This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
This is the bread come down from heaven, which is Christ himself, the Son of God given by the Father to give life to the world so that whoever partakes may live and not die. It is greater than the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness and are dead, for that only sustained bodily strength for a time while this gives life that does not end. His flesh given for the life of the world points to his approaching death as the only true propitiation for sin, pictured by the Passover lamb. Eating is not literal or outward, but coming to him and believing on him, receiving and assimilating his life-giving Word until it becomes part of the life. Whoever so eats has everlasting life now, is satisfied and sustained in spiritual strength and joy, and though he may die as Christ died, Christ will raise him at the last day to immortality.
Setting and Testing Purpose
After the feeding of the crowd with loaves of barley bread and fish and the walking on the water, this word was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum as the spiritual teaching of the miracle. He had first fed souls with the precious Word and then supplied bodily needs, to turn minds from temporal food to Himself. That teaching had not been understood and was to be made plain as truth of the highest importance.
The multitude followed not because they saw the meaning of the miracles but because they ate the loaves and were filled, seeking only temporal advantage. The miracle carries a deep spiritual lesson about Himself and His spiritual kingdom, not a promise of earthly reward, material gain, or a worldly kingdom and temporal reign. His work is spiritual, and that teaching challenged worldly expectations.
The chapter sets forth the terms and conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God and explains the terms of salvation. Its lessons are to be thoroughly understood, studied with careful understanding, meditated on, remembered, made part of daily life and lived, measuring with the life of God. Believing the Old Testament Scriptures, which are all-sufficient, leads to believing the New Testament as well. Receiving is personal, clinging to the truth of the Word with experiential knowledge by reading and understanding what is presented and by associating with those who are faithful and true and who believe and practice the truth, for mere agreement with the theory of truth is not enough.
He spoke plain testimony about His work to test professed disciples and force a decision for or against Him, exposing true convictions. The test proved them before He left, so their course would not surprise the faithful nor make trial too severe, and would not lead His future work into wrong paths. Many were offended, stumbled over it as a hard saying in proud, self-righteous unbelief, willingly misread it and turned back to walk no more with Him, showing only half-hearted belief. Those not wholly with Him would even oppose Him at His trial, while the Twelve remained and Peter declared loyalty.
Bread From Heaven
The bread is Christ Himself, the Son of God, the Bread of Life come down from heaven, given by God the Father through the gift of Christ to give life to the world, obtainable from no human agent, so that a man may eat thereof and not die. This holds great meaning, for eating is receiving Him as a personal Saviour and looking constantly to Him in daily hourly faith which works by love and purifies the soul, and it answers the spiritual hunger of starving people with nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul. Eating is spoken in figure under the similitude of bread and means true earnest belief, truly receiving His Word and putting whole trust in Him, understood spiritually rather than as bodily food, for His words are spirit and life and the Spirit gives life. All who so eat grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, receive forgiveness of sins, are sanctified unto eternal life, are satisfied in soul, and have life that endures through time and eternity, unlike the manna eaten by Israel who died.
The bread He gives is His flesh given for the life of the world, pointing forward to His approaching death as the only true propitiation for human sin. It is greater than angels' food eaten in the wilderness which Moses did not truly give, for those fathers who ate that manna died, while anyone who eats Christ does not die but has everlasting life and lives forever. This is the reality pictured by the Passover lamb whose body is eaten and whose blood preserves from wrath, and eating of Him continues in the future life where to him that overcomes is promised the hidden manna. This eating is spiritual and not physical, for flesh profits nothing and it is the Spirit that quickens; it means coming to Jesus, believing on Him whom God sent, receiving His life and character and His word as spiritual food, living in Him through His life-giving words which are spirit and life, with promise of resurrection at the last day.
