The Bread of Life

Introduction

     The world we live in is a world that encourages people to be self-reliant, self-sufficient and independent; it is a world that wants people to be in control of their lives and in complete defiance to God’s rules and authority. But contrary to what the world wants us to believe, whatever men undertake, they can never be in control – neither of their own lives nor of anything else in the universe. For God is in control of everything, and we are in essence insufficient and powerless beings – “In [God’s] hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10). It is therefore madness to seek to be autonomous; it is utter foolishness to put God  to the side. No creature, in heaven and on earth, is capable of ensuring its persistence, and man is no exception. We all need God – the One who alone is self-sufficient, independent and all-powerful – to sustain us daily, hourly, and moment by moment. We cannot not fare without the Lord our God; for He alone can ensure our persistence, both physical and spiritual. He is our sustenance.

     However, because of the sinfulness of the sons of men, their hunger is essentially centered on the wrong object. They have an excessive appetite for physical and temporal pleasures, and are always governed by the desire to ensure the welfare of their bodies. It is the nature of men to worry about what they will eat, what they will drink, what they will wear – and for the wealthy – where they will spend their next vacation, what new car or home they will buy, how to stay healthy and young, and so forth. Therefore many work so hard, getting up early in the morning and going to bed late, because they want to gather as much wealth as possible to ensure all their desires are met. Moreover, those who are greedy for dishonest gain indulge in sinful activities in order to increase their wealth. They oppress and plunder the poor, they cheat and steal, they shed blood and destroy lives, in order to multiply their riches, because they think one’s life consists in the abundance of his possessions. They live as if they were made for things and pleasures, always chasing after health, wealth and prosperity. They pursue temporal stuff, things that perish, and do not seek Him for Whom they were created and who alone is their sustenance. 

The Bread of Life rejected by men

     History and the current state of affairs in our realm testify that natural men seek above all the satisfaction of their fleshly desires. For instance, during the wanderings of the people of Israel in the wilderness, “the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at” (Numbers 11:4-6). In Numbers 21:5, “the people spoke against God and against Moses, [saying,] “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 

     The people of Israel treasured the food they had while in Egypt more than the LORD their God who was in their midst. For by rejecting the manna that the LORD was giving them, they were in fact rejecting the LORD Himself. They rejected the LORD who “brought [them] out of Egypt with a mighty hand, [showing them] signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before [their] eyes. And He brought [them] out from there, that He might bring [them] in and give [them] the land that He swore to give to [their] fathers” (Deuteronomy 6:21-23). The LORD rescued them out of Egypt in order to preserve them, to ensure their persistence and to be their God. But even though the LORD shielded them with His presence and did not fail to provide for their needs, their hearts were far from Him. 

     The people of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for four centuries. But the LORD rescued them and was taking them to a land that flowed with milk and honey. With patience the LORD Himself shepherded them, despite their stubbornness. “[His] cloud [stood] over them and [He went] before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night” (Numbers 14:14). Although  they were undeserving of God’s compassion, His presence never left them and His blessings and love rested upon them. Yet their attitude toward the Lord was one of contempt: they did not regard the LORD as supremely precious, but set their hearts on temporal things. They had no regard for God’s transcendent beauty and majesty and His infinite goodness. Although they had left Egypt for a journey to the Promised Land, their hearts were still in Egypt after meat, fish, cucumbers, melons, onions, leeks and garlic. They rejected the LORD because they were prisoners of their evil appetite. 

     In the days of our Lord’s earthly ministry, a strong craving for temporal things also characterized the multitude who followed Him – for many went after Him not because of who He was (the Messiah), but for temporal blessings and the care He provided them, namely free bread, healing from various diseases and afflictions, cleansing from leprosy, resurrection of the dead, and deliverance from demonic possession. In other words, they wanted the gifts and not Christ the Giver. For instance, when the Lord fed a crowd of about five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fish near the sea of Galilee, on the next day the crowd that remained on the shore “got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking [Him]” (John 6:24). But knowing what was in their hearts, the Lord rebuked the people for their intemperance. For they had failed to perceive the meaning of the wondrous deeds He had performed in their midst. And the Lord then urged them, saying, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set His seal” (John 6:27). 

