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This article of justification is the chief doctrine. St. John expounded it especially. In this he proved himself a master. St. John cannot be sufficiently praised for treating this doctrine so diligently and so clearly. He is a master in the doctrine of justification. I cannot discourse on it more clearly and more forcefully than John did here through the Holy Spirit. He says: “You will not have eternal life unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood.” “To eat” means to eat with the soul, so that I accept the flesh, apprehend it, and retain it.
It is not enough to consider that the baker baked bread and the brewer brewed beer. This does not bring bread and beer into your home. But when you take bread and beer into your mouth, then baker and brewer are forgotten. Thus the Jews here were baker and brewer: they baked and brewed Christ when He was crucified. Now it is up to you to get Him into your mouth, to eat Him, to lay hold of Him, to take Him into yourself, and to adhere to Him. That is faith; that is what He means.
53. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
Martin Luther, vol. 23, Luther's Works, Vol. 23 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 23:129 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1959).
It is not enough to consider that the baker baked bread and the brewer brewed beer. This does not bring bread and beer into your home. But when you take bread and beer into your mouth, then baker and brewer are forgotten. Thus the Jews here were baker and brewer: they baked and brewed Christ when He was crucified. Now it is up to you to get Him into your mouth, to eat Him, to lay hold of Him, to take Him into yourself, and to adhere to Him. That is faith; that is what He means.
53. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
Martin Luther, vol. 23, Luther's Works, Vol. 23 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works, 23:129 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1959).