one must eat his flesh and drink his blood to live, many disciples, taking his words literally, were offended and left him.  When Jesus knew this, he further explained, "It is the spirit that quickeneth [makes alive];Ä the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63).  Jesus was using a Scriptural figure of speech when he said "eat my flesh and drink my blood."² He really meant, "Hear me, believe, and obey."

Some readers will no doubt say, "But isn't something more implied?  These are strong words; I can't believe that is all Jesus meant."  I agree; there is a deeper level of meaning, and to discover it we must examine for a moment the meaning of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

At the last Passover supper Jesus was to observe, he passed around the bread and the wine, saying, "Take, eat; this is my body....Drink...for this is my blood" (Matt. 26:26-28).  In a commentary upon the Lord's Supper, Paul made the following points (1 Cor. 10:14-17):

 

1. The cup of blessing is the communion of the blood of Christ.
2. The bread we break is the communion of the body of Christ.
3. We are all part of that one (loaf of) bread; we are all partakers of that bread.
4. We are all members of the body of Christ.

 

This provides a definition, not of communion, but of the emblems of bread and wine.  It is in total harmony with Jesus' own words that his "flesh" was his words.  The bread, which represents the body of Christ, is actually the communion of the disciples.  Communion is defined to be "an act or instance of sharing" or "intimate fellowship or rapport: communication."  Communion of the body of Christ is the mutual sharing by its members of the words and doctrines of Christ.  Farther on in the same epistle, Paul describes a typical church meeting:  some have hymns to sing; others a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation.  All are for the edification of the church (1 Cor. 14:26).

It is thus that we eat  of the "one bread"; it is thus that we eat the flesh of the Son of man. The true communion, the true significance of the breaking of the bread, is the sharing among the disciples the words, exhortations and doctrines of Christ in song or sermon, whether in one's native tongue or in some other. True communion is hearing and accepting the words of our brethren as they speak the words of Christ.  The literal bread and wine are only emblems of this and not the communion itself.³

The cup of wine, emblematic of the blood of Christ, represents the Holy Spirit--"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body...and have all been made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13).

We are now ready to reexamine the claim of Jesus: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh..."

The Roman Catholic Church interprets the communion supper literally: the bread and wine are literally "transubstantiated" (that is, the "substance" is transformed) into the actual body and blood of Christ at each observance.  According to them, this constitutes a true sacrifice as an offering for the sins of man.  The doctrine, termed "transubstantiation," was rejected by the reformers.  Luther replaced it with the doctrine of "consubstantiation," and Calvin with "symbolic commemoration." I agree that the Romanist doctrine, as stated, is erroneous.  But I also believe that it contains an element of truth that is reminiscent of a time when perhaps the fathers taught a truer and more spiritual doctrine than is presently taught.  "Transubstantiation" is true in that there is something that is transubstantiated into the flesh of Christ.  But it isn't the present fleshly body for which this is true, nor is it the literal bread and wine that is transformed.  That is the error of the Roman doctrine.  For if true, there would come a time when one would become completely transformed into the flesh of Christ and become immortal. But the present body will not escape corruption, no matter how often it partakes of the communion.  It is not immortal, nor can be, since it is defiled.  The bread and wine simply become part of that sinful flesh and perish with it at death.

Here is true transubstantiation: the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). That flesh, which  never saw corruption, was glorified and made immortal. For us it is the words of Jesus, which were his Father's and which he gave us (not the literal bread and wine) that are "transubstantiated" into a new man, "the hidden man of the heart" (1 Pet. 3:4).  That inner man will one day step out of its earthly body and be given  new flesh commensurate with its incorruptible nature.  It will be a body "like unto his glorious body" (Phil. 3:21).  Then it will truly come to pass that the "Word was made flesh" for us as well as for Christ.

There is yet another way this concept can be viewed.  After God made Adam out of the dust of the ground, he caused him to go into a deep sleep and extracted a portion of his side from which he made him a bride.  Eve was not, therefore, a completely separate creation of flesh: her body had its origin in Adam.  God "multiplied" Adam's flesh to make her.  She was "bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh."

Alas, because of sin, that flesh became defiled.  Adam's descendants bear his fleshly image and are also sinful.  Adam's seed was multiplied (by the wonderful process of sexual reproduction whose mechanism our learned men are only now  beginning to understand) into countless replicas of himself.

When God brought his only begotten Son into the world, he severed the thread that connects man with Adam.  Instead of a male sperm cell directly descended from Adam, God substituted his Word as the begettal agency: the same Word that spoke the universe into existence caused Mary to conceive.   Jesus' flesh was descended from God instead of from Adam, and his blood was "God's own blood" (Acts 20:28).  This constituted a second and completely new creation of human flesh, a flesh that had at last escaped the curse.  That flesh and only that flesh is eligible for glorification.  We must be partakers of that flesh to have immortality: Christ's body must be replicated, as Adam's was, to bring into existence true sons of God.  Thanks be to God, it is so.  All we have to do is hear, believe, and obey.  Then his word (the "seed"--Luke 8:11) begets in us a new man.  When this new creature has been "delivered from the bondage of corruption" (Rom. 8:21), as a baby is delivered from the womb, it shall be clothed in immortal flesh precisely like the flesh of Christ Jesus.⁴

That is the resurrection, concerning which Paul wrote:

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit....The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earth: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.  Now I say brethren, that flesh and blood [the present body] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption (1 Cor. 15:45-50).

Zion, the bride of Christ, will be therefore "bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh."

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church (Eph. 5:30-32).

Perhaps the twin miracles of Jesus feeding the multitudes on a few loaves and fishes signifies the multiplying (breaking) of his flesh to give life to his disciples.

Should I have the opportunity to meet again the man who asked me whether this present body would be raised from the dead, I would say:

No.  Our body is cursed.  It must return to the dust, to corruption.  But that was not true of Jesus.  Though his body was like ours, it was a new creation; it was spoken into existence by the word of God and became flesh in Mary's womb.  That sinless body was not condemned to return to the dust.  Rather, it was raised from the dead before it saw corruption and was made immortal.

We must share in this new creation if we are to have eternal life.  We must somehow also become "the Word made flesh."  This is made possible by simple obedience to the words of Christ.  His words (which he metaphorically called "his flesh") are spirit and life.  They "beget" in the womb of Zion new sons.  At the resurrection, her sons will be born into the kingdom with a new incorruptible and immortal body exactly like Christ's.  Just as the present earthly and corruptible body is a direct copy of Adam's, the new body is a direct copy of the second Adam, the Lord Christ Jesus.

I would further add how God caused the first Adam to fall into a deep sleep.  He took from his side flesh and bone to make him a bride.  Jesus too fell into a deep sleep.  Out of his side flowed blood and water, blood which he shed voluntarily so that we might have life.  From these elements he is preparing for himself a bride.  She will be flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.  As Isaiah prophesied,

For thy Maker is thy Husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel (Isa. 54:5).

 

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