John 6:53

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ²  you have no life ³  in yourselves.

Mt 5:18; Mt 18:3; Mt 26:26-28; Lu 13:3,5; Joh 3:3; Joh 3:3,5; Joh 3:36; Joh 6:26,47; Joh 6:55; Joh 13:8; Joh 15:4; 1Jo 5:12; Re 2:7,17

¹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

² sn Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. These words are at the heart of the discourse on the Bread of Life, and have created great misunderstanding among interpreters. Anyone who is inclined toward a sacramental viewpoint will almost certainly want to take these words as a reference to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or the Eucharist, because of the reference to eating and drinking. But this does not automatically follow: By anyone’s definition there must be a symbolic element to the eating which Jesus speaks of in the discourse, and once this is admitted, it is better to understand it here, as in the previous references in the passage, to a personal receiving of (or appropriation of) Christ and his work.

³ tn That is, “no eternal life” (as opposed to physical life).