8: Life in the Blood

The Power ofthe Blood of Jesus 8: Life in the Blood

By AndrewMurray

"Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, 1 say unto you, Except yeeat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink bis blood, ye have nolife in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hatheternal life ; and 1 will raise him up at the last day. For myflesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 1-Ie thateateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him"-John vi. 5 35 6.

     "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of theblood of Christ?"-i Cor. x. 16.

     The drinking of the blood of the Lord Jesus is the subject broughtbefore us in these words. Just as water has a twofold effect, so isit also with this holy blood.

     When water is used for washing it cleanses, but if we drink it weare refreshed and revived. He who desires to know the full power ofthe blood of Jesus must be taught by Him what the blessing ofdrinking the blood is. Everyone knows the difference there isbetween washing and drinking. Necessary and h Pleasant as it is touse water for cleansing, it is much more necessary and reviving todrink it. Without its cleansing it is not possible to live as weought; but without drinking we cannot live at all. It is only bydrinking that we enjoy the full benefit of its power to sustainlife.

     Without drinking the blood of the Son of God-- is without the mosthearty appropriation of it--- life cannot be obtained.

     To many there is something unpleasant in the phrase "drinking theblood of the Son of man," but it was still more disagreeable to theJews, for the use of blood was forbidden by the law of Moses, undersevere penalties. When Jesus spoke of "drinking his blood," itnaturally annoyed them-but it was an unspeakable offence to theirreligious feelings. Char Lord, we may be sure, would not have usedthe phrase, had He been able otherwise to make plain to them, andto us, the deepest and most glorious truths concerning salvation bythe blood.

     In seeking to become partakers of the salvation here spoken of, as"DRINKING THE BLOOD OF OUR LORD"let us endeavour tounderstand:-

     I. WHAT THE BLESSING IS, WHICH IS DESCRIBED AS. "DRINKING THEBLOOD."

     II. HOW THIS BLESSING IS WROUGHT OUT IN US.

     III. WHAT SHOULD BE OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS IT.

     I. WHAT THE BLESSING IS WHICH IS DESCRIBED AS "DRINKING THEBLOOD."

     We saw just now that drinking expresses a much more intimateconnection with water than washing, and hence produces a morepowerful effect. There is a blessing in the fellowship with theblood of Jesus which goes much farther than CLEANSING, orSANCTIFICATION; or rather we are enabled to see how far reaching isthe influence of the blessing indicated by this phrase.

     Not only must the blood do something FOR us, by placing us in a newrelationship to God; but it must do something IN us, entirelyrenewing us within. It is to this that the words of the Lord Jesusdraw our attention when He says : "Unless ye eat the flesh of theSon of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Our Lorddistinguishes two kinds of life. The Jews, there, in His presence,had a natural life of body and soul. Many among them were devout,well intentioned men, but He said they had no life in them unlessthey "ate his flesh and drank his blood." They needed another life,a new, a heavenly life, which He possessed and which He couldimpart. All creature life must obtain nourishment outside ofitself. The natural life was naturally nourished, by bread andwater. The heavenly life must be nourished by heavenly food anddrink, by Jesus Himself. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son ofman, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Nothing lessmust become ours, than His lifethe life that He, as Son of man,lived on earth.

     Our Lord emphasised this still more strongly in words which follow,in which He again explained what the nature of that life is :"Whosoeateth my flesh and DRINKETH MY BLOOD ha th eternal life and I willraise him up at the last day." Eternal life is the life of God. OurLord came to earth, in the first place, to reveal that eternal lifean the flesh and then to communicate it to us who are in the flesh.In Him we see the eternal life dwelling in its divine power, in abody of flesh; which was taken up into heaven. He tells us thatthose who eat His flesh and drink His blood, who partake of Hisbody as their sustenance, will experience also in their own bodiesthe power of eternal life. "I will raise him up at the last day."The marvel of the eternal life in Christ is that it was eternallife in a human body. We must be partakers of that body, not lessthan in the activities of His Spirit, then our body, also,possessing that life, will one day be raised from the dead.