The bread is also His life-giving Word and words, which are spirit and life; the living oracles in both Old and New Testaments, the Bible as the bread of life, are to be received, searched, studied and taken in for oneself. Reading and taking the Word into one's life as living bread nourishes the soul, keeps it from spiritual hunger, joins people to Christ in God, sustains spiritual life, and nourishes knowledge of God, while Christ's work as substitute for sin was the hope of ancient Israel and the New Testament later illuminated the Old without abolishing it. The chapter represents the living undying element in God's Word, identified with the Holy Spirit, and the living oracles are described as the Son of God's flesh and blood. It does not address the understanding alone as mathematics addresses the intellect, but aims at the heart, addresses the moral nature, takes possession of the will, casts down imaginations and every high thing against the knowledge of God and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, while human invention and false science are adulterated food. To eat of it and learn the science of salvation a person must be a submissive student in Christ's school, with the soul emptied of proud possessions so Christ can imprint His image and the soul-temple can become the abiding place of the Most High, communing with God and coming into Christ's likeness divested of self, which puts the element of eternal life into ministry with new perception of truth.
The bread defines the righteousness of Christ as the bread come down from heaven that a man must eat so he will not die. Accepting that righteousness puts on the wedding garment and meets the standard of character required to be counted a fit guest at the marriage of humanity with divinity, while without accepting it a person remains in sin, has no wedding garment, and loses eternal life. Christ Himself is the tree of life to the church and to the world and to Eden, and eating this bread is believing on Him, receiving and practicing His words, feeding the soul on Him unto deeper consecration and lived religion. Both the manna with which God fed Israel forty years with corn of heaven and the showbread kept ever before the face of the Lord as a perpetual offering pointed to Him; as the showbread was ever in God's presence, Christ is ever in God's presence for people, showing dependence on God for both temporal food and spiritual blessing only through His mediation.
Eating The Bread
Eating is spiritual, not literal or physical eating of bodily food. The flesh profits nothing; it is the Spirit that gives life, for his words are spirit and life. It is not an outward church connection, for mere outward union even with God's family and flock does not save. Receiving him through faith as a personal Saviour is the way to have life and not die, bringing spiritual union and nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul. Looking constantly to him supplies that life through his words.
Eating means coming to him, believing on him whom God sent, truly receiving his Word and putting whole trust in him. It means receiving Christ as personal Saviour and Redeemer and becoming one with him, eating his flesh and drinking his blood in figure under the similitude of bread. It is continual looking to him in daily, hourly faith working by love and working through love, depending on God rather than making man a trust. Those who remain so united are forgiven and sanctified unto eternal life, grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ and grow toward fullness of life in him, are taught daily in his school, pray for it, and have the soul filled with health and growth and purified. Keeping God's Word and truth continually before the mind, studying and practicing them, looking to Jesus and walking by faith, doing the Word, is necessary for life and for seeing the kingdom of God. All who truly receive his Word never hunger and all who believe in him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food.
Eating means taking in the Son of God as the mind's nourishment and taking his words into practical life until they become part of life. It is receiving and assimilating them, receiving him as the abiding center of the soul, through spiritual experience. This is done by taking spiritual food from Scripture by reading, repeating, studying with deep interest, comparing Scripture with Scripture, meditating, understanding, and studying the Bible as spiritual food, like eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Turning from God's word deprives of spiritual power, while feeding on Christ makes believers Christlike in spirit and character and gives life that does not end and that endures through time and eternity. Living by God's revealed word, keeping its precepts and bringing its truths into daily practice, obeying from the heart and doing his works, is necessary for salvation; by receiving and practicing his words, which are spirit and life, the soul abides in Christ, loses identity in him, becomes one with him, dwells in him and reveals his spirit.
Merely reading Scripture without obeying its vital principles brings death rather than life, for mere hearing, reading, or agreement with the theory of truth is not eating. Eating means believing its teachings and practicing them, receiving and living by his gospel, clinging to the truth of his Word and gaining an experiential knowledge of it, with each person accepting salvation personally. Those who reject the Word remain unclean and in death, while obedience brings cleansing of the heart and a living connection with God and the promise of eternal life. Willingness to be taught of God and to bring truth into life practice is eating, while unwillingness and rejection leave uncleanness, shown by misconception and misapplication of the Word.
