[Question]

John 6:53-54 Jesus said to them. "Truly, truly, I say to you. If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

You said that eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus can give life, but what is the relationship between eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus and getting life. Please answer why eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Jesus can give life.

[Answer] 

When Jesus said that you must eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life, he was speaking spiritually. The reason Jesus said this was because the Jews were asking for "manna." Their ancestors had eaten manna from God in the wilderness and lived, so they were asking Jesus to give them manna if you were God.

He is saying that He Himself is the living bread (manna) that came down from heaven, and that by eating of it one has life. He is saying that the manna that the Jews ate in the wilderness was food for the life of the body, but that the flesh and blood of Jesus is the true food for the life of the soul. So what does He mean by the flesh and blood of Jesus? To understand this, we must first understand how soul life is obtained.

In Jesus' words, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by the word of God," we can distinguish between food for the body and food for the soul. Just as we eat physical food to keep us alive, we keep God's Word to keep us spiritually alive. Therefore, God's Word (laws, commandments, and covenants) is the spiritual food that feeds our souls.

[Deuteronomy 32: 47] For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

Therefore, in order to have soul life, we must keep God's laws, commandments, and covenants, but because of human ignorance, we easily forget the commandments, so God gives us the Holy Spirit to remind us of the commandments and teach us. When Jesus said to eat His flesh and drink His blood, He didn't mean to actually eat and drink, but to teach us that the Holy Spirit of Jesus dwells in the bodies of the saints to keep the law.

Just as food enters the body of the eater, so Jesus, who is likened to food, must be in the bodies of the saints in order for them to have life, and this is the evidence that the Holy Spirit has come. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of the resurrected Jesus, and believers who receive the Holy Spirit dwell with Jesus. The Holy Spirit reminds and teaches us of God's laws, commandments, and covenants because he acts as our mediator for understanding the deep things of God.

[John 14:26] But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

So unless the Holy Spirit, who is likened to the flesh and blood of Jesus, comes upon us, we cannot have life. Again, it is the Word of God that makes the soul alive, not mere rituals like the Passover. To love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves is the commandment of the Law and the Prophets, but we easily forget this, so the Holy Spirit comes to teach us, to remind us, to make us keep it. The Holy Spirit is the teacher of the soul and our guide. But those who do not know these secrets think that if they only keep the Passover they will have life.

[Proverbs 21:3] The Lord is more pleased with justice and equity than with sacrifice.