John 6:51, commentary and pictures

Jesus Himself is the living bread come down from heaven as the Father's gift to the world, the source of spiritual and everlasting life to all who receive Him. The bread He gives is His flesh, His own human life given in sacrifice on the cross as the full atonement and ransom to bear human sin for the life of the world. To eat this bread is to come to Him and believe in Him as a personal Saviour, entering living union with Him and dwelling in Him as He dwells in the receiver. That eating happens by receiving His life-giving words and the Scriptures through diligent study, meditation, and obedience, which nourish spiritual life as food nourishes the body. Whoever so eats shall live forever and not die eternally, unlike those who ate manna in the wilderness and died, for he has eternal life now and Christ will raise him at the last day to immortal life.

Historical Setting and Language

The verse belongs to the spiritual teaching that followed the feeding of five thousand men besides women and children with five barley loaves and two small fishes, the gathering of the fragments so nothing would go to waste, the walking on the water, and the discourse in the synagogue at Capernaum. That miracle was given as a lesson to lift minds from temporal provision to food that endures to everlasting life, for spiritual food is of far more consequence than temporal food and must be sought by believing on Him whom God has sent. The crowd had not understood the teaching, and its plain unfolding became a closer test of those drawn by hopes of an earthly kingdom and a temporal reign, offering no promise of earthly rewards and turning away the worldly-minded, including professed disciples. The work was carried out at the Father's appointed time without forcing a crisis, while showing the same compassionate Saviour who does not overlook physical needs and whose hand of benevolence still provides food in various ways.

The bread and flesh are spiritual and figurative, not literal eating, for the flesh by itself profits nothing while the Spirit gives life. Christ explains that His words are spirit and life, so to eat His flesh and drink His blood is to come to Him, believe on Him, and receive His words and the life-giving message of Scripture into life. Receiving Him as the living bread from heaven brings everlasting life, and that living experience cannot be replaced by human teachers, human suppositions, or merely physical eating. The bread is received by keeping God's Word and truth continually before the mind, looking to Jesus, studying and practicing His teachings, and living by faith, singling out His plain Word from commingled truth and error.

The teaching is clear, definite, and positive, repeated over and over to lift minds from the five loaves and two fishes to higher truth. The chapter states the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom, and thoroughly understanding and living by it brings a life that measures with the life of God. Its lessons present the mystery of godliness and are to be studied, meditated on, committed to memory, and brought into daily experience until their principles become part of the self and nourishment for life. The statements are to be read with prayer for understanding, with communion with God, living by every word from God's mouth rather than leaving it for human suppositions, so as to distinguish true from false in days of peril, to stand against deception, and to walk as accountable to God by creation and redemption with no human being depended on for spiritual life.

In calling Himself the living bread He declares Himself the I AM, the same divine Person who spoke from the bush at Horeb on Mount Horeb. He is God manifest in the flesh as the Child of Bethlehem, clothed in humanity to give access to the Father and acting with divine authority to give His human life in sacrifice for the world. His claim as the Sent of God and Redeemer of the fallen race was proved by His resurrection from the grave, as the risen Saviour who gives His flesh for the life of the world. Laying hold on the throne of God, He presents God with us as the surety of deliverance from sin and gives power to obey the law of heaven and every promise.

Christ the Living Bread

Jesus Himself is the living bread which came down from heaven as the Father's gift to the world, the Sent of God and Redeemer, and the source of spiritual and everlasting life to all who receive Him. Eating this bread means receiving the Son of God as spiritual nourishment by giving mind and heart the food of God's word, coming to Him and believing in Him as a personal Saviour by living faith. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to take in His life-giving words, meditating on them, absorbing them, digesting them, and putting them into practice until they shape the life, and to live by Him as He lives by the Father in living union. Those who so receive Him have eternal life now and dwell in Him and He in them, becoming partakers of the divine nature, Christlike in spirit and character, with life, comfort, sobriety, joy, vitality, and spiritual strength, for Christ Himself supplies all necessities of the soul as physical food supplies the necessities of the body and reveals His principles through them. His flesh given for the life of the world is His sacrifice through which this life is offered, received through His words which are spirit and life, and those who eat will be raised at the last day, while neglecting that nourishment leaves the church spiritually powerless.

