John 6:47

Joh_6:47-58

He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life

Everlasting life

I.

THE BLESSING, everlasting life. Everlasting life was never proposed in the schools of philosophy to the faith of man, or urged as a principle or motive to holiness. Those who taught were not sure of it themselves. What does it mean? We may take three views of it.

1. It is opposed to eternal death. Eternal death does not mean annihilation or destruction of being, bat of well-being, of happiness and of hope. So eternal life is not mere existence, but complete well-being.

2. It is distinguished from natural life: is a state of freedom from all possible evil, and the possession of all possible good.

3. Its complete spirituality. The people of God are now quickened and made alive. They have spiritual appetites, senses, powers, passions. They can perform spiritual exercises. But it doth not yet appear what we shall be.

II. THE OWNER OF THIS BLESSING. He that believeth on Me.

1. The object of this faith--the Lord Jesus. How surprised would you be did Paul, or Peter, or James express themselves in this way I But they well knew that salvation was not in them. Thus they preached not themselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.

2. Its nature. Belief is the giving assent to a declaration as true. But credence in itself is much like knowledge. We may know a thing, and not possess it, or pursue it. Faith always operates towards Christ as its object in a Way of trust and dependence, and in a way of application too.

III. THE SEASON OF POSSESSION--now. Not he shall have, but he hath. The believer has everlasting life

1. As his aim. The mariner has the port in his eye from the day he sails till he enters the desired haven. So is it with the Christian.

2. In promise. In my Fathers house, etc.; When He who is our life, etc.

3. In trust. And who is the trustee? The Lord Jesus, our Forerunner. He is gone to take possession.

4. In participation. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. But Christians have this Spirit, and by this Spirit is the Christian sealed to the day of redemption.

5. When are Christians peculiarly indulged with these anticipations?

(1) When they are alone. When I remember Thee on my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches.

(2) In the sanctuary services. A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand.

(3) In trouble. God acts upon the principle of the truest friendship, He is most near in the time of trouble.

(4) In death.

IV. THE GROUND OF THEIR CONFIDENCE. The fulness of their assurance: Verily, verily, I say unto you, etc. Here it is truth itself that speaks; and yet Christ employs a double asseveration, so that we may learn

1. The duty of belief, O fools, and slow of heart to believe:

2. The importance of our having the full assurance of understanding, and the full assurance of faith, to establish our hearts with grace. (W. Jay.)

Believing must be on Christ only

As the eye seeks for no other light than that of the sun, and joins no candles with it to dishonour the sufficiency of its beams, so no created thing must be joined with Christ as an object of faith. Who would join the weakness of a bulrush with the strength of a rock for his protection! Who would fetch water from a muddy pond to make a pure fountain in his garden more pleasant! Address yourselves only to Him to find a medicine for your miseries and comfort in your troubles, (S. Charnock.)

Certain salvation by believing

One walking with me observed, with some emphasis, I do not believe as you do. I am an Agnostic. Oh, I said to him. Yes. That is a Greek word, is it not? The Latin word, I think, is ignoramus. He did not like it at all. Yet I only translated his language from Greek to Latin. These are queer waters to get into, when all your philosophy brings you is the confession that you know nothing, and the stolidity which enables you to glory in your ignorance. As for those of us who rest in Jesus, we know and have believed something; for we have been taught eternal verities by Him who cannot lie. Our Master was not wont to say, It may be, or It may not be; but He had an authoritative style, and testified, Verily, verily, I say unto you. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of what He hath taught us shall cease to be the creed of our souls. We feel safe in this assurance; but should we quit it, we should expect soon to find ourselves in troubled waters. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Faith in Christ must be personal

In Gideons camp every soldier had his own pitcher; among Solomons men of valour every man wore his own sword; the five wise virgins had every one oil in her own lamp. Whosoever will go to God must have a faith of his own; it must be Thy faith hath saved thee. (J. Spencer.)

Faith, though weak, saves the soul

Faith is the eye by which we look to Jesus. A dim-sighted eye is still an eye; a weeping eye is still an eye. Faith is the hand with which we lay hold of Jesus. A trembling hand is still a hand. And he is a believer, whoso heart within him trembles when he touches the hem of the Saviours garment that he may be healed. Faith is the tongue by which we taste how good the Lord is. A feverish tongue. And even then we may believe, when we are without the smallest portion of comfort; for our faith is founded, not upon feelings, but upon the promises of God. Faith is the foot by which we go to Jesus. A lame foot is still a foot. He who comes slowly, nevertheless comes. (H. Muller.)

Everlasting life

I. IN CHRISTS PURCHASE.

II. IN GODS PROMISE.

III. IN THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. Conclusions:

1. The exclusiveness of the gospel. Without faith in Christ there is no salvation for any sinner.

2. The charity of the gospel. With faith there is salvation for all. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)

I am that Bread of Life.

The Bread of Life

I. THE STAFF OF LIFE.

1. Christ is the life.

2. Where Christ is unknown there can be no life.

(1) Heathenism is death.

