I Am the Bread of Life

Lesson #112

In this lesson we will cover John 6:48 – 51 and see what Jesus says that causes the Jews to dispute among themselves. Jesus continues by saying, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died” (John 6:48 – 49 ESV). We just finished a very difficult verse and now Jesus is leading up to another one. He is now drawing a contrast between him being the bread of life and the manna in the wilderness. Jesus claims there is an important difference. Those who ate the manna were physically nourished for a while but they eventually died. Jesus claims he is the bread of life that will provide eternal life.

Jesus says, “This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die” (John 6:50 ESV). Imagine that you are in the crowd and you hear Jesus say he is the bread of life and if eaten would provide eternal life. Do you think you would understand? I don’t think there are many Christians today that can explain this verse. These people are unsaved and they stand there wondering what he is talking about. How are they to eat this bread?

What Jesus says next doesn’t help at all and in fact makes the matter even less understandable. He says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51 ESV). Here Jesus identifies his flesh as the bread that is to be given. How will his flesh be given for the life of the world?

His flesh is to become a sacrifice; his flesh and blood will be given as a substitute in our place. The Son of man must be lifted up on a cross (John 3:14) as the perfect sacrifice to die in our place for our sin. The question is, “How do we appropriate this to our lives?” How do we eat of this bread, his flesh, to obtain the life he has to give? Can you imagine the confusion that must exist there in the crowd?

The next section, defined by John 6:52 – 58, will add much more to this discussion. We will start that section in our next lesson.

Prayer

Lord, you claim to be the bread that came down from heaven and if we eat of it we will not die, but will live forever. You also said that this bread was your flesh that we were to eat. This is indeed deep and difficult to understand. I pray for understanding as I write and for those who read that we will know the true meaning of this.