The Divine salvation is a physical intervention.

Here is a great mystery, perhaps the greatest of all mysteries. It is the mystery of the Gospel.

We very well can say with the Jews: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Of course, eating the flesh of Christ and drinking His blood was not possible while He was speaking to them at that time.

Where are the body and blood today? I expect they are in the Holy Place in Heaven with God. Somewhere there is a place where His flesh resides and a fountain filled with His blood. He multiplies these, as He did the barley loaves and fish, so there is enough for everyone.

Let me emphasize once more the idea that a man may eat and not die; and, "This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

I don't know how the idea began that the Divine salvation is basically a spiritual religion bringing us to eternal residence in the spirit realm. My opinion is that this is the influence of the ancient philosophy of Gnosticism, which was prevalent in the first century.

Actually, the Divine salvation is very physical. Man was not created in the spirit realm, as were the angels. Man was created from the dust, and God referred to him as "dust." And so he is.

He had access in the beginning to the Tree of Life, that is, to the Lord Jesus Christ. But he chose instead to eat of the Law of God, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result, man lost bodily immortality.

The world is a mass of dead people, moving about in the suburbs of Hell. Into this charnel house comes the Tree of Life. Whoever eats of Him will regain bodily mortality. This is the meaning of: "This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Christ is referring to bodily immortality, the dream of man ever since he was subjected to physical death.

Physical death destroys the fondest dream of man. Man comes from the dark, lives for a moment, and returns to the dark. Christ came to end this futility to which the creation was made subject. But it costs Christ an agonizing death on the cross to make immortality possible.

Before God is willing to restore immortality to us, we first must have the Substance of Christ formed inside of us so we will not disobey God once we receive bodily immortality.

The body and blood of Christ make possible our attaining to bodily immortality by:

Serving as our Passover protection.

Forgiving our sins.

Purging from us the compulsions of the sinful nature.

Building up the Substance of Christ in us.

Giving us the Life of God in our inward nature, the love, joy, and peace by which we are to live.

Being our resurrection that will raise us to bodily immortality in the last day.

The philosophy of Christianity, theology, our Statements of Faith, serve as an orientation to salvation. They are not salvation but the door to salvation. The salvation is the body and blood of the Lamb of God.

The burden of the Spirit today is total obedience to Jesus Christ, which is the same as total obedience to the Father. Total obedience means we always, throughout the day and night, are looking to Christ for guidance, always giving thanks to Him for His direction and assistance.

As we are always looking to Him, He always is feeding us with His flesh and blood.

This is the rest of God toward which we are to press at all times.

To be continued.