John 6:28–35

This brought out their first question. He had said, Work for the spiritual food. They replied, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" They seemed to grasp something of what His words meant, and they looked ready to obey the call, if only they found out what they were to do.

They show again the deep-rooted assumption of men in every condition, age and country, that fallen man is capable of working the works of God. They ignore their own sin, His holiness and majesty. It was the way of Cain, and the professing Christian world is as infected with it as Judaism or the pagan world. It is the universal lie of man, until the Holy Spirit brings him to repentance. Then, in the new life, he feels and judges the old life. He finds, as we see in Romans 7, that the question is not what he does but what he is. There is no help for him except deliverance from it all, and that comes in Christ, by faith.

When the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, the Jews asked Him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" They had done the same thing before, when they said to God, "All that You have said to us we will do." Man flatters himself that all he needs to know is what he ought to do, and he will do it. Jesus did not flatter them, but said, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

In chapter 5 Jesus is Son of God; here He is Son of man, and we shall see what faith in Him as such produces. The legal question of the crowd in verse 28, fairly vague and trivial, opens up this development. What must we do (they say), to be doing the works of God? This is the work of God (the Lord replies), that you believe in Him whom He has sent.

Man may be blessed fully and securely, but only by grace, and so by faith. Faith gives the glory to God, and faith is itself His gift. So faith is the work of God. It shuts out man's working — not as the fruit of faith, for faith produces works, and plenty of good works, but as something that comes before faith or stands alongside it. And that is right. Otherwise it would have to suit God to be partner with man, and the believer would be the first to refuse that.

The doing is not on our side, it is on God's side; it is Christ's doing, not ours, which brings salvation.

In what lovely, patient grace the Lord replies, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." Is He the One who, of all who ever walked this earth, was counted worthy to be sealed by God the Father? Then how clear it is that to believe in Him is what God must approve. Without that, God can accept nothing else.

They said to Him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." So, as He spoke clearly, they show their deep-rooted assumption once more. People in every state and age and country take it for granted that fallen man can work the works of God. They ignore their own sin, His holiness and majesty. It was the way of Cain; and the professing Christian world is as infected with it as Judaism or paganism.

God asked for faith: believing in the Lord Jesus, the One He sent. He did not ask for activity in works, or for an offering brought to the altar in the Temple court. So God asked nothing beyond what a man could do. Not works, but faith, was the work of God for them.

They ask then what they might do, and our Lord tells them there is but one work of God for them. It is to "believe in Him whom He has sent." He is the true Bread. So to believe in Him is to eat that Bread which has come down from heaven.

So the principle is clear. To the man who works, God counts the reward as a debt, not as grace. But the man who does not work, and instead believes in Him who justifies the ungodly — God counts his faith as righteousness. Man may be fully and securely blessed, but it is only of grace, and so by faith, which gives the glory to God, as itself His gift. So faith is the work of God, and it shuts out man's working. It does not shut out works as the fruit of faith, for faith produces plenty of good works. It shuts out any work that comes before faith or stands level with it.

They knew neither their own helplessness nor God's grace, so they thought of God as One who makes demands of man. They had yet to learn that the grace of God does not demand works to get the blessing. It only asks that man should believe in the One Whom He has sent. Works would follow faith.

Is He the One whom God the Father, of all who ever walked this earth, counted worthy to seal? How clear, then, that to believe in Him is what God must approve. Without that faith, God can accept nothing else.

These words clearly imply that the relationship of Father existed before He, the Son, came out from Him. The same relationship, before He became man, stands revealed in the Lord's frequent saying that the Father sent Him, the Son. See John 5:30, 37 and John 6:29. The sense of these passages is plain and unmistakable, and it needs no forcing: the Lord came out from the One Who was the Father, and came into the world.

The work of God is to believe in Him whom God has sent. That belief, produced by the Holy Spirit, brings life and salvation. (There is also a belief which is purely mental!) ... The Holy Spirit is brooding over the darkness and chaos in the souls of men. He works in a moral way, awakening them to their true condition before God. The result is a new condition which answers to God.

Only the previous evening He had fed five thousand men, besides women and children. He provided fully for them all in the wilderness. Would we ever have expected such a question, and such an appeal to past history, from people who had just seen that miracle and had all gained so much from it? We would — if we know our own hearts. He would have had every right to turn away from those who spoke like this. But grace in Him was active. He had their souls' best interests at heart.

This is what unbelief always does. It is never satisfied with the perfectly suited and magnificent signs of God. It may refuse to ask for a sign when God offers one, and it despises the signs He does give. They did not say outright what they meant here. But the thought seems to have been something like this: "You ask us to believe. Yet after all, what was the miracle of the loaves next to the miracle of the manna? Give us food from heaven, as Moses did, for forty years; and then it will be time enough to speak of believing. Do a work to match his, if you cannot surpass it."

