And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
After many turned back over the hard teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood in the synagogue at Capernaum, Peter answered for the twelve that they believed and were sure Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of the living God. They held that He alone has the words of eternal life, so there is nowhere else to go for help and salvation. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to truly believe in Him, receiving His Word and making its truths and principles part of daily life. Whoever so receives Him is joined to Him, has eternal life now and will be raised at the last day. Sincere faith so holds firm and bears witness under testing, unlike those offended who turn away to lifeless form, yet confession must grow into deeper knowledge, trust and self-denial that lets Christ abide within and shape the life.
Historical Setting
The verse stands at a turning point after the miracle of the loaves, when followers drawn by hopes of an earthly kingdom were brought to a closer test that disillusioned all expectation of worldly reward. In the synagogue at Capernaum Jesus taught about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and many disciples who misapprehended that hard saying murmured, criticized, and disbelieved. They turned back and walked no more with Him, and Jesus then asked the twelve whether they also would go away. Peter answered for them with settled belief and certainty that He is the promised Messiah, the Son of the living God, who alone has the words of eternal life so there is nowhere else to go.
The truths Jesus presented were meant to lead hearers to decide for or against Him and to reveal their true feelings toward Him. They exposed misunderstanding even among disciples, and exposed those who rejected reproof and preferred human praise to God's admonition. Outward remaining was not enough, for among the chosen twelve one was a devil, Judas Iscariot the son of Simon, who would betray Him. Every counsel from God that is neglected brings distrust and suspicion, and unless defects of character are thoroughly reformed and self is died to, a person separates farther and farther from righteousness and truth. Yet Christ's word of counsel and reproof recovers His disciples as often as they fall into error and peril, while becoming offended and leaving the Master remains a spiritual danger.
The chapter can be understood in its plain sense by honest hearts under the Holy Spirit's guidance, rather than treated as an unintelligible mystery.
Words of Confession
Peter speaking for the twelve, with the faithful disciples who remained, believed and were sure that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the Son of the living God and Son of God, the world's Redeemer. Their confession answered His question whether they also would go away, for they recognized that His words are the words of eternal life. It stands in contrast to half-hearted disciples who were offended and turned away, as the witness of sincere faith that holds firm and remains with Him.
They confessed that He alone has the words of eternal life, so there is nowhere else to go and no other Leader to turn to for help and salvation. Those who so confess are His by creation and by redemption, knowing no one else to go to because eternal life is in His words. Believing and being sure is more than sentiment and more than mere feeling; it is living faith in a personal Saviour who can and will ransom from sin, coming into sacred relationship with Him and understanding Him.
The confession expresses recognition of the true relation to Him, owning Him as Saviour and Ruler who receives those who turn to Him. By looking to Him those who own Him are changed into His likeness. Brought into practical life by leaders and teachers in institutions and schools, this confession brings the presence of the Holy Spirit to do its office work upon hearts and minds, in the same principles shown in the daily life of Daniel and his companions. The disciples' confession that He is the Son of God matches their confession after Jesus calmed the storm.
Bread of Life Teaching
John 6 teaches that Christ is the bread of life who came down from heaven to give life to the world, and that believing in Him and receiving His words brings spiritual life because His words are spirit and life, making Him the believer's source and great center of life. The chapter holds most precious and important lessons for all being educated, giving an education that endures through time and eternity when its wonderful truths are brought into practical life, yet the whole chapter is very instructive and only faintly understood. Taking in His words gives understanding of privileges and shows what Jesus is to each person individually and the advantage of eating His words.
To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to be understood spiritually and not as a merely physical act, meaning true earnest belief in Him, receiving and assimilating God's Word so its truths become part of life. It means keeping its precepts and not leaving them, living by everything God has revealed as necessary for salvation without replacing it with human suppositions, being doers of the Word and making His words part of oneself. This is the simple great lesson answering what shall be done to work the works of God, for believing on Him whom God has sent is the work required, with believing first and working next, and missing this understanding means missing heaven. The way to obtain eternal life is plainly stated as receiving the principles of God's Word into daily life and thereby coming into connection with Christ, who knew no sin and in whose mouth no guile was found, with the Word as stronghold and defense against satanic deception and spiritual darkness because God is light with no darkness at all. All who truly receive His Word never hunger and all who believe in Him never thirst for higher food.
