From the desk of Pastor Ben.
Receiving the Bread of Life

Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”         (John 6:34-35)

The people’s demand to have Jesus meet only their physical needs, clearly reveals their ongoing spiritual blindness. Their ignorance showed that “a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The crowd’s utter lack of spiritual understanding led our Lord to declare, “I am the bread of life.” Obviously, Jesus did not refer to Himself as physical bread, but to the supreme spiritual bread from heaven. No earthly food, not even manna or what Jesus had recently created for the feeding of the 5,000, could permanently relieve physical hunger. When He said those who come to Him will never again hunger or thirst, Jesus referred metaphorically to the soul’s hungering and thirsting (Psalm 42:1-2; 63:1; Matthew 5:6).

Humanity must come to Christ and believe in Him in order to have salvation. Although john doesn’t use the term “repentance,” the concept is implied in Jesus’ words. Our Savior urged people to forsake sin and embrace Him as Lord. Billy Graham says, “You and your sins must separate, or you and your God will never come together.” One who comes to Christ trusts Him completely as the Lamb of God and Bread of Life who gave Himself on the cross for sinners. To repent is to turn from sin; to believe is to turn in faith to the only Savior — inseparable concepts, like sides of the same coin.

Ask Yourself:
The incompatibility of sin and pure relationship with Christ is so clear in Scripture and so evident in our own experience, it’s a wonder we continue to try to disprove it. What makes us think that anything can rival the blessing of conscience-free fellowship with Him?