Life That Never Dies
This is the bread from heaven that a man may eat and not die, for Christ himself come down from heaven must be received as food for spiritual life, taking in the Son of God as the mind's nourishment and taking his words into practical life as the abiding center of the soul. Eating is spoken in figure under the similitude of bread and means true earnest belief, truly receiving his Word and putting whole trust in him as personal Saviour, continually looking to him in daily hourly faith working by love. His words are spirit and life, understood spiritually and not as bodily food, and the Spirit gives life, so that turning from God's word deprives of spiritual power while feeding on Christ gives life that does not end.
Whoever so eats has everlasting and eternal life now and more abundant life, living forever with life hid with Christ in God, made one with him in this present life to be one with him through all eternity. This spiritual food is of far more consequence than perishable bread, though bodily necessities are still provided, and it satisfies the soul and gives life that endures through time and eternity, unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness and are dead. Those who remain united to him are forgiven and sanctified unto eternal life, receive nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul, grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, and are made Christlike in spirit and character.
The bread destroys death and in the end gives immortal life to the body, for this is God's plain will and the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. Though the eater may die as Christ died, he that eats shall live forever, for Christ will raise him up at the last day. Eating his flesh given for the life of the world and drinking his blood means receiving him, believing in him, becoming one with him and living in him through his life-giving words, and by receiving and practicing them the soul is filled with health and growth, refreshed in mind, brought into communion with Christ, and formed in Christlike spirit.
All who truly receive his Word never hunger and all who believe in him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, for feeding on this rich spiritual provision satisfies the soul's hunger for God. As physical food sustains natural life, the gospel believed and lived sustains spiritual life, giving spiritual strength and comfort, health and vigor and immortal vigor, lasting joy, the light of life instead of weakness and darkness, and sustenance for daily service and through loneliness and tribulation. Those so satisfied turn from worldly corruption and trivial pursuits, grow like him and reveal unselfishness, integrity, kindness and love in daily life, making the Word part of every action and character trait unto perfected experience, as those eating heaven's bread and drawing living water from salvation.
To those who receive in this way by depending on God and not on human beings, looking to Jesus instead of making man a trust, he becomes sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward, so they are made strong in the Lord and do not walk in weakness and darkness but have the light of life. Streams of salvation flow from him, whose inexpressible love at infinite cost furnished the costly gospel banquet and provided unsearchable inexhaustible resources, the provision being nothing less than Christ himself, so that to be invited to receive him is the greatest honor that can be conferred. Those who refuse because their hearts are engrossed with earthly and selfish matters fail to place themselves where the Holy Spirit can enlighten reason and work with human effort, fail to receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and remain unsanctified in soul and spirit.
Contrast With Manna
Unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness and are dead, this is heavenly bread under the similitude of bread that gives life that does not end. That manna was only temporal food sustaining physical strength for a time, and it did not keep them from dying nor give immortality, while a man may eat of Christ and not die but have everlasting life now and live forever. It is greater than angels' food, which Moses did not truly give, for receiving Him through spiritual experience is the way to have life rather than perish. Eating is spoken in figure and is not literal eating, but true earnest belief, truly receiving His Word and putting whole trust in Him as Redeemer, receiving His life and character and becoming one with Him. His words are spirit and life, and by receiving and practicing them the soul is filled with health and growth, never hungering and never thirsting for higher or more satisfying food, with Christ to raise him up at the last day.
Both the manna with which God fed Israel forty years with corn of heaven, food provided by angels, and the showbread kept ever before the face of the Lord as a perpetual offering pointed to Him as the true bread of life come down from heaven to give life to the world. As the showbread was ever in the presence of God, Christ is ever in the presence of God for people. This shows dependence on God for both temporal food and spiritual blessing, received only through the mediation of Christ, whose bread He gives is His flesh which He gives for the life of the world.
Eating of Him continues in the future life, where to him that overcomes is promised the hidden manna. This life is compared with the life once sustained by the tree of life in Eden before the fall. Eating that bread is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God by receiving the Word of God as the leaves of the tree of life and eating and digesting it in the religious life, with truth itself as the tree of life whose leaves people eat and live. Accepting error and Satan's falsehood instead of God's word leads to death and excludes people from life that lasts forever.