     Our Lord said: "My flesh is meat indeed and MY BLOOD is drinkindeed." The word translated "indeed" here is the same as that Heused when He spoke His parable of the True Vine, "I am the true(the indeed) vine," thus indicating the difference; between whatwas only a symbol and what is actual truth. Earthly food is no REALfood, for it imparts no real life. The one true food is the bodyand blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which imparts and sustains lifeand that in no shadowy or merely symbolical manner. No, this wordso frequently repeated, indicates that in a full and real sense theflesh and blood of the Lord Jesus are the food by which eternallife is nourished and sustained in us := ' My flesh is meat INDEED,and my blood is drink INDEED."

     In order to point out the reality and power of this food our Lordadded:-"He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth inme and I in him." Nourishment by His flesh and blood effects themost perfect union with Him. This is the reason that His flesh andblood have such power of eternal life. Our Lord declares here, thatthose who believe in Him are to experience not only certaininfluences from Him in their hearts, but are to be brought into themost close and abiding union with Him. "HE that DRINKETH MY BLOODDWELLETH IN ME AND I IN HIM."

     This then is the blessing of drinking the blood of the Son ofman-becoming one with Him : becoming a partaker of the divinenature in Him. How real this union is may be seen from the wordswhich follow :-"As I live by the Father, so he that eateth me evenhe shall live by me." Nothing save the union which exists betweenour Lord and the Father, can serve as a type of our union with Him.Just as in the invisible, divine nature, the two Persons are trulyone, so man becomes one with Jesus; the union is just as real asthat in the divine nature, only with this difference, that as humannature cannot exist apart from the body, this union includes thebody also.

     Our Lord "prepared for himself" a body into which He took up ahuman body. This body became by the body and blood of Jesus asharer in eternal life, in the life of our Lord Himself. Those whodesire to receive fulness of this blessing must be careful to enjoyall that the Scripture offers them in the holy, mysterious:expression "to drink the blood of Christ."

     We shall now try to understand:

     II. HOW THIS BLESSING IS WROUGHT OUT IN US: or what the "drinkingof the blood of Jesus" really is.

     The first idea that here presents itself is that "drinking"indicates the deep, true appropriation in our spirit, by faith, ofall we understand concerning the power of the blood.

     We speak sometimes of "drinking in" the words of a speaker, when weheartily give ourselves up to listen and receive them. So when theheart of anyone is filled with a sense of the preciousness andpower of the blood; when he with real joy, is lost in thecontemplation of it; when he, with wholehearted faith, takes it forhimself, and seeks to be convinced in his inner being of thelife-giving power of that blood ; then it may be rightly said thathe "drinks the blood of Jesus." All that faith enables him to seeof REDEMPTION, of CLEANSING, of SANCTIFICATION by the blood heabsorbs into the depths of his soul.

     There is a deep truth in this representation, and it gives us avery glorious demonstration of the way in which the full blessingby the blood may be obtained. And yet it is certain that out Lordintended something more than this by so repeatedly making use ofthe expression about "eating his flesh and drinking his blood."What this further truth is becomes clear by his institution of THELORD'S SUPPER. For, although our Saviour did not actually deal withthat Supper when He taught in Capernaum, yet He spoke on thesubject of which later on The Supper was made the visibleconfirmation. In the Reformed Churches there are two aspects ofviewing the Holy Supper. According to one which is called after thename of the Reformer Zwingli, the bread and wine in the Supper aremerely tokens, or representations of a spiritual truth, to teach usthat JUST AS, AND AS SURE AS, bread and wine when eaten or drunk,nourish and revive, so surely-and even more surely-the body andblood recognised and appropriated by faith, nourish and quicken thesoul.

     According to the other view which bears the name of Calvin, thereis something more than this in the eating of the Supper. He teachesthat in a hidden and incomprehensible way, but yet really, we,through the Holy Spirit, become so nourished by the body and bloodof Jesus in beaven, that even our body, through the power of Hisbody, becomes a partaker in the power of eternal life. Hence Heconnects the resurrection of the body with the eating of Christ'sbody in the Supper. He writes thus:-"The bodily presence which theSacrament demands is such, and exercises such a power here (in theSupper) that it becomes not only the undoubted assurance in ourspirit of eternal life, but also assures the immortality of theflesh. If anyone asks me how this can be, I am not ashamed toacknowledge that it is a mystery too high for my spirit tocomprehend, or my words to express. I feel it more than I canunderstand it."

