The Gospel vs. The Mass (John 6:46-59 Jeff Kliewer)

We do welcome Him this morning, Emmanuel, God with us. Let's sing, come and worship. Come, let's worship Christ, the newborn King. Emmanuel, we welcome you here, Lord Jesus. Come have your way among us, we welcome you here, Lord Jesus.

We don't worship just a baby in a manger. We worship the maker of heaven and earth, who came down to redeem us, to set us free. The great Messiah came. Let's celebrate together. O come, all ye faithful.

O come, all ye faithful. O come, Lord, the King of angels. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. We're so thankful and grateful that you did come to this earth.

No one on this earth deserves our praise but you, Lord. We sing songs to you this morning to bring an offering to you, an offering to our King, an offering to Messiah, the Redeemer of the world. The skies of Bethlehem appeared as stars, while angels sang to lonely shepherds.

Three wise men seeking truth traveled from afar, hoping to find the child from heaven. Falling on their knees, they bow before the humble Prince of Peace. I bring an offering of worship to my King. No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing.

Jesus, may you receive the honor that you're due. Lord, I bring an offering to you. I bring an offering to you. I cannot compare to the glory of your love in your presence. I would dare to sit on your throne, and it's only through your mercy I keep.

No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing. Jesus, may you receive the honor that you're due. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that you would grace us this morning,.

Display your love to those who have gathered here this morning and to those who listen online in the true preaching of your word. Lord, we pray that you would make yourself known, that your gospel would be made plain to those who hear, that you would open eyes to see, open ears to hear, open hearts to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I pray for Christians who know the gospel and believe the gospel to be encouraged this morning to see the gospel more clearly. And I pray for those who have been ensnared and taught lies, that you would bring them to the knowledge of the truth.

You alone can do this. No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him. And you say you will raise that one up on the last day. And so, Lord, we pray that you would draw the listener to yourself.

Give me the words to say, I submit myself to you, dear Jesus, in your name I pray, amen. Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic priest. And he, as a Roman Catholic priest, was tormented by a sense of his own sin and unworthiness.

He sought to obey the ordinances of the Roman Catholic Church, but he never felt saved. He never felt secure in the love of God. And so, he at times would spend as many as four hours per day confessing his sins to a Roman Catholic priest in order to hear that he is absolved and in order to feel secure.

He never could find that security in the sacramental system of the Roman Catholic Church, which he served faithfully as a priest. And then one day when reading the book of Romans, he came across those words in Romans 117, the just shall live by faith.

And as he read the book of Romans and came to understand that justification is not by working to maintain justification before God. Justification is a legal declaration by God that one is counted or reckoned just in the sight of God by faith.

He put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the finished work of Christ, and so he came to rest, no longer seeking to earn his salvation. He was justified by faith and his heart came to find peace and joy.

And so, the Protestant Reformation was sparked in that conversion because he came to believe the gospel. What is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? If I had to direct you to one passage that most clearly summarizes the gospel, I would point you to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

So, let's go there to the first four verses. And although our passage this morning will be John 6, we begin in 1 Corinthians 15 as a summary of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 to 4 is perhaps the best summary of the gospel because Paul has already addressed many errors that have arisen in the Corinthian church.

But he circles back around to the most important thing, the thing that matters most, and that is the gospel. And so, he says in verse 1,. Now, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

Now, there are five elements to this essential truth. These are non-negotiables of the gospel, and the first is the promise of salvation. We're told you are being saved. Salvation is a rescue from the penalty of your sin.

We are owed death, the wages of sin is death, yet to be rescued is to be saved. And that is the good news of the gospel, that your sins are forgiven, and that you are given everlasting life, that is, you are saved.

Now, the second point of is in verse three, Christ. Christ is the gospel, the person of Christ. If you do not have him, you have no gospel at all. He is God, and he is man. The word was made flesh. He is the Christ, having come.

