As the Passover Lamb Christ not only shed His blood for our redemption; He also imparts His life into us for our nourishment. Concerning this, in verse 51 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world.” At this point the bread (mentioned earlier in the chapter) becomes the flesh. Bread is of the vegetable life and is only for feeding; flesh is of the animal life and is not only for feeding but also for redeeming. Before the fall of man, the Lord was the tree of life (Gen. 2:9), which is only for feeding man. After man fell into sin, the Lord became the Lamb (John 1:29), which is not only for feeding man but also for redeeming him (Exo. 12:4, 7-8).
In John 6:51b the Lord Jesus tells us that His flesh would be given “for the life of the world.” The Lord gave His body, that is, His flesh, dying for us that we might have life.
Many verses in John 6 reveal that, for our experience and enjoyment, Christ is the bread of life (vv. 27, 32-35, 47-58, 63a, 68b). As the bread of life, He is the bread with eternal life. Spiritually speaking, everyone is hungry and in need of Christ as the bread of life.
This chapter clearly indicates that we need food. Our unique need according to this chapter is Christ as our food, Christ as the bread of life. We all are hungry and need food. Even though you may have been a Christian for many years, you still need Christ as your food every day. Christ is not only your life; He, as the bread of life, is also your life supply, your daily food.
In verse 27 the Lord Jesus said, “Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for Him has the Father, even God, sealed.” As elsewhere in the Gospel of John, eternal life is the divine life, the uncreated life of God, which is not only everlasting with respect to time but also is eternal and divine in nature.
The food which abides to eternal life is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He came from the heavens not only to be our Savior—He came also to be our food. This means that He came to be the tree of life. What we need today is Christ as the eternal food, as the tree of life. We do not yet realize to the fullest extent how much we need Christ to be our daily food.
In verse 32 the Lord Jesus referred to Himself as the true bread: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven.” As the true bread Christ is the bread of truth, or reality. Christ is true, real. He is the true food, and all other kinds of food are mere shadows of Him as the real food. The physical food we take in every day is a shadow of Christ. The reality of the food we eat daily is Jesus Christ. Christ is the true bread of life sent by God to bring us eternal life. We all need Christ to be the bread of life, the true bread, to us. We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that we need Christ as the true bread of life sent by God to bring us eternal life. Therefore, through the Word we need to feed on Christ as the living bread.
In verse 33 we see that Christ is the bread of God who, through incarnation, came down out of heaven and gives life to the world. As the bread of God He is God, He was sent by God, and He was with God. Although Christ is the very God, He became flesh in order to be the bread of life for us to eat.
In verse 35 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” and in verse 51 He said, “I am the living bread.” Bread of life refers to the nature of the bread, which is life; living bread refers to the condition of the bread, which is living.
In verse 47 the Lord Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes has eternal life.” From this we see that everyone who believes in Him receives eternal life.
According to the word of the Lord Jesus in verse 29, the work of God is that we “believe into Him whom He has sent.” The Lord’s concept concerning God is that man should believe into Him, that is, receive Him as life and the life supply. This is the principle of the tree of life, which brings in life, as seen in Genesis 2. It is in contrast to the principle of the tree of knowledge, which brings in death.