21  The Bread of Life—Part 2: Appropriating  the Bread of Life  (John 6:51–59)

“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. (6:51–59)

We live in a spiritually hungry world desperate for meaning and hope in life. From the beginning, human beings were created to serve God and fellowship with Him (cf. Gen. 1:26; 3:8). He was to be both their focus and their fulfillment. But by rejecting Him, men and women have been left with an aching void deep in their souls. In their misguided attempts to fill that emptiness they, like Israel of old, have forsaken the Lord, “the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13). Yet, fallen men do not find the exhilarating freedom they seek by casting God aside. Instead, they discover only the horrifying meaninglessness of a godless life. Christian apologist William Lane Craig explains:

Of course, the hopelessness of life without God is not a recent discovery. Long before modern rationalism led to nihilistic despair, the great church father Augustine cried out to the Lord, “You made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you” (Confessions, I.1). And centuries before Augustine, the wisest man who ever lived also recognized the vanity of life apart from God. Despite his wisdom, Solomon sought happiness and satisfaction apart from the Lord. In Ecclesiastes 2, he summarized his futile pursuits, including the chase for pleasure (vv. 1–3, 8c), productivity (vv. 4–6), possessions (vv. 7–8), political power (vv. 9–10), and even wisdom itself (vv. 12–14). Yet, at the end of it all, he realized that it was all meaningless (vv. 11, 15–23). Only in God could true purpose and meaning be found, “for who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?” (v. 25; cf. 12:13–14).

Throughout the rest of Ecclesiastes, Solomon warned against following the path of human wisdom that proved so empty. The key term in the book is “vanity” (sometimes translated “futility” in the NASB), which appears some three dozen times. The term expresses the futility of life “under the sun” (a phrase used almost as often) apart from God. Solomon’s point was that pursuing earthly goals as ends in themselves (without seeing them as a means to glorify and serve God) leads only to emptiness and hopeless despair (1:2–3, 8–11, 14; 2:12–23; 3:9; 4:2–3; 5:10–11, 16; 6:7, 12; 7:1; 9:2–3; 12:8).

Into this fallen world of disappointment, despondency, and desperation came the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Bread of Life, the only One who can satisfy the deepest longings of the human soul. Only through Him (Acts 4:12) can sinners obtain forgiveness (Matt. 26:28; Acts 5:30–31; 10:43; Eph. 4:32), be restored to a right relationship with God (John 14:6; 1 Peter 3:18), and receive eternal life (John 3:15–16, 36; 5:24; 17:2; 1 John 5:11–12).

In the first section of His sermon on the Bread of Life, Jesus presented Himself as spiritual food for the famished soul (6:30–50). In the concluding section (vv. 51–59), He urged the people to appropriate Him personally by faith. The passage includes Jesus’ pronouncement, the Jews’ perplexity, and Jesus’ promises.

THE PRONOUNCEMENT

“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” (6:51)

For the fifth time in this discourse (cf. vv. 33, 35, 48, 50), Jesus claimed to be the living bread that came down out of heaven. He then added the promise that if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Here, as in verses 35 and 40, human responsibility to believe in Christ is in view (God’s sovereignty in salvation is taught in vv. 37, 39, 44, 65).

Ever the master teacher, Jesus used the simple, everyday routine of eating to communicate profound spiritual truth. The analogy of eating suggests five parallels to appropriating spiritual truth.

Firstjust as food is useless unless it is eaten, so also spiritual truth does no good if it is not internalized. Merely knowing the truth, without acting on it, both profits nothing (Heb. 4:2) and does not allow one to remain neutral (Luke 11:23). In fact, it will result in a more severe judgment (Luke 12:47–48; Heb. 10:29).

Second, eating is prompted by hunger; those who are full are not interested in food. In the same way, sinners who are satiated with their sin have no hunger for spiritual things (cf. Luke 5:31–32; 6:21). When God awakens them to their lost condition, however, the hunger for forgiveness, deliverance, peace, love, hope, and joy drives them to the Bread of Life.

Third, the food people eat becomes part of them through the operation of the body’s digestive system. So it is spiritually. People may admire Christ, be impressed with His teaching, and even bemoan His death on the cross as a great tragedy. But not until they appropriate Him by faith do they become one with Him (17:21; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Cor. 4:10; Gal. 2:20; Eph.3:17).

Fourth, eating involves trust. No one knowingly eats tainted or spoiled food; the very act of eating implies faith that the food is edible (cf. Mark 7:15). Thus, the metaphor of eating the Bread of Life implies believing in Jesus.

