The Everlasting Covenant - Chapter 21

Chapter 21 – Eating the flesh of Christ

The Everlasting Covenant

There is much more for us to learn from the account of the giving of the manna, and while we cannot hope to exhaust the subject, we can at least prepare the way for more thorough consideration and continued enjoyment of it.

Let us read the record once more, noting particularly that God, in promising the manna, said that He would “rain bread from heaven” for the people.

With this read again the words of Moses with reference to the event:

“All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and posses the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” Deuteronomy 8:1-3.

These are the words with which Christ resisted the temptation of the devil in the wilderness.

There are several texts of Scripture closely connected with this one, which call for consideration, and therefore we will only pause at present to call attention to the fact that it was by giving men bread, that the Lord taught them that they were not to live by bread only.

Let this be kept in mind as we proceed.

“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.

“He clave rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers. Yet went they on still to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; They said, can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; Can He give bread also? Will He provide flesh for His people? Therefore the Lord heard, and was wroth; and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel; Because they believed not in God, And trusted not in His salvation. Yet He commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven; And He rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat the bread of the mighty; He sent them meat to the full. He caused the east wind to blow in the heaven; and by His power He guided the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as the dust, and winged fowl as the sand of the seas; and He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. So they did eat and were well filled; and He gave them that they lusted after. They were not estranged from their lust, Their meat was yet in their mouths, When the anger of God went up against them, And slew of the fattest of them; and smote down the young men of Israel. For all this they sinned still, and believed not in His wondrous works. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in terror.” Psalm 78:15-33 R.V.

“And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 9:23.

“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said. Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, this cup is the new covenant in My blood; this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” 1 Corinthians 11:23-30.

Before going any further, let us read all these texts in connection, not once or twice merely, but several times, until they are well fixed in mind. Supposing that this has been done, we will proceed to see what we learn from them and others. Life comes only from the Word of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:1, 4.

Man lives only by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

The Beginning

This word was in the beginning, for “He is before all things.” Colossians 1:17.

He is the beginning, the source, of the creation of God. [See Revelation 3:14]. From Him, everything comes.

“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” “For He spake, and it was done: He commanded, and it stood fact.” Psalm 33:6, 9.

Let no one imagine that there is any confusion here; for Christ is but the perfect embodiment of the spoken word of God. “That which was from the beginning” was “the Word of life.” 1 John 1:1

Everything therefore comes from the life of God.

One of the words which God spake in the beginning was this: “Let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth.” Genesis 1:11.

What was the result?–“And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:12.

Sowing the Word of Life

What happened here?–Simply this, that the Word became grass. In saying “Let the earth bring forth grass,” etc., God sowed the seed of every good thing. The earth was empty, and nothing could come from it until seed was sown. But there was nothing sown except the Word of God.

Therefore it is as plain as daylight, and as true as the Bible, that the seed from which everything came that grew out of the ground in the beginning, was nothing else than the Word of God. And it also follows that the life of every seed that is borne by the grass, herbs, and trees, is nothing other than the actual Word of God. Read further.

Speaking to man whom He had made, God said,

“Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Genesis 1:29.

Comparing the two texts that we have just read, we can see the reality of the words spoken to the prophet Isaiah, “All flesh is grass.” Isaiah 40:6. This was as true when Adam lived in Eden, in the full possession of the strength with which God had endowed him, as it is now.

God made man from the same earth that He made the grass, herbs, and trees; and “He causeth grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man; that he may bring forth food out of the earth.” Psalm 104:14.

In the beginning, everything, including man, was very good; and if man had continued to live wholly by the Word of God, He and all things else would have remained very good to this day.

The Curse Not an Arbitrary Thing

But man sinned.

He was head of the earth, and therefore his fall affected the whole earth. By his sin everything was contaminated. For his sake the curse came upon the earth, and so upon all that comes from it. God said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.” Genesis 3:17-18.

