In Luke 15 the Lord told the parable of a prodigal son returning home to his father. He decided to tell his father, "I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants" (vv. 18-19). He made up his mind to work for his father, but the father said to his slaves, "Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry" (vv. 22-23). This shows that when a fallen sinner repents, he always thinks of working for God or of serving God to obtain His favor, not knowing that this thought is against God's love and grace and is an insult to His heart and intent. God's desire is for us to eat the rich Christ typified by the fattened calf.

At the end of the Lord's life, He set up a table so that we can remember Him by eating and drinking Him. Then in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, the Lord Jesus promised the overcomers in the churches that He would give them to eat of the tree of life (2:7) and the hidden manna (v. 17). Even He said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me" (Rev. 3:20). Some use this to preach the gospel by saying that Jesus is standing at the door of your heart and if you receive Him, He will come into you. But we need to see that He comes into us so that we can feast with Him.

Eventually, the Bible concludes with a promise and a call. The promise says that all those who have washed their robes have the right to eat of the tree of life (Rev. 22:14). The call is from the Spirit and the bride for the thirsty sinner to come and take the water of life (v. 17). Thus, the Bible ends with a promise of eating and a call of drinking.

The Bible is a book of eating for growth. If there is no eating, there is no growth. A child becomes a man not because of his education but because of his growth. The building of the church, which is the growth in life, comes out of eating. This is the principle which has been fully missed by religious Christianity.

Christ crushed the flesh and now indwells our spirit so that we can eat Him. His indwelling us is for our eating. The outward table at the Lord's table meeting is a sign. We have a table within us. We see the outward symbol once a week, but the inward reality is with us every day. We all have a table within us. Our human spirit is the dining room and also the dining table. Christ is in our spirit always available for us to eat.

Now we need to consider what eating is. To eat is to take some nourishment into our organic being. The only way a chicken can become a part of us and become our nourishment is for us to eat it. To eat the chicken is to put it into our organic being. When we eat, digest, and assimilate it, the nourishing element gets into our organic tissue. Then this chicken becomes us. We are what we eat.

Day by day we eat Christ. Eventually, what we eat becomes us. By eating Christ we become Christ because we are constituted with Him. The Christian life is not a matter of endeavoring to behave ourselves in an ethical way. It is a matter of eating Christ. When we eat Christ, we take Him into us. We digest and assimilate Christ into our spiritual, organic tissue. Then Christ is wrought into us. This Christ wrought into us is the real building.