CHAPTER IX.
"THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ENCAMPED IN GILGAL, AND KEPT THE PASSOVER ON THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF THE MONTH AT EVEN, IN THE PLAINS OF JERICHO."--(Josh. v. I0).
The event which we find following next in order, stood in a very significant relation to the preceding rite. As we have seen that circumcision symbolized the loss of self, so we find that in the. Passover Feast, the lesson taught is one of greatest gain--even the gain of Christ as OUR LIFE.
It was a part of God's gracious providence to bring the people over Jordan in time to be rightly prepared for the Feast; for the law was stringent--"No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof;" [1] for let it be again repeated, there can be no building up of an impure life; no true communion with God, while in the bonds of self.
And as the Passover thus depended upon another rite, so were there still further privileges depending upon this. This Feast was to precede their enjoyment of the fruit of the land, of which they were not permitted to eat until the following day. Having crossed upon the tenth of the month Nisan, they kept the Passover upon its appointed day, the fourteenth: "and they did eat of the new corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover." [2] It is added that "the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the new corn." [3] Its continuance, for nearly a week in a land of plenty, is a circumstance so extraordinary, as to indicate at once some spiritual lesson. Indeed, the necessity for it must have ceased long before, upon entering the fertile region east of Jordan. But still it fell for their daily food, until the slain Lamb and unleavened Bread should rightly introduce them to the fulness and fatness of the Land. First the Passover, and then the new corn and the ripe fruit. First Christ, and then with Him, "all things."
Though forty years had passed since that night in Egypt which was so much to be remembered, this was but the third Passover. The first they had eaten in haste, girded for their journey. The second was observed a year from that time, upon the setting up of the Tabernacle at Mt. Sinai. After that the neglect of circumcision and their whole abnormal condition in the Wandering, would render the Feast both inappropriate and impossible. No hint of any such observance appears upon the sacred page.
It is very striking that this first service after entering Canaan, in which all the people participated, was the same as that which had signalized their departure from Egypt. That first deliverance had alone made their present blessings possible. Therefore it had been said unto them, "Ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever. . . . And it shall come to pass when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses." [4]
When the Lord smote in judgment all the firstborn of Egypt, but for the sprinkled blood of the Lamb, they had all likewise perished. But for the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, none of us had ever escaped from the just judgment to be executed against sin. It was life from the very jaws of death that was given us. And so, as we celebrate the mercies of our God, we can not stop short of this, that "Jesus delivered us from the wrath to come." Nothing so prepares us for advancing blessing as our return to this truth; and by every good thing that is given us, does this become ever more precious. No other thought can so humble us, and none other can so lift us up in holy hope.
This Passover in Canaan, however, differed widely in its mode of observance from the first in Egypt. Indeed, the whole subsequent character of the Feast is one of the most striking instances occurring under the Law, of the spirit of a command being so developed as to almost outgrow its letter. The Lamb and the Unleavened Bread indeed remained. But glancing over the details of its institution, we see at once that the minute directions given were mainly adapted to their peculiar position at the time, and if perpetuated at all, could only become mere forms. Yet we find in the Scriptures no record of any permission to vary its observance, and only slight and scattered statements of the changes themselves. But from unquestionable historic sources, we learn how many and how marked were the modifications introduced, and to all appearance divinely sanctioned. Indeed the great truth embodied in this service, was too vital to be cumbered with unyielding forms, and for its very protection was allowed a power of free adaptation. All that was truly essential in it was thus strengthened, rather than weakened.
Had the Church of Christ in past ages only pondered this precedent more fully, what cruel contests over the mere modes of her Christian ordinances, might she have been spared. And were it even now more pondered, what bitter bigotry might be abated. No charge concerning any ordinance, can surely ever compete with words like these--"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you!"
