John 6:35 - The bread of life

6:35

We now get one of the famous “I am” statements of Jesus, “I am the bread of life”. This the first of seven of these I am statements. Jesus has just said that the Father would give the true bread that gives life, and now He claims to be this “bread”. Jesus is the One who gives us life.

It is important to realise that the gospel calls us to believe in the person of Jesus Christ, not a set of ideas, not a theology, not a philosophy, but the Person of the Son of God. Now that absolutely not to say that theology doesn’t matter, nor that it does not affect our lives. If you know me at all, or have read much of my blog, I hope you realise that I greatly value theology. Moreover, sound doctrine is vital.Those who say things like “I’m just for Jesus”, which is usually an excuse for ignoring something that the Bible says, are completely deluded fools. However, if we try to base our life and our faith on believing a set of precepts rather than trust in the Person of Jesus Christ we will come a cropper. Earlier Jesus has criticised the Pharisees who diligently studied the Scriptures but had completely missed the point. In Revelation the church at Ephesus is criticised for forgetting their first love.

Note also that Jesus says “whoever comes to me ...”. Later on (6:44) He will say “no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him”. We need to hold these two aspects together. There are two very silly versions of Calvinism and Arminianism. On the one hand there is the version that says it is entirely upto the Father, and on the other is the version that says it is entirely up to us. Both are wrong. It is indeed up to the Father, but we have a responsibility. We must go to Jesus.

And when we go to Jesus we will never go hungry, never go thirsty. Now Jesus is talking about spiritual food here, but we can be certain that He will meet our deepest needs. We experience all sorts of things in life, go through all sorts of traumas. We should go to Jesus. And when there is nothing in particular happening in our lives, we should go to Jesus. He is the source of life.