Partaking

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:51
Many people struggle to understand this verse. Indeed, they struggled back in Jesus’ day, saying, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’ (John 6:52). At face value, Jesus is asking us to cannibalise Him. The Roman Catholics invented the doctrine of transubstantiation (that the communion elements literally become the physical body and blood of Christ) to try and make this verse make sense. But there is a more correct interpretation of what Jesus is saying here.
Jesus says we must eat, or partake, of His body and blood. Thus, we partake in His sacrificial death on the cross. To partake is to take part. This partaking is by faith, not by physical actions (eating and drinking). When we take part in Him, He becomes part of us unto salvation. This is the extended metaphor Jesus uses from v51-58. When we eat physical food, it goes inside us and is then absorbed by our body to become part of us. So too when we believe on the Lord, He comes and indwells us. As we digest His Word, He becomes part of us, inseparable. We live with Him forever because He is part of us and we are part of Him, by faith.