As the service was first observed, the two things to be made prominent were these--protection from death, and departure from Egypt. But once safe in the Land, there followed an expansion of its meaning, requiring to be duly marked. No longer needing to be eaten in haste, it became a prolonged and restful service. No longer looking to the future, but to the past, and what God had wrought, it was fitting to intermingle it with song after song of praise. How precious from such continuous use are those six Psalms, [5] which end with one more precious than all, because sung by Jesus, before He went forth to suffer. How must the holy Hymn have swelled upon His lips, as He sang--"I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord"--"God is the Lord which hath showed us light; bind the sacrifice with cords even unto the horns of the altar." [6]
But by far the most striking change was the introduction of the wine, of which the very poorest in the land was to drink at least four cups, in the course of the meal. [7] The blood which at first was sprinkled upon their doors, was subsequently poured out at the altar by the Priest; but that it might not fail of its commemoration at the feast, wine, the symbol of social joy, was permitted to represent it; thus fitly marking the advance from protection without, to life and joy within. And thus was made ready in its completeness, the symbol which the Lord Jesus used when He took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." [8]
In tracing this chief Feast of the old Covenant, on to this "new testament," and viewing it as there fulfilled, we find not mere instruction, but truth of the most vital kind. As in so many previous lessons, it is still Jesus and the Resurrection that are here proclaimed; but now in an entirely new aspect. We saw in Jordan, a symbol of Christ's death, through which we rise into His life. In the Land of Promise we saw a symbol of His fulness, into which we rise. But in the Passover, we begin to see how it is that He rises in us. The Lord Jesus is that corn of wheat that having fallen into the ground and died, is here seen springing up again, no more "abiding alone," but "bringing forth much fruit" in all those many lives that make up the Church as His Body.
We enter here upon holy ground--upon one of the profoundest mysteries of the Gospel, which even as taught by the Lord Jesus, gave rise to misunderstanding, and offence, and the turning back of many; but which is all the more precious to those who know that He "has the words of eternal life."
While it is impossible to separate this subject from that of the Lord's Supper, it is most needful to draw one clear line of distinction. "The spiritual verity which underlies the ordinance" is not indissolubly connected with it. The Passover was by no means the symbol of another symbol, but of a great Reality. Gliding as one ordinance did into the other, it was the same truth which, taught first in the ceremony of the Law, was to find its highest and richest expression in the Church's celebration. For closely as it pleased the Lord to connect the substance and the symbol, He has not limited the one by the other. The same wisdom that appointed an outward form for the spiritual truth, that we might have every help, provided against any possible hindrance, by giving that truth a life that was dependent upon no form.
The safeguard against any such confounding of things that differ, is set very clearly in the Scriptures. St. John in his Gospel gives us the inner aspect of this truth, as taught by Christ in His wonderful words about His flesh and blood, and then is utterly silent respecting the institution of the Supper,--leaving the other Evangelists to give the corresponding outward aspect. Precisely as elsewhere, it is the New Birth which He presents, and not the corresponding rite of Baptism. It is the more needful to draw this distinction, since there is great reason to fear, that not a few Christians have been robbed of one of the most precious presentations of Truth, by falsely connecting it with Sacramentarianism. On the other hand, it seems not a little singular that profoundly spiritual as is this truth, the cry of Materialism has been so often raised against it. Plainly in the case of the Jews, who first charged Christ with such a meaning, it was their own materialism which led to their utter misapprehension of that which could only be spiritually discerned.
The significance of the Passover (and much more the Lord's Supper) can not possibly be stinted to a memorial service. Some present participation is very plainly implied, while the starting-point is that of a grateful remembrance. "It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations." But if the observance of this service forever, was simply to keep the past in remembrance, there was no significance in its chief symbol. With the blood upon their doors, they ate of the Passover Lamb. Even in Egypt, they were shown at once that there was to be an inward appropriation of their sacrifice. That which had saved from death, was also to impart to them life and strength; and as already stated, this idea would be still further developed upon the subsequent introduction of the wine. So likewise in the Supper, the remembrance is made the basis of other blessings, as it also furnishes the chief ground of obligation--"This do in remembrance of me." First of all, the Lord would have us turn our eyes to the broken body, and the shed blood. Not even in heaven are we to cease from this remembrance; for there indeed we shall come still more clearly to the recognition of His death. In the midst of the Throne we shall see "a Lamb as it had been slain;" and the new song of heaven will open with the dear familiar words of many an old song on earth,--"Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood;" while the chorus of ten thousand times ten thousand will repeat it,--"WORTHY is The Lamb That Was Slain." [9]
But remembrance is not to be repetition. We are to recall the great salvation, rather than to reclaim it, and thus to reassure our hearts before God. Christ has no need to offer Himself often, since He has offered one sacrifice for sins forever; and they whose sins and iniquities He remembers no more, can have now no more conscience of those sins, the one remission of which is as sure as the one offering. [10] Only once do we keep our Passover in Egypt, with the blood sprinkled upon our doors. There was never indeed but one Passover; and after that it was the Feast of the Passover.
