Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” — John 6:35, NASB

The setting for John 6 in which this passage appears is near the close of Jesus’s ministry in Galilee. After performing the miracles of feeding the 5,000 and walking on water the day before, the Lord has been followed by the multitudes He had fed in anticipation that He will do it again. When He addresses them, He uses bread as a metaphor for the spiritual sustenance and eternal life that they can only receive through belief in Him.

The crowd had awoken that morning to find that Jesus had left the area, so they jumped into their boats and crossed the Sea of Galilee to look for Him in Capernaum, and met up with Him as He taught in the synagogue. The Lord calls them out for being motivated solely by yesterday’s free food, and tells them that they should instead be seeking the “food that endures to eternal life” that He represents as God’s Chosen. They go along with that but still call for another sign that confirms Him as the one God has sent, noting that for example, Israel of old received manna as the “bread from heaven.” They are still just looking for a handout and ignorant to what He is really preaching here.

The manna that God had provided to their ancestors was for the purpose of physical sustenance and was thus limited in the life (Gk. bios) it provided. What Jesus is now offering is the “true bread from heaven,” which extends God’s self-existent, everlasting life (zoe) to the world, sustaining recipients spiritually and eternally.

Jesus is the only channel through which this is possible. When the crowds clamor for this special bread He is talking about, He announces “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” And there it is. I AM (Ego eimi), is the clear, unmistakable claim to deity that everyone in the building would understand. He has equated Himself with God and the people take note. He goes on:

36 “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

Many in the crowd are offended. Signs and wonders aside, how can this man whose parents they know have come down from heaven? And that he makes himself to be like God? Is he completely insane or just blasphemous? Jesus singles out the Jews, tells them to settle down, and then proceeds to horrify them further by suggesting that they eat His flesh and drink His blood to ensure their everlasting life.

The Lord's teaching style was not unlike that of other rabbis of the day, and as such He routinely used parables and metaphors to illustrate His point. This approach served the dual purposes of simplifying complex spiritual truths for those called to receive it, and further obscuring those truths to those whose hearts were hardened against the things of God, be they religious types or not. His parable teachings were therefore both a blessing and a judgment depending on the hearer, and the I AM metaphors found in the book of John follow that rationale.

Consequently, many missed the point that day in the synagogue and more than a few false disciples bailed out. They thought He was talking lunacy or cannibalism and would hear no more. Hyper-literalism and bad interpretation continues among the professing church to this day, but Jesus knew what He was doing when He said what He said; those who the Father has given Him will come to Him. Among those who come, none will be lost.

What He is illustrating is that He is the greater bread that has come down from heaven — not the lesser bread that providentially sustained Israel in the wilderness for a time, but the greater bread that nourishes the soul perpetually by imparting the zoe, the essential life of God. As Jesus said, anyone that eats of this bread will live forever and He gives it by way of His flesh, sacrificed necessarily to atone for man’s sinful state that separates him from God.

In exactly the same way that eating food on earth is necessary to sustain temporal physical life, believing in Jesus—or eating the “true bread” from heaven—is necessary to attain eternal spiritual life. Like the act of eating, saving faith involves the individual person’s participation. We must come to Him, and even though faith itself is granted by God we still have the responsibility to respond to it. God can make us hungry by calling us to Christ, but we have to then eat, and each must do it on his own. A hungry person will always take the food and eat because he knows that if he doesn't he will surely die. Just as we take in food our bodies are sustained, when we receive Christ into our hearts our souls are sustained.

The Lord goes even further by adding His blood to the equation in verses 53-56. Levitical law strictly forbade the drinking of blood of sacrificial animals because the life of the flesh is in the blood, which is precisely His point. In drawing the illustration, He emphasizes the absolute atonement of His coming sacrifice; just as the life-sustaining power of Jesus is greater than that of the manna in the wilderness, His blood represents the greatest, all-sufficient sacrifice.

He concludes by reiterating God’s sovereignty in matters of faith. Not everyone will believe, but those who do can be assured that their faith in Him is sufficient to open the door to eternal life and secure it for them always. Throughout the John 6 discourse the Lord says multiple times that believers will be raised up on the last day, says multiple times that they will live forever, and says multiple times that He will not lose any of them. The repetition is not by accident; it is the central message of the gospel and should not be lost on any who hear it. Let us all recognize a hunger for the greater life of God and receive the Bread of salvation.

Next: The Light of the World