He is given for the life of the world for every person, rich and poor, high and low, Jew and Gentile, and child, and whoever eats of this bread shall live forever. He is the everlasting bread that never decays, with inexhaustible resources, and streams of salvation flow from Him, and God in love furnished this costly banquet as the greatest gift and honor heaven can bestow, beyond computation. Christ Himself is the provision of the gospel, pictured by the great supper, and His life has power to give life as a saving power able to save completely, revealing God's love and bringing fallen humanity back to allegiance to God. Receiving Him and His righteousness means making worldly interests subordinate to Him with the whole undivided heart placed above every earthly and selfish consideration and choosing His guidance and companionship above earthly ties. God designs agencies of His own planting, such as sanitariums, to bring this bread of heaven to rich and poor, high and low alike in order to save souls as well as cure bodies, educating in right habits of living both spiritual and physical and making people acquainted with present truth, with the salvation of many souls at stake.

This bread from heaven is the Word of God, the Old and New Testament Scriptures spoken by Christ, the true manna and living pasture that sustains spiritual life. Receiving it binds the receiver with Christ in God and is to nourish daily life, honored as this Bread and not to be left for human suppositions, human inventions, or teachings called science that are adulterated food. Like bread that sustains life, the Word remains desirable and fresh, never growing old or exhausted, and Christ's words and the spirit of His lessons are the flesh and blood of the Son of God. It does not address the understanding alone like a book of mathematical formulas for the intellect, but aims at the heart, addressing the moral nature and taking possession of the will, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Flesh Given for the World

The bread He gives is His flesh, His own human life given in death on the cross for the life of the world. That giving is full atonement and ransom, in which He bears human sin as Sin-bearer, substitute and surety, a propitiation for sins and for the whole world. Receiving Him brings everlasting life, and He will raise at the last day those who receive Him through faith and obedience to His Word. By becoming partakers of the divine nature through Him, people may have living connection with God and be cleansed in heart through the Word received and obeyed, while those who reject it remain unclean.

This sacrifice was foreshadowed by the Passover lamb, whose body symbolized His body and whose blood on the doorposts preserved Israel from wrath when the firstborn in Egypt were slain. That blood represented His blood shed for the sins of the world, and the eating of the lamb represented receiving by faith the Lamb of God giving Himself for the world. The blood of sacrificial animals likewise prefigured His blood and was meant to direct people to Him as the crucified Redeemer, though repeated sacrifices made many familiar with animal blood while obscuring the sin that made sacrifice necessary. Unlike manna, which sustained Israel in the wilderness but could not prevent death or give immortality, His death is the true atonement that imparts life and brings ultimately immortal life of the body.

The gift is God's wondrous condescension in giving Christ to the world and the manifestation of divine love at Calvary that forever proves God is love. Though heaven's Majesty and one with the Father who revealed God's perfection, He laid aside His royal position, took human nature, and passed through human experience. Coming in the likeness of sinful flesh, He condemned sin in the flesh by perfect obedience to God's law and laid down His life as the Good Shepherd for the sheep in obedience to the Father's commandment. By that saving power, able to save completely, He brings fallen humanity back to allegiance to God, reconciles them to God, enlightens every person with heaven's righteousness brought into moral darkness, and works with unselfish labor to touch human hearts.

Though innocent, He offered Himself in exchange for humanity, which had sold itself to Satan through transgression of God's law, and He is both the sacrifice and the priest who offers it. By this sacrifice the human family becomes His purchased possession, bought at infinite cost and at great cost to heaven, body and soul, when He laid aside royal robe and crown and stepped down as Prince of Life and Glory to combine the human with the divine. He came to live among people and present an example of the character they must form to be saved, bringing power to overcome every temptation and to become God's children. His death also showed God's government is just and settled the charge that justice and mercy conflict, so that all who repent and turn to Him belong to Him, have sins taken away, and cease to sin.

Eating as Believing Union

To eat this bread is to come to Him, to believe in Him, and to receive Him as a personal Saviour by living faith. It is to enter living union with Him, to dwell in Him and He in them, as the branch grafted into the vine. The believer lives by Him as He lives by the Father, looking constantly to Him and sustained by His words, which are spirit and life. This eating is spiritual and figurative, not merely taking physical food, but true earnest belief, whole trust in Him, and receiving His Word so that the soul never hungers and never thirsts for higher or more satisfying food. It lifts the mind from the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes to higher truth, and it is clear, definite, and positive, repeated over and over to be understood and obeyed for eternal life.