Finally, eating is personal. No one can eat a meal for another; there is no such thing as eating by proxy. Nor is there salvation by proxy. In Psalm 49:7 the psalmist wrote, “No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him.” Sinners must appropriate the Bread of Life as individuals to receive salvation and live forever (vv. 50, 58;3:16;8:51; 11:26; Rom.8:13).

The Lord further defined the bread of life as that which He would voluntarily (10:18) give for the life of the world: His flesh (cf. 1:14). The concept of Jesus giving Himself sacrificially for sinners is a repeated New Testament theme (e.g., Matt. 20:28; Gal. 1:4; 2:20; Eph. 5:2, 25; 1 Tim. 2:6; Titus 2:14). The Lord referred prophetically here to His death on the cross (2 Cor.5:21; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24), one of many such predictions recorded in the gospels (John 2:19–22; 12:24; Matt. 12:40; 16:21; 17:22; 20:18; Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33–34; Luke 9:22, 44; 18:31–33; 24:6–7). It is Jesus’ offering of His flesh that is the price of redemption. Had He merely come and proclaimed God’s standards, it would have left the human race in a hopeless predicament. Since no one can keep those standards, there would have been no way for sinners to have a relationship with God. But to make reconciliation between sinful man and holy God possible, “Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18; cf. 2:24; Isa. 53:4–6; Rom. 3:21–26; 2 Cor. 5:21).

Since “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23) and “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22), Christ became the final sacrifice for sin, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). His death, for all who believed and would believe, God accepted as the full payment for sin (Rom. 3:25–26; 4:25; Heb. 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10), so that complete pardon was provided for the sins of all the penitent faithful (Acts 10:43; 13:38–39; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 2:13–14; 1 John 1:9; 2:12).

The death of Christ was a real, genuine, actual satisfaction of divine justice. It was a true payment and atonement in full—actually, not potentially, paid to God by Christ on behalf of all who would ever believe, because they were chosen and redeemed by the power of God. The death of Christ was definite, particular, specific, and actual on behalf of God’s chosen people, limited in extent by His sovereign purposes, but unlimited in effect for all for whom it was rendered.

Redemption is the work of God. Christ died to accomplish it, not merely to make it possible and then finally accomplished when the sinner believes. The Bible does not teach that Jesus died for everyone potentially, but no one actually. On the contrary, Christ procured salvation for all whom God would call and justify; He actually paid the penalty in full for all who would ever believe. Sinners do not limit the atonement by their lack of faith; God does by His sovereign design.

Christ offered His flesh as a sacrifice not merely for Israel, but for the world (cf. 1:29; 4:42; 1 John 4:14). He died for people from all races, cultures, ethnic groups, and social strata (cf. Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11). Thus God said in Isaiah 45:22, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth,” and Jesus commissioned the church to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). The Lord also declared, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:14–15), and “I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (12:32). He is the only Savior for the world of lost sinners.

THE PERPLEXITY

Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (6:52)

The Lord was obviously not talking about cannibalism when He spoke of eating His flesh. Rather, He was giving a physical illustration of a spiritual truth. Once again, however, the antagonistic Jews completely missed the significance of Jesus’ statement. As a result, they began to argue with one another. Argue translates a form of the verb machomai, which means “to fight,” or “to quarrel” (cf. Acts 7:26; 2 Tim. 2:24; James 4:2), indicating that it was a heated dispute. The discussion centered on the question, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” Blinded by the ignorance of their own unbelief, they were unable to understand the spiritual significance of which Jesus spoke (cf. v. 42; 3:4, 9; 4:11–12; 9:16; 12:34).

It should be noted that the Roman Catholic Church appeals to this passage as a proof of the doctrine of transubstantiation—the false teaching that the body and blood of Christ are literally present in the bread and wine of the Mass. Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott writes, “The body and the blood of Christ together with His soul and His divinity and therefore the whole Christ are truly present in the Eucharist” (Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma [St. Louis: B. Herder, 1954], 382). It is a false foundation for a false doctrine, however, to suggest that Jesus was referring to the Eucharist (Communion or the Lord’s Table) here, since He used the word sarx (flesh). A different word, soma (“body”), appears in the passages referring to Communion (Matt. 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 10:16; 11:24, 27). Two additional considerations reinforce the fact that this passage does not refer to Communion: First, the Lord’s Table had not yet been instituted; therefore, the Jews would not have understood what Jesus was talking about if He were speaking of Communion. Second, Jesus said that anyone who partakes of His flesh has eternal life. If that was a reference to the Lord’s Table, it would mean that eternal life could be gained through taking Communion. That is clearly foreign to Scripture, however, which teaches that Communion is for those who are already believers (1 Cor. 11:27–32) and that salvation is by faith alone (Eph. 2:8–9). (For further arguments against a sacramental interpretation of eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood, see D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991], 296–98; for a critique of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Mass, see James G. McCarthy, The Gospel According to Rome [Eugene, Ore.: Harvest House, 1995], chaps. 6–7.)