The Word of God is the living bread come down from heaven, and every worker in every phase of God's work must read that Word and appropriate it as food, for not one in a hundred knows the value of eating the bread of life, yet no soul who takes those words and eats them will suffer spiritual hunger. This eating gives a different, more exalted experience. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God even though He had not then been crucified, because His work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. The directions given by Jesus Christ as the invisible Leader of Israel in the Old Testament Scriptures are full of rich nourishment, and after God's plan was fulfilled in the death of Christ the New Testament Scriptures were added by holy men moved by the Spirit of God not to cast aside the Old but to reflect light back into past ages and give significance to the whole Jewish economy, so the plain directions for practical holiness and obedience given to ancient Israel must enter the life of everyone who claims to be a Christian.
Receiving Christ personally and taking His words into the life brings eternal life and joins believers to Him so they have eternal life and will be raised up at the last day. Faith also opens sight to eternal realities. A believer may die as Christ died, yet the life of the Saviour is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God, for Jesus came to give life more abundantly and He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity.
The chapter teaches the conditions of eternal life, and thoroughly understanding and living by it leads to a life that measures with the life of God. Its lessons call people to receive and obey Christ's words and exercise faith in the Son of God to find eternal life in Him, for the truth in His words gives life and His blood is effective to keep believers from Satan's power. The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ, and accepting that righteousness is necessary to be clothed in the wedding garment and counted fit for the wedding, which requires surrendering to God what is already His and taking a firm stand for Christ.
The statements in the sixth chapter are to be read, studied, prayed over and eaten as spiritual food that builds up men and women from the food given to the mind and gives spiritual growth and clearness of understanding. It is not understood with dull understanding, and those ministering in word and doctrine especially need clearness of understanding of it, gained by reading the chapter and asking God to give understanding. Time spent reading books and magazines that hinder spiritual growth and lead the mind astray takes away from it, while feeding the mind on worldly entertainments dulls the desire for heavenly instruction and leaves no peace, joy or hope. Those who hunger for Him as the bread from heaven are filled with His fullness, and being diligent students of the Word and making its divine principles a part of life is what eating the Word means. The teaching can be understood in its plain sense by honest hearts under the Holy Spirit's guidance, rather than treated as an unintelligible mystery.
Enduring Tested Faith
Sincere faith holds firm and bears public witness to Jesus when tested, in contrast to half-hearted disciples who were offended by His teaching and turned away and never returned. Those who left were living on rabbinical doctrines, customs, maxims, useless forms and man-made ordinances without root in themselves, having chosen form without spirit and husk without kernel. In every age all who refuse to accept truth and make it part of themselves take their side with the great deceiver as those deserters did.
Those who made the confession, all the twelve except Judas, were made more fully established by passing this last test of receiving Christ's words as spirit and life, accepting His atonement, and bringing truth into practical life. Those who receive and obey His words are formed into His likeness and hold fast through trial. By that obedience the soul is strengthened, revived, and conformed to Christ, with confidence that includes the promise of resurrection and eternal life.
To leave Jesus would mean losing the Saviour and the anchor of the soul and falling back to unbelief, fear, superstition, darkness and wickedness. It would mean returning to cold formality and self-seeking, to scribes and Pharisees, formalists, the tradition of the elders, and lifeless formalism teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. It would mean going back to men in contention over the resurrection, to sticklers for rites and ceremonies and ambitious seekers of glory whose malice and bigotry persecuted the Friend of sinners, hunted His life, and persecuted His followers for obeying Him. Since accepting Christ the disciples had felt more peace and joy than in all previous life, looked back with horror on former carelessness and iniquity, and saw long faith for the Messiah fulfilled in His coming. Losing Him would leave them destitute of a Saviour, adrift on a dark and stormy sea and subject to fear and superstition, a thought that fills them with anguish, for turning from His lessons of love, charity and mercy would mean returning to that darkness.