The curse did not come upon man arbitrarily, but was the inevitable result of his departure from the Word of God. Death came by sin. Where sin is, there death must be, for death is contained in sin, and sin brings forth death.

Effect of the Curse

The curse reveals itself in weakness of the body, and in viciousness of character.

One word covers the whole case, namely, degeneration. Viciousness is all weakness, for the carnal mind cannot be subject to the law of God, and cannot please Him. Romans 8:7-8. Even when awakened to a sense of the sinfulness of sin, the man cannot do that which he would. Galatians 5:17.

It was when we were “without strength,” that Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6. Man’s weakness shows itself chiefly in depraved morals, and the weakness of body is only a natural consequence.

Beasts Share the Curse with Man

The beasts of the earth are affected by the curse the same as man is, only to an inferior degree, since they did not sin, but only share in the evil that man brought upon all creation.

Their physical strength has not deteriorated to the extent that man’s has; they are much stronger proportionally than their master. Their vicious tendencies, although plainly manifested, are not so marked as in man. It is true that in some animals, as the tiger, cruelty seems to be more strongly developed than in man; but it is not really so. Nothing on earth can exceed man in refinement of cruelty, or in baseness of lust, when once he gives way completely to evil passions; for he uses his superior intellect to devise means of sinning, which the beasts know nothing of. No beast ever debases himself as does fallen man. And yet in all animals, even in the beautiful birds, we see cruelty, hatred, selfishness, envy, deceit, jealousy, etc.

Vicious Plants

Plants also suffer by the curse in the same way that the animal creation does, but to a less degree.

Whereas in the beginning, everything was “very good,” now many plants are decidedly vicious. The nettle is very “touchy,” distinctly saying to all comers, “Let me alone;” and there is a tree in India, with so vicious a sting that if an animal but touches it by accident, it can do nothing but roll on the ground, and howl in an agony of pain. Men who have been stung by it, say that the sensation of pain continues for months. There is also a plant in South America which attracts insects and kills them, for no perceptible reason, since it is not a carnivorous plant like the Venus Fly-trap.

But aside from these, there are many plants, as belladonna, tobacco, etc., that are distinctly poisonous. Their poison is “deadly,” so that they may well be called “murderous.” They are wholly corrupt. Man can get nothing from them but death.

Advantage of the Plant World

But there is this difference between the animal creation and plants: whereas in man and beast, every individual is affected in character by the curse, there being not a single one that does not to a greater or less degree manifest depraved traits; it is not so with plants.

Very many plants are not only harmless and innocent, but are wholly beneficent. They have no trace of evil in their natures. In them, the curse is seen only in diminished vital force. All the life that they have, however, is good and wholesome and clean.

Between the wholly vicious plants, and the wholly innocent, there are various degrees, some being vicious, yet not positively murderous. But it is in plant life that we find the nearest approach to perfection on earth. In the best specimens, of which there are very many, the life has not been perverted, but only diminished in degree. They cannot, when eaten, impart as much life and vigour as in the beginning, but what they do give is the pure life of the Word that brought them forth.

Christ is the Life

Remember now that the Word is life, and that Christ, as God, is “the Word of life.” He is “the life;” apart from Him there is no life at all; so that wherever there is any life there is evidence of the presence of God in Christ.

That life in created things is pure or perverted, to the extent that Christ is allowed to have full sway, or the truth is held down in unrighteousness.

Christ Present in All Creation

Christ is “the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:24. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily.” Colossians 2:9.

But God’s everlasting power and Divinity are seen in the things that are made (Romans 1:20); so that here again we are brought to the fact of the actual presence of Christ in all creation.

Christ Present in Man

This is true of man as well as of plants, for he is also one of “the things that are made.”

And it is true of every man in the world. It was in an exhortation to the Jews to keep the commandments (which shows that they were not already doing so), that Moses said: “The Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” Deuteronomy 30:14.

And in quoting this passage, in Romans 10:6-8, the Holy Spirit, since Christ is the Word, makes the substitution of the one name for the other, distinctly telling us that Christ is in us all, in order that we may be able to serve the Lord.