Transformed Life and Mission
Feeding on the bread from heaven forms a Christlike spirit, character and likeness, filling life with love for God and for others, with his Spirit and with holy aspirations toward God. It is receiving Christ and abiding in him by believing in him and feeding on his Word, which refreshes the mind, brings communion with him, and joins the believer to him so as to take on his spirit and mind and represent his character. This nourishment is taken in and assimilated until life is shaped by him and shown in a self-denying, self-sacrificing life of Christian service, in sharing the divine nature, and in words, actions and doing of the Word. So nourished, the soul gains power to grow into what it professes, to form a firm character, and to reveal that Christ abides within.
Such feeding produces deeper consecration and a lived religion rather than a played religion, seen in the atmosphere around the soul, in the home life, and in ministry of the Word. It is believing on him, receiving and practicing his words and feeding the soul on him, which brings righteousness revealed in daily practice, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness, with happiness and salvation. Reading God's Word and practicing its truths and receiving its principles into daily life guards against satanic deception and spiritual darkness and brings into connection with Christ who knew no sin. One so fed becomes one with Christ, represents his character, stays fresh and green with unwithering foliage, and prospers because labor is for an eternity of blessedness rather than present reward. Those sanctified through obedience to the truth receive power and grace by God's pledge, and Christ works in sympathy with them.
Those united to him receive nourishment in order to pass it on, for disciples can give to meet the soul's needs only what they have received from Christ, and as they impart it they continue to receive. Like the man who seeks bread from a neighbor to feed a weary traveler, his representatives must ask God for spiritual food, partake day by day, and not send anyone away unfed, and God will supply what is needed for the work given them. In this way they become his representatives in soul-saving, and the church on earth united with the church in heaven can accomplish all things. The bread of life is needed as truly as food by those who are spiritually starving, and plain practical truth is rich food and a feast that feeds that hunger even in those not yet of the faith.
Therefore the Bible is to stand above all other books, magazines and novels as the great educating Book, through which the divine Teacher reveals himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood means believing on him whom God sent and being doers of the Word, first believing and then working the works of God. Its life-giving truths are to be studied, meditated on, remembered and made part of daily life, brought home to the soul and into daily practice, grasping the mysteries of godliness and living by every word God has revealed. What the mind feeds on shapes spiritual life and experience, so the substantial nourishment of the Word protects against deception, while corrupting material, human suppositions and adulterated science cannot nourish but starve the soul. Time is not to be spent on books and magazines that lead the mind astray and hinder spiritual growth, and the sixth chapter of John is to be read with prayer for clearness to comprehend its important statements. When his words rather than the words of men are given to learners, they lift thought and action, giving higher intelligence, clearer comprehension of heavenly things, deeper knowledge of God, new perception of truth, and fresh, vigorous ministry.
Failure to eat leaves a great lack of love and of true elevated, sanctified, ennobling sympathy and tender pity and loving forbearance. Ministers then walk and work in sparks of their own kindling, unable to speak intelligently of Christ, with souls as destitute of heavenly manna as the hills of Gilboa were of dew and rain. Those who refuse him because hearts are engrossed with earthly and selfish matters fail to place themselves where the Spirit can enlighten reason, fail to receive the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and remain unsanctified, though streams of salvation flow from him and to be invited to receive him is the greatest honor. Feeding the soul on worldly entertainments destroys relish for heavenly food, while those who hunger for Christ with deep hunger are filled with his fullness.
Ministers, teachers and shepherds must first be learners themselves, gaining deep insight and experience at Jesus' feet like Mary rather than only Martha's busy activity. No one can shepherd the flock without first eating this bread himself and communing with God before preaching, which puts eternal life into the ministry, keeps preaching from stale repetition, and gives a word that touches every case and satisfies soul hunger. Eating means keeping Christ constantly before the people, bringing his attributes into practical life, having him as an abiding presence in the heart, and knowing him by experimental knowledge. This feeding is the most important education for children, youth, men and women preparing to work with God, including being taught the law, its penalty, and the ransom the Saviour made for each obedient one.