The person of the gospel is none other than Jesus Christ. Number three, the work of Christ, that he died, that he was buried, and that he rose, and the meaning of his death. It was for our sins. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The work of Christ is the third point of the gospel. And the fourth is salvation by faith alone. You'll notice in these verses, you have no work to perform to maintain anything before God. You bring nothing to the rather, you only believe, according to verse two.

And it must be a persisting belief, a genuine belief that never dies, lest it be called vain faith. You must only believe. Salvation is by faith alone. And then lastly, notice the ground of the gospel, that is the epistemology, the way that you know these things.

It is according to the scripture, repeated twice in verses three and four. So the gospel is the promise of eternal life, forgiveness of sin, complete pardon, the washing away of all of your sin. That is first.

Secondly, it is the person of Christ. If you don't have him, you have no gospel. Third, it is the work of Christ, his death, burial, resurrection for the forgiveness of sins. Fourth, it is salvation by faith alone, not by works, lest any could boast.

And fifth, it is grounded in the scripture. This is what God himself has clearly revealed as the gospel of Jesus Christ. These points of the gospel are essential. You lose any of them, you have lost the gospel.

But when Martin Luther made this discovery, it was only a reaffirmation of what Paul had written here. It's also what Peter preached in Acts chapter two. You'll find those same five elements of the gospel.

You'll find it outlaid in the book of Romans, where the sinfulness of man is first presented in chapters one to three. And then at verse 21 of the third chapter, faith is declared as what unites a person to Christ.

This is the gospel all throughout the scripture. Martin Luther rediscovered this biblical teaching and asserted it, but not all bowed the knee to the lordship of Christ. Because of the traditions of man, which die hard, there became a conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation.

The gospel as preached by Martin Luther and all the reformers ran headlong into Rome. The Roman Catholic Church then called a conference, a council, called the Council of Trent. This is in the 16th century, in the year around the year 1545.

They began to convene and out of that convention, they came out with a strong statement against the Reformation gospel. They wrote during the sixth session on justification, canon nine, if anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone, meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is not in any way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the action of his own will, let him be anathema.

Anathema means condemned to hell. The Roman Church said, if anyone preaches faith alone, let him be anathema. Now, we understand from the book of Galatians that that is strong language. Galatians 1, 6 to 9, Paul says, let him be anathema who preaches any gospel other than the one that Paul preached.

And he'll go on to explain in the book of Galatians that if you add even one thing to faith alone, for example, in that case, it was adding circumcision. One had to be circumcised before being saved. Let him be anathema.

So here we have a problem. We're both anathematizing the other. Rome is anathematizing the Protestants, and we're standing with Paul saying, when you add sacramentology to the gospel of faith alone, it's you, in fact, that are anathema.

And so we had intense difference in the 16th century. One named Anne Askew was a Reformed girl, 25 years old. She stood up to the Roman Catholic Church and denounced the sacrifice of the mass, as Rome called it.

And as a result, she was persecuted by a Catholic bishop for failing to submit to the mass. She was tortured. This girl, even in that torture, said, I have read that God made man, but that man can make God?

I have never read that. And so, rejecting the Catholic mass, she was taken out and burned at the stake. Anne Askew, 25 years old. These are serious differences. Now, be sure that Rome has not maintained that aggressive posture towards Protestantism.

The next council after Trent was the first Vatican council, where the Pope was declared to be infallible. And then shortly after, the Popes, who are now declared infallible, began to announce the Marian dogmas.

That Mary, supposedly, was conceived without sin. And that she did not die, but was assumed to heaven. These dogmas came from the Roman Catholic Church. And anathemas were attached to those who deny such things.

At least in the case of papal infallibility in Vatican I. But the church met again in the 1960s for Vatican II. And at Vatican II, the church took a very different posture. It was no longer hostile to Protestants.

In fact, it went beyond conciliatory tone to the point of welcoming other religions as elements of truth toward the same God. Since Vatican II, the Roman Catholic posture has been that there are many roads to the same God through the various religions.

And so, Mother Teresa, when she's working as a minister to the poor, she is not seeking to convert people to believe in Christ and to come and take Christ by faith. Rather, she will explicitly say that she teaches Muslims to be better Muslims.