Confessing Christ is not enough without deeper knowledge, greater trust, loyalty, self-denial and willingness to bear the cross. Peter still needed deeper knowledge of Jesus and greater trust in Him even while affirming belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, who has the words of eternal life. His later denial came despite this earlier confession and his close love for Jesus. The highest testimony is to let Christ abide within and shape the life, and Peter could have sought Christ's help to guard him from denying the Lord. Those who own Him as Saviour and Ruler are received by Him and, by looking to Him, are changed into His likeness.
The disciples' words would be fully understood only after His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. He longed for them to have living faith because He foresaw that every disciple would be severely tested in the hour of temptation. Outward connection with a church does not save, but personal faith brings spiritual union with Him. Steadfast confession of Christ's divinity is the ground on which His church stands and the promise that it will endure, for Christ, not Peter, is the rock on which the church is built and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Christian Life Applied
To believe and be sure is to taste that the Lord is gracious, making eating His flesh and drinking His blood part of actual personal experience rather than mere profession. It is to be truly converted and born again, desiring the sincere milk of the word in order to grow thereby. It is to open the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it, and thus to receive light and understanding. Those who so believe leave the frivolous common life, stand upon Christ as the first round of the ladder, and mount step by step heavenward, with Christ revealed in spirit and words and actions as transformed character fitted for the higher grade.
That confession grows out of partaking of Christ as bread from heaven by dwelling upon Him, meditating upon Him, and drawing nigh in prayer until the Holy Spirit molds the mind to recognize Him in His true character. He is thus known as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the propitiation given for sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world. Such faith shows love for God manifested in the life when grace works in the soul, with the heart guarded as a sentinel and fed on right food. It stands firm against the same criticism and murmuring that His servants still meet today.
The chapter belongs to the plain expression of God's will and holds part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. Its instruction is the mystery of godliness, to be studied, made part of life, and brought into daily experience, and that study alone gives knowledge enabling discernment of true from false in days of peril. Brought into practical life by leaders and teachers in institutions and schools, this confession brings the Holy Spirit to do its office work upon hearts and minds, in the same principles shown in the daily life of Daniel and his companions. Its wonderful truths, when brought into practical life, give an education that endures through time and eternity, teaching what Jesus is to each person individually and the advantage of eating His words, since He Himself is the great center of life because His words are spirit and life. The Bible is to stand as the great educating Book above all other books, for believing on Him whom God has sent is the work God requires and comes first, and then those who believe will work the works of God. Those ministering in word and doctrine especially need clearness of understanding of this spiritual food that builds mind and character and gives spiritual growth, gained by reading the chapter and asking God for understanding rather than spending time on books and magazines that hinder spiritual growth and lead the mind astray.
Eating the Word means being diligent students of the Word and making its divine principles part of life, depending on Him by creation and by redemption. It means not looking to any human being for power, experience, strength, wisdom and guidance and not making man a trust, but knowing the source of strength and power in Jesus Christ alone, the true Light. Those who have had great light and have not walked in it remain spiritually weak, and those brought to truth through them learn to look to human beings for wisdom instead of looking to Christ. When those who claim to believe receive Christ by faith, He is to them sanctification, righteousness, and exceeding great reward. That eating and drinking means cherishing in the heart the truth that works by love and purifies the soul, with continual growth in grace and daily teaching in the school of Christ sought through prayer for all blessings. The Word addresses the heart and moral nature, takes hold of the will, and calls for obedience, not merely material for intellectual assent.
Studying the chapter and receiving Christ's words as a clear declaration of truth belongs with deep piety and putting away selfishness.