     Lest anyone think that the natural disposition of his heart is different or that there has ever been a generation of men whose natural inclination was different from that of these people of old, I invite everyone to examine themselves and also the world we live in. Craving for temporal treasures and fleshly pleasures characterizes the sons of men, because they are morally corrupt. This is evidenced by the multitude of crimes, dissensions, separations and wars that afflict our relationships – both horizontal and vertical – and denounced by the Lord in His Word. For instance, the Spirit of the Lord asks us the following questions through His servant James, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:1-3). The answers given here by James clearly show that the desire of the human heart is essentially fleshly and that in order to satisfy his passions, man commits all kinds of evil.

     In our natural state, we all follow in the footsteps of the multitude of old, being lovers of God’s gifts and blessings rather than lovers of God the Giver. The upsurge of the prosperity gospel in the world today is a clear indication that natural men are governed by craving for material things and temporal joys, an evidence of their carnality and hatred of the One True and Living God. For as it is written, “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24b). 1 John 2:15-16 is an alarm bell sounded by the Apostle John in his admonition of the Christian community, that is, those who are born of the Spirit of Christ. In this passage, John tells us what genuine love for God does not seek and invites us to take heed. He writes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world.” John’s admonition points to the new way of life created by God, which the believers must now embrace and walk in, since they are no longer of the world (system of evil) but a new creation in Christ, children of God by adoption. 

     It is mind-boggling that despite such a clear and strict injunction, many today call themselves Christians and claim to hold to the teachings of the Bible when in reality they are essentially worldly in their conduct; they live in total opposition to God's rules and do not submit to His authority. They love God's gifts rather than God Himself, because their hearts are hardened against God and they hate Him with all their faculties. Such is the nature of every man who is not yet born of the Spirit. He views God as a cash machine where he can turn and collect blessings and treasures at will.

     The LORD God made us in His own image, and our chief purpose is to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. In the beginning, when God created men, they were holy and therefore fulfilled this purpose perfectly. But because of sin, we now fall short of the glory of our God and no longer delight in Him. In our natural state, we all hate the One True and Living God. However, despite our unworthiness, it has pleased the LORD, according to His sovereign grace and will, to redeem us from sin and its effects, so that we may once again share His holiness. For this reason, God the Father sent His Son into the world some two thousand years ago to deliver us from our enslavement to sin and death. And the signs that the Son of God performed among the people in the days of His earthly ministry were meant to identify Him, to bear witness about Him – that He was the promised Messiah, the Savior sent by the Father to give life to God’s people. But the people failed to recognize Him and rejected Him, for their hearts sought the satisfaction of their physical desires rather than of their spiritual needs; they wanted material blessings and physical deliverance rather than spiritual blessings and deliverance. Fundamentally, they wanted the gifts and not the Giver.

    Having witnessed the people’s lack of discernment, the Lord, after rebuking the people, exhorted them not to work for food that perishes. Then they asked Him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (For they thought He was saying that God required them to do some works in order to obtain eternal life). Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” So they said to Him, “Then what sign do You do, that we may see and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to Him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe” (John 6:28-36). 

     Like their fathers in the wilderness, these people had seen signs and wonders, but their spiritual blindness kept them from perceiving their significance; their depraved minds and sensual hearts shut them in the dark and they could not perceive the glory of God shining in the face of His Son Jesus Christ. Their hardness of heart kept them from seeing the Son of God as their supreme treasure and from delighting in Him. Therefore, they did not believe in Him. They were told by the Lord what they were to do, which was, to labor for the Bread of Life that endures to eternal life rather than to devote themselves exclusively to the pursuit of material things; He plainly urged them to believe in Him, the Savior of the world, to hunger for and to delight in the true Bread of God, the Life-giving Bread. Yet they still did not understand what they needed most. They earnestly asked Him, “Sir, give us this bread always”. 

     However, their grumbling and desertion thereafter (see vv. 41-66) reveal on the one hand their misinterpretation of the Lord’s statement which exhorted them to seek the bread of God; for they instead thought of physical bread. And on the other hand, their grumbling and desertion also demonstrate how much they only cared about their bellies. Physical welfare was their main preoccupation. Therefore, they rejected the Bread of Life, the Bread of God who came down from heaven to give them life. They delighted in physical bread, but wanted nothing to do with the spiritual bread, the Bread of Life, “the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die” (John 6:50). They only cared about the welfare of their bodies, not that of their souls. 

