I Am the Bread of Life!

" 'Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.'

"Then they said to Him, 'What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?'

"Jesus answered, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.'

"Therefore they said to Him, 'What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'

"Then Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give 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.'

"Then they said to Him, 'Lord, give us this bread always.'

"And Jesus said to them, 'I Am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.' " (1)

Christ is the One who nourishes us with the bread of life. He is "the way, the truth, and the life." (2) He is the heaven sent teacher. Believing in Him is essential to the spiritual life that leads to everlasting life. "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (3)

"As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven - not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." (4)

Jesus perhaps gives more clarity to the bread of life when He said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' " (5) During His last meal with His Disciples, Jesus "took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' " (6) Symbolically, when we partake of the Lord's supper, we eat the bread and it nourishes us. In like manner, by feeding on the Word of God, we nourish our intellect and our souls. Jesus is the heaven sent messenger who reconciles us to God. (Colossians 1:19, 20) When we feed on Him, study His life and His instructions to us, He nourishes our soul, He is the bread of life!

"He who believes in Me shall never thirst." Jesus used this same expression when speaking to a woman at a well near a city of Samaria. A woman came to the well, where Jesus was resting, to draw water and Jesus asked the woman for a drink from the well.

The woman said to Him, " 'How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?' For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

"Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, "Give Me a drink," you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.'

"The woman said to Him, 'Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?'

"Jesus answered and said to her, 'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.' " (7)

The "Living Water" offered by Jesus satisfies the thirst of the soul for better things than this life has to offer. The result of drinking the "living water" is "a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

For us, Jesus is the Bread of life, and a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. (To be continued)

1. John 6:27-35.
2. John 14:6.
3. John 6:40.
4. John 6:57, 58.
5. Matthew 4:4.
6. 1 Corinthians 12:23, 24.
7. John 4:9-14.