To eat is to receive His character, righteousness, life, and Spirit, so as to partake of the divine nature. The receiver is formed after the divine likeness, fashioned as a member of God's royal family, sanctified through obedience in faithful practice of His teachings. His holiness, love, meekness, and attributes appear in words and actions, with lives filled with love for God and others, His Spirit, and holy desires toward God. This comes by giving mind and heart the food of God's word, meditating on it, absorbing it, and putting it into practice until it shapes the life and gives vitality to religious experience. Neglect of that nourishment leaves the church spiritually powerless, for the flesh by itself does not give life.

This eating happens now, by daily, continual, personal faith, and not by proxy. It is personal faith in a personal Saviour that brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ, looking constantly to Him in daily, hourly faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Mere outward connection with any church will not save, nor will mere agreement with theory, knowing truth without feeding, or taking the sacramental symbols alone while the heart is out of harmony with God. Each soul must individually come, work out his own righteousness, and maintain a living connection with Father and Son, staying in continual contact with truth of heavenly origin by studying the Word, eating the words of Christ, breathing His Spirit, sitting at His feet to learn meekness and lowliness of heart, and living in communion with Him. As bodily bread must be eaten to nourish the body, so Christ must be received by meditation, prayer, and doing His will to become continually part of the soul, surrounding it with the pure atmosphere of heaven and enabling it to reflect light to those in darkness; His death alone does not save apart from this inward reception.

Those who so eat have eternal life now, hidden with Christ in God with abundant life. Though they pass through natural death they cannot die eternally, for His life remains in them. Christ will raise them at the last day to immortal life of the body, sustained in faith even if the body decays, assured by His death and resurrection. It is a life that measures with the life of God, oneness with Christ in this life and throughout eternity, with forgiveness of sins, growth up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, and sanctification unto eternal life.

Eating as Receiving the Word

To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to receive His life-giving words and the Scriptures by diligent study, meditation, digesting and absorbing them until they shape the life. It is to take the Son as spiritual nourishment by giving mind and heart the food of God's word, believing His teachings, practicing His principles and bringing them into daily life through belief, practice and obedience. This eating is spiritual and not literal, for His words are spirit and life, received through living union with Him so that those who eat become partakers of the divine nature and have everlasting life. As physical food supplies the necessities of the body, Christ Himself supplies all the necessities of the soul, and those who thus receive and live by His Word are nourished by union with Him and reveal Him by making His principles their principles. Such nourishment gives vitality to religious experience, forms Christlikeness in spirit and character, and matters more than gratifying bodily appetite, while neglecting it leaves the church spiritually powerless.

This receiving comes as the Holy Spirit opens the word to the understanding and brings its truths home to the heart, beholding His love, dwelling upon it and drinking it in to strengthen the soul for the day's need. It is gained by studying Scripture and bringing its principles home to the soul and into daily life, assimilating His words until they become part of the self, grasping the mysteries of godliness, praying and communing with God to prove His mind and know His will for eternal life. It is to live by every word proceeding from the mouth of God, by all that God has revealed as all that is necessary for salvation, making Bible study the foundation of learning and reading the statements of John 6 with prayer for understanding. It cannot be replaced by the writings or ideas of human teachers, by looking to human beings for wisdom, by human suppositions, theories and science falsely so called, for no human being is to be looked to or depended on for spiritual life. Turning the mind to worldly entertainments leaves no soul hunger for God, and human authors, magazines, romances and useless books starve the soul and destroy appetite for heaven's bread.

As bodily life is shaped by what one eats and drinks, spiritual life, character and experience are shaped and built up from what the mind takes in and assimilates. Feeding the mind upon Scripture is eating the living bread contained in the Bible, staying in continual contact with truth of heavenly origin by eating the words of Christ, breathing His Spirit, sitting at His feet to learn meekness and lowliness, and living in communion with Him. This communion gives health, vitality, tone and immortal vigor, surrounds the soul with the pure atmosphere of heaven, sanctifies through obedience to His teachings, and makes it able to reflect light to those in darkness after the divine likeness. Christ thus sustains spiritual life as bread sustains bodily life, through the Spirit and not by the flesh. Reading what hinders spiritual growth starves the soul, while feeding on Christ leads to obedience; feeding on others' faults or common subjects harms growth.

Promise of Eternal Life

Jesus Himself is the living bread come down from heaven, the same One who gave angels' food to Israel in the wilderness, sent from God as the Great Teacher to make the Father known and to give life to the world. If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever and not die, for this bread keeps a man from dying and gives everlasting life. Unlike the fathers who ate manna in the wilderness and are dead, whoever receives this bread has everlasting life and will not die as they did. The bread He gives is His flesh, which He gave for the life of the world. To eat is to come to Him, to believe on Him, and to believe and receive His words.