     "It may seem incredible indeed that the flesh of Christ shouldreach us from such immense local distance so as to become our food.But we must remember how far the power of the Holy Spirittranscends all our senses. Let faith then embrace what theunderstanding cannot grasp, namely :-The sacred communication ofHis flesh and blood by which Christ transfuses His life into us,just as if it penetrated our bones and marrow."

     The communion of the flesh and blood of Christ is necessary for allwho desire to inherit eternal life. The Apostle says:-" The Church. . . is his body " (Eph. i. 23) ; " He is the head from whom thewhole body fitly joined together maketh increase of the body "(Eph. iv. 15, 16). Our bodies are members of Christ (z Cor. vi. 15,x6). We see that all this cannot take place if He is not attachedto us in body and spirit. The Apostle again makes use of a gloriousexpression, " We are members of his body, of his flesh and of hisbones." Then He cries out, " The mystery is great." It wouldtherefore be folly not to recognise the communion of believers inthe body and blood of the Lord; a communion which the Apostleesteemed so great that he wondered at it, rather than explainedit.

     There is something more in the Supper than simply the believerappropriating the redemptive work of Christ. This is made clear inthe Heidelburg catechism in Question 76 : " What is it then to eatthe crucified body of Christ and to drink His shed blood? " Theanswer is, " It is not only to embrace with a believing heart allthe sufferings and death of Christ, and thereby to receive pardonof sin and eternal life; but, also, besides that, to become moreand more united to His sacred body, by the Holy Spirit who dwellsat once both in Christ and in us ; so that we, though Christ is inheaven and we on earth, are, notwithstanding, flesh of His flesh,and bone of His bones ; and we live and are governed for ever byone Spirit."

     The thoughts that are expressed in this teaching are in entireagreement with Scripture.

     In the creation of man, the remarkable thing which shoulddistinguish him from the spirits which God had previously created,and which should make man the crowning work of God's wisdom andpower was, that he should reveal the life of the spirit and theglory of God in a body formed out of dust. Through the body lustand sin came into the world. Full redemption is designed to deliverthe body, and to make it God's abode. Redemption will be perfectand God's purpose accomplished only then. This was the purpose forwhich the Lord Jesus came in the flesh, and in Him dwelt " all thefulness of the Godhead bodily." For this He bore our sins in Hisbody on the tree, and by His death and resurrection He deliveredthe body, as well as the spirit, from the power of sin and death.As the first fruits of this redemption, we are now one body, aswell as one Spirit, with Him. We are of His body, of His flesh, andof His bones. It is because of this, that in the observance of theHoly Supper the Lord comes to the body also, and takes possessionof it. Not only does He work by His Spirit on our spirit, so as tomake out body share in redemption at the resurrection. No, already,here, the body is the temple of the Spirit, and the Sanctificationof soul and spirit will progress the more gloriously, just inproportion as the undivided personality, including the body, whichexercises such an opposing influence, has a share in it.

     Thus we are in the Sacrament so intentionally fed, by "the realnatural body, and the real blood of Christ "-not following theteaching of Luther, that the body of Christ is so in the bread,that even an unbeliever eats the holy body; but in such wise"real," that faith, in a secret way, by the Spirit, really receivesTHE POWER OF THE I-IDLY BODY AND BLOOD FROM HEAVEN, as the food bywhich soul and body become partakers of eternal life.

     (NOTE: The words within inverted commas, " the real natural bodyand the real blood of Christ," are quoted by Dr. Murray from theArticles of the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches ofHolland, but Dr. Murray did not add the words immediatelyfollowing, which declare that " the manner of our partaking of thesame is not by the mouth, but by the Spirit through faith." Dr.Murray remained true to the Reformed Faith. His own view isexpressed on page 99 by the words quoted from the HeidelburgCatechism.)