Christ Himself was the sign that God had stepped in with grace. The signs He did made it plain that a divine Person was present in grace in a lowly Man. They had no sense of their need. They did not know the Scriptures, and they were full of their own importance. So they could not see the sign. They looked for a Christ who would come with an outward display of power over their enemies, in a way that would bring honour to Israel. Instead, Christ came in lowliness, and they stumbled at His humiliation.

They ask a sign, plainly showing where their hearts were. As our Lord had said, they looked to be fed, to have their present life sustained in ease. God was to be their Servant in this. So they would be marked out as His people, while their natural self was satisfied and their pride fed as well.

A miracle is not the true or direct ground of divine faith — the faith the Spirit works, which saves the soul. The faith that saves the soul knows the Son of God as only sinners with a convicted conscience know Him. It is the knowledge the conscience gives. So in this very chapter the Lord does not work the miracle the crowd wanted. He talks with them instead, in a way that shows whether their conscience had been reached. Were they following Him as sinners who needed life, or only as an admiring, interested crowd?

No signs can give faith; but miracles will confirm the faith that exists.

They implied that the feeding of the five thousand was a small thing by comparison. The Lord uses the opportunity to show that He is the "bread from heaven", bread of a far higher quality. It is not merely natural bread that sustains life, but heavenly bread that gives life.

Only the evening before, five thousand men, besides women and children, had eaten their fill in the wilderness. They had seen that miracle, and every one of them had gained from it. Yet now they ask such a question, and point back to past history. Could we ever have imagined it, if we did not know our own hearts? He had every right to turn away from people who spoke like this. But grace in Him was active. He had their souls' best interests at heart... The true bread was out of heaven, and so it far surpassed the manna they had mentioned. It was for them, if they would receive it, the gift of His Father. It could give spiritual life to them, and to the world.

This is how unbelief always works. It is never satisfied with the signs of God, however fitting and magnificent they are. It may refuse to ask for a sign when God offers one, and it despises the signs He does give. This time they did not say outright what they meant. But their thought seems to have been something like this: "You ask us to believe. Yet after all, what was the miracle of the loaves compared to that of the manna? Give us food from heaven, as Moses did, for forty years; and then it will be time enough to speak of believing. Do a work to match his, if you cannot surpass it."

Christ Himself was the sign that God had stepped in with grace. The signs He did made it plain that a divine Person was present in grace in a lowly Man. They had no sense of their need. They did not know the Scriptures, and they were full of their own importance. So they could not see the sign. They wanted a Christ who would come with outward display and power over their enemies. Such a Christ would put honour upon Israel. Instead, Christ came in lowliness, and they stumbled at His humiliation.

Their thoughts were too full of Moses. "He gave them bread from heaven to eat," they said. But before they could really eat of the manna, they had to fall into the paths of love, into thoughts of the Father, and not of Moses. For it is love that leads us to the cross. Moses never gave that bread. The law never spread the feast. It is love that does that.

This then is the meaning of the manna: the bread which God gave the Israelites to eat in the wilderness. It is therefore the proper wilderness food for the Lord's people... The manna, it is clear, is a picture of Christ — of Christ as He was in this world. He is the One who came down from heaven, and as such He becomes the food of His people as they pass through the wilderness.

They tell Him, "Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness." They failed to add what the Lord reminds them of: "and are dead." They had not found life in the law, the manna, or the well that sprang up. They ate the bread of the mighty, angels' food, but they had died like men... But here in their midst was the Bread come down from heaven, "so that one may eat of it and not die."

This time they did not say outright what they meant. Their thought seems to have been something like this: "You ask us to believe. Yet, after all, what was the miracle of the loaves compared with that of the manna? Give us food from heaven, as Moses did, for forty years; and then it will be time enough to speak of believing. Do a work to match his, if you cannot surpass it."

"It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven." He was only a receiver of it, like the people themselves, who lived on it for forty years. It was God's gift, and sadly the people who lived on it despised it — just as their descendants were now despising "the true bread."

In this Gospel especially, it plainly means the fulfilment as distinct from the promise. It means the perfect and complete as distinct from the partial. We begin with "the true Light." John the Baptist was a light from God but he was not the true Light... There was "the bread of God." The manna was the bread of God, was it not? Indeed it was. But it was not the true Bread, because the Lord Jesus Christ set it aside completely when He came and said, I am "the true Bread."

Again, with a double "truly," or "most assuredly," He insists that Moses was not the giver of the manna. But the same God who gave the manna was His Father, who has now given the true Bread from heaven. The manna could rot, so it was not "the true bread." The bread of God is the living person who has come down from heaven (v. 33), the giver of life. So He is One who had life in Himself, life that is eternal and cannot decay.

But the Father's name is linked with far deeper wonders. The revelation of that name tells out all the riches of grace. "My Father gives you the true bread from heaven." What was that? The answer is at hand. "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." To provide for a dying world, the Father sent His only Son from heaven.

