SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/17/2016 7:58 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Perplexity
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:52
Message of the verses: 52 Then the Jews began to argue with one
another, saying, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?"”
Now I
mentioned before that what Jesus is saying here was not about Communion, or the
Lord’s Supper, but He was speaking giving a physical illustration of a
spiritual truth. The problem in this
verse for the Jews and also for others as we will see is the question at the
end of the verse “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” This statement if it were literally spoken
would have gone against the Law, and since we know that Jesus never at any time
broke the Law of the Lord, could not be talking about something that was
against it. Now I think the best way to
understand what He is talking about and also to prove that there are some who
believe He was speaking literally we need to quote John MacArthur’s commentary.
“It should
be noted that the Roman Catholic Church appeals to this passage as a proof of
the doctrine of transubstantiation—the false teaching that the body and blood
of Christ are literally present in the bread and wind of the Mass. Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott writes, ‘The
body and the blood of Christ together with His soul and His divinity and
therefore the whole Christ are truly present in the Eucharist’ (Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma [St.
Louis: B. Herder, 1954], 382). It is a
false foundation for a false doctrine, however, to suggest that Jesus was
referring to the Eucharist (Communion or the Lord’s Table) here, since He used
the word sarx (flesh). A different word, soma(body), appears in the passages referring to Communion (Matt.
26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 10:16; 11:24, 27). Two additional considerations reinforce the
fact that this passage does not refer to Communion: First the Lord’s Table had not yet been instituted;
therefore, the Jews would not have understood what Jesus was talking about if
He were speaking of Communion. Second,
Jesus said that anyone who partakes of His flesh has eternal life. If that was a reference to the Lord’s Table,
it would mean that eternal life could be gained through taking Communion. That is clearly foreign to Scripture,
however, which teaches that Communion is for those who are already believers (1
Cor. 11:27-32) and that salvation is by faith alone (Eph. 2:8-9).”
It is not
my habit to speak out against different religions but to tell the truth of what
I believe the Scriptures teach, and one way to accomplish this is by comparing
different Scriptures with each other which is what MacArthur did in this
case. I desire to tell the truth in what
I write.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “A kiss” (Luke 22:47-48).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said ‘"After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am
not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals.’”
Answer in our next SD.
4/17/2016 8:24 PM
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