Quote:
Originally Posted by Jo S
Raptor, I'll first start by pointing put that you're taking two different metaphors and blending them together.
However, the first metaphor uses the term "bread" or the Greek "arto" in the context of God's commandments. The second, "artos" alludes to Christ's flesh aka his sacrifice. While the same word for bread is being used (one is of unknown origin, the other known), it's being used in a completely different context. So what you're doing while posing your question is you're making a false equivalency.
|
No, it is not a false equivalency, you are missing several main points, one is the RHEMA:
The context of Matthew 4:4 is that the Lord Jesus was hungry, having fasted 40 days. The devil tempted Him to use His standing as the Son of God to turn the stones into bread to satisfy His hunger and in doing so, leave His position as the Son of Man. Yet the Lord had to defeat the devil as a Man, so He quoted the devil a verse, saying "it is written", referring to the
written word, i.e. in greek the
LOGOS in Deuteronomy. Yet when He spoke the verse He said "...but on every
RHEMA, i.e. in greek the
spoken word. As a Man, the Lord had been feeding on Godīs spoken word. He took the word of God as His bread and lived on it, the RHEMA was His supply of life. He was feeding and living on Godīs word as the RHEMA during that time of fasting and physical hunger. By standing as a Man that fed on Godīs RHEMA, He defeated that devil in that temptation.
The context of John 6:51 starts in v. 47, a long section thru v. 71. Firstly Christ equates believing to eating Him as as the bread of life, i.e. His flesh, and drinking His blood and thus
having eternal life. Yet He adds and says that His flesh and blood are true food and drink and by eating and drinking them we can mutually
dwell in each other, and then if we eat Him we
shall live because of Him. Eating refers to believing in Him, abiding in Him an living because of Him. The thought is not only to receive once for all, but also to live in Him and He in us and derive our living because of Him on a day to day basis. How? He explains it in v. 63 "the
Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The
RHEMATA I have
spoken to you are spirit and they are life". Here He explains that the supply of eternal life, the abiding and living come from the Spirit and the word, and He clearly points to the word as the instant, spoken RHEMA.
The RHEMA joins those two portions of the word, it is not a false equivalency. So I ask you according to 1 Pet. 1:23, Have you tasted that the
Lord is good? and to Heb. 6:5 have you tasted the goodness of the
RHEMA of God ? We don't want to be ones that go to the word as if we went to a restaurant, read and analyzed the menu, but never ate the food. Oh He is so rich, He tastes so good! His rhema is so good!