Let us recap the important details of what it means to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ:
- We must receive Him as a personal Savior. Personal is not vicariously but personally.
- We must believe that He alone can, and will fully and freely forgives us all our sins that we confess and repent from. However, it is not enough to believe in the forgiveness of sin; by faith we must be constantly receiving spiritual strength and nourishment from Him through His Word.
- We must believe that we are complete in Him—not in and through any one, any other means or not in anything we can do.
- We must be constantly beholding and contemplating His love. This alone is a struggle in itself for a thousand faces, personalities, topics, and activities vie for our attention!
- A theoretical knowledge will do us no good. We must feed upon Him, receive Him into the heart—so that His life becomes our life—by assimilating His love and His grace. Few ever view the gospel work on earth as having for its goal Christ’s life becoming ours; that is, we live the kind of life that He lived on earth!
- Following the example modeled by Christ, the living Word, the principles of God’s Word and His law must be assimilated so that it becomes the motive power of our life and actions.
- By the power of Christ, we must be changed into His likeness, and reflect His divine attributes.
- Only when we receive the life (the blood) poured out on Calvary for us can we live a life of holiness. “Be ye holy; for I am holy” 1 Pet. 1:16. “Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Cor. 7:1.
- This life we receive by receiving His word, by doing those things which He commands. Thus we become one with Him.
- We must sit on the table that Jesus has set before us. We receive eternal life by receiving the living element in the Scriptures—its true spiritual meaning and application—which is manifested in doing the will of God. And the will or desire of God is that we become sanctified (1 Thess. 4:3), meaning, purified from sin, and made holy and righteous in His sight—to become one with and like Him in character. We can only be sanctified through the truth. John 17:17. Once more, the “living element” in the Scriptures is “doing the will of God.” This is what it means to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ.
- Salvation is individual. Each must study the Word for himself even as a healthy, rational adult eats his food for himself. Each must appropriate the spiritual blessings of God’s Word to his own soul.
“The work of preparation is and individual work. We are not saved in groups. The purity and devotion of one will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before God, yet He will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being upon the earth. Everyone must be tested and found without spot or wrinkle for any such thing. [Eph. 5: 27].
Solemn are the scenes connected with the closing work of the atonement. Momentous are the interests involved therein. The judgment is now passing in the sanctuary above. For many years this work has been in progress. Soon—none know how soon—it will pass on to the cases of the living. In the awful presence of God our lives are to come up in review. At this time above all others it behooves every soul to heed the Savior’s admonition: ‘Watch and pray, for you know not the when the time is.’ (Mark 13: 33). ‘If therefore you shall not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come upon you.’ (Rev. 3:3).
When the work of investigative judgment closes, the destiny of all will have been decided for life or death. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven. Christ in the Revelation, looking forward to that time, declares: ‘He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22: 11, 12.” – Great Controversy, p. 490, “Facing Life’s Record” (Investigative Judgment) chapter.