This is the bread come down from heaven, which is Christ himself, the Son of God given by the Father to give life to the world so that whoever partakes may live and not die. It is greater than the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness and are dead, for that only sustained bodily strength for a time while this gives life that does not end. His flesh given for the life of the world points to his approaching death as the only true propitiation for sin, pictured by the Passover lamb. Eating is not literal or outward, but coming to him and believing on him, receiving and assimilating his life-giving Word until it becomes part of the life. Whoever so eats has everlasting life now, is satisfied and sustained in spiritual strength and joy, and though he may die as Christ died, Christ will raise him at the last day to immortality.
Setting and Testing Purpose
After the feeding of the crowd with loaves of barley bread and fish and the walking on the water, this word was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum as the spiritual teaching of the miracle. He had first fed souls with the precious Word and then supplied bodily needs, to turn minds from temporal food to Himself. That teaching had not been understood and was to be made plain as truth of the highest importance.
The multitude followed not because they saw the meaning of the miracles but because they ate the loaves and were filled, seeking only temporal advantage. The miracle carries a deep spiritual lesson about Himself and His spiritual kingdom, not a promise of earthly reward, material gain, or a worldly kingdom and temporal reign. His work is spiritual, and that teaching challenged worldly expectations.
The chapter sets forth the terms and conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God and explains the terms of salvation. Its lessons are to be thoroughly understood, studied with careful understanding, meditated on, remembered, made part of daily life and lived, measuring with the life of God. Believing the Old Testament Scriptures, which are all-sufficient, leads to believing the New Testament as well. Receiving is personal, clinging to the truth of the Word with experiential knowledge by reading and understanding what is presented and by associating with those who are faithful and true and who believe and practice the truth, for mere agreement with the theory of truth is not enough.
He spoke plain testimony about His work to test professed disciples and force a decision for or against Him, exposing true convictions. The test proved them before He left, so their course would not surprise the faithful nor make trial too severe, and would not lead His future work into wrong paths. Many were offended, stumbled over it as a hard saying in proud, self-righteous unbelief, willingly misread it and turned back to walk no more with Him, showing only half-hearted belief. Those not wholly with Him would even oppose Him at His trial, while the Twelve remained and Peter declared loyalty.
Bread From Heaven
The bread is Christ Himself, the Son of God, the Bread of Life come down from heaven, given by God the Father through the gift of Christ to give life to the world, obtainable from no human agent, so that a man may eat thereof and not die. This holds great meaning, for eating is receiving Him as a personal Saviour and looking constantly to Him in daily hourly faith which works by love and purifies the soul, and it answers the spiritual hunger of starving people with nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul. Eating is spoken in figure under the similitude of bread and means true earnest belief, truly receiving His Word and putting whole trust in Him, understood spiritually rather than as bodily food, for His words are spirit and life and the Spirit gives life. All who so eat grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, receive forgiveness of sins, are sanctified unto eternal life, are satisfied in soul, and have life that endures through time and eternity, unlike the manna eaten by Israel who died.
The bread He gives is His flesh given for the life of the world, pointing forward to His approaching death as the only true propitiation for human sin. It is greater than angels' food eaten in the wilderness which Moses did not truly give, for those fathers who ate that manna died, while anyone who eats Christ does not die but has everlasting life and lives forever. This is the reality pictured by the Passover lamb whose body is eaten and whose blood preserves from wrath, and eating of Him continues in the future life where to him that overcomes is promised the hidden manna. This eating is spiritual and not physical, for flesh profits nothing and it is the Spirit that quickens; it means coming to Jesus, believing on Him whom God sent, receiving His life and character and His word as spiritual food, living in Him through His life-giving words which are spirit and life, with promise of resurrection at the last day.