And Hindus to be better Hindus. And Jews to be better Jews. And Christians better Christians. You see, Rome, since Vatican II, is no longer preaching that one must put their faith in Christ or else be lost.

Rather, it has become very welcoming to the point of no longer requiring the new birth for salvation. In the words of Pope Francis in his magnum opus, The Joy of the Gospel, written in 2013, which really gives a window into his thinking, he writes this of Muslims.

Together with us, they adore the one and merciful God. And quite opposite, John chapter 6, where we're told that you must eat and drink, which means you must come and believe. The Pope says of non-believers, they are justified by the grace of God and are associated to the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ.

The Pope, Francis, who exposes his folly and his fruitless lack of Christianity by every leftist cause that he supports, likewise exposes his folly by declaring that the grace of God is given apart from faith in Christ.

He is a false prophet in that. Now, I desire to speak to you gathered here this morning as Christians with love in my heart in order that you see Christ more clearly and understand the gospel without compromise.

I also know that there's probably Roman Catholics in this room. And certainly listening online, there will be many Roman Catholics. And I want to say to the Roman Catholic, I love you. And I am going to tell you what the scripture says because of love.

Love tells the truth. And the very words that Jesus will back up with, truly, truly, I say to you, these words that he gives are life to you. And it is essential that we believe the Lord Jesus Christ and take him at his word.

Because let God be true and every man a liar. It is love to tell the truth. And so now turn with me to John chapter 6, to the most disputed passage, surely, in the history of Christianity. As I preach this morning, there are a billion Roman Catholics in the world who interpret these verses differently than the plain meaning of the text.

Let God's word speak this morning with perspicuity, that is, clarity. As the doctrine of Sola Scriptura rests upon the clarity of God's word, we can read the word and believe the clear truth as presented.

Today, we're going to read John 6, 46 to 59. And what I'd like to do is preach the truth, preach what's clearly said, and give illustrations of how the Roman Catholic church teaches differently than what's being said here.

Now, the point in doing that is contrast. We who see the truth of God's word here will see it more clearly when set against the contrast of a counterfeit. And those who have believed what the Roman Catholic church has taught are better able to see the truth when it's set side by side with the truth.

And so the point is not to attack, it's rather lovingly to use only primary sources. This is what Rome says, and set that against what the Bible says in order that we would clearly believe what Christ himself would say to us this morning.

So look with me at verse 35, because you cannot dive into a passage of scripture apart from context. The linchpin of the sixth chapter of John is the 35th verse. Here you have that I am statement. Ego eimi, I am, says the Lord Jesus, the bread of life.

This claim, like his other ego eimi statements, I am the light of the world, I am the resurrection in the life, or in John 8, 58, I am, meaning the name of God, Yahweh, the tetragrammatron from Exodus chapter three, it is a declaration of his divinity, that he is Yahweh.

And to claim to be the bread of life is to claim to be Jehovah Jireh, the provider, your sustainer. He is making that claim of himself, the person Christ, but notice the key phrase that follows. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

And parallel to that, whoever believes in me shall never thirst. So by Jesus's own literal definition, in order to follow his train of thought and not to import our own, we must take his word and his definition of what it means to come and to believe.

Clearly, coming is believing. Believing, this is to have faith. So what does it then mean to eat and to drink? According to verse 35, to not hunger, you're now eating, that is to come. And to not thirst, to no longer thirst, never thirst in fact, that's to believe.

To drink is to believe. This is the very contextual teaching of what it means to eat and drink. If you miss this in verse 35, you may well jump into verse 46 and following and be confused because you haven't listened to Jesus in the key that unlocks the passage.

To come and believe is the issue in the person of Christ, that is to eat, that is to drink. Now notice the issue following is the unbelief of those who hear him speak. They've seen the miracle where he multiplied the bread and what they want is physical bread.