After many turned back over the hard teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood in the synagogue at Capernaum, Peter answered for the twelve that they believed and were sure Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of the living God. They held that He alone has the words of eternal life, so there is nowhere else to go for help and salvation. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to truly believe in Him, receiving His Word and making its truths and principles part of daily life. Whoever so receives Him is joined to Him, has eternal life now and will be raised at the last day. Sincere faith so holds firm and bears witness under testing, unlike those offended who turn away to lifeless form, yet confession must grow into deeper knowledge, trust and self-denial that lets Christ abide within and shape the life.
Historical Setting
The verse stands at a turning point after the miracle of the loaves, when followers drawn by hopes of an earthly kingdom were brought to a closer test that disillusioned all expectation of worldly reward. In the synagogue at Capernaum Jesus taught about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and many disciples who misapprehended that hard saying murmured, criticized, and disbelieved. They turned back and walked no more with Him, and Jesus then asked the twelve whether they also would go away. Peter answered for them with settled belief and certainty that He is the promised Messiah, the Son of the living God, who alone has the words of eternal life so there is nowhere else to go.
The truths Jesus presented were meant to lead hearers to decide for or against Him and to reveal their true feelings toward Him. They exposed misunderstanding even among disciples, and exposed those who rejected reproof and preferred human praise to God's admonition. Outward remaining was not enough, for among the chosen twelve one was a devil, Judas Iscariot the son of Simon, who would betray Him. Every counsel from God that is neglected brings distrust and suspicion, and unless defects of character are thoroughly reformed and self is died to, a person separates farther and farther from righteousness and truth. Yet Christ's word of counsel and reproof recovers His disciples as often as they fall into error and peril, while becoming offended and leaving the Master remains a spiritual danger.
The chapter can be understood in its plain sense by honest hearts under the Holy Spirit's guidance, rather than treated as an unintelligible mystery.
Words of Confession
Peter speaking for the twelve, with the faithful disciples who remained, believed and were sure that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the Son of the living God and Son of God, the world's Redeemer. Their confession answered His question whether they also would go away, for they recognized that His words are the words of eternal life. It stands in contrast to half-hearted disciples who were offended and turned away, as the witness of sincere faith that holds firm and remains with Him.
They confessed that He alone has the words of eternal life, so there is nowhere else to go and no other Leader to turn to for help and salvation. Those who so confess are His by creation and by redemption, knowing no one else to go to because eternal life is in His words. Believing and being sure is more than sentiment and more than mere feeling; it is living faith in a personal Saviour who can and will ransom from sin, coming into sacred relationship with Him and understanding Him.
The confession expresses recognition of the true relation to Him, owning Him as Saviour and Ruler who receives those who turn to Him. By looking to Him those who own Him are changed into His likeness. Brought into practical life by leaders and teachers in institutions and schools, this confession brings the presence of the Holy Spirit to do its office work upon hearts and minds, in the same principles shown in the daily life of Daniel and his companions. The disciples' confession that He is the Son of God matches their confession after Jesus calmed the storm.
Bread of Life Teaching
John 6 teaches that Christ is the bread of life who came down from heaven to give life to the world, and that believing in Him and receiving His words brings spiritual life because His words are spirit and life, making Him the believer's source and great center of life. The chapter holds most precious and important lessons for all being educated, giving an education that endures through time and eternity when its wonderful truths are brought into practical life, yet the whole chapter is very instructive and only faintly understood. Taking in His words gives understanding of privileges and shows what Jesus is to each person individually and the advantage of eating His words.
To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to be understood spiritually and not as a merely physical act, meaning true earnest belief in Him, receiving and assimilating God's Word so its truths become part of life. It means keeping its precepts and not leaving them, living by everything God has revealed as necessary for salvation without replacing it with human suppositions, being doers of the Word and making His words part of oneself. This is the simple great lesson answering what shall be done to work the works of God, for believing on Him whom God has sent is the work required, with believing first and working next, and missing this understanding means missing heaven. The way to obtain eternal life is plainly stated as receiving the principles of God's Word into daily life and thereby coming into connection with Christ, who knew no sin and in whose mouth no guile was found, with the Word as stronghold and defense against satanic deception and spiritual darkness because God is light with no darkness at all. All who truly receive His Word never hunger and all who believe in Him never thirst for higher food.
