I didn't get into the flesh part, but since you mentioned it, I must say that you got it wrong when you said, “He who believes” in Christ is equivalent to “he who eats this bread”.
“Everyone who sees the Son and
believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (v40).
“Whoever
eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (v54).
How can you do one without the other and still have eternal life/be raised up at the last day if "He who believes" in Christ is not equivalent to "he who eats this bread?"
Are you implying that there are people out there who believe in Him/have everlasting life/will be raised up at the last day that did not eat His flesh and drink His blood? OR that there are people out there who eat His flesh and drink His blood/have eternal life/will be raised up at the last day but did not believe in Him?
Take a look at the verse below.
Joh 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Are you implying there are people out there who come to Jesus and shall never hunger but they don't believe in Him? OR there are people out there who believe on Him and shall never thirst but they never came to Jesus and will continue to hunger?
Notice what hunger is associated with.
Those who come to Jesus, right?
Do we come to Jesus in unbelief and never hunger but remain thirsty? That doesn't make sense. What does it mean to come to Jesus?
Suffice it to say, those who come to Jesus with their heart, will never hunger because they ate the flesh of Jesus.
You believe that such a person literally ate the flesh of Jesus? Cannibalism?
And what is thirst associated with?
Those who believe.
So those who come to Jesus and will never hunger don't believe and those who believe and will never thirst will remain hungry?
So those who believe with their heart, drink the blood of Jesus, which is the Word of God, which is the Holy Ghost, which is the power of God, and in so doing, will never thirst.
As I said earlier:
Bread represents the "staff of life." Sustenance. That which essential to sustain life. Just as bread or sustenance is necessary to maintain physical life, Jesus is all the sustenance necessary for spiritual life.
The source of life was blood -- "life is in the blood." As with the bread, just as blood is the empowering or source of life physically, Jesus is all the source of spiritual life necessary.
Like I said earlier, the blood of Jesus is the living word of God, the Holy Ghost.
Cometh = eating the flesh/bread = never hunger.
Believeth = drinking blood = never thirst.
So you turn Cometh/Believeth; eating the flesh/drinking blood into two separate requirements for salvation? Do you believe there are people who eat the flesh but don't drink blood or vise versa and won't be saved or will still be saved? How does that align with John 6:54,58? It sounds like you are making this out to be more complicated than it really is.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye
believed, ye were
sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. So those who believe the gospel did or did not eat His flesh and drink His blood and receive eternal life and will be raised up at the last day?
The bible plainly states that we are born again by the word of God, which God refers to as a seed, and the seed is a spirit of and from the Holy Spirit.
The reason why our righteousness is not our own and why God's grace abounds toward us, is because a spirit of and from both Jesus and the Holy Ghost abides in us.
They abide in us because we agreed with, believed, and received Jesus and God's truth/word.
Did those who are born again eat His flesh and drink His blood or some did and some didn't but will be saved anyway?
So long as we KEEP the truth, we keep the Son, but if we reject the truth of the gospel, we in essence, reject the Son.
Are believers kept by the power of God or by our own strength? (1 Peter 1:5)
1Jn 2:24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
1 John 2:27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
Keep in mind that Jesus IS the Word of God.
Also keep in mind that He IS the Truth.
Jesus IS the Living Word and He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Yes, we have eternal life, because we believe the gospel.
So if those who believe the gospel are saved/believes in Me will have everlasting life/eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, the you can't have one without the other.
But when we stop believing and even reject the truth, the word dies.
Stop truly believing or belief was never firmly rooted and established from the start? Which explains why it withered away.
The parable of the sower that sowed seed on a rock. They believed for a while. But when tribulations and persecutions came because of the word, they were offended and fell away from the truth. Jesus said the seed died.
In regards to the parable of the sower, receiving the word with joy (emotional response) and believing (in a shallow way) does not result in salvation. Even though this shallow ground hearer is said to have "believed," yet he is never said to have been "saved." How do we know that the shallow ground hearer was never actually "saved?" First, his heart condition is
contrasted with that of the "good ground" hearer, who's heart was "good" and "honest." Thus, his heart was "not good," being like the soil to which it corresponds, being "shallow" or "rocky," lacking sufficient depth. People who "rejoice" at the preaching of the gospel without a good and honest heart, and having
no root do not experience real salvation. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root.." Problem from the start.
Temporary shallow belief that was not firmly rooted or established from the start "has no root" represents rocky soil. Then we see the results of this.
Temporary shallow belief, no root, lacks moisture, no fruit, withers away.
John has portrayed people as "believing" who are clearly not saved. There is a stage in the progress of belief in Jesus that
"falls short of genuine or consummated belief resulting in salvation." See John 2:23-25 (where their "belief" is clearly superficial in nature); John 8:31,40,45-46 (where the Jews who were said to have "believed in him" turn out to be
slaves to sin [v. 34],
indifferent to Jesus’ word [v. 37],
children of the devil [v. 44],
liars [v. 55],
setting out to stone the one they have professed to believe in (v. 59).
Again, we have life BECAUSE we have the word of God abiding in us. When we reject that word, and deny its truth, we deny Jesus.
Rejecting His word and denying it's truth is descriptive of unbelievers, not believers.
Mat 10:33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
The broader context of this passage relates to the fact that
the Pharisees had continuously denied Jesus while the disciples spoke about Him in every city they visited. We might paraphrase His teaching this way: "Whoever confesses me before men (such as you disciples), I will confess him before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies me before men (like these Pharisees do on every occasion they get), I will deny him before my Father in heaven. Those who confess Jesus are those who recognize Him as being the true Messiah and trust in Him for salvation. Those who deny Jesus (and those who give mere lip service confession) but refuse to trust in Him alone for salvation place themselves beyond any possibility of salvation, since salvation is found only in Him. The word for "deny" is an aorist tense. This points to the fact that Jesus is not talking about a single instance of denial (as was the case with Peter, who actually denied Him three times - Luke 22:34), but is referring to life in its entirety. Hence, the person who throughout his life denies Christ (as was typically the case with the Pharisess and includes unbelievers who may even give mere "lip service confession" - Matthew 7:21-23, but lack saving faith) will be denied by Christ before the Father.
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