This truth is also set forth in the statement that “the Word was made flesh.”

Every man lives only by the Word–by Christ. God gave manna to sinful, unbelieving Israel, in order that they might know that man lives “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God;” and “they did all eat the same spiritual meat,” which was Christ.

The Difference between a Sinner and a Christian

The question will very naturally arise, “What then is the difference between a sinner and a Christian, if Christ is in all men?”

It is a very pertinent question, and is easily answered.

The difference is simply one of faith. “The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:31. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9. It makes all the difference in the world, whether Christ is in a man simply as His life is in the brutes, or whether He dwells in the heart by faith.

The Confession of Faith

Christ is the life.

He is present in every man, in order that we may live in harmony with the Word of God. If man does not recognize His presence, he is “like the beasts that perish.” Psalm 49:20.

But if he confesses Christ, that is, if he confesses that “Christ is come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2),–and no man can confess what is not true, and what he does not know to be true,–and believes in his heart that God has raised Him from the dead, then he experiences the resurrection power of Christ, awakening him to a new life.

Then he finds Christ not merely physical life to him, but spiritual life. He passes from death to life indeed, and knows the power of an endless life working in him. So long as he holds fast his confession of faith, “in him verily is the love of God perfected.”

Man’s Life Depends on the Food which he Eats

Let us come back again to first principles. We live by eating. This is self-evident. If a man does not eat, he becomes weak, and if he persists in fasting, or if he cannot take nourishment, he dies.

The strength that a man has from food already eaten will enable him to continue for some time without taking more, although it gradually diminishes: and sometimes God keeps up a man’s strength for a long period without food, as in the cases of Elijah and Moses: but nevertheless the fact remains that God has ordained that men must live by eating the food which He has provided for them.

A man’s power to think, as well as to act, comes from the food that he eats. It is a fact patent to everybody, that our physical, mental, and spiritual power has a direct relation to our eating. Let a man but refuse utterly to eat, and he will very soon have no power of any kind whatever.

Food a Blessing from God

Food is a blessing from God.

This none will deny. The overflowing blessing that God promises to those who render to Him His tithe is thus stated:

“I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field.” Malachi 3:10-11.

When the people offered willingly in the days of Hezekiah, there was plenty to eat, because God “blessed His people.” 2 Chronicles 31:10.

God’s witness of Himself is that He does good, and sends rain and fruitful seasons from Heaven, filling us with food and gladness. Acts 14:17.

Why God Blesses Us

All the blessings of God are for a distinct purpose.

He blesses us, that we may live. Life and death, blessing and cursing, are set over against each other. “In His favour is life.” Psalm 30:5.

But God does not have any pleasure in evil, and is not interested in perpetuating it. The only life that He desires men to live is the righteous life. That, indeed, is the only thing that can really be called life.

Accordingly, we read, “God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from His iniquities.” Acts 3:26.

Therefore God blesses us with food, in order that we may be able to live righteous lives. That is why He gave manna to the Israelites in the desert.

Eating to No Profit

“But with many of them He was not well pleased,” because they denied His presence, and so their carcasses fell in the wilderness. He gave them bread direct from Heaven; and since Christ is the bread that came down from heaven, it is evident that if they had seen Him in the gift of the manna, and had acknowledged Him in all their eating, and in all the strength derived from it, they would have been perfect and righteous before God.

They would have lived a life of faith, and whoever does that is just, for “the just shall live by faith.” The children of Israel died in the wilderness because they did not eat by faith.

“He that doubteth is damned if he eat; because he eateth not by faith; for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

Since they perished at last, it would have been just as good for them if they had not lived at all. God expects that men will eat and drink righteousness; for Christ says, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6.

He who does not eat and drink righteousness, eats and drinks to no purpose.

Eat ye that which is Good

In order, however, that man shall eat righteousness, he must eat only “that which is good.” He must not spend his labour for that which is not the bread of life. He must eat “to the glory of God.”

