Christ is not only our spiritual food to be our daily life supply; He is also the rock flowing with the spiritual drink to quench our thirst. First Corinthians 10:4 says that the children of Israel "all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ." The spiritual drink refers to the living water that flowed out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6), which typifies the Spirit who flowed out of the crucified and resurrected Christ as our all-inclusive drink (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13). We should all drink the same spiritual drink, not drinking anything other than the all-inclusive Spirit.
The rock that was smitten and cleft to flow out the living water for God's chosen people was a physical rock. Yet Paul called it a spiritual rock, because it typified Christ smitten and cleft by God to flow out the water of life to satisfy the thirst of the believers. Hence, the apostle said that the rock was Christ. Since it was a spiritual rock signifying Christ, it was able to follow the children of Israel. This indicates that Christ as the real rock is following His believers. Through incarnation He came to earth and was smitten on the cross by the law of God with its power and authority. His side was cleft (John 19:34) and water flowed forth. This water, which is the Spirit, the ultimate issue of the Triune God, quenches our thirst and fully satisfies our entire being.
We should not regard the eating and drinking of Christ as mere parables or metaphors. These are facts to us. Daily, even hourly, we should eat and drink the Lord Jesus. Although eating and drinking are very common in our daily life, in the Bible they are matters of crucial significance. As we eat and drink certain food, the elements contained in the food are taken into us, and when they have been digested and assimilated, they become one with us in substance and essence. Actually, they become the fibers and constituents within us. Similarly, as we eat and drink Christ, He works Himself into us to be our life element and becomes one with us organically.
To the believers Christ is also light. John 1:4 says, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Once we believe in the Lord Jesus and receive Him into us, we have the Son of God and we have life. This life in us becomes our light of life (8:12). Many times, when we have called on the name of the Lord Jesus to contact Him and receive Him, the divine light came into us to shine in us. That shining was the shining of Christ Himself as light. This light was not an objective light enlightening us from without; it was a subjective light shining within us. The shining of the light within us is a strong confirmation that we have been born of God, that we are God's children with God's life.
As believers we experience Christ's shining as light not only by the Lord's life but also through the Lord's word (Psa. 119:105, 130), because the words which the Lord speaks to us are life (John 6:63). When we hear the Lord's word and receive God's life, the life becomes the light shining within to enlighten us. Christ is the Word, which was from the beginning (John 1:1), as the definition, explanation, and expression of God by which we may know God. When we receive Him as the Word, the expression of God, we have the light of life that is in Him, and we live under His enlightening.
Ephesians 5:14 also indicates that Christ is the light to the believers. There it says, "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." The sleeping one, who is also the dead one, one who has lost his consciousness in the spirit, needs the reproving spoken of in the preceding verses. When his works of darkness are reproved or exposed (vv. 11, 13), he will receive Christ's shining. This verse also shows us the way to receive the shining. The light is already there; we simply need to receive it. Whenever we fall into a dark and dead situation, we simply need to return to the spirit and turn to the indwelling Christ; then He will shine on us that we may live in the light.