The Bread of Life

"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.  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
John 6:35-40

From the beginning of time, God has been transcendent over everything else.  When it was dark, his words were more powerful than the darkness, and when he commanded light to shine forth, it happened.  When there was increasing evil on the earth, he was powerful enough to send enough water down to flood the earth and bring the destruction he meant to.  When he told Moses to lead Israel out of Egyptian slavery and follow him to where he would take them, he was powerful enough to defy physics and gravity and make water stand on end.  Before this, he was powerful enough to "harden Pharaoh's heart", and make him hard-hearted enough to refuse Moses' request so that God would show His glory over even humanity's arrogance and pride (and regardless of what you may say, God does harden Pharaoh's heart, and we're living in a fantasy world if we attempt to refuse this).  He's powerful enough to rain down food from heaven when Israel is in the wilderness, along with water from a rock.  We could continue on with all that the Bible tells us about God's power over his creation.

But in the Prophets, God begins to speak of a new display of power that he will perform--in this display He will "put (his) law within them and write it on their hearts" (Jeremiah 31:33) and He will "put the fear of (him) in their hearts, that they may not turn from (him)" (32:40).  He also says He will "remove (hearts) of stone and give (hearts) of flesh...and will put (his) Spirit within you and cause you to obey (his) rules" (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Whereas since the beginning all of God's works...even the ones involving people...have been outward, this new work is going to be inward.  In this work, He will change people's hearts...even going so far as to say that He will cause them to obey Him.  In this work, He will bind up people's wills by making them realize "what other option do I have, and why would I want to go down that road?"

And this is exactly what Jesus is referring to in John 6.  Jesus says that whereas before, when all of God's provisions have been outward (ie. providing bread from heaven to feed people's stomachs), Jesus has come down from heaven to be the Bread which will change people's hearts.  In 6:29-33, He's speaking of His importance, and the people doubt and question, reminding Him that Moses gave Israel bread in the wilderness proving why they should trust him.  To this, in 32-33, Jesus tells them, "It was not Moses who gave you bread...but my Father...for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
Did you get that?  Jesus said not only that God's bread is a He, but that this bread gives life.  He is different (and better) than an it (which is what physical bread would be), and life is different (and better) than a full stomach.
Of course, this is a tough teaching, especially for people (like them, and us) who have been so stupefied over the years by the thought that our physical (and more recently, emotional) needs are the only needs we have, and if those are met, we're satisfied.  These are scraps off the table, but we're satisfied with them.

But Jesus is saying that there's more.  To Jesus, man is meant to live, and this life will only be given by partaking in the "bread which comes down from heaven"--this bread that is a He.  And the bread is Christ Himself.  Any who turn to receive this bread are promised to "never hunger...and never thirst".  What a wonderful promise!
And yet, Jesus takes it a step further--a step into more uncomfortable territory (at least for us).  He says "All that the Father has given me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out".  Jesus is saying that whereas in the wilderness wanderings the purpose of the bread coming from heaven was to feed man, now, with this Bread, the purpose of the Bread coming down is for man to come to Him.  The focus isn't man--the focus is the Bread.  It's not about man--it's about the Bread.

This is because of what God earlier spoke in the Prophets--He said that He will change people's hearts and that He will save many by putting His own Spirit inside of them.  Jesus later on (three chapters prior to the Bread discourse) told a religious leader "Unless one is born of...the Spirit, he cannot see the Kingdom of God" (3:5), and then a little after the Bread discourse He said "It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is no help at all" (6:63).  What is the point?  The point is that the Sovereign and Holy and Transcendent God of all things is going to save people by changing people by His powerful Spirit.  And He'll do this by a) drawing them to His Son the Bread, and b) feeding them with His Son the Bread.  This means that regardless of (and in spite of) these people's wanderings and mistakes and sins, those who have truly fed on Christ Jesus who is the Bread, will be changed, and will continually be changed until God takes them home.

This is why Jesus said, "This is the will of my Father, that I should lose nothing of all that He's given me...that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day" (6:39-40).  To Jesus and His Father, this salvation is one that will be secure, if it's a true salvation.  This is why He calls the person's new life eternal, because it IS eternal, and won't end.
Of course, we all will throw up red flags and say "Oh no, I've known many who have come to Jesus and have fallen away!" and truly we all have people in our lives who appear to have been on the right track and have went off the track, and it breaks our hearts because we love them.
But according to Jesus, those who have truly come to Him and partaken of Him the Bread will continue to come to Him and partake of Him.  "I will never cast them out."  He later says, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of his hand" (10:27-29).  True sheep hear Jesus' voice and come to Him, feed off of Him, love Him, and continue to love Him.  Again Jesus says that they have "eternal life", and says that their remaining Christians is because of the fact that His Father, "who's given them to me", is 'greater than all'.**

This is the whole nature of being united with Christ--later on Paul said that God, "rich in mercy...even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ...and raised us with (Him) and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6).  To Paul, God did this, just like the Prophets said He would.

So we're back to the beginning of this blog:  the God who is transcendent over all things.  If He really is (which we'd almost all agree He is), wouldn't it stand to reason that He could transform someone's heart and make them into a faithful disciple?  It appeared in the Prophets that He said He could, and Jesus testified to this by saying that this Bread that they eat from will give them eternal life...couldn't God do it?

I'll leave you with that question.  It's not that man is not responsible to repent and live a life of obedience (Paul speaks pretty clearly to that in Romans 6-8)--it's just that if this does happen, it's because Jesus the Bread of Life is empowering this and causing obedience like God said He would.
Look at yourself...with all of your unfaith and unbelief and unrepentant sin and pride and self-righteousness, has the God of grace continually and patiently worked on your heart and not given up on you?  Do YOU feel like you could walk away?  "Yes I could, but I don't want to, and I won't," is the typical response.  And you're right--you won't.  But why won't you?  It's because you've partaken of the Bread, and you know that He's good.  You've been changed, and you've seen His power in your life (truly, His power has given you life).  So why not accept Jesus' words for what He says and accept that He's the author of salvation and will continue to shepherd you and any who come to Him like only the Good Shepherd can?

Couldn't God do it?

**"No one will snatch them out of my hand" is usually responded to with "But someone could jump out of His hand!"  But this isn't a well-thought out retort--when Jesus said "no one", doesn't that mean the sheep themselves, too?  Otherwise, Jesus would have said, "No one can snatch them out...accept for they them self".  But He didn't say that.