His soul may and should delight itself in fatness, but it must be the fatness of the house of God. [See Psalm 36:8]

In other words, if men would live righteous lives, they must literally and actually and by faith eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God. This must be their sole life. Without this, there is no real abiding life. John 6:48, 55.

How to Get a Living

To the question, “How shall I get life?” or, to use common, everyday terms, “How shall I get a living?” the answer is, “Eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God.”

This is literally true, and covers the whole ground, both in this world and in that which is to come.

No man in this world would tell you that he had a good chance to make a living, if the only prospect that he had before him was work for a week or a month, and there was absolutely nothing more beyond. He would mournfully tell you that certain death was staring him in the face.

Well, no man is certain of this present life even for a day.

Our life is only “a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” James 4:14.

Every man at his best state is “altogether vanity.” Psalm 39:5.

But Christ is the same, and His years shall not fail. Even though all created things perish, He remains. Therefore only he who has Christ for his life–his living, if you please–has life in reality.

No man can be said to be making a living, who has no hope of eternal life. He really has no life, for real life never ends; it is stronger than death, and conquers it.

If death can end a man’s life, that shows that what he supposed to be life was not life at all. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:12

These are the words of Jesus:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:53-54.

How to Eat Christ’s Flesh

But how can we eat His flesh, and drink His blood?

That is the very question that the unbelieving Jews asked, but it had been answered before they asked it. We feed upon Jesus by eating His word; for He is the Word. So He said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.” ( The bread was the ordinary unleavened bread that they had on the table, and such it was after Jesus had given thanks; just as the bread that Jesus distributed to the five thousand, after giving thanks, was exactly the same bread that it was when He took it into His hands. It was barley bread that the lad had with him that day, and it was barley bread that the multitude ate of; yet they ate the body of Christ. So the bread of the Lord’s Supper, although it was the ordinary bread that was being eaten in every Jewish family at that time, was nothing else than the body of Christ. The words of Jesus are absolute and unequivocal, and admit of no interpretation. They state a simple fact: “This is My body.”)

Does this seem intangible and unreal? Then remember the giving of the manna.

Recall the statement that God fed the people with bread from heaven, in order that they might know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. By giving them bread He taught them that they were to live by the word.

How so?– Because Christ Himself is the life of the bread.

The life that we get from bread is the life of Christ, the Word of God, since everything that grows comes from the Word. So when the unbelieving Jews referred to the giving of the manna, they answered their own question as to how Christ could give them Himself to eat; and they had but the day before had a demonstration of it, when Jesus took a little bread in His hands, and fed thousands of people, so that they were all filled, and there was more bread when they had finished than when they begun.

By ordaining that men shall live by eating, and making them absolutely dependent on their daily bread for life, God has preached the Gospel to every creature, and put before them and into their hands, yes, into their bodies, the way of salvation and life.

The Lesson of the Lord’s Supper

This is the lesson that is taught in the Lord’s Supper. (Read the account again in 1 Corinthians 11:23-30, which we have already quoted.)

The Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and said, “This is My body.”

This occurred “as they were eating.” Matthew 26:26

The bread was the ordinary unleavened bread that they had on the table, and such it was after Jesus had given thanks; just as the bread that Jesus distributed to the five thousand, after giving thanks, was exactly the same bread that it was when He took it into His hands.

It was barley bread that the lad had with him that day, and it was barley bread that the multitude ate of; yet they ate the body of Christ. So the bread of the Lord’s Supper, although it was the ordinary bread that was being eaten in every Jewish family at that time, was nothing else than the body of Christ.

The words of Jesus are absolute and unequivocal, and admit of no interpretation. They state a simple fact: “This is My body.”

Nothing Unreal in the Religion of Christ

There are no mere ceremonies in the religion of Christ.

Nothing is done merely to represent something else. Whoever performs anything that Jesus has commanded, as though it were a mere representation of something else, no matter how good that something else may be, has missed the life of the deed.