     Contempt for and rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ is not an attitude that characterizes only Israel in the wilderness, or the multitude of people who followed the Lord during His ministry on earth simply because He provided for their various needs. Throughout human history, people have scorned the Lord our God and many, even today, have gone after Him only for prosperity, health and wealth. For they are driven by their excessive appetite for material wealth and temporal blessings, being dead in their trespasses and sins. Therefore they deliberately disregard the reason why the Son of God left His throne on high and entered the realm of mankind in human flesh. They want Christ’s blessings and gifts but want nothing to do with Him; for their sinful hearts hunger for physical bread but hate and revile the Bread of Life, to the peril of their souls.

The Infinite Preciousness and Supremacy of the Bread of Life

     It is crucial for us to understand that there is a direct connection between what we seek and delight in in this present life and our eternal destiny. Two options are set before each person on this earth: either to labor for temporal things or to seek eternal glory. In other words, we can either revel in earthly riches and physical welfare or delight in Jesus Christ the Bread of Life, the supreme and eternal heavenly treasure. Our eternal destiny will be the payoff for whatever we pursue in this present life. That is to say, the object of our enjoyment in this life determines our end in the life to come. Paul writes in Romans 8:5-8, “ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” So those who hunger for the Bread of Life and rejoice in Him are rewarded with life and peace; but a life spent in the pursuit of health, wealth and prosperity is a ruined and hopeless life, for its reward is death. And as it is written, “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death” (Proverbs 11:4).  

     There is neither life nor peace without Christ, the Bread of Life. He who is not in Christ is dead and at enmity with God. “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). We must feed on the Bread of Life in order to pass from death to life and have peace with God. For we are by nature dead in our trespasses and sins, and what we deserve is the wrath of God. But in the fullness of His grace, the Father sent His Son into the world to wash away our sins and to impart life to our dead souls. Jesus Christ the Son of God is the Life-giving Bread. “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”, declares the Lord in John 6:51. “God put forward [His Son] as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25a). Anyone who repents of his sins and believes in Christ’s substitutionary death is justified before God and receives the free gift of eternal life.

     Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bread of life, is the only way to be right with God and the guarantee of an eternity of bliss. The Son of God delivered Himself up graciously and willingly (not grudgingly) as a propitiation for the sins of men so that everyone who believes in Him may have their sins forgiven. He is the treasure we must all seek in this life, the Bread we must all labor for, the object of our joy. For we were made by Him and for Him, to glorify Him and to delight in Him.  To reject the Son of God in this present life is to condemn one’s body and soul to eternal torment. “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 you”, says the Lord Himself in John 6:53. Unless a person trusts in Christ’s vicarious death on the cross, unless a person recognizes that the Son of God bore the wrath of God in the stead of ruined sinners and relies exclusively upon the person and work of Christ for the salvation of his soul, such a person will remain spiritually dead and the wrath of God, the Righteous and Holy One, shall come upon him. There is neither peace nor life apart from Christ the Lord, but death and eternal torment.

     No matter how much treasure we gather in this life and how many so-called good deeds we accomplish, our eternal destiny will be but misery if we do not feed our souls on the Bread of life. For only the Bread of Life can impart life to our souls and save us from the wrath of God. To everyone who believes on Him, the Lord Jesus Christ imputes His own righteousness, both active and passive, and they are counted by God as righteous. His wrath no longer remains on them, for they are sealed by the Spirit of Christ into God’s covenant love and adopted into His family. As Paul writes in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Because Christ paid the full penalty for their sins with the blood of His cross, those who repent of their sins and trust in His person and work are delivered from sin and its penalty. For Christ imputes to them His own righteousness as a gift. For the life that Christ lived, He lived for those who would believe on Him, and He died as their substitute upon Calvary’s cross and was raised for their justification.

     The righteousness that comes from Christ, the Lord our God, is more precious than anything. No earthly riches compares with its value, and there is nothing in the world that we sinners need more than the righteousness from God; for, being separated from the Creator God because of our sins, our reconciliation with Him depends on it. No peaceful relationship with God can be established apart from this righteousness. Our eternal destiny will be a horror if we lack the righteousness that comes from God. Therefore, the Lord commands His disciples in Matthew 6:31-33, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Through this command, the Lord underlines the preeminence of a right relationship with God over temporal blessings. He says, “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”, for only when we have attained this can we enjoy everlasting peace and bliss now and in the life to come. The righteousness from God is of infinite value to us, for without the imputed righteousness of God, we cannot be justified before Him, nor can we become heirs of His Kingdom. Without the righteousness that comes from God and is received by faith in His beloved Son Jesus Christ, sinners are condemned to eternal torment. Therefore, our highest goal ought to be the attainment of God's righteousness for the salvation of our souls and an intimate relationship with God. And this we must pursue, not on our own terms, nor with our own efforts, but on God’s terms, relying only upon His power and wisdom. 