The bread is also His life-giving Word and words, which are spirit and life; the living oracles in both Old and New Testaments, the Bible as the bread of life, are to be received, searched, studied and taken in for oneself. Reading and taking the Word into one's life as living bread nourishes the soul, keeps it from spiritual hunger, joins people to Christ in God, sustains spiritual life, and nourishes knowledge of God, while Christ's work as substitute for sin was the hope of ancient Israel and the New Testament later illuminated the Old without abolishing it. The chapter represents the living undying element in God's Word, identified with the Holy Spirit, and the living oracles are described as the Son of God's flesh and blood. It does not address the understanding alone as mathematics addresses the intellect, but aims at the heart, addresses the moral nature, takes possession of the will, casts down imaginations and every high thing against the knowledge of God and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, while human invention and false science are adulterated food. To eat of it and learn the science of salvation a person must be a submissive student in Christ's school, with the soul emptied of proud possessions so Christ can imprint His image and the soul-temple can become the abiding place of the Most High, communing with God and coming into Christ's likeness divested of self, which puts the element of eternal life into ministry with new perception of truth.
The bread defines the righteousness of Christ as the bread come down from heaven that a man must eat so he will not die. Accepting that righteousness puts on the wedding garment and meets the standard of character required to be counted a fit guest at the marriage of humanity with divinity, while without accepting it a person remains in sin, has no wedding garment, and loses eternal life. Christ Himself is the tree of life to the church and to the world and to Eden, and eating this bread is believing on Him, receiving and practicing His words, feeding the soul on Him unto deeper consecration and lived religion. Both the manna with which God fed Israel forty years with corn of heaven and the showbread kept ever before the face of the Lord as a perpetual offering pointed to Him; as the showbread was ever in God's presence, Christ is ever in God's presence for people, showing dependence on God for both temporal food and spiritual blessing only through His mediation.
Eating The Bread
Eating is spiritual, not literal or physical eating of bodily food. The flesh profits nothing; it is the Spirit that gives life, for his words are spirit and life. It is not an outward church connection, for mere outward union even with God's family and flock does not save. Receiving him through faith as a personal Saviour is the way to have life and not die, bringing spiritual union and nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul. Looking constantly to him supplies that life through his words.
Eating means coming to him, believing on him whom God sent, truly receiving his Word and putting whole trust in him. It means receiving Christ as personal Saviour and Redeemer and becoming one with him, eating his flesh and drinking his blood in figure under the similitude of bread. It is continual looking to him in daily, hourly faith working by love and working through love, depending on God rather than making man a trust. Those who remain so united are forgiven and sanctified unto eternal life, grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ and grow toward fullness of life in him, are taught daily in his school, pray for it, and have the soul filled with health and growth and purified. Keeping God's Word and truth continually before the mind, studying and practicing them, looking to Jesus and walking by faith, doing the Word, is necessary for life and for seeing the kingdom of God. All who truly receive his Word never hunger and all who believe in him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food.
Eating means taking in the Son of God as the mind's nourishment and taking his words into practical life until they become part of life. It is receiving and assimilating them, receiving him as the abiding center of the soul, through spiritual experience. This is done by taking spiritual food from Scripture by reading, repeating, studying with deep interest, comparing Scripture with Scripture, meditating, understanding, and studying the Bible as spiritual food, like eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Turning from God's word deprives of spiritual power, while feeding on Christ makes believers Christlike in spirit and character and gives life that does not end and that endures through time and eternity. Living by God's revealed word, keeping its precepts and bringing its truths into daily practice, obeying from the heart and doing his works, is necessary for salvation; by receiving and practicing his words, which are spirit and life, the soul abides in Christ, loses identity in him, becomes one with him, dwells in him and reveals his spirit.
Merely reading Scripture without obeying its vital principles brings death rather than life, for mere hearing, reading, or agreement with the theory of truth is not eating. Eating means believing its teachings and practicing them, receiving and living by his gospel, clinging to the truth of his Word and gaining an experiential knowledge of it, with each person accepting salvation personally. Those who reject the Word remain unclean and in death, while obedience brings cleansing of the heart and a living connection with God and the promise of eternal life. Willingness to be taught of God and to bring truth into life practice is eating, while unwillingness and rejection leave uncleanness, shown by misconception and misapplication of the Word.
