Thoughts on the Gospel of John (29) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever, and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.
John 6:48-51.

Thoughts on the Gospel of John (29)
In the course of their discussion with Jesus the Jews had mentioned the manna in the wilderness. In their view that miracle was much greater than the single occurrence they had experienced when Jesus provided for 5,000 men.

The Lord repeated what He had already said because of its importance for everyone: He is the bread of life. He gives life and sustains it. But this life is of a very different kind and quality from natural life. So He took up the subject of the manna for a comparison. The Israelites who had eaten that manna had died - most of them on the wilderness journey. Although a miracle, that provision remained physical nourishment; it could never abolish physical death.

Jesus Christ, on the other hand, is the bread from heaven: "one may eat of it and not die". The words "bread", "eat" and "live" have a metaphorical sense. The bread is a Person, eating is taking in spiritually, while life signifies eternal security and joy, since the "second death" has no further power over the person concerned.

The Son of God came to earth to become Man, so that none need suffer the "second death", which is hell. But even the incarnation was insufficient: He had to die so that we could receive eternal life. What wondrous grace that was!

(to be continued next Sunday)

Today's reading: Nehemiah 3:16-32 · Proverbs 11:20-31