A summary of chapter 7-8. An Invitation to Intimate Fellowship and Eternal Life.
Summary: This post centers on the profound spiritual significance of drawing near to God through the blood of Jesus Christ, emphasizing cleansing, fellowship, and the appropriation of eternal life. It asserts that both divine cleansing through Christ’s blood and human cleansing through forsaking sin are essential and inseparable. The invitation to draw near extends to all, including those not yet fully committed, urging believers to move beyond superficial faith and enter into a deeper, more intimate relationship with God. This nearness is achieved through faith, purified hearts, and a commitment to living in accordance with the holiness of God’s presence. The text also explores the concept of “drinking the blood of Jesus,” interpreting it as a deep, spiritual appropriation of Christ’s life and a means of partaking in eternal life. This is further connected to the Lord’s Supper, where believers, through the Holy Spirit, are nourished by the body and blood of Jesus, fostering a profound union with Him. The text concludes by emphasizing the importance of longing for this union and approaching it with reverence, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the full meaning and power of drinking the blood of Jesus.
Key Topics and Decisions:
* **Drawing Near to God:** The central theme, emphasizing intimacy and fellowship.
* **Cleansing:** Both divine (through Christ’s blood) and human (forsaking sin) aspects.
* **Invitation to All:** Extending the call to both believers and those not yet committed.
* **Full Assurance of Faith:** Achieved through sincerity and a wholehearted devotion to God.
* **”Drinking the Blood of Jesus”:** A metaphor for deeply appropriating Christ’s life and partaking in eternal life.
* **The Lord’s Supper:** A means of nourishing the body and soul through the body and blood of Jesus, fostering union with Him.
* **The Role of the Holy Spirit:** Essential in revealing the meaning and power of “drinking the blood.”
* **Reverence and Longing:** The proper attitude for approaching this deep spiritual mystery.
“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts purified from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:22 ● We must be clean to enter into the holiest place. In the blood of Christ, God has given us the power to cleanse ourselves. The King desires our purity that we may enjoy His blessing, His holy fellowship. Jesus has provided through the blood and by the spirit for us to be clean. The holiest place is open even for those in our congregations who have not yet turned to the Lord. His sanctuary has been opened. Therefore, with great confidence, we dare to invite all who are still far from God. At the cost of the blood of His Son, God has opened a way into the holiest place. He waits in love to receive all into His dwelling place as His child Jesus Christ, the High Priest over the house of God, is a perfect Savior. It is NEVER sufficient to only HOPE that your sins are forgiven. Our Father invites all into His holy, innermost sanctuary to know the truth of your salvation. The soul that draws near to God gives itself sincerely and entirely to God, will experience the full ASSURANCE of FAITH and all that the WORD has promised. Any weakness of faith arises from duplicity of heart. If we doubt, we do not believe, and a weak faith can only hope.
The blood of Jesus has so perfectly atoned for and conquered sin that nothing can hold the believer back except a weak faith. Let us receive full FAITH into our HEARTS in the perfect POWER of the BLOOD. Then, a soul begins to feel more at home in the holiest place. “In Christ, who is our life, ye who at another time were far off, are made near by the blood of the Christ.” Ephesians 2:13. His call for us to draw near to His presence is a call to listen for His voice and to talk things over with Him in prayer. We are always in His holy Presence as He abides in us as the Holy Spirit, so as we set aside time to communicate, these moments are more intimate. When a soul turns itself entirely to God to be engaged with Him alone, then it safely speaks out its concerns and desires. This inner fellowship with God is joined by the Holy Spirit to carry on the work of intercession as we pray blessings on others. As one of God’s saints, the power of God’s presence goes out from our reverent soul to impact those prayed for. Our soul carries the presence of God within as a fountain of life that grows from strength to strength and from glory to glory. Hallelujah and so be it.
“Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, He that eats my flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.” John 6:53
Just as water has a twofold effect, so it is with His holy blood. When water is used for washing, it cleanses, but if we drink it, we are refreshed and revived. A soul that desires to know the full power of the blood of Jesus must be taught the difference between washing and drinking. It is necessary and pleasant to use water for cleansing, it is also much more necessary to drink and be revived. Without its cleansing, it is not possible to live as we ought, but without drinking, we cannot live at all. Only by drinking can we enjoy the full benefit of its power to sustain life. To many people, there is something unpleasant in the phrase drinking the blood of the son of man. When Jesus spoke of drinking His blood, it naturally bothered the crowd because it was an unspeakable offense to their religious tradition. Our Lord would not have used the phrase if He had been able to make the deepest and most glorious truths concerning salvation by the blood plain to them and us any other way. In seeking to become partakers of salvation, we must endeavor to understand three aspects.