Life That Never Dies
This is the bread from heaven that a man may eat and not die, for Christ himself come down from heaven must be received as food for spiritual life, taking in the Son of God as the mind's nourishment and taking his words into practical life as the abiding center of the soul. Eating is spoken in figure under the similitude of bread and means true earnest belief, truly receiving his Word and putting whole trust in him as personal Saviour, continually looking to him in daily hourly faith working by love. His words are spirit and life, understood spiritually and not as bodily food, and the Spirit gives life, so that turning from God's word deprives of spiritual power while feeding on Christ gives life that does not end.
Whoever so eats has everlasting and eternal life now and more abundant life, living forever with life hid with Christ in God, made one with him in this present life to be one with him through all eternity. This spiritual food is of far more consequence than perishable bread, though bodily necessities are still provided, and it satisfies the soul and gives life that endures through time and eternity, unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness and are dead. Those who remain united to him are forgiven and sanctified unto eternal life, receive nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul, grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, and are made Christlike in spirit and character.
The bread destroys death and in the end gives immortal life to the body, for this is God's plain will and the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. Though the eater may die as Christ died, he that eats shall live forever, for Christ will raise him up at the last day. Eating his flesh given for the life of the world and drinking his blood means receiving him, believing in him, becoming one with him and living in him through his life-giving words, and by receiving and practicing them the soul is filled with health and growth, refreshed in mind, brought into communion with Christ, and formed in Christlike spirit.
All who truly receive his Word never hunger and all who believe in him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, for feeding on this rich spiritual provision satisfies the soul's hunger for God. As physical food sustains natural life, the gospel believed and lived sustains spiritual life, giving spiritual strength and comfort, health and vigor and immortal vigor, lasting joy, the light of life instead of weakness and darkness, and sustenance for daily service and through loneliness and tribulation. Those so satisfied turn from worldly corruption and trivial pursuits, grow like him and reveal unselfishness, integrity, kindness and love in daily life, making the Word part of every action and character trait unto perfected experience, as those eating heaven's bread and drawing living water from salvation.
To those who receive in this way by depending on God and not on human beings, looking to Jesus instead of making man a trust, he becomes sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward, so they are made strong in the Lord and do not walk in weakness and darkness but have the light of life. Streams of salvation flow from him, whose inexpressible love at infinite cost furnished the costly gospel banquet and provided unsearchable inexhaustible resources, the provision being nothing less than Christ himself, so that to be invited to receive him is the greatest honor that can be conferred. Those who refuse because their hearts are engrossed with earthly and selfish matters fail to place themselves where the Holy Spirit can enlighten reason and work with human effort, fail to receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and remain unsanctified in soul and spirit.
Contrast With Manna
Unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness and are dead, this is heavenly bread under the similitude of bread that gives life that does not end. That manna was only temporal food sustaining physical strength for a time, and it did not keep them from dying nor give immortality, while a man may eat of Christ and not die but have everlasting life now and live forever. It is greater than angels' food, which Moses did not truly give, for receiving Him through spiritual experience is the way to have life rather than perish. Eating is spoken in figure and is not literal eating, but true earnest belief, truly receiving His Word and putting whole trust in Him as Redeemer, receiving His life and character and becoming one with Him. His words are spirit and life, and by receiving and practicing them the soul is filled with health and growth, never hungering and never thirsting for higher or more satisfying food, with Christ to raise him up at the last day.
Both the manna with which God fed Israel forty years with corn of heaven, food provided by angels, and the showbread kept ever before the face of the Lord as a perpetual offering pointed to Him as the true bread of life come down from heaven to give life to the world. As the showbread was ever in the presence of God, Christ is ever in the presence of God for people. This shows dependence on God for both temporal food and spiritual blessing, received only through the mediation of Christ, whose bread He gives is His flesh which He gives for the life of the world.
Eating of Him continues in the future life, where to him that overcomes is promised the hidden manna. This life is compared with the life once sustained by the tree of life in Eden before the fall. Eating that bread is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God by receiving the Word of God as the leaves of the tree of life and eating and digesting it in the religious life, with truth itself as the tree of life whose leaves people eat and live. Accepting error and Satan's falsehood instead of God's word leads to death and excludes people from life that lasts forever.
