From the desk of Pastor Ben
The Bread of Life Is For Sinners

“The bread also which I give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
                    (John 6:51b)

The New Testament repeatedly states the concept of Jesus sacrificing His flesh, the Bread of Life, for sinners (Matthew 20:28; Ephesians 5:2, 25; 1 Timothy 2:6). Here, He looks ahead to His death (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24), one of many such predictions (Matthew 16:21; John 12:24; Mark 10:33-34; Luke 18:31-33).

So, it was the Lord’s flesh that purchased our redemption. It would have done us no good had He simply preached the Father’s standards and left us to try and keep them to earn salvation. That’s impossible for us. The only way for sinners like ourselves to be reconciled to a holy God was for Jesus to die “for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

The epistles instruct us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22); therefore, Jesus Christ became the ultimate sacrifice for sin, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The Lord offering up His flesh, or the Bread of Life, equals full payment to God for the sin — to the eternal benefit of all who truly believe (Romans 4:25; 1 John 2:2). If we have repented of our sin, trusted in Christ’s sacrifice, and by faith, appropriated His flesh, we can be confident of a complete pardon (Acts 13:38-39; Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:9).

Ask Yourself:
Imagine being in such grave danger that you would consider going to someone you know and, if it were possible, asking him or her to die in your place. How would you feel about that person for the rest of your life? What keeps us from always feeling that way about our Lord?