     “Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and the Gospel of Christ “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17). No intimate relationship with God can be established apart from His Son Jesus Christ. No man can be right before God apart from the Gospel of Christ. It is on the basis of the person and work of Jesus Christ the Son of God that sinners can be justified before God and reconciled with Him. Christ is the supreme treasure from God, the promised righteous Branch of whom the Father spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. “In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness’” (Jeremiah 23:5-6). Christ is “The LORD our righteousness”! In Him alone we must delight and for Him alone we must hunger. For He is our ultimate treasure. 

     When the Apostle Paul perceived how exceedingly valuable it is to know the Lord Christ, all earthly treasures lost their glory in his sight; they were nothing but rubbish before his eyes. And so he wrote in Philippians 3:7-11, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

    Before the Fall, man delighted exclusively in God, because he was holy, undefiled. Therefore, he did not suffer lack or experience decay; he was not subject to peril. Man was alive and his life was purposeful; for he lived to the glory of the Lord and rejoiced in Him. But man’s disobedience led to his death and separation from God. We, the seeds of Adam (the first man), are all spiritually dead by nature, incapable of living up to the standard of perfection set by the LORD. We no longer delight in the Lord our God but whore after false gods, seeking the satisfaction of our flesh. As it is written, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Therefore we are all separated from God and what we all deserve is death; “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). Now there is only one way for us to be restored to life: to repent of our sins and to put our trust in Christ the Bread of Life. We all need Christ, the Lord God our Savior, to have our sins forgiven and to be restored to life. He alone can revive us and put an end to our hunger. “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst”, declares the Lord in John 6:35. 

     “Man is an eternally dissatisfied being”, they say. For he always wants to obtain more than what he already has – more pleasures, more money, more stuff; he always yearns for more comfort. No matter how much he already possesses or how pleasant the circumstances of his life are, man always desires to obtain more temporal blessings and pleasures and aspires to the ideal in all things. Truly, the natural man is never satisfied. Why? Because of his moral corruption and separation from God. But the Lord promises complete and eternal satisfaction to anyone who comes to Him. The question now is: How can man, who is known to have an insatiable hunger for all kinds of things, become so satisfied to the point where he no longer hungers nor thirsts when he comes to Christ? Answer: Because the blinders will be removed from his eyes; he will be given a new heart and a new mind; a new life will be imparted to his soul, and peace he will be given by Christ the Lord. Moreover, the Spirit of Christ will fill him with joy in and love for God and the things of God.  In short, he will be made alive and given a new nature – the divine nature. All this transformation enables the man to see Christ’s infinite preciousness. Then the glory of everything that the man used to view as precious fades before his eyes. Like Paul, he is able to perceive the supreme value of knowing Christ and he counts all earthly treasures and pleasures as rubbish. “Like [the] merchant in search of fine pearls, (in the Parable of the Pearl in Matthew 13:45-46) who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it), he turns from wealth, health and prosperity, he forsakes all idols for the sake of Christ the supreme treasure. 

     Nothing in the universe is more precious than the knowledge of the Lord Christ. That is, to be united to Christ through faith, to have an intimate relationship with Him, to be born of His Spirit. To know Christ is a wealth of infinite value. For Christ is the supreme treasure, the One for Whom it is worth living and dying. He is the Bread of Life, the One without Whom our soul remains dead and perishes. All the treasures of the universe pale beside Him. In Him there is life, in Him there is peace, in Him there is joy and freedom. Anyone who recognizes his spiritual corruption and inability to expiate his own sins and turns to the Son of God, the Bread of Life, is justified before God and shall live. But those who reject Christ or the Gospel can never be justified before God and death shall be their eternal reward. “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 you. Whoever feeds on 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. Whoever feeds on 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 whoever feeds on Me, he also will live because of Me”, declares Christ the Lord in John 6:53-57. But he who does not feed on Christ remains under the grip of death and his hunger never ceases. 

     Christ the Bread of Life is the person every single human being on the planet needs; for it is only through Him that we can be made alive and have peace with God; it is only through Christ that we can attain holiness and enjoy an eternity of bliss in the glorious presence of God. Refusal to feed on Christ, the Bread of Life, means death. To deny one’s soul to partake of the Bread of Life is to subject one’s soul to eternal ruin. For the Bread of Life is to one’s soul more than what physical bread is to his body. For apart from being the soul’s sustenance, the Bread of Life is the soul’s life-giver and purifier. Christ the Bread of Life is the Author of life and the One who alone can cleanse sinners from all defilement. 