Eating His flesh and drinking His blood is spiritual, not eating literal flesh, for the flesh by itself profits nothing and gives no life; His words are spirit and they are life, and the one who so partakes is spiritually quickened and dwells in Him and He in him. His disciples did not comprehend this saying. This truth holds the history and knowledge needed just now to reach people at this stage of earth's history, more than large volumes of ancient history, which are not bread and cannot feed souls. The manna falling from heaven to sustain Israel typified Him, and both that manna and the showbread kept ever before the Lord point to Him ever in the presence of God for us, the showbread being an acknowledgment of dependence on God for temporal food and spiritual blessings, received only through His mediation. The gift is to be fulfilled in giving the hidden manna to overcomers in the future life.

Without partaking of Christ there is no life, and without life there can be no growth or fruit; whoever receives this life will live forever. Refusing this bread means death, for those who do not receive Him fail to live by His principles and may commit grievous sins even while counted as saints. Receiving this bread gives spiritual nourishment and power through which a person can grow into a firm, Christlike character, with abundant opportunities set before him as they were before Judas. Partaking of Christ means living in continual dependence on Him and drawing life from Him, which gives religious life lasting freshness, power, and joy, and in those who teach makes their ministry spiritually vital, so that old truths are presented with fresh insight and power through the Spirit.

Receiving Christ brings abundant life now, hidden with Christ in God, making believers one with Him in this life and throughout eternity. Believers may die, but the Saviour's life remains in them, and He will raise them at the last day. Eating this bread means receiving, studying, and obeying Christ's words through the Holy Spirit, which form people into His likeness and make them partakers of the divine nature, forming deep piety and leaving less room for self. This life of faith is sustained by Christ, comes through the Spirit, leads to everlasting life and resurrection at the last day, and sustains them even if the body decays, with Christ's death and resurrection assuring the faithful of resurrection and eternal life. Christ Himself is the provision of the gospel, pictured by the great supper and the costly banquet, from whom streams of salvation flow as heaven's greatest gift with inexhaustible resources beyond computation. Eating this bread means receiving Christ and His righteousness with an undivided heart, making worldly interests subordinate to Him and placed above every earthly and selfish consideration, choosing His guidance and companionship above earthly ties, and whoever so eats shall live forever, prepared for immortal life with Him.

Scripture Types and Memorials

The manna falling from heaven to sustain Israel in the wilderness points to the living bread come down from heaven to give life to the world, so that unlike the fathers who ate manna and died, anyone eating this bread lives forever. Both that manna and the showbread kept ever before the Lord point to Him as ever in the presence of God for His people, with the showbread acknowledging dependence on God for temporal food and spiritual blessings received only through His mediation. He is the world's tree of life and its representation to the world and to the church, and those who feed on Him by faith in His atonement receive spiritual and everlasting life, placed in the same relation to Him as He is to God. To eat now is to receive His words into the heart and appropriate truth in fellowship of the Spirit, which is eating the leaves of the tree of life, entering into His life and appreciating the great sacrifice of His flesh given for a sinful race. This stands in contrast to Adam and Eve losing Eden's tree and to the forbidden tree of accepting falsehood, while to overcomers in the future life the hidden manna will be given. The lesson in these words is still little appreciated, yet understood and experienced it brings deeper consecration, living religion rather than played religion, and food for the soul that shows itself in the atmosphere around the soul, in home life, and in ministry of the Word.

At the Lord's Supper the broken bread symbolizes His body given in sacrifice for the sins of the world, and the bread and wine together symbolize His flesh and blood given for the life of the world. His death is the gift represented by the communion bread, and the service is to keep His crucifixion and that gift in remembrance before the mind. Taking the symbols alone gives no life when the heart is out of harmony with God, for His death alone does not save apart from inward reception by faith, becoming one with Him through meditation, prayer, and doing His will. Eating and drinking are therefore not done merely at the sacramental service but by daily partaking of the bread of life that alone satisfies soul hunger, receiving His Word and doing His will.