Both the Roman Catholic Church and Jesus’ Jewish opponents missed His point. As noted in the discussion of verse 51 above, the Lord was not speaking literally, but metaphorically to the people—encouraging them to appropriate Him by faith.

THE PROMISES

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. (6:53–59)

Although confronted with their willful unbelief, Jesus did not tone down, soften, or even clarify His words. Instead, He made His teaching even harder for them to swallow by adding the shocking concept of drinking His blood. To drink blood or eat meat with the blood still in it was strictly prohibited by the Old Testament law:

Jesus, of course, was not speaking of literally drinking the fluid in His veins any more than He was of literally eating His flesh. Both metaphors refer to the necessity of accepting Jesus’ sacrificial death. The New Testament frequently uses the term blood as a graphic metonym speaking of Christ’s death on the cross as the final sacrifice for sin (Matt. 26:28; Acts 20:28; Rom. 3:25; 5:9; 1 Cor. 11:25; Eph. 1:7; 2:13; Col. 1:20; Heb. 9:12, 14; 10:19, 29; 13:12; 1 Peter 1:2, 19; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5; 5:9; 7:14; 12:11). His sacrifice was the one to which all of the Old Testament sacrifices pointed.

But the concept of a crucified Messiah was a major stumbling block for Israel. In response to the Lord’s declaration, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32), “the crowd then answered Him, ‘We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, “The Son of Man must be lifted up?”’” (v. 34). On the road to Emmaus, the resurrected Christ rebuked two of His disciples for their hesitancy to accept the necessity of His death: “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”(Luke 24:25–26).”We preach Christ crucified,” the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “to Jews a stumbling block” (1 Cor. 1:23), and in Galatians 5:11 he referred to the “the stumbling block of the cross.” Thus, the major thrust of Paul’s evangelistic message to the Jews at Thessalonica involved “explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ’” (Acts 17:3).

It should be noted that the verbs translated eat and drink are aorists, not present tense verbs. That suggests a one-time appropriation of Christ at salvation, not the continual eating and drinking of His body and blood portrayed by the Roman Catholic Mass (see the discussion of v. 52 above).

In verses 53–56 Jesus made four promises to those who eat His flesh and drink His blood. The first one is expressed negatively; those who reject Jesus have no life in themselves. Conversely then, those who appropriate Him by faith do have such life. They are guaranteed abundant spiritual life, even now, by the Lord Himself (5:24; 10:10).

The second promise is that the one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life. The abundant life that believers experience in the present will not end with death, but will expand into completeness and last forever. That this verse does not describe a ritualistic act is obvious when it is compared with verse 40. The results in the two verses are the same: eternal life and resurrection. But in verse 40, those results come from beholding and believing in the Son, while in verse 54 they come from eating His flesh and drinking His blood. It follows, then, that the eating and drinking of verse 54 are parallel to the beholding and believing of verse 40.

The third promise, that Christ will raise up on the last day all who eat His flesh and drink His blood, is repeated here for the fourth time in this passage (vv. 39, 40, 44). The resurrection to everlasting life is the believer’s great hope (Acts 23:6; 24:15; cf. Titus 2:13; 1 Peter 1:3); apart from it, the Christian gospel is meaningless. To the Corinthians, some of whom were questioning the reality of the resurrection, Paul wrote,

Jesus introduced the fourth and final promise by declaring that His flesh is true food, and His blood is true drink—the sustenance that provides the very life of God to the believer. In light of that, the Lord declared, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” The promise here is that of union with Christ. In John 14:20 Jesus promised His disciples, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” In 15:5 the Lord declared, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” “If anyone is in Christ,” Paul wrote, “he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Later in that same epistle the apostle exhorted the Corinthians, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Cor. 13:5). To the Galatians he wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).”Christ in you,” he reminded the Colossians, is “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). In his first epistle the apostle John wrote, “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20; cf. 2:24; 3:24; 4:13; John 17:21; Rom. 6:3–8; 8:10; 1 Cor. 1:30; 6:17; Eph. 3:17; Col. 2:10).

In verse 57 Jesus declared the source of His authority to make such promises: “the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.” Jesus had earlier stated, “As the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself” (5:26). Therefore, those who believe in Jesus will live because of Him. Jesus has life in Himself; and believers also have life in Him.

The Lord concluded this magnificent teaching by repeating the thought of verses 49 and 50. The invitation is as clear today as it was that memorable day in the synagogue … in Capernaum. The one who pursues material things will die as surely as the rebellious Israelites died in the wilderness. But he who eats the bread which came down out of heaven … will live forever.