Jesus did not indulge in play-acting, and He gives us no make-believe work to do. In following His commands, we have to do real things. So in the Lord’s Supper, we partake of the body of Christ, and not a mere representation of His body.

No Magic or Priestly Incantation

Let it be borne in mind that the partaking of the body of Christ in the Lord’s supper is absolutely independent of any action of any priest or minister. It is utterly useless to spend time arguing (what is true enough) that the priest has not the power to change the bread into the body of Christ; for the Scripture tells us that it is that already. “This is My body.”

There is no magic whatever about the matter. It is a simple fact. The bread is the body of Christ, because His Word, which is His life, is the source whence everything comes, and is the life of everything.

For Remembrance

Jesus said, “This do in remembrance of Me.” We are to partake of the bread in the Lord’s Supper, in remembrance of the fact that Jesus is “the life.” Just as in the intervals of our meals we live on the food that we take at those seasons, so in the intervals of the occasions when we eat the Lord’s Supper, we live on that which we partake then.

That is, we live on the Word, the life of Christ. The Lord’s Supper is a public confession that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.”

Eating and Drinking Damnation

“Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” He will be in the condition of the men who crucified Christ, not seeing in Him the Lord of glory.

What does he who eats unworthily bring upon himself? The answer follows: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.”

And how is it that one eats and drinks unworthily?

By “not discerning the Lord’s body.”

How can one discern the Lord’s body, and thus avoid eating and drinking unworthily?–By faith; “He that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith; for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

And how can one eat by faith?–Easily enough; he has only to believe the words of Christ: “This is My body.” It is faith that gives discernment.

If we believe the words of Scripture, we shall have no difficulty in seeing the body of Christ, who is the power of God, in the gifts which He bestows on us to keep us in life.

Acknowledging that all Life is Christ’s

Faith means acceptance. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” Faith receives Christ into the inner life. Faith takes Him for all that He is, and all that He wishes to be to us.

So if we eat the body of Christ worthily, we acknowledge that He is our life, and submit ourselves to Him, that He may direct His own life in His own way. By the Lord’s Supper, we signify this. In the bread of the Lord’s Supper we do not receive the body of the Lord any more than we do in an ordinary meal (providing of course that the meal is of that which the Lord Himself gives us to eat), but we then solemnly remind ourselves of the fact, and make known our profession to others.

In short, the Lord’s Supper is our public and solemn profession of faith in the fact that we have no life except in Christ, and that we receive His life in the food that He gives us to eat. The knowledge of this truth sanctifies and glorifies eating and drinking. He who lives in constant recognition of it, eats and drinks to the glory of God. He eats and drinks by faith, for since we live by our food, it is evident that he who lives by faith must eat by faith. And such an one is righteous, for the just man is the one who lives by faith. He eats and drinks righteousness. “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” If we will daily and hourly remember and acknowledge that we have no life except the life of Christ who is come in our flesh, He has pledged Himself to see that our ways please God. He takes the responsibility on Himself; our part is simply to acknowledge His presence and His right to control.

Consequence of Not Recognizing the Life

What are the consequences of eating and drinking unworthily, that is, of not discerning the Lord’s body?–Here is the answer:

“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”

How was it with Israel in the desert? They ate manna, but they died. “With many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”

Why was He not well pleased with them?–Because they did not believe; for “without faith it is impossible to please Him.”

Every day they ate of Christ, the bread that came down from heaven; but since they did not eat in faith, and did not discern His body, they fell in the wilderness.

A Necessary Consequence

Someone may ask, “Why should this follow? Why should they be overthrown simply because they did not discern the Lord’s body?”

The answer is, that it could not be otherwise. Their overthrow was not an arbitrary thing, but was the natural and inevitable result of their not discerning the Lord’s body in the food that He gave them day by day. Thus: since they did not recognize the Lord in the bread that He gave them for their life, they very naturally did not yield themselves to Him.

