John 6:32–35

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.