What then is our present privilege in this remembrance--our participation of Christ? Is it real, or only ideal? Is the cup a testimony, or a Testament? And if He indeed gives aught, or we receive aught, what is it, and in what manner is it given and received? The Scriptures make answer, that Christ our Passover gives us Himself---that is, He gives His entire being--gives us His Spirit, and gives us also, "His flesh and His blood."
But here we find ourselves touching upon other truths, which must be accepted as preliminary to this, and to which the Scriptures give no uncertain testimony. First among these is the new relation, established by Christ, between matter and spirit, which is the very significance of the Incarnation. "The Word was made FLESH." Next, but closely linked with this, is the glorification of Christ's human body; and then as the result of this, the final glorifying of our own. These are not speculations, else were the Scriptures silent respecting them; and the reasoning which recoils from them, ends consistently in the refusal to confess, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, in any true sense. Indeed it is to be seriously questioned if the doctrine of the Incarnation itself be generally and fully received in our day--if many have not drifted into a sort of Gnosticism, with its dualism, and docetism.
When the chasm between the Divine and human was to be filled, the
first step in the great mystery, whose completion was to be "Christ in
you, the hope of glory," was this--"Who was manifested in the flesh."
Coming into the world He saith--"A body hast Thou prepared me." That
body, formed by the overshadowing of the Highest, was a holy thing, and
therefore having in it "the power of an endless life." It had no need
for itself to pay by death the wages of sin. No man took that life from
Jesus--He laid it down of Himself--laid
it down that He might take it again. [11] Yet it was not possible for
Him to be holden of the bands of death, nor did God suffer His Holy Gne
to see corruption. The Scriptures put this point beyond all dispute, by
repeated assertions. [12] "He whom God raised again saw no
corruption"--"Neither did His flesh
see corruption;" and the precious
blood of Christ is especially declared not to be a corruptible
thing. [13] The resurrection from the dead declared Him to be the Son
of God with power, "according to the
Spirit of holiness:" It was a Body still, with flesh and bones,
that might be seen and handled, and yet moving with all the freedom of
a Spirit--"showing Himself alive by many infallible proofs." [14]
Had there been no deeper meaning in the Resurrection than an evidence, the manifestation in the flesh might have ended here, and the body have been put away, when He ascended up where He was before. But the blessed mystery goes further--"Was received up into glory." Into what glory let the "Light from heaven at midday, above the brightness of the sun," that blinded Saul of Tarsus, while it answered, "I am Jesus," tell us; even as the Face, that had once already "shone as the sun," had given token. It was evidently the whole being of the Lord, in that triple division which the Scripture sanctions--of spirit, soul, and body--that rose from the dead, ascended, and was glorified. But this last Adam being "a quickening Spirit," is the great Fountain-Head of all renewed being. Being glorified, He shed forth His Holy Spirit, that He might quicken first our spirits, and then our mortal bodies also. As it was His whole being that was glorified, so is it plainly our whole being that is to be glorified together with Him [15] --even as it is our "whole spirit and soul and body," which are to be "preserved blameless unto His coming."
And now we advance to the great revelation, that this work is not only wrought by Him, but through His "giving us Himself as the Bread of Life." He has taught us that there in His glorified Being a blessed power of imparting itself, in a real communication of both spiritual and bodily life. We surely can not keep the Feast--Christ our Passover sacrificed for us--with any spiritual intelligence, unless we receive in simple faith, those wonderful words in which He has taught us--"He that eateth Me, even He shall live by me." [16] The many words which the Lord Jesus used in that most memorable discourse, are not so much restatements, as constant advances, in the unfolding of the truth.