     Whoever hungers for and feeds on something other than the Bread of Life feeds on ashes, and death is his eternal destiny. The Israelites who did not delight in the LORD God, but set their hearts on the meat, fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic of Egypt during their journey from Sinai to Kadesh, were destroyed because of their craving. After their grumbling, the LORD gave them meat in His anger, saying to them through His servant Moses, “You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’” (Numbers 11:19-20). And then, “While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague” (Numbers 11:33). A few decades later, as the people of Israel were journeying from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to bypass the land of Edom, they spoke against God and against Moses, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died” ((Numbers 21:5-6). 

   Beloved, destruction awaits anyone who does not delight in the LORD our God, anyone who refuses to partake of the Bread of Life. Delighting in our God and Savior Jesus Christ alone and partaking of Him who is the Bread of Life brings the harvest of peace, joy, life, freedom and holiness. For those of us who are in Christ, there is no more enmity with God but peace; there is no more hardness of heart but joy in the Lord; there is no more enslavement to sin, the flesh, and Satan, but freedom - freedom to do what is right in the sight of the LORD our God. And finally, there is no more spiritual harlotry, but holiness – thanks to the imputed righteousness of God’s Son to us and our sanctification by His Spirit.

The utter dependency of all things on the Bread of Life

     No creature in heaven and on earth can persist apart from the Creator God. Inanimate objects, planets and galaxies are upheld by the Lord; all living things - from bacteria to the giant Leviathan - depend on Him who alone can ensure their vitality and persistence. Without the necessary sustenance that God provides, living creatures lose their vitality and strength over time and eventually die. God providentially provides the animals with food for their sustenance, each according to its kind. To plants, He gives all they need to grow: sun, water and nutrients from the soil. Speaking of God’s provision for all living things, the psalmist writes, “The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand; You satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Psalms 145:15-16). Psalms 147:7-9 reads, “Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre! He covers the heavens with clouds; He prepares rain for the earth; He makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.” Like these creatures, man cannot live apart from God. However, unlike these – which only have a body – human beings have a body and a soul. And both the human body and the human soul need sustenance. Therefore the LORD, the Creator God, declares, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). 

     Man needs physical bread for his body, but at the same time he must feed his soul on the Word. For the Word is bread for the soul, the Life-giving Bread who came into the world to give us life. About Him John wrote in  John 1:1-4, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” The Word - which is Bread for the soul, the Bread of Life – is the eternal God and Maker of the universe. He left His throne on high and entered the realm of mankind so that all might live through Him. About Him John also wrote in 1 John 1:1-2, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life – the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.” 

     The Word of Life is coeternal and coequal with the Father and one in essence with Him. The Word is the second person of the Trinity, the God-Man Jesus Christ. He is both the Creator and the Recreator. In the beginning He made all things, and some two thousand years ago, He entered the realm of men to give them new life. Concerning this, Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christ the Lord is the Life-giving Bread, the One who gives life to our dead souls – “I am the bread of life”, declares the Lord our God in John 6:48. 

     Christ the Lord is to the soul more than what physical bread is to the body. Physical bread does not give life to the body, but only nourishes it. The Lord is the Life-giver and the Sustainer. He gives life to and sustains the body and the soul. In the beginning, He “formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7). However, the man fell into sin and died, and none but Christ the Lord has the power to raise him up. Christ the Lord is the Life-giving Bread who gives life to the spiritually dead. He is eternal life. Without Christ, the sons of men remain spiritually dead and are subject to the second death, that is, eternity in hell. 

