What did Jesus mean when He said, "I am the Bread of Life" (John 6:35)?

"They said therefore to Him, Lord, evermore give us this Bread. And (or, Then) Jesus said to them, I am the Bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall in nowise hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall in nowise ever thirst. But I said to you, that ye have even seen Me, and do not believe" (verses 34-36). This is their last effort to get what they sought — bread for this world, bread evermore, if not through them in any way, at least from Him. But unbelief is every way wrong. 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. Apart from Him, given out of Him, and thus, so as to be independent of Him, it exists not. In Him was life; in Him only is life found. He is the Bread of life.123 He is not here viewed as the Son of God, quickening whom He will, even as the Father. Here He is the Son of man sealed, and the object of faith. "I am the Bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall in nowise hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall in nowise ever thirst." Alas! the crowd that saw Him had no faith in Him. Their privilege in seeing Him but added to their guilty unbelief; and, one must add, that now that the atoning work is done, and He is dead, risen, and glorified, and preached among Gentiles, it is a greater sin still where He is not believed on in the world. Yet men no more believe on Him than those who then followed Him, nor are their motives purer who profess and preach Him than theirs who would have crowned Him in Galilee. The witnesses differ, some giving neither.

Upon this our Lord at once declares and reveals Himself as the bread of life present. Previously it had been inductive argument; that is, leading their minds on from the natural frame of selfish unbelief to the point of faith; then our Lord presents fully the object of faith present; the rest is simply God's work. Previously it was "said therefore." Now, they having said, "Lord, evermore give us," it was no more "said therefore," but "said"; that is, the Lord presents Himself as the full, present object of faith: "I am the bread of life"; "he that believeth." The "I am" includes His flesh; that is, Him come and then present, to be believed on as come in the flesh, as manifested, the life which was with the Father manifested (compare 1 John 1, though that is in another order). He is "the bread of life"; He saith not "life" simply, but the constant sustenance of life, life from God, life from the Father, actually manifested, seen, and tangible.

Plainly therefore He declares that He Himself is the Bread of life: in trusting Him, one will never hunger, coming to Him, one will never thirst: in Him every eternal need is met (v. 35). Yet, though He Himself is the Bread of life, able to fully satisfy the need of every hungry and thirsty heart, He sadly tells the Jews that they also had seen Him (which of course involves His works of power and grace and every exterior quality that proved His great glory), yet they disbelieved. They saw no beauty in Him personally. Dense indeed is the darkness of mere materialism!

The Bread of life is not a rite or a sacrament, but the Incarnate Word. He is the object of faith presented, that needy, famishing, souls may have life eternal. The manna in the wilderness was a witness to Him, little as they knew who ate of it and died there. The Lord Jesus is the Bread of God that comes down out of heaven and gives life not to Israel only but to the world. Him the Father God sealed. But so it was the right time to unfold a higher and larger work as the Son of man, rejected by the Jews. Faith receives in Him this rich gift, life eternal. The unbelief of man, yea of the chosen people, only brings out more grace from God the Father in the Son.

But the blessing is only to faith. "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Nothing but coming to Himself by faith can avail. Those who saw Him without believing were no better for it but the worse. Those who resort to images of Him find only a blind. Those who lean for life eternal on any ordinance, even of Him, set up a rival to their shame. He is the object of faith for life eternal. "He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father that sent Him." And the Father's will is that all honour the Son, even as they honour the Father: if they honour Him not by faith unto life eternal, they must in His judgment of them to everlasting perdition.

Now turn to chapter 6. Here we have Christ as the Bread of life. In chapter 5 it is more the Word of life, Christ as the quickener or life-giver. In this chapter 6 He is not only the giver but the sustainer of life. Jesus is the Bread of life. He was to be eaten. He had come within the reach of man's appropriation. The Jews say, "Our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness." But the Lord adds to this statement of theirs, and says, "and are dead." In contrast with this He was the Bread come down from heaven, that a man might eat and not die. He says, "I am that Bread of life." It is not that He would be the Bread, He was that when down here. But He was to be appropriated. If man is to live by bread, he must partake of it; it may be set before him, and he may not eat it, and if he does not eat it he must perish of hunger. Nothing can satisfy the hunger of a man's soul but Christ. God has given Him to be the life of the world. He is the Bread of God, the true Bread given by the Father in grace for the life of a perishing world.