Since they did not recognize Him as their life–not a part, but the whole–they would of course assume the right to control their own actions, and to do as pleased them. This was what they did; and it is what everybody does, just to the extent that he fails to discern and acknowledge the Lord’s body. Without faith it is impossible to please God; because he who does not recognize that he has no life except from God, will naturally please himself.

In Remembrance of Christ

This is as true to-day as it was when the children of Israel were in the desert of Arabia.

The man who does not day by day recognize the body of Christ in His gifts, eats and drinks damnation to himself. Is this too strong a statement? Everyone who thinks of it for a moment must confess that it is not. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin;” and “the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.” “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Psalm 9:17.

Now there is no one thing that men do oftener than eat, except to breathe. Two or three times a day, and with some even oftener, they sit at table and partake of food for the support of their lives. And the taking of the food into the body is only the beginning of the process of receiving it; the work begun by the teeth and tongue is continued for hours by the other organs of the body. Therefore if men do not remember God in the food that they eat, they cannot be said to remember Him at all.

Again: all our strength comes from what we eat; if therefore we do not recognize and acknowledge that the strength is the Lord’s we shall not yield it to Him for Him to control and direct; and that means of course that we will do what seems right in our own eyes; and the end of that way is death.

A Matter of Health

It will be seen that the Lord’s Supper contains a lesson on health, in that it teaches us how to eat and drink. It sets the pattern for every meal, for since we are the Lord’s, every meal should be eaten as to Him. Now since according to I Corinthians 11:30, failure to discern the Lord’s body is the cause why many are weak and sickly, and why many die, it follows that if the Lord’s body were discerned, the opposite would be the case. If men discerned the Lord’s body, they would find strength and health.

“Eat Ye that which is Good.”

But in order that men may discern the Lord’s body in their food, it is necessary that they should eat only that in which His body is clearly to be discerned. That is, they must eat that in which His life is contained in its purest form, and that, as we saw in the beginning, is the food which grows directly from the earth.

In partaking of that, they get the life of Christ at first hand. They are not taking in the viciousness that has come as the result of the curse. It is true that God gave man permission to eat flesh, and so He allowed man to practice polygamy, because of the hardness of their hearts; “but from the beginning it was not so.”

Out of the ground God makes food grow.

No living creature can find anything to eat except that which grows from the ground; the beasts need exactly the same food elements that man does, and they find them in the plant creation; and the only change that the food elements in the plants undergo in the body of the beast is degeneration; so that when man eats the flesh of animals, he is simply, at the very best, taking life one degree removed from the hand of God.

He is taking second-hand food, food that has been impaired by use. It is not by any means claimed that all religion is summed up in abstinence from animal food; only that since we live by the life of God, we ought to give diligence to eat those things that contain that life most nearly in its fulness.

This applies to the purity of one’s drink, and of the air which one breathes, and to the securing of abundance of bright sunshine, and perfect cleanliness as well. We are to live by faith; faith comes only by God’s Word: and “every word of God is pure;”

God has nothing to do with impurity of any sort; therefore whatsoever is not pure is not of the Word of God, and so cannot possibly be of faith.

But however pure air, food, or drink and surroundings may be, though it be the perfect body of Christ, yet if all be not received in faith, in conscious recognition of Christ, it is as though it were not. The history of ancient Israel shows this.

They had the best of food, direct from heaven, yet they died, because they did not eat in faith. But this must by no means be taken as evidence that what one eats or drinks is of no consequence. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” ( And in this will be found life for the body as well as for the soul; for godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”)

This is the sum of all godliness. 1 Corinthians 10:31.

And in this will be found life for the body as well as for the soul; for “godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8.

Christ is our life, and “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” If therefore we receive Him absolutely as our life, we shall experience the truthfulness of the words that He forgiveth all our iniquities, and healeth all our diseases.

“If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of those diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee;” literally, “I am the Lord thy Physician.” Exodus 15:26. “And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless thy bread and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” Exodus 23:25