     Death is man’s last enemy; but Christ the Lord, the Bread of life, is death’s Conqueror. He defeated death at the cross and has the power to impart life to our dead souls and take us to the Father. He was sent into our realm by the Father so that everyone who feeds on Him may be brought from spiritual deadness to life and escape the eternal torment of hell, that is, the second death. Speaking of Himself in John 6:58b the Lord says, “Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 

     We must feed on Christ the Bread of life to be transferred from death to life and from the domain of darkness to the Kingdom of light, the Kingdom of Christ. As sinners, we are by nature spiritually dead and belong to the kingdom of darkness. Moreover, we are unable to free ourselves from the sting of death; we are unable to come to the Light, because we hate the Light. Christ, the Lord our God, is Light and Life: He alone can dispel the darkness into which we fumble and impart life to our dead souls. For wickedness and hostility toward God are defining marks of our nature. There is nothing within us that drives us to the Light, nothing that delights in God: we hate God with all our faculties, nothing in us is stirred with affection for the things of the Spirit; for the power of the flesh is at work within us – as the Lord Himself declares in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” By this declaration, our Lord points out on the one hand the sin-prone condition of an unregenerate heart and its natural ability to achieve only that which is consistent with its inherently sinful nature. And on the other hand, our Lord testifies that a heart born of the Spirit is set on the things of the Spirit because it is of the Spirit. He thus underlines the lack of accordance between the fruit of an unregenerate heart and that of a regenerate heart to further clarify what He says in the previous verse in His answer to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God” (v.5). For he who is not born of the Spirit belongs to the kingdom of darkness; he is in bondage to sin and death. And since there is no fellowship between light and darkness, nor can impurity and holiness dwell together, such a person cannot enter the glorious presence of God.

    A spiritually dead man cannot please God, for a dead corpse does not release a pleasant aroma but a nasty stench. A spiritually dead person is but a foul stench in the nostrils of the LORD, the Holy One. All he does is an abomination to God – Proverbs 15:8a reads, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD”; Proverbs 28:9, “He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination.” 

     The natural man is a spiritual dead person, a foul stench in the LORD’s nostrils; he must be born again to become a pleasing aroma to God. And this new life is exclusively given by God’s beloved Son Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life. For the Father sent Him into the world to give life to the sons of men. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life”, declares the Lord in John 6:63. Any attempt to attain spiritual awakening through human means is inadequate. It is the Spirit of Christ who revives the soul and preserves it. Therefore, whoever rejects Christ the Bread of Life chooses death; he deprives his soul of the only sustenance there is and feeds upon ashes. But all those who partake of the Bread of life pass from death to life; they are nourished and knit together into one body, the body of Christ, and they grow with a growth that is from God (Colossians 2:19). 

     My dear friend, have you been labouring for the food that perishes? Have you been nourishing yourself with anything other than Jesus Christ the Bread of Life? I plead with you to stop poisoning your soul. Stop feeding yourself on ashes! Turn away from vain labor and pursue the Living Bread. For unless you partake of the Living Bread, your eternal destiny will be a complete misery. Turn to Christ now. For “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The evil world system claims that there are many ways to salvation. It is simply a deception devised by Satan and his human agents to keep people in darkness, under Satan’s dominion and under the grip of death. There is only one way to salvation. This way, the Way, is the Man Jesus Christ, the Living Bread. Anything else is a scam and a sham from the devil and his agents who exalt man over God and deceitfully affirm human effort as a remedy for the sin problem. The Most High and Holy One, against Whom we have sinned, declared by the mouth of His prophet, “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). The LORD did not say: the righteous shall live by his good deeds, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, carry us away” (Isaiah 64:6). Therefore we must rely upon the perfect work of His Son Jesus Christ in order to be counted by God as righteous. 

     Justification is by faith alone. No amount of good works can make a person righteous, nor can the works of a man turn away the wrath of God. “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly  and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit” (Psalms 49:7-9). Only the person and work of Christ the God-Man can and has turned away the wrath of God from all those who have put their trust in Him. For by the blood of His cross, Christ paid the full penalty for their sins and satisfied the wrath of God. Therefore they will escape death (eternity in hell) and inherit the Kingdom of God. But those who reject Christ will be cut off from the land of the living. For there is no life for those who have not eaten the Bread of Life. 

     If you are not nourished by Christ, the Bread of Life, once again I urge you to turn to Him now, so that your soul may be restored to life. Feed on Christ Jesus. He is the bread of God “who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). In the days of Isaiah, the LORD asked Israel through His prophet, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” (Isaiah 55:2). The LORD is asking the same question today to all those who, like you, do not feed on the Bread of Life, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” So turn to Him now, that your soul may be quickened and preserved. Incline your ears to His words, they “are spirit and life”. Seek the Lord now that His grace is still available. He will impart life to your dead soul and you will no longer be a foul stench in His nostrils but a living and pleasing aroma. Furthermore, you will become a child of God and share in the inheritance of His beloved Son. So repent of your sins now and put your trust in Christ the Lord without further delay.