And so they follow him across the sea of Galilee. They come to him and he points out that though they ate of the bread, they do not believe. Verse 36, but I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

So the issue then in this chapter is unbelief. And the teaching about that unbelief is that God himself, the father, is sovereign even over unbelief. Because the answer Jesus gives to their unbelief is not to fret, not to just abort the mission.

Hey, nobody's really listening. No, he knows the sovereignty of the father. And so in verse 37, he says that all who are given by the father will come to me. God, the father, gives to the son. And then in verses 38 and 39, he asserts the free will of God.

The will of God is free to give to the son. And Jesus says he will hold those so given to him. And then, of course, they grumble. Verses 42, and so they don't believe. And in verse 44, what does he say?

Parallel to that, no one can come unless the father who sent me draws him. Now this drawing of the father is the same as being given. This is now the work of the spirit and the father drawing a person.

As they hear the word preached, they're drawn to it. This inward drawing here is effectual. How do I know that it will accomplish the work for which it's sent? Because the second half of verse 44 says, and I will raise him up on the last day.

So unless the hymn in the second half of the verse is a different hymn than the first half, we know that the drawn one will come. God is sovereign over salvation. He'll draw the ones that he's giving to the son.

And in case you don't believe me yet, verse 45, with the new covenant ministry of the spirit, the teaching ministry that comes from above, those who are taught of the father. Referencing Jeremiah 31 and Isaiah 54, verse 13.

The new covenant ministry of God is to teach the inner man. That is to enlighten the inner man. It is to give a heart that believes, eyes that see, ears that hear. The person is taught by God and so they come.

And that brings us now to the passage at hand. Verse 44, no one can come. Let your eyes jump ahead to verse 65. And he said, this is why I told you that no one can come. You see the connection between 44 and 65?

Notice this, there has not been a change of subject. That's very important. Jesus has not randomly jumped to the introduction of a teaching on the Eucharist, rather he is teaching the same thing. This is the very theme of the book of John.

It was given as the fourth gospel. Last of all, for a very specific reason, which is consistent throughout the book, these things are written so that you may believe and believing have life in his name.

John 20, 31. That's what's happening in John 6. Words are written for belief in the Son in order that you would have life. Let's read them. Not that anyone has seen the Father, verse 46, except he who is from God.

He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?

So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not like the bread the fathers ate and died, whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum.

The graphic imagery of eating Christ's flesh and drinking Christ's blood is a stark presentation of the gospel, not a dark presentation of the Roman Catholic mass. First, the gospel having five principles, the first is a promise.

It is a promise of complete pardon of all sin and the gift of eternal life. So something is taken away in this promise, that is your sin, the guilt of it, you're forgiven and you are granted eternal life.

Notice in verse 47, following a truly, truly where Jesus says, whoever believes has eternal life. Keyword has, it is a settled final reality. And notice that that life that one has by believing is not a life that he must maintain, rather it is eternal life.

That is a life that cannot die. The promise of the gospel is that you will not die. Do you see it in verses 46 to 51? Verse 47 has eternal life. Contrast that in verse 49 with those who ate physical bread in the wilderness, the manna for Moses, but they died.

In verse 50, this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. You believe, you come, you eat, and the promise is you will not die. In other words, this is a sure and steady promise like an anchor behind the veil that cannot lose its grip on you.

It is a sure promise of life. And we're told in verse 51, he will, just says has eternal life, he will live forever. The promise of the gospel is a settled and certain promise that cannot be broken. Now I say, in contrast to that, the Roman Catholic system of justification is unsettled and uncertain.

First of all, consider the means of justification in the Roman Catholic system. According to the Apostle Paul, justification is to be declared righteous. One is counted righteous, Romans 4, 5. Credited with righteousness as David, blessed is the one whose sins are forgiven, whose sins are not counted against him.

It is accrediting. This is imputed righteousness. But according to the Roman Catholic church, in justification, righteousness is infused into a person. Generally, that happens at baptism, they would understand.

But this infusion of righteousness, because grace is being poured into a person like a substance, rather than a legal declaration, you are forgiven, you are credited with righteousness. Since it's reckoned that a person is infused with righteousness, that is something that must be maintained.