But the Bread must be broken before it can be used. He must die, for it is His flesh He gives for the life of the world. His flesh is truly meat, and His blood is truly drink. And it is set before us that we may eat and live for ever. In eating I make what I eat my own. If I eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood, I make His death mine, and I eat and drink death to all that I am in flesh. Thus I part company with all that death has application to, and I live in His life in the power of the Spirit. If I make His death my death I am no longer in the flesh, I abide in Him, and He abides in me, for He is in me as my life.

A word as to coming and believing (6:35, 37). Of course, when the Lord was upon earth, people went to Him where He was. Now that He is in heaven, none of us can come to Him in that literal manner. Are we, then, worse off, as to receiving spiritual blessing, than those to whom He spake at Capernaum? The thirty-fifth verse meets that clearly: "He that comes to me shall not hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst." We do come to Him now as we really believe on Him. By faith we come. And coming to Him by faith, really believing on Him, all the blessings spoken in verses 35-40 are ours. Of them none can deprive us, nor for a moment dispossess us. Precious, indeed, are those words, and calculated to remove all doubt from the mind. Believing on Him really, is coming to Him in the present time, and under present circumstances.

But there is not only the eating His flesh and drinking His blood, but also the eating Himself. He says, “As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eats Me even he shall live by Me.” Men live by this world, and when the world fails them they pine away and die. One has often seen it. Men have their objects in this life, things for which and by which they live, and when these things fail them they die of sheer starvation. But He is Bread for us. “He that comes to Me shall never hunger, and he that believes on Me shall never thirst.” He is enough for us, and we need nothing else, and no other. The Father was enough for Him. He did not live by the power of the world. Things might turn out most adversely, and His circumstances might be, according to the estimation of men, most wretched; but He was independent of them, for He lived on account of the Father. And we live on account of Him, that is, if we are eaters of Him.

So a second time He declared that about Himself which is needful for all to accept: "He is the bread of life" (35, 48), and the bread, too, which came down from heaven (33, 50). The crowd had drawn attention to the manna. The Lord here reminds them that, though sustaining life, it never did preserve from death. He, however, the living bread, as He now presents Himself, could give to those who eat of it life everlasting. But, as with the manna of old, so with the living bread, something further was needed ere it could be eaten. The manna was first pounded in a mortar, or ground in a mill, and then baked in a pan (Num. 11:8). He who is the living bread had first to die; for to profit by Him as the bread of life they must eat His flesh, and drink His blood (John 6:49-51).

The Lord then solemnly reiterates, "Verily, verily,125 I say to you, He that believeth (on Me.) hath life eternal. I am the Bread of life" (verses 47, 48). In truth, as the promised One, He was always the object of faith, even as being the eternal Son He had ever quickened the believer. But now He was the Word made flesh; He was the Son of God, and this as man in the world, and, as rejected by Israel, He announces that He is the giver of life eternal. This is the grand point: not the kingdom merely by and by, but life eternal now in the Son, and inseparable from Him, but in Him now a man. ℵBLT, etc. [so Edd.], omit εἰς ἐμὲ, though given by ACDEΔ, etc., cursives, etc. [Syrsin, "on God"].

They ask, somewhat as the woman of Samaria had asked, to be given this Bread, but their state of soul is not like hers. Our Lord presents Himself to them as the Bread of life. To believe on Him will be to have their hunger satisfied, never again to be renewed. But although they had seen Him, they do not truly believe. This true faith is only shown by those whom the Father has given in sovereign grace to the Lord. Whoever has this faith may be assured of instant acceptance. Our Lord has come from heaven to do the will of the Father. This will is ex pressed from both points of view — divine sovereignty and human responsibility. All that the Father has given Him shall be kept and raised up at the last day; and lest they might think this excluded any, He adds: "Every one that seeth the Son and believeth on Him hath eternal life."