I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. (John 6:53 NLT)
Let us remember that this way
is a way that is a constant offence to the flesh, to the natural
man. The Jews strove with one another, saying, "How can this
Man give us His flesh to eat?" But not only did Jews, the
religious people in their religious self-satisfaction, strive
together, but it is also written, "Many therefore of His
disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who
can hear it?" Even disciples could not go on sometimes. When they
came face to face with the implications of such a saying, they
were no longer willing to be associated with Him on a basis of
that kind. The flesh loves to have it in itself to be doing, to
be laying the plans, arranging the programs, organizing the
work, superintending it, and getting it going. The flesh revels
in that, and when you come and say to that whole order of things,
"The way of God is the way of utter dependence and faith, with the
Holy Spirit in entire charge, and you must keep your hands off
and be willing to do only what the Lord tells you and no more,"
(that which is meant by the declaration, "I can do nothing
out from Myself") it is an offence to the natural man, even
in religious matters.
We come up against that constantly, do we
not? It is the difference between meeting together as they did at
Antioch to pray things out and get the Lord's witness as to His
will, and having a committee meeting to discuss a proposal and
make plans. If the natural man is not doing the whole thing, and
arranging it, and ordering it, and running it all, he cannot
think that progress can be made at all. Unless you come out with
your plans, and announce your programs, and declare what you
are doing, and present your statistics, the naturally minded
Christian thinks that nothing is being done. It is possible to
have wonderful things done without any of that kind of activity.
We cite such a thing purely as an illustration. Application can
be extended in many directions, but this is just to help out the
thought. The whole accomplishment of God in Christ is on the
basis of Divine Life mediated through faith. That is another way
of saying that Christ has to be the basis of everything in a
spiritual way. This is an offence to the flesh, but a
satisfaction to the Spirit.