Transformed Life and Mission
Feeding on the bread from heaven forms a Christlike spirit, character and likeness, filling life with love for God and for others, with his Spirit and with holy aspirations toward God. It is receiving Christ and abiding in him by believing in him and feeding on his Word, which refreshes the mind, brings communion with him, and joins the believer to him so as to take on his spirit and mind and represent his character. This nourishment is taken in and assimilated until life is shaped by him and shown in a self-denying, self-sacrificing life of Christian service, in sharing the divine nature, and in words, actions and doing of the Word. So nourished, the soul gains power to grow into what it professes, to form a firm character, and to reveal that Christ abides within.
Such feeding produces deeper consecration and a lived religion rather than a played religion, seen in the atmosphere around the soul, in the home life, and in ministry of the Word. It is believing on him, receiving and practicing his words and feeding the soul on him, which brings righteousness revealed in daily practice, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness, with happiness and salvation. Reading God's Word and practicing its truths and receiving its principles into daily life guards against satanic deception and spiritual darkness and brings into connection with Christ who knew no sin. One so fed becomes one with Christ, represents his character, stays fresh and green with unwithering foliage, and prospers because labor is for an eternity of blessedness rather than present reward. Those sanctified through obedience to the truth receive power and grace by God's pledge, and Christ works in sympathy with them.
Those united to him receive nourishment in order to pass it on, for disciples can give to meet the soul's needs only what they have received from Christ, and as they impart it they continue to receive. Like the man who seeks bread from a neighbor to feed a weary traveler, his representatives must ask God for spiritual food, partake day by day, and not send anyone away unfed, and God will supply what is needed for the work given them. In this way they become his representatives in soul-saving, and the church on earth united with the church in heaven can accomplish all things. The bread of life is needed as truly as food by those who are spiritually starving, and plain practical truth is rich food and a feast that feeds that hunger even in those not yet of the faith.
Therefore the Bible is to stand above all other books, magazines and novels as the great educating Book, through which the divine Teacher reveals himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood means believing on him whom God sent and being doers of the Word, first believing and then working the works of God. Its life-giving truths are to be studied, meditated on, remembered and made part of daily life, brought home to the soul and into daily practice, grasping the mysteries of godliness and living by every word God has revealed. What the mind feeds on shapes spiritual life and experience, so the substantial nourishment of the Word protects against deception, while corrupting material, human suppositions and adulterated science cannot nourish but starve the soul. Time is not to be spent on books and magazines that lead the mind astray and hinder spiritual growth, and the sixth chapter of John is to be read with prayer for clearness to comprehend its important statements. When his words rather than the words of men are given to learners, they lift thought and action, giving higher intelligence, clearer comprehension of heavenly things, deeper knowledge of God, new perception of truth, and fresh, vigorous ministry.
Failure to eat leaves a great lack of love and of true elevated, sanctified, ennobling sympathy and tender pity and loving forbearance. Ministers then walk and work in sparks of their own kindling, unable to speak intelligently of Christ, with souls as destitute of heavenly manna as the hills of Gilboa were of dew and rain. Those who refuse him because hearts are engrossed with earthly and selfish matters fail to place themselves where the Spirit can enlighten reason, fail to receive the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and remain unsanctified, though streams of salvation flow from him and to be invited to receive him is the greatest honor. Feeding the soul on worldly entertainments destroys relish for heavenly food, while those who hunger for Christ with deep hunger are filled with his fullness.
Ministers, teachers and shepherds must first be learners themselves, gaining deep insight and experience at Jesus' feet like Mary rather than only Martha's busy activity. No one can shepherd the flock without first eating this bread himself and communing with God before preaching, which puts eternal life into the ministry, keeps preaching from stale repetition, and gives a word that touches every case and satisfies soul hunger. Eating means keeping Christ constantly before the people, bringing his attributes into practical life, having him as an abiding presence in the heart, and knowing him by experimental knowledge. This feeding is the most important education for children, youth, men and women preparing to work with God, including being taught the law, its penalty, and the ransom the Saviour made for each obedient one.