First of all He taught--"I am that Bread of life." They who had eaten the manna, died;--for the manna had no life--but this was living Bread; and he who should eat, should live forever. Not only should have now everlasting life, in his renewed spirit, but Jesus would also raise him up, in body, at the last day. [17]
"I am that Bread of life." It is to His own Person that Jesus draws our eyes in His promise, "that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him" shall have everlasting life, and be raised up again at the last day.
But He had further truth to teach. It was not only of His giving us His Spirit that He spoke, but "the Bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." [18] A hard saying indeed to listen to--but what if they should see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? [19] What if He proved that His sacred flesh was worthy of the presence of God, and subject to no earthly conditions? It was then His flesh, in its resurrection glory, of which He spoke, when the Body once broken should become living, life-giving Bread.
But He had still another gift--His blood--of which He next began to speak. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him." [20.] We enter here a path which, however unfamiliar to modern thought, discloses to the spiritual eye a glorious vista up to the very treasure-house of Truth--a path where Saint and Scholar have walked side by side, with reverent tread--where we meet in their holy meditations, such men as Chrysostom, and Calvin, and Bengel, and Stier. [21] What a distance from their apostolic "faith in His blood" to that reasoning which sees in it at best a figure. [22]
The blood of beasts, shed for so many years, whatever the value assigned it for an atonement under the Old Covenant, was but a figure. Not so when Jesus said--"This is My blood of the New Testament." "The blood of the everlasting Covenant" was a true thing. As has been said, "the unintelligent horror of the blood, which unbelief in the truth of God in the Old Testament has created, is here done away in the centre of the Christian worship, in this most precious bond of love between Christ and His own." [23]
As has been already seen, we need here to keep steadily in view the glorification of the entire being of Jesus. The blood was no unimportant part of that being -- for "the life of the flesh is in the blood." [24] Besides, be it repeated, we are told in express words, that we were "not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ" [25]--confirming the truth, that He whom God raised up saw no corruption. Why then should the faith that follows the ascending body of Jesus into Heaven, falter when it learns that the blood had its own entrance also? In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we are told how the High Priest, once every year, entered into the holiest, not without blood; and then how Christ having come, entered in once into the Holy Place, by His own blood. [26] This was "the better sacrifice" that purified "the heavenly things themselves." This was "the blood of His cross" with which He made peace. Our own confidence to enter into the Holiest, we are further told, is in that blood. [27] Nor need it surprise us when we are warned a little further on, of the sore punishment of which they are worthy, who "count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing." [28]
As has been said by Bengel [29] "The blood itself shed, not the shedding of the blood, is the ransom, the price of eternal redemption. That price paid to God, remains paid, without being restored to the body of the Redeemer. The redemption is eternal; the value of the price is eternal, just as if the Redeemer hung on the cross daily, and expired daily for us. In His death there was the power of a life that was not to be dissolved. In His life there is the value of His death, which is perpetual."
One can but note the care with which distinct mention is made by the Lord Jesus, of His flesh, and of His blood; as afterwards at the last Supper, He gave the separate emblems--the bread, of His body, and the wine, of His blood. Thus they are also mentioned by St. Paul. [30] So once more in Hebrews, where we are told of the realities of heaven, to which we have now come--after the mention of "innumerable angels," of "the festive assembly and Church of the First-born," and "God the Judge of all," and "the Spirits of just men made perfect," there are also added--"Jesus the Mediator" of the new Covenant, and the blood of sprinkling "that speaketh better things than that of Abel." [31]
But to follow the teaching of Jesus to its close. He tells us plainly, that He is not using words as figures, but as names of real things. "My flesh is true meat--My blood is true drink." [32] And it is now no longer upon His giving this food for the life of the world that He dwells; but upon our eating and drinking, which are repeated again and again. The giving was His one act--the receiving our constantly renewed act. And now at last, after Jesus had for the first time foretold His Ascension, He explains, that it was not mere flesh of which He had been speaking--not the carnal thing that was in their thoughts--"the flesh profiteth nothing"--but of "the Spirit that quickeneth"--(words which the Apostle Peter must have had in mind, when he spoke of Christ as being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit). And then all is summed up in the pregnant saying--"The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." What words?--unless chiefly those upon which He had rested such a weight--the words so often repeated--"My flesh--My blood!" These should prove "true meat, true drink," because also, when He had ascended, "Spirit, and Life." [33] Recalling no word that He had said already, He only rescued His pearls from the swine, who were trampling them under their feet. And still some believed not. How indeed should they? It was hard to receive His witness when He only told of earthly things. That a living man could be born again--born from above--by being born of water and of the Spirit, was a strange thing to their thought. And yet they needed not to marvel, if only they had marked the mystery of the wind, that cometh and goeth. But how then should they believe Him now, when He told them of One who ascended into heaven, to be the Bread of this new life.