     All that has now been said about the Supper, must have its fullapplication to-"The drinking of the blood of Jesus." It is a deepspiritual mystery in which the most intimate, the most perfectunion with Christ, is effected. It takes place where the soul,through the Holy Spirit, fully appropriates the communion of theblood of Christ, and becomes a true partaker of the verydisposition which He revealed in the shedding of His blood. Theblood is the soul, the life of the body ; where the believer as onebody with Christ desires to abide perfectly in Him, there, throughthe Spirit, in a superhuman powerful way, the blood will supportand strengthen the heavenly life. The life that was poured out theblood, becomes his life. The life of the old " I " dies to makeroom for the life of Christ in him. By perceiving how this drinkingis the highest participation in the heavenly life of the Lord,faith has one of its highest and most glorious offices.

     It remains to inquire:

     III. WHAT SHOULD BE OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS THIS DRINKING?

     Beloved brethren, you have already heard that we have here one ofthe deepest mysteries of the life of God in us. It behoves us todraw near with very deep reverence while we ask the Lord Jesus toteach us and bestow upon us what He means by this " drinking of Hisblood."

     ONLY HE WHO LONGS FOR FULL UNION WITH JESUS WILL LEARN ARIGHT WHATIT IS TO DRINK THE BLOOD OF JESUS. " He that drinketh my blooddwelleth in me and I in him." He who is satisfied with just theforgiveness of his sins ; he who does not thirst to be made todrink abundantly of the love of Jesus ; he who does not desire toexperience redemption for soul and body, in its full power, so asto have truly in himself the same disposition that was in Jesus,will have but a small share in this " drinking of the blood." Hewho, on the other hand, sets before him as his chief object, thatwhich is also the object of Jesus : " abide in me and I in you " ;who desires that the power of eternal life should operate in hisbody; he will not suffer himself to be frightened by an impressionthat these words are too high or too mysterious. He longs to becomeheavenly minded because he belongs to heaven, and is going there ;therefore he desires to obtain his meat and drink also from heaven.Without thirst, there is no drinking. The longing after Jesus andperfect fellowship with Him is the thirst which is the bestpreparation for being made to drink the blood.

     IT IS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT THAT THE THIRSTY SOUL WILL BE MADE TODRINK OF THE HEAVENLY REFRESHMENT OF THIS LIFE-GIVING DRINK. Wehave already said that this drinking is a heavenly mystery. Inheaven, where God the judge of all is, and where Jesus the Mediatorof the New Covenant is, there also is " the blood of sprinkling "(Heb. xii. 23, 24). When the Holy Spirit teaches us-taking us, asit were, by the hand-He bestows more than our merely humanunderstanding can grasp. All the thoughts that we can entertainabout the blood or the life of Jesus about our share in that blood,as members of His body ; and about the impartation to us of theliving power of that blood ; all are but feeble rays of theglorious reality, which He-the Holy Spirit-will bring into being inus through our union with Jesus.

     Where, I pray, in our human bodies, do we find that the blood isactually received, and as it were drunk in ? Is it not where onemember of the body after another, through the veins, receives theblood-stream which is continually renewed from the heart ? Eachmember of a healthy body ceaselessly and abundantly drinks in theblood. So the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus who unites us to Him,will make this drinking of the blood the natural action of theinner life. When the Jews complained that what the Lord had spokenconcerning eating His flesh and drinking His blood was " a hardsaying," He said " it is the Spirit that quickeneth, the fleshprofiteth nothing." It is the Holy Spirit who makes this divinemystery LIFE AND POWER in us; a true living experience, in which weabide in Jesus and He in us.

     THERE MUST BE ON OUR PART A QUIET, STRONG, SETTLED EXPECTANCY OFFAITH, THAT THIS BLESSING WILL BE BESTOWED ON US. We must believethat all the precious blood can do, or bestow, is really forus.

     Let us believe that the Saviour Himself will cause us, through theHoly Spirit, to drink His blood unto life. Let us believe, and veryheartily and continuously appropriate those effects of the bloodwhich we understand better, namely, its Reconciling, Cleansing,Sanctifying effects.

     We may then with the greatest certainty and joy, say to the Lord :" O Lord, Thy blood is my life drink. Thou who hast washed andcleansed me by that blood, Thou wilt teach me every day ' to eatthe flesh of the Son of man, and to drink His blood' so that I mayabide in Thee and Thou in me." He will surely do this.