Feeding on  The Bread of Life

John 6:51 I am the living Bread which came down from  Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever;  and the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which  I will give for the life of the world.

To Follow Jesus One Must Believe  Who He Is and Where He Came From

John 6:59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. 41 The Jews then murmured at him, because  he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”

Their reaction to Jesus’ words was:  “What is he talking about? We know him.”  They appear to have forgotten what He had already done for them. Many people today react that same way to any mention of Jesus. They see Him as nothing more than an ordinary man.

Their reaction was to doubt His claim because, of course, they, like many today, were the victims of incomplete facts. They did not have all the evidence they needed, and didn’t seek Him.

To Follow Jesus One Must Believe  Enough to Trust Him

John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they shall all  be taught by God.’ Every man therefore that has heard  and has learned from the Father comes unto Me.

The second reason for their doubts was an inadequate  enlightenment. It is not enough merely to hear or know the facts about Jesus or to hear the story of His life. There must be  an inner opening of the eyes and the ears of the soul,  so that we begin to understand the implications of His life.

Part of being “taught of God,” and being “drawn  of the Father” is that we see, understand, and respond.

Being taught of God is an opening  of the understanding. It may happen suddenly,  or slowly, through pain or through pleasure.

This happens to non-believers in order to draw them to the point of faith and conversion. But it happens also  to Christians who need continually to be taught of God.

Once having been awakened, then our responsibility is  to believe, to commit ourselves, to give ourselves to Him.

Even as Christians we must keep on believing.  As our Lord will go on to explain here,  keep on eating and drinking Christ!

He is the bread from heaven, the Giver of life, real life,  and only those who receive that life overcome the effects of death upon the spirit and the soul of man.  Here, Jesus gives the first hint that this is going to require His death. He puts it very plainly, “The bread which  I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

Jesus Provides Eternal Life  If We Will Believe and Obey Him

John 6:58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead: He that eats this bread will live for ever. John 6:56 He who eats My flesh,  and drinks My blood, abides in Me, and I in Him.

Jesus Christ came into the world in lowly form, like the barley loaf which was for the poorer people. Christ’s audience has no desire for his flavor. What He gives provides for the deepest wants of humanity, and is every man’s fare because He will be any man’s satisfaction.

Eating, in verse 56, is a participle. It indicates those who keep  on feeding on Me, are abiding in Me. Feeding on Him—reading and applying His Word, growing in our love for Him,  is how believers continue to abide in Him. John 15:4

His claim to be the food of humanity is couched in the veiled  language which was necessary at that stage of His mission.  This distinct reference to His death is shown as the Sacrifice on which a hunger-stricken world may feed and be satisfied.

The Word was made flesh, and the manna came down from heaven. The special gift of His flesh for the life of the world was, at the time of His speaking, a future thing.

The figure of eating His flesh is made repulsive on purpose,  in order that it may provoke us to penetrate to its meaning.

The eating and the coming are diverse symbols for the one thing, the believing. When a man eats, he appropriates to himself, and incorporates into his very being, the food  of which he partakes. When a man trusts Christ,  he appropriates to himself, and incorporates into
his innermost being, the very life of Jesus Christ.

Jesus makes very clear that He must give His flesh for the life of the world. That can only mean death, and they  are troubled by that. Behind their protest is the feeling  that their sins are not that bad, that it should  not require death to clear up their difficulties.

Many people are at that point today. They do not want to  believe that their problems come from something so bad within themselves that it requires death to cure it.

This is absolutely essential to real life.  If we do not understand this truth, then we are  on a temporary slide into ultimate corruption  and total death. The only hope we have is  feeding on the One who gives life, JESUS.