“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” – John 6:47-51
The true and living God is life. He is the creator of life. He sustains life. As you think about such glorious truths, even about how they apply to your own life, be blessed by the Apostle Paul’s words as he spoke about the person and work of Christ to the saints in Colossae in Colossians 1:16-17 “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Consider this a bit more for a moment. For it connects beautifully with Jesus’ also being the Bread of Life.
Christ is the eternal wisdom of the Father (1 Corinthians 1:24), and the world was made in wisdom. Solomon wonderfully proclaims this in Proverbs 3:19 “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; By understanding He established the heavens”. He is the eternal Word, and the world was made by the word of God. (John 1:1-2, Genesis 1:1-3) All things were made for Christ as He is the heir of all things, the firstborn over all creation. (Colossians 1:15) In addition, the whole creation is kept together by the power of the Son of God, and made to consist in its proper order, dependencies, and in its proper frame. (Hebrews 1:3)
Pondering and praising God for all of this, within the preceding context of John 6, Christ claims in our focus text above that He not only creates and sustains physical life, but also, as the Bread of Life, gives new and everlasting life to all who the Father calls and draws, to all who have learned from Him and come to Christ in true faith. See the marvelous Gospel put those who complained against Him then. See that same powerful good news put to you today- It’s true that God graciously provided manna and sustained the physical lives of the people in the wilderness for a time and then they naturally died. Further, those of them who were unbelievers are also dead eternally. For the manna was a shadow pointing to the Christ who has come, not just as similar bread from a special location, but rather with saving grace from Heaven as the living bread who gives and sustains everlasting life for all who believe in Him. This is the good news that builds upon and brings even more clarity to Jesus’ correction of the people in John 6:32-33, “Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Notice how Jesus takes the bread illustration farther as He speaks of eating this bread and not dying (v. 50), as well as eating the bread and living forever (v. 51a). Indeed, as eating is the application of bread to your stomach to sustain your bodily life, so believing is the application of Christ to your soul. And what did Jesus say the bread He gave was? His flesh, that is His life, that many might be saved. (v. 51b) In saying this, Jesus shows you the object of your faith- Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2) In saying this, He also lays a great foundation for what He will teach in verses 52-58 as He uses eating and drinking to illustrate the intimacy of the union between Christ and the believer.
Beloved, as Christ’s lesson in feeding the five thousand in many ways was reenacting what God had done in the days of Moses to show and teach the people that He is the Lord who provides, be mindful of and thankful to God for both the daily bread in His blessing you with a competent portion of the good things of this life (Matthew 6:31-34, Philippians 4:11-19, WSC 104), as well as the salvation that is yours in Christ and all of the benefits of your union with the eternal and true Bread of Life. Indeed, He has always provided for you, He provides all that you need today, and in Christ He provides all that you need forever. Praise the Lord!