He Himself is the provision of the gospel, pictured by the great supper and the gospel feast, with streams of salvation flowing from Him. God in love furnished this costly banquet as heaven's greatest gift, beyond computation and with inexhaustible resources, and whoever eats of this bread shall live forever. The prayer for daily bread asks for this spiritual bread that nourishes the soul unto everlasting life, received by beholding His love, dwelling upon it, drinking it in, and receiving Him through His word as the Holy Spirit opens it to the understanding and brings its truths home to strengthen the soul for the day's need. Those united to Him receive this heavenly food and pass it on, for disciples can supply the needs of hungry souls only with what they first receive themselves, and continued sharing brings continued receiving as His message is carried from heart to heart as bread from heaven for starving souls. Accepting this gift means receiving Him and His righteousness with undivided heart, making worldly interests and earthly ties subordinate to Him and choosing His guidance and companionship above every earthly and selfish consideration, while tasting and still hungering shows the soul finds life and satisfaction in Him and longs for continued communion.

Testing and Division

The plain declaration that the living bread from heaven is His flesh given for the life of the world offended half-hearted, unbelieving, proud, selfish and worldly-minded hearers who could not grasp its meaning. Priests and rulers and many disciples did not understand this testing truth, and when its rebuke showed their lives did not accord with truth and righteousness they turned away rather than accept correction and reform. Many went back and walked no more with Him, ceasing to identify publicly with Him when purifying truth was unwelcome. This sifting revealed the difference between sincere believers and mere professors, for those who do not receive Him fail to live by His principles and may commit grievous sins even while counted as saints, as Judas would have been changed had he received this life, while the twelve through Peter declared loyalty.

The teaching states the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom, which require dying to self, self-denial, practice of reform, and cutting away temporal advantages, ambition to rule, worldly wealth, and fellowship with what is at enmity with God. Many followed Him not for the miracles but only to eat the loaves and be filled, and they rejected the truth because it made too great a demand upon their ambition and desire to rule. Eternal interests must be placed above securing temporal bread, and men must not spend all strength meeting present needs or put worldly affairs before heaven. Those who want this bread must be content to live where it can be had, willing to suffer inconvenience to remain far from Sodom, with keeping the Sabbath holy belonging to the life that feeds on it. His self-sacrifice is the ground for making no sacrifice too great in God's work, for this bread is life and healing that brings spiritual powers into healthy action and gives life to those dead in sin.

Transformed Life and Service

Those who eat the living bread become Christlike in spirit and character, with love for God and for others filling the life and holy desires toward God. Receiving His words through the Holy Spirit forms them into His likeness, making them partakers of the divine nature and fashioning them after the divine likeness as members of God's royal family. This communion teaches meekness and lowliness of heart, surrounds the soul with the pure atmosphere of heaven, and tells its own story in the atmosphere around the soul, in the home life, and in ministry. It brings unity of purpose and harmony of action, with mutual love and confidence that becomes a moral force to convict the world, and it is shown in a holy practical example that shines as heaven's light. Sanctified through obedience in faithful practice of His teachings, they do not play religion but live it, with hatred replaced by love, inherited and cultivated faults cut away, pride and selfishness dying, and temptation conquered instead of a life spent to amuse self.

Feeding on Him gives life, comfort, sobriety, and joy to meet the soul's deepest hunger and thirst, with nourishment sufficient for every need of the soul. Those who receive Him as personal Saviour by daily, hourly faith that works by love and purifies the soul grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, receiving forgiveness of sins and sanctification unto eternal life. God cleanses hearts through the Word received and obeyed, while those who reject it remain unclean, and the life of faith sustains even if the body decays, with His death and resurrection assuring resurrection and eternal life. Neglecting that nourishment leaves the church spiritually powerless, weak, and inefficient, but abiding in Christ gives strength, full assurance, freedom from condemnation, power to become God's children and to do His works, with a fountain of living water springing up to eternal life.

Those who have appropriated the bread of life for themselves are able to break it to others so that hearts are pricked to ask what they must do to be saved, uplifting Christ, directing men and women to Him, and reading them His words. It is essential that all who minister in word and doctrine have deep insight into the meaning of these words and experience their import, gaining deeper consecration, greater depth of experience, fresh perception, spiritual sweetness, and power. Ministers who have not themselves partaken preach Christless, merely argumentative sermons destitute of nourishment, like Cain's offering of fruit without the blood of the slain lamb, and leave the church from east to west and north to south starving for the bread of life. This sharing belongs to schools where students take in Christ's words to understand their privileges for an education that endures through time and eternity, to sanitariums for rich and poor, to mission work in new territories and unworked cities, and to plain practical truth that satisfies soul hunger and brings spiritual hunger for the Holy Spirit.