The Word of God is the living bread come down from heaven, and every worker in every phase of God's work must read that Word and appropriate it as food, for not one in a hundred knows the value of eating the bread of life, yet no soul who takes those words and eats them will suffer spiritual hunger. This eating gives a different, more exalted experience. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God even though He had not then been crucified, because His work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. The directions given by Jesus Christ as the invisible Leader of Israel in the Old Testament Scriptures are full of rich nourishment, and after God's plan was fulfilled in the death of Christ the New Testament Scriptures were added by holy men moved by the Spirit of God not to cast aside the Old but to reflect light back into past ages and give significance to the whole Jewish economy, so the plain directions for practical holiness and obedience given to ancient Israel must enter the life of everyone who claims to be a Christian.
Receiving Christ personally and taking His words into the life brings eternal life and joins believers to Him so they have eternal life and will be raised up at the last day. Faith also opens sight to eternal realities. A believer may die as Christ died, yet the life of the Saviour is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God, for Jesus came to give life more abundantly and He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity.
The chapter teaches the conditions of eternal life, and thoroughly understanding and living by it leads to a life that measures with the life of God. Its lessons call people to receive and obey Christ's words and exercise faith in the Son of God to find eternal life in Him, for the truth in His words gives life and His blood is effective to keep believers from Satan's power. The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ, and accepting that righteousness is necessary to be clothed in the wedding garment and counted fit for the wedding, which requires surrendering to God what is already His and taking a firm stand for Christ.
The statements in the sixth chapter are to be read, studied, prayed over and eaten as spiritual food that builds up men and women from the food given to the mind and gives spiritual growth and clearness of understanding. It is not understood with dull understanding, and those ministering in word and doctrine especially need clearness of understanding of it, gained by reading the chapter and asking God to give understanding. Time spent reading books and magazines that hinder spiritual growth and lead the mind astray takes away from it, while feeding the mind on worldly entertainments dulls the desire for heavenly instruction and leaves no peace, joy or hope. Those who hunger for Him as the bread from heaven are filled with His fullness, and being diligent students of the Word and making its divine principles a part of life is what eating the Word means. The teaching can be understood in its plain sense by honest hearts under the Holy Spirit's guidance, rather than treated as an unintelligible mystery.
Enduring Tested Faith
Sincere faith holds firm and bears public witness to Jesus when tested, in contrast to half-hearted disciples who were offended by His teaching and turned away and never returned. Those who left were living on rabbinical doctrines, customs, maxims, useless forms and man-made ordinances without root in themselves, having chosen form without spirit and husk without kernel. In every age all who refuse to accept truth and make it part of themselves take their side with the great deceiver as those deserters did.
Those who made the confession, all the twelve except Judas, were made more fully established by passing this last test of receiving Christ's words as spirit and life, accepting His atonement, and bringing truth into practical life. Those who receive and obey His words are formed into His likeness and hold fast through trial. By that obedience the soul is strengthened, revived, and conformed to Christ, with confidence that includes the promise of resurrection and eternal life.
To leave Jesus would mean losing the Saviour and the anchor of the soul and falling back to unbelief, fear, superstition, darkness and wickedness. It would mean returning to cold formality and self-seeking, to scribes and Pharisees, formalists, the tradition of the elders, and lifeless formalism teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. It would mean going back to men in contention over the resurrection, to sticklers for rites and ceremonies and ambitious seekers of glory whose malice and bigotry persecuted the Friend of sinners, hunted His life, and persecuted His followers for obeying Him. Since accepting Christ the disciples had felt more peace and joy than in all previous life, looked back with horror on former carelessness and iniquity, and saw long faith for the Messiah fulfilled in His coming. Losing Him would leave them destitute of a Saviour, adrift on a dark and stormy sea and subject to fear and superstition, a thought that fills them with anguish, for turning from His lessons of love, charity and mercy would mean returning to that darkness.
