Eating and Drinking Christ?

When Jesus said in John 6, 'Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life" (John 6:53-54),was Jesus speaking literally or figuratively? Is the wafer and the cup of communion miraculously transformed into the literal body and blood of our Lord? Many believe that is exactly what happens. But if Jesus is speaking literally then He is asking His followers to do something that is strictly forbidden in Scripture--to eat flesh with its blood. And if Jesus is speaking literally and the bread becomes His flesh and the cup His blood, He is asking us to believe something that is not scripturally based nor verifiable by our senses. And if Jesus is saying that by physically eating His flesh and drinking His blood results in eternal life, then He would be contradicting what He has been teaching that eternal life is through faith in Him. But Jesus is not speaking literally but rather figuratively. Eating and drinking is the same as 'seeing and believing'--both result in eternal life. The elements of the Lord's table remind us of the supreme sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf once and for all. Salvation is by trusting in the finished work of Christ-- His once and for all sacrifice for sin!