And as grace is poured into the heart, it is evident from the Roman system that that grace can be lost by the commission of a mortal sin. What is a mortal sin? A sin that kills. What does it kill? It kills the grace that was infused into the person.

And the person is no longer reckoned as righteous. And so for having committed a sin that they classify as mortal, now the person is no longer justified. In other words, the promise is unsure and unfounded because you have not maintained your justification.

And so the remedy in the Roman Catholic system is to go to another priest. And this priest will hear your confession and say, te absolvo, I absolve you, and prescribe works by which that justification can be re-established, reinvigorated.

And so the second plank of justification, according to Rome, is penance. The priest will give certain work that the person, it might just be saying a certain number of Our Fathers or Hail Marys. But by accomplishing this, justification is re-established.

Do you see the difference between a certain promise where Jesus says the person believing has life and he will live forever versus the Roman system of so-called justification, which in this case comes after sanctification because you have to be holy in order to be righteous.

It's an analytical view where you must really be holy, be made righteous in your own behavior in order to maintain justification. Where does the Mass come into play? Well, the Mass is part of this sacramental system where the person maintains their justification.

To not go to Mass, it might only be a venial sin, but persistent missing of the Mass could eventually be a mortal sin, according to some priests. Here is how the Mass is described by John O 'Brien, who is a Catholic priest.

So, this is a primary source. John O 'Brien, a Catholic priest, says, when the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from his throne, and places him upon our altar to be offered up again as the victim for the sins of man.

It is a power greater than that of monarchs and emperors. It is greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of seraphim and cherubim. Indeed, it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary.

While the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven and renders him present on our altar as the eternal victim for the sins of man, not once but a thousand times.

The priest speaks in low. Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows his head in humble obedience to the priest's command. The Roman Catholic Church presents the Mass as the source and summit of the Christian life.

Move on in the text with me. Halfway through verse 51, it says, and the bread that I give, that I will give for the life of the world, is my flesh. Not only does the Roman Catholic Church miss the promise of the gospel, which is full pardon of sin, the gift of eternal life that can never die, it also misses the person of Christ.

Because the person of Christ cannot be contained in physical bread spread out around the world. Do you know that in the sacrifice of the Mass, priests render Christ really present, body, blood, soul, and divinity, they say, 200 ,000 times per day.

All around the world, this sacrament is performed. And in each case, it is taught that Jesus is their body, blood, soul, and divinity. Look with me at our text. Let God's word stand. It says in verse 51, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

The word flesh here in the Greek is sarx, and that word is never used regarding the Lord's table. It's never used for communion. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the institution of the Lord's table.

John does not. John's gospel is given for belief. It's for faith alone. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John use the word soma, which means body, never the word sarx. Moreover, in 1 Corinthians, where it's twice mentioned, the 10th chapter, the 11th chapter, in both cases there, the word is soma.

Here, the word is sarx. It is not referring to the Eucharist in John 6, 51. Different word is used. Moreover, if this was referring to communion, it would say too much. It would say that anyone who takes communion has eternal life, and that person will live forever.

But we all know, many, probably a majority, go to take the so-called sacrament from the Roman Catholic Church and do so without even believing in the words of Scripture and in the death of Jesus. So, notice the word sarx.

Flesh here is not referring to a future Lord's Supper, which hasn't even been instituted yet. How could those listening to Jesus be expected to understand something that had not yet been instituted? Rather, follow the flow of the text.

Sarx here is with reference to the person of Christ. John 1, 14. The word was made sarx. The word was made flesh. It refers to God in a human body as Jesus stands before them. Now, Ligonier Ministries points out, this is R .C. Sproul, who's since gone to be with the Lord, wrote very effectively about what the doctrine of transubstantiation would do regarding the body of Christ.

If it's considered that the bread on the altar is the body of Christ, you have a Christological problem. Ligonier writes, in transubstantiation, the essence of the elements allegedly become our Lord's actual body and blood, but the accidents of bread and wine remain.