A blessing exists in the fellowship with the blood of Jesus that goes much further than cleansing or sanctification. His blood places our soul in a new relationship with God. A renewing takes place when we drink in the fullness of His sacrifice. “Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye shall have no life in you.” John 6:53. Many among those listening were devout, well-intentioned men, so when Jesus said they had no life in them unless they ate His flesh and drank His blood, they rejected His offer of another life, a new heavenly life, which He possessed and which He alone can impart. A dog must obtain nourishment outside of itself. A new heavenly life must be nourished with heavenly food and drink by Jesus.
“Whosoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:54. The eternal life is the life of God and Jesus came to earth the first time to reveal that eternal life in the flesh, and then to communicate it to us who are in the flesh. In Him, we see the eternal life dwelling in His divine power in a body of flesh, which was taken up into heaven. He tells us that those who eat His flesh and drink His blood, partake of His body as their sustenance, will experience the power of eternal life in their own bodies. The marvel of the eternal life in Christ is to view Jesus as eternal life in a human body. We must be partakers of that body, and then our body, possessing that life, will one day be raised from the dead.
Our Lord said, My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. Earthly food is not real food, for it does not impart real life. The one true food is the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which imparts and sustains life. The flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus are the food by which eternal life is nourished and sustained in us. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in Me and I in him.” John 6:56
Our Lord declares that those who believe in Him, experience His direct Spirit of influence in their hearts. “As I live by the Father, so he that eats Me, he shall also live by Me.” John 6:57. In the midst of His invisible divine nature, the two persons are truly one, so man becomes one with Jesus. The human nature cannot exist apart from the body, our divine union includes the body of Christ. Our Father prepared for Himself a body into which Jesus took up residence in a human body. By faith we receive the Holy Spirit and the fullness of His blessing is careful to enjoy all that the scripture offers them in the holy mysterious expression to drink the blood of Christ. A soul that swims in the deep contemplation of the Holy Spirit abiding knows real joy! Confirmation of the life-giving power of the blood metabolizes into the depth of soul. The GIFT of FAITH enables us to witness full redemption, cleansing, and sanctification by the blood. A glorious certainty of what our Lord intended by His way, not ours. As a partaker, through the Holy Spirit, we become saturated and nourished by His body and His blood in the power of eternal life. If anyone asks me how this can be, I acknowledge that it is a mystery too high for my spirit to comprehend or my words to express. I feel it more than I can understand it. We let faith embrace what our understanding cannot grasp. The sacred communication of His flesh and blood by which Christ transfuses His life into us, just as if it penetrated our bones and marrow.
Ephesians 1:22-23.
Ephesians 4:15
1 Corinthians 6:15.
Ephesians 5:30.
Ephesians 5:32.
John 6:56
Colossians 2:9
“Abiding in Christ in heaven, and we are on earth, we are flesh of His flesh, and bone of his bones, and we live and are governed forever by one spirit.” 1 Corin 11:23-26.
“For as in Adam all die, even so in the Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corin 15:21
Not only does Jesus work by His spirit on our spirit to make our body share in redemption at the resurrection, the body is also the temple of the Holy Spirit. The sanctification of our soul and spirit will progress more gloriously in the communion sacrament, we are intentionally fed by the body and the blood of Christ. It is a deep spiritual mystery in which the most intimate, the most perfect union with Christ is affected. It takes place through the Holy Spirit, the soul fully appropriates the communion of the blood of Christ and becomes a true partaker through the spirit, in a superhuman powerful way, the blood will support and strengthen our heavenly life. The life of the old me dies to make room for the life of Christ in me.
Beloved brethren, you have already heard that this is one of the deepest mysteries of the life of God in us. It behooves us to draw near with deep reverence while we ask the Lord Jesus to teach us what he means by drinking his blood. Only those who long for a full union with Jesus will understand what it is to drink the blood of Jesus.
A soul longs to become heavenly minded because it belongs to heaven. Without thirst, there is no drinking. The longing after Jesus and perfect fellowship with Him is the best preparation for drinking the blood. It is by the Holy Spirit that the thirsty soul will drink of the heavenly refreshment of this life-giving drink. This drinking is a heavenly mystery. When the Holy Spirit teaches us, he bestows more than our human understanding can grasp. All the thoughts that we can entertain about the blood or the life of Jesus, and our share in that blood as members of His body, and the impartation of the living power of that blood, are but feeble rays of the glorious reality, which the Holy Spirit will bring to fruition in us through our union with Jesus.
This was the purpose for which the Lord Jesus came in the flesh, and in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Andrew Murray was the second child of Andrew Murray Sr. (1794–1866), a Dutch Reformed Church missionary sent from Scotland to South Africa. He was born in Graaff Reinet, South Africa. His mother, Maria Susanna Stegmann, was of French Huguenot and German Lutheran descent.
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