In natural things bread only sustains life; it does not give life at all. But the spiritual always goes beyond the natural. The picture from nature points our thoughts to the divine fact, but can never hold its fullness. Jesus was here as both the Giver and the Sustainer of life. And this was in relation to the world, not just to the small Jewish nation among whom He moved.

The first is in John 6. That wonderful chapter sets the Lord before us as bread in a fourfold way — "true bread," v. 32; "the bread of God," v. 33; "the bread of life," v. 35; "living bread," v. 51. Our Lord spoke of Himself in this way as One whom His own could receive, so that they might gain spiritual life in their souls and then be kept in that life.

How simple, yet how weighty and final, is His answer to their unspoken thoughts about Moses! They took the miracle of the manna to show that Moses was greater than our Lord. "It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven." He only received it, like the people themselves, who lived on it for forty years. It was God's gift, and sadly those who lived on it despised it, just as their descendants were now despising "the true bread."

Was this more, in reality, than His feeding all His creatures every day and every hour? "You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing." So vast are the Creator's stores, and so easy their application in Providence to the creature's need! But the Father's name is linked with deeper wonders far.

The Bread of God is Jesus Himself. Of all men, these two great marks are His alone: He comes down out of heaven, and He gives life to the world.

The Lord presents the great truth of His Incarnation. He is not just a Man raised up on earth, as Moses and others were; He is the One "who comes down from heaven". He is truly a divine Person, yet present as a Man on earth — a Man of an entirely new order, a heavenly Man.

In John 6 Christ does not say, "The bread of God is he who went up to heaven," but "he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

The manna fell from heaven in the desert for Israel only. In those barren wastes, which gave their tens of thousands no food, the chosen nation ate the food of angels. But God gives the Bread of God to the broad world of sinners, of every land and every language. Now, in this greater wilderness, in this place of soul-hunger and of moral death, all who come to Jesus receive life.

The Father's provision for a dying world was to send from heaven His only begotten Son. His appearing here was as the lowly Son of man. The fact was of worldwide interest. All alike needed this bread from heaven, and all alike were welcome. God did not send this gift to Jew or Gentile as separate, privileged groups. He sent it to the whole human race as perishing.

As bread, as a figure, He had come down from heaven, incarnate in the world. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. This bread means Him who came forth from the Father, and came into the world, the Word made flesh, the Son of God. He was the living bread come down from heaven. But incarnation alone was not enough to save us. He must die, or He would have remained alone. The bread He gives is His flesh, which He had taken, and He gives it for the life of the world. Here we have the cross, the propitiation made for sin.

The Bread of life is not a rite or a sacrament, but the Incarnate Word. He is the object of faith presented, so that needy, starving souls may have life eternal. The manna in the wilderness was a witness to Him, though those who ate it and died there knew little of that. … Faith receives in Him this rich gift, life eternal.

Thinking only of the natural life, the people say, "Lord, always give us this bread." They had no sense of their spiritual needs. So they saw nothing of His glory and missed the meaning of His words.

Yet these striking, life-giving words produce no real faith in these people, even though they ask, "Lord, give us this bread always" (v. 34). It was not Himself they wanted, but what He might give them. Could He not keep multiplying the loaves and fishes to satisfy them? They only confirm what He said in verse 26: they cannot hide their earthly mindedness at all.

At first their answer seems all you could wish for. Like the woman of Samaria they ask for the gift He had spoken of, and unlike her they do not expose their ignorance. "Lord," they say, "always give us this bread." Two cases can look so alike and still be completely different! And He who "knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man" could not be deceived.

This is their last effort to get what they were after — bread for this world, bread always. But unbelief is wrong in every way. It is life that God is giving, and nothing less meets the true need of man. And this life is in Christ, not from Him. It does not exist apart from Him, handed out from Him, so that anyone could have it independently of Him. In Him was life; in Him only is life found. He is the Bread of life.

This awakened at least their natural desires, and they said, "Lord, always give us this bread." He answered with the words of our scripture. Turn to Exodus 16 and you will see that God gave the manna to satisfy the hunger of the people. In Exodus 17 water comes out of the rock to quench their thirst… So He declares that the manna and the rock that was struck were pictures of Himself, standing there in front of them, and that in Him they find their answer and fulfilment. That means anyone who receives Him has every craving and desire of the soul fully satisfied, and for ever. But, as the context shows, He can only be received as the manna after He is known in death.

The Bread that endures to eternal life was standing among them, and how eagerly they ran after the bread that perishes! They say: "Lord, always give us this bread." But they could only see it as bread to keep human life going here in this world. When they saw it was not this, it lost its interest for them… The disciples heard words of eternal life; the worldly-minded crowd heard "a hard saying" they would not listen to.