Confessing Christ is not enough without deeper knowledge, greater trust, loyalty, self-denial and willingness to bear the cross. Peter still needed deeper knowledge of Jesus and greater trust in Him even while affirming belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, who has the words of eternal life. His later denial came despite this earlier confession and his close love for Jesus. The highest testimony is to let Christ abide within and shape the life, and Peter could have sought Christ's help to guard him from denying the Lord. Those who own Him as Saviour and Ruler are received by Him and, by looking to Him, are changed into His likeness.
The disciples' words would be fully understood only after His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. He longed for them to have living faith because He foresaw that every disciple would be severely tested in the hour of temptation. Outward connection with a church does not save, but personal faith brings spiritual union with Him. Steadfast confession of Christ's divinity is the ground on which His church stands and the promise that it will endure, for Christ, not Peter, is the rock on which the church is built and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Christian Life Applied
To believe and be sure is to taste that the Lord is gracious, making eating His flesh and drinking His blood part of actual personal experience rather than mere profession. It is to be truly converted and born again, desiring the sincere milk of the word in order to grow thereby. It is to open the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it, and thus to receive light and understanding. Those who so believe leave the frivolous common life, stand upon Christ as the first round of the ladder, and mount step by step heavenward, with Christ revealed in spirit and words and actions as transformed character fitted for the higher grade.
That confession grows out of partaking of Christ as bread from heaven by dwelling upon Him, meditating upon Him, and drawing nigh in prayer until the Holy Spirit molds the mind to recognize Him in His true character. He is thus known as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the propitiation given for sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world. Such faith shows love for God manifested in the life when grace works in the soul, with the heart guarded as a sentinel and fed on right food. It stands firm against the same criticism and murmuring that His servants still meet today.
The chapter belongs to the plain expression of God's will and holds part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. Its instruction is the mystery of godliness, to be studied, made part of life, and brought into daily experience, and that study alone gives knowledge enabling discernment of true from false in days of peril. Brought into practical life by leaders and teachers in institutions and schools, this confession brings the Holy Spirit to do its office work upon hearts and minds, in the same principles shown in the daily life of Daniel and his companions. Its wonderful truths, when brought into practical life, give an education that endures through time and eternity, teaching what Jesus is to each person individually and the advantage of eating His words, since He Himself is the great center of life because His words are spirit and life. The Bible is to stand as the great educating Book above all other books, for believing on Him whom God has sent is the work God requires and comes first, and then those who believe will work the works of God. Those ministering in word and doctrine especially need clearness of understanding of this spiritual food that builds mind and character and gives spiritual growth, gained by reading the chapter and asking God for understanding rather than spending time on books and magazines that hinder spiritual growth and lead the mind astray.
Eating the Word means being diligent students of the Word and making its divine principles part of life, depending on Him by creation and by redemption. It means not looking to any human being for power, experience, strength, wisdom and guidance and not making man a trust, but knowing the source of strength and power in Jesus Christ alone, the true Light. Those who have had great light and have not walked in it remain spiritually weak, and those brought to truth through them learn to look to human beings for wisdom instead of looking to Christ. When those who claim to believe receive Christ by faith, He is to them sanctification, righteousness, and exceeding great reward. That eating and drinking means cherishing in the heart the truth that works by love and purifies the soul, with continual growth in grace and daily teaching in the school of Christ sought through prayer for all blessings. The Word addresses the heart and moral nature, takes hold of the will, and calls for obedience, not merely material for intellectual assent.
Studying the chapter and receiving Christ's words as a clear declaration of truth belongs with deep piety and putting away selfishness.