And what is our own need to marvel, if we only reverently ponder the mystery of our daily bread. We eat it--but how little even Science knows of that great secret. How is it that the grain first grows from crudest elements? How is it that it is changed into the tender tissue, the tense sinew, and the warm coursing blood? We know it only as a fact. The bounteous table is not spread for us to analyze, but to enjoy.
Enough then, that in spiritual as in natural things, "we know and are sure," that we are invited to feast upon "true meat, and true drink;" that we eat of Bread 'that strengtheneth our heart,' and drink of 'wine that maketh it glad.' Who can even describe the cheer and comfort that compass the frame, and that pervading sense of speedy strength, that comes through common sustenance? How then set forth the blessedness of the Heavenly Banquet--the strength and sweetness of the shedding abroad of the Holy Spirit in our hearts--the steady bracing of the whole being--the poising of all its powers--or yet its brimming in the bewilderment of gladness, as this "best wine goeth down sweetly!" [34] We know not how, but we know and are sure by every inner sense that He has given us, that as He feeds us thus--it is His Spirit penetrating our spirit, His soul possessing our soul, till these mortal bodies feel the quickening Spirit that dwelleth in us, and thrill with the stirring of that new life, in which they shall be raised up at the last day. Even thus, O Great High Priest, King of Righteousness, and King of Peace, dost thou come forth to meet and bless Thy servants, with Thy Bread and Wine!
And so the mystery is made known--dimly to reason, but how brightly to Faith, that "Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it"--that when it was not good for Him to be alone, the deep sleep fell upon Him, and the Church found His death to be her life. Therefore because it is "His own flesh"--because "we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones," "He nourisheth and cherisheth it." Thrice happy Church, thus fed by her Beloved--thus beholding His glory, and so changed into the same image from glory to glory; in such a wise that at last "this body of our lowliness "shall be "conformed to the Body of His Glory!"
And so it is, indeed, no longer as in Egypt, that we now keep the Passover. The Birth feast is changed into a Marriage Feast, and the first miracle at Cana is the perpetual miracle of the loving and believing heart, in which life cleanses, and love purifies. For Christ's cleansing of His Church, is not after the manner of the purifying of the Jews--a washing of water without, to leave the inner man unchanged. "The sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," as it is first without, is then within; [35] the cleansing of the Wine that searches and yet heals; that "bringing into our being a vigor not its own, exalts all our powers to the partaking of His divine nature, and fills us with the joy of the Lord.
And here let it be again distinctly stated, that such blessing as this comes through faith, and not through any form. The Lord Jesus in teaching the great truth, made known but one condition--believing on Him. When He afterwards added His ordinance it was based upon this truth--not the truth upon the ordinance. And yet as certainly as He taught the truth, He appointed the form. As surely as He gave His very flesh and very blood, to be our meat and drink--He also gave the bread and wine, to be their tokens. One may well fear lest parted from its striking symbol, the spiritual substance may become, even to the sincere, a shadowy blessing faintly and vaguely apprehended.
The Lord Jesus surely makes every such remembrance of Him the occasion of His special manifestation. "The cup of blessing which we bless--is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break--is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" [36] And while thus intensifying our faith in this vital union with our Lord, we at the same time confirm our fellowship with one another--"We being many are one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread." [37] Every supper of the Lord should also be a feast of Charity. Finally, it is the Church's testimony to a Christless world. "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do proclaim the Lord's death till He come." [38]
Yet let us deeply ponder that which must follow, when in any way the eye of Faith has become so dim as not to discern the Lord's body,--"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep!"