The elements look, taste, touch, and feel like bread and wine, even though they are, in essence, the physical body and blood of Christ. Therefore, transubstantiation ultimately locates Jesus's body and blood in more than one place at a time.

His physical body ends up literally distributed all around the world every Lord's day. This cannot be, for Jesus has a true human nature, and his physical body can only be in one place at a time. According to his humanity, Jesus cannot be in two different places at a time.

This would confuse the divine and human natures of Jesus, giving his human body the ability to be in more than one place at a time. This is an attribute that only the divine nature possesses. In confusing Christ's two natures, we get a Savior who is neither truly human nor truly divine, but rather heretofore unknown combination of creator and creature.

A Jesus who is not truly human and truly divine cannot save us. What we believe about the Lord's Supper truly matters. When RelevantCatholicMass .com says the whole of Catholic life and Catholic identity is wrapped up in the understanding that the Holy Eucharist is God, they confuse the divine and human nature.

His body cannot be divided 200 ,000 places at the same time. His spirit can, his divinity can, as God he can, but to say that his body is there is to confuse the person. Christ, it's a theological problem.

Continuing though with verses 53 to 56, we see now the true affront of the Roman Catholic Mass and the glory of the offer of the body and blood of Jesus to those who would believe. It says in verse 53 to 56, so Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Notice those listening were not believing. They didn't believe in his person. He has said so far that he is bred from heaven and they've grumbled, how can you say that you come from heaven? We know who your parents are.

Joseph and Mary, we know your brothers. Who do you think you are? And they're grumbling about him calling his flesh food to eat. His identity as being the provider, Jehovah Jireh. In verse 52, they're disputing among themselves.

And then the Bible says in verse 53, so Jesus does not back down from his claim. Instead, he introduces his future work. And this church is essential to the gospel. It's not enough for you to believe that Jesus is the Christ who came from heaven, sent by God, God in flesh.

It's not enough unless you also believe that he came to die a bloody death at Calvary. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. You must believe in the person of Christ, but it is also essential in the gospel to believe in the work of Christ.

That he died on the cross, that he was buried, and that he rose from the dead. And so, Jesus turns to them and says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh, he doesn't back down, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

He points to the blood. Wherever you hear blood in the Bible, think back to Leviticus 17 .11. Life is in the blood, and I have given the blood on the altar to make atonement for sin. Rome will say that in these 200 ,000 offerings, sacrifices of the mass, it is an unbloody or a non-bloody sacrifice.

But according to Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. A non-bloody sacrifice is no sacrifice. And so, Jesus says in 53, drink his blood. Again in 54, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Is he saying something different? Excuse me. Look at verse 39, 40, and 44. The same thing he said in 39, I will raise it up on the last day. Verse 40, I will raise him up on the last day. Verse 44, I will raise him up on the last day.

Here again, verse 54, you cannot miss the parallel, I will raise him up on the last day. He's speaking of the one who comes, the one who believes, that's the one who eats and drinks, that one will be raised up on the last day.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood. In verse 53, notice it says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Unless, there's no other way to find life, to have life.

In John 3, 3, we're told, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Or in John 6, 44, no one can come unless the Father draws him. It's speaking one and the same. Unless you eat and drink, you have no life in you.

The canon of the mass is the rule that must be followed to offer up the unbloody sacrifice and consecrate bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is the most solemn, silent, and mysterious part of the mass.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, written in the 1990s, says communion with the body and blood of Christ increases the communicant's union with the Lord, forgives his venial sins, that's in the CCC, that's what the primary source says, forgives his venial sins and preserves him from grave sin.

The view of the Roman Catholic Church, of the Eucharist, is that time and again, and again, and again, and again, day after day, a sacrifice, an unbloody sacrifice, is made on the altar in order to preserve the justification of God's people, of those who would come and take and physically eat of it.

But the scripture says in Hebrews 9, 25, and 26, nor did he enter into heaven to offer himself again and again as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world, but now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.