#17 The Change of Diet to the Heavenly Christ (1)

Michael Ballard starts us off on a new series about our spiritual diet

Scripture Reading: John 6:31-35, 48-51, 57-58

I. The heavenly Christ is the reality of the heavenly manna sent by God to be the daily life supply of His chosen people—John 6:31-35, 48-51, 57-58:

A. Christ is the heavenly bread as the bread that came down out of heaven—vv. 31-32, 41-42, 50-51.

B. He is the bread of God as the One who is of God, who was sent by God, and who was with God—v. 33.

C. Christ is the bread of life as the bread with eternal life, with zoe; the bread of life refers to the nature of the bread, which is life; it is like the tree of life, which also is the life supply that is “good for food”—vv. 35, 48; Gen. 2:9.

D. He is the living bread; this refers to the condition of the bread, which is living—John 6:51.

E. He is the true bread; He is the true food, and all other foods are merely shadows of Him as the real food; the reality of the food that we eat daily is Jesus Christ—v. 32.

II. “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me…It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life”—vv. 57, 63:

A. To eat is to take food into us that it may be assimilated organically into our body; hence, to eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us that He may be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life.

B. We live not by Christ but because of Christ as our energizing element and supplying factor; we live Christ in His resurrection, and we live Christ by eating Him—Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a.

C. We eat the Lord Jesus as our spiritual food, receiving Him as the Spirit who gives life, by eating His words of spirit and life, receiving His words by means of all prayer—Jer. 15:16 and footnote; Eph. 6:17-18:

1. His spoken words are the embodiment of the Spirit of life; He is now the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, and the Spirit is embodied in His words.

2. When we receive His words by exercising our spirit, we get the Spirit, who gives life—cf. Hymns, #612.