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Jesus the Bread of Life


John 6: 35, 41-51

Good News Translation (GNT)

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35  "I am the bread of life," Jesus told them.
   "Those who come to me will never be hungry;
   those who believe in me will never be thirsty.
41  The people started grumbling about him,
   because he said, "I am the bread that came
   down from heaven."
42  So they said, "This man is Jesus son of    Joseph, isn't he? We know his father and
   mother. How, then, does he now say he came
   down from heaven?"
43  Jesus answered, "Stop grumbling among
   yourselves.
44  People cannot come to me unless the
   Father who sent me draws them to me; and I
   will raise them to life on the last day.
45  The prophets wrote, 'Everyone will be taught
   by God.' Anyone who hears the Father and
   learns from him comes to me.
46  This does not mean that anyone has seen the
   Father; he who is from God is the only one
   who has seen the Father.
47  I am telling you the truth: he who believes has
   eternal life.
48  I am the bread of life.
49  Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but
   they died.
50  But the bread that comes down from heaven
   is of such a kind that whoever eats it will not
   die.
51  I am the living bread that came down from
   heaven.
   If you eat this bread, you will live forever.
   The bread that I will give you is my flesh,
   which I give so that the world may live."


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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)

Jesus the Bread of Life

     John 6: 35, 41-51


Then Jesus said "I am that bread. I am the life-giving bread. He who comes to me and eats this bread will never go hungry.

The Jews took offence at Jesus' sayings. They grumbled, "How can He say He came down from heaven, when He is only the son of Joseph and Mary? He is from earth, just as we are"

Let no one think he can come to Jesus only by his own thought or desire. He must first be drawn by God. Jesus here repeats the same truth in different words. God "draws" men by teaching them. Everyone who is taught by God, and learns from Him, comes to Jesus.

If our minds are not enlightened by God's Spirit, we cannot come to Jesus. Notice it is God who does the teaching; but it is we who must do the learning!

Jesus quotes from the Prophets, that is, from Isaiah 54:13. (13  All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.)

Jesus has seen God. He has received the things of God; therefore, Jesus is fully able to teach those things to men. No man has ever seen God Himself; therefore, what we learn from God we learn mainly through Jesus.

The only thing necessary to receive eternal life is to believe in Jesus (and repent, etc.) Here Jesus again says that He is the life-giving bread, which is much better than manna.

In the Jews' opinion, manna was the best of all foods, but the Old Testament Jews ate manna and eventually died, but those who eat the "bread of life," - that is, those who believe in Jesus - will never die.

Jesus is the living bread. Not only does Jesus Himself have God's eternal life within Him, but whoever "eats" Jesus will also receive eternal life.

Even though a person's body will die, he will not die, eternally. Here Jesus gives a new teaching. He says: "This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." He will give His life as a sacrifice that we might live.

Here Jesus is talking about His death on the cross.


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