Till He Come. Only a little longer shall we keep this Feast; for soon the Holy Supper of our Lortk will become the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We do not even rightly remember His dying, unless we are looking for that blessed Hope. How passing sweet His promise--"Until I drink it NEW with you in my Father's kingdom!" "When we become as He is, then will He be again as we are; He will eat and drink with us the new fruits of the new world in the fellowship of an eternal enjoyment of the renovated creation of the Father." [39]
1. Ex. xii. 48.
2. Josh. v. 11.--See p. 200.
3. Josh. v. 12.
4. Ex. xii. 24-27.
5. Pss. cxiii.-cxviii.--These Psalms, called the Egyptian Hallel, or the great Hallel, were appointed to be sung eighteen times in the year. "On the feast of the Passover, the hallel was so divided, that Pss. cxiii. and cxiv. were sung before the meal, before taking the second festal cup; Pss. cxv-cxviii., after the meal, after filling the fourth cup."--Dr. Moll's Introduction to the Psalms, Lange's Com., p. 13.
6. Ps. cxviii. 17, 27.
7. "There is no mention of wine in connection with the Passover in the Pentateuch; but the Mishna strictly enjoins that there should never be less than four cups of it provided, at the paschal meal, even of the poorest Israelite."--Smith's Dictionary of the Bible.
8. Luke xxii. 20.
9. Rev. v. 6-12.
10. Heb. x. 18.
11. John x. 17, 18.
12. Cf. Acts ii. 27-31 and xiii. 34-37.
13. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.
14. "The glorified body of Christ was not altered as regards its fundamental components; it was the same body, with the marks of the nails and the wound in its side, but in a new spiritual form of existence, and therefore standing under other laws. It therefore appears until the ascension, when its transformation was completed--as an elementary, earthly, material body; but its elements are no longer bound by space, and it can go here or there, make itself visible or invisible--in fact, shape itself outwardly according to the internal will. And this is possible, because the body is spiritualized through and through; it has become an adequate expression of the spirit and its willing instrument. The. body no longer opposes its own laws (of space, gravitation, motion, etc.,) to the volitions of the spirit; it does not hinder nor limit them, but implicitly obeys. All strife is at an end. If the spirit will to transport itself to any place, it can do so together with the body; the body no longer hinders it, for it is saturated with vital force and immortality. This is what the Scriptures (i Cor. xv. 44-46) call a spiritual body (***), in contradistinction to the "natural body" (***).--Christlieb's Modern Doubt and Christian Belief, pp. 475-6, (Am. Ed.)
15. Cf. Romans viii. 17 and 23.
16. John vi. 57.
17. "The natural import of the phrase 'last day' restricts this necessarily to the bodily resurrection. Every application of the expression to the merely spiritual ministry of Christ would make it a mere repetition of the 'eternal life.'"--Olshausen on John vi. 40.
18. See Dean Alford's Greek Testament, for a deeply interesting note on John vi. 51, in which he "at once rejects all metaphorical and side-interpretations, as, that the teaching of Christ is the Bread, and to be taught by Him is feeding upon it (so Grotius and the modern rationalists): that the divine Nature of Christ, or His sending of the Holy Spirit, or His whole life of doing good on earth, can be meant: all such have against them the plain sense of the words, which, as Stier observes, are very simple ordinary words....His Flesh is the glorified substance of His Resurrection Body, now at the right hand of God....He has given His flesh for the life of the world (***). The very existence of all the created world is owing to, and held together by that Resurrection Body of the Lord."
19. "The Lord signifies and promises here a future removal of the offence, a subsequent better knowledge, when His present earthly manifestation should be finally withdrawn just as in Ch. viii. 28....Then will it be disclosed to you that, and in what way My human corporeity, become heavenly and glorified, may be given to be eaten and to be drunk."--"Stier's Words of the Lord Jesus," Vol v., pp. 210-211.
20. John vi. 53-56. Jesus represents Himself as the quickener ot the whole man, the spiritual quickening prevailing up to ver. 50, while from v. 51 the idea which lies at the foundation of the Holy Supper--that the glorified corporeity of Christ sanctifies and glorifies ours also--comes out in stronger relief....With the eating and drinking of the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, are connected everlasting life, abiding in Christ, and living forever, i. e., the sublimest effects which the Redeemer proposed in general to call forth....The life and being of Christ is an all-penetrating, sanctifying, and glorifying power; the union of man with it in all three departments of his being is internal, real, essential."--Olshausen's Biblical Com., Vol. II., p. 418. See also, the same, for the view of the early Fathers, and also Luther's, concerning the germ of the resurrection body.
