Christ Our Life

Oxford educated A. Paget Wilkes became a missionary to Japan with the Church Missionary Society led by Barclay Buxton in 1897. Subsequently he founded the Japan Evangelistic Band (JEB) which was devoted to a more aggressive evangelism and personal holiness. Wilkes envisioned "a band of men . . . who detaching themselves from the responsibilities and entanglements of ecclesiastical organization, would give themselves to prayer and ministry of the Word." He served his whole life in Japan but became well known through his books.

In his book The Dynamic of Life he explains how the Lord Jesus becomes our very life:

"1. 'Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life' (St. John vi. 54).

"After the lamb had been slain and the blood sprinkled on the doorposts so that every passing Egyptian could see and scoff (herein is evidenced the need of an open confession of Christ, thus drawing upon ourselves His reproach), the lamb had to be consumed. The flesh of the lamb had to be eaten by the one who had slain it. The victim which had laid down its life for the slayer, was now to sustain the slayer's life! Oh! what a parable is here! We, whose sin has been the cause of the Saviour's death, are invited to partake of His flesh and His blood, and feed on Him in our hearts by faith and thanksgiving. Here, surely, is more than forgiveness, more than the 'passing over' of God's righteous judgment. Here is the secret of eternal life, here is perhaps the greatest of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven.

"2. 'He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him' (St. John vi. 56).

"Of the seven sacrifices ordained to the children of Israel (one given us in the book of Exodus, five in the book of Leviticus and one in the book of Numbers) only four were allowed to be eaten; and of these four only one could be partaken of by the worshipper himself. The other three, in so far as they were eaten at all, were the priest's portion. No sacrifice but the Pascal lamb, the whole of it, could be eaten by the offerer. It is of the Pascal Lamb that the Lord Jesus is speaking. Shall I say more wonderful even than the gift of eternal life, is the indwelling presence of the Saviour Himself. Here we are told that if we eat His flesh and drink His blood He will abide in our hearts; the risen, ascended, glorified One will dwell there, when we feed on the Crucified One. St. Paul reminds us of the same truth. When he says, 'Christ liveth in me,' he tells us that this is only possible, because he 'has been crucified with Christ.' This identification with Christ on His Cross is only another way of saying that we feed on and assimilate the flesh and blood of the Son of God. Blessed as it is to have escaped the wrath to come through the blood of the Lamb, more blessed as it is to have received eternal life, yet still more blessed is it to find Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, because we have learned to eat His flesh and drink His blood.

"3. 'As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.' (St. John vi. 57).

"Here is yet another, shall I say even deeper lesson. The Lord Jesus in this passage reveals to us the secret of His own life, His words, His acts, and His miracles. He tells us that 'He lived by the Father.' All that He did and said daily was inspired by the Father and wrought through His power.

"If our life would be a replica of His, if we too would follow in His steps, we shall have to eat His flesh and drink His blood. As the food of which we partake, not only nourishes our bodies but actually becomes part of our flesh and bone, our blood and muscle, so our partaking by faith of His sacrificial death and life will cause us to assimilate and share His very life and character. His humility, His love, His patience, His dependence on God will be ours. We shall live by Him even as He lived by the Father. As the living Father in sending Christ pledged Himself to supply all the needed power by the Holy Ghost to His own beloved Son, so the Lord Jesus in sending us out of Egypt into the wilderness and thence into Canaan, pledges Himself to supply all our need, if only by faith we will feed on Him in our heart with thanksgiving."