21. While referring freely in these notes to Scholars who have taken the view here presented, I feel bound to add that my own convictions were formed solely from the study of the Word. It was not merely a surprise, but an astonishment to meet with such confirmation. Most heartily can I re-echo the words of the saintly Bengel, "I shall indeed rejoice if by means of the things which I have stated, any occasion will be afforded for increasing the love and knowledge of our Redeemer, who has paid the price of His blood for us."
22. "The proper consideration of Christ's blood is sparingly introduced, and many have straightway recourse to a figure, whereby they understand under this word, blood, either the whole merit of Christ, or His life, i. e., the living principle, or soul." --See Bengel's Gnomon, Vol. IV., Clark's Ed., where he devotes fifteen pages (474-488) to a subject on which he once meditated a Treatise.
23. Stier.
24. Lev. xvii. 11.
25. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.
26. Heb. ix. 12. "'Christ entered into the sanctuary by His own blood; not merely after the blood was shed, and by the force of its being shed, nor with the blood taken back into the, body, but by the blood: therefore, this Priest Himself carried into the sanctuary His own blood, separately from his body.' . . . . (Chrysostom Hom. 33, on Heb. xiii.): The actual economy of the suffering was without, I say without; but the blood was carried up InTO heaven. You observe that we are partakers of the blood that was carried into the Sanctuary--the true Sanctuary-- the blood of the Sacrifice in which He alone, the High Priest delighted."--Bengel's Gnomon, p. 476-7.--In the same passage Bengel also quotes from Calvin, as saying, "Christ carried His own blood Into the heavenly Sanctuary to make atonement for the sins of the world."
27. Heb. x. 19.
28. Heb. x. 29.
29. Gnomon, Vol. IV., p. 479.
30. 1 Cor. xi. 24, 25.
31. Heb. xii. 24.
32. "John vi. 55, *** is not ***, nor is the sense, 'My flesh is the true meat,' etc., but My flesh is true meat, i. e., really to be eaten, which they doubted. Thus *** is a gloss which falls short of the depth of the adjective. This verse is decisive against all explaining away, or metaphorizing the passage. Food and drink are not here mere metaphors;--rather are our common material food and drink mere shadows and imperfect types of this only real reception of refreshment and nourishment into the being."--Dean Alford's Greek Testament, Vol. I. p., 718.
33. Dean Alford says upon John vi. 63: "He is explaining the life-giving principle of which He had been before spealring-- He does not say 'My Flesh profiteth nothing,' but 'the flesh." To make Him say this is to make Him contradict His own words in verse 51: ***--viz., the words *** and ***, above. They are, *** and ***:--spirit, not flesh only:--living food, not carnal and perishable. This meaning has been missed by almost all commentators. Stier upholds it, iv. 281 (2d ed.); and it seems to me beyond question the right one.--The Greek Testament, I. 769.
34. Cant. vii. 9.
35. "A double benefit becomes ours by the blood of Christ, namely: I. Deliverance from the guilt of sin; II. The gift of the new powers of life which are subsequently exercised in good works. The former is called justification by the blood of Jesus Christ ' and the latter is obtained by the man who eats the flesh of Christ, and drinks His blood; John vi."--Bengel's Gnomon--on Heb, xii. 24.
36. 1 Cor. x. 16.
"According to the Scripture (John vi.) the Lord was to be in us and with us also in flesh and blood after His ascension; yes, then first truly so. His heavenly flesh and blood pervaded by spirit, and which have become spirit and life, these are the true 'mediating organs' of that fellowship which is as really bodily as spiritual; and the bread and the wine are the mediating symbols of this in the second degree. Was there not for the Church of the Lord an actual reception of His flesh and blood provided, it could have no life in itself, it never would be or could be His Church, that is, His body. If this reception was not at the same time (not indeed exclusively, but especially) mediated by an external, earthly corporeal element, the Church of the New Testament would have no Sacrament."--Stier's Words of the Lord Jesus, vii. 105.
37. 1 Cor. x. 17.
38. 1 Cor. xi. 26.
39. Rudolph Stier.