(2) Unbelief.

(3) Formalism.

3. This life is worth everything and is to be obtained for nothing.

4. This life supports, not by talking about it, believing in statements concerning it, but by having and enjoying it.

II. The staff of life is USED ONLY BY FAITH. Faith

1. Receives.

2. Handles.

3. Tastes.

4. Digests.

5. Enjoys.

6. Grows thereby.

III. PARTICIPATION IN IT IS THE PRIVILEGE OF THE LORDS FAMILY. It is household bread.

1. The ungodly are self-excluded.

2. The qualification is the robe of righteousness, worn only by the Lords children.

3. The children participate through

(1) The Word;

(2) the sacrament. (J. Irons.)

The bread of life

I. A REPRESENTATION OF OUR SAVIOUR.

1. Life is more valuable than all beside.

2. The Scripture represents religion as life.

3. How many people look like life, having the form of godliness without the power.

4. The relation of Christ to this life. Bread which

(1)nourishes;

(2)is corn bruised: so Christ was bruised for our iniquities;

(3) must be eaten, or is nothing to us: so Christ is nothing till applied.

II. THE MEANS OF DERIVING THIS BENEFIT: coming to Christ and believing on Him. This reminds us

1. That Christ is accessible.

2. That faith is not mere sentiment, but a principle of life.

3. Faith is not an isolated but a continuous act.

III. THE HAPPINESS HIS FOLLOWERS SHALL ENJOY.

1. They shall never thirst for the world. Worldly men desire nothing else.

2. They shall not hunger or thirst in vain. The new creature has wants and appetites, but ample provision is made for their complete satisfaction.

3. They will not hunger or thirst always. I shall be satisfied, etc. Application: The subject is a standard by which we may estimate

1. Christ.

2. Our faith.

3. The Christian. (Preachers Analyst.)

Christ the bread of life

The analogy between Christ and corporal meat stands in these three particulars:

1. Sustentation. Corporal meat is for the preservation of the natural life. The natural life is maintained by meat, through the concurrence of Gods blessing. It is pabulum vitae. Hence bread, under which all other provision is comprehended, is called the staff of life (Isa_3:1). Keep the strongest man from meat but a few days, and the life will extinguish and go 1Sa_30:12). Jesus Christ is the maintainer and preserver of the spiritual life. As He give it at first, so He upholds it. It is by continual influences from Him that the life is kept from expiring. If He withdraw His influx never so little, the soul is at the giving up of the ghost, even half-dead.

2. Vegetation. Corporal meat is good for growth. It is by meat that the body is brought from infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth, from youth to a perfect man. Jesus Christ is He that carries on a Christian from infancy to perfection. All the souls growth and increase is from Christ. So the apostle, From Him the whole body having nourishment ministered, Col_2:19), The branches live and increase by virtue of the sap which is derived from the root. Christians grow by virtue of the sap which is to them derived from Jesus Christ. Every part grows by Christ.

3. Reparation. Meat is a repairer of natures decays. When by some violent sickness the spirits are consumed, the body wasted, the strength lost, meat, fitly and seasonably taken, helps, through the Divine blessing, to recall all again: his spirit came to him again (1Sa_30:12). Jesus Christ is the repairer of the souls decays. Sometimes a believer, through the neglect of his duty, through surfeiting upon sin, brings spiritual languishings upon himself; his strength is decayed, his vigour is abated, his pulse beats very weakly, he can scarcely creep in the ways of God. In such a case Jesus Christ recovers him, repairs his breaches, and renews his strength, as in former times, The Psalmist speaks of this: He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His names sake (Psa_23:3). The saints have every day experience of this restoring virtue of Christ. (Ralph Robinson.)

Christ alone is the bread of life

Some have tried to stay their hunger by the narcotics of scepticism, and others have endeavoured to get eat through the drugs of fatalism. Many stave off hunger by indifference, like the bears in winter, who are not hungry, because they are asleep. But depend upon it the only way to meet hunger is to get bread, and the only way to meet your souls want is to get Christ, in whom there is enough and to spare, but nowhere else. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Your fathers did eat manna

The bread of life and manna

The Palestine Exploration Society, when they came to Tel Hum (Capernaum), found what they believed to be the synagogue in which Jesus delivered His discourse. In turning over the stones, it was with peculiarly sacred feelings that they found a large block with a pot of manna engraved on its face. Every synagogue had its symbol--one a lamb, another a candlestick, and this, the pot of manna. We can see Jesus in His synagogue pointing with His finger to this device over the main entrance, and saying, Our fathers did eat manna, etc. (W. Baxendale.)

If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever

Christ the chosen food of earnest Christians

When alone with Christ, it was heaven below; and in the prayer-meetings, when Gods people were warm at heart, how you delighted to unite with them! The preaching was marrow and fatness to you. You did not mind walking a long way on a wet night to hear about your Lord and Master then. It may be there was no cushion to the seat, or you had to stand in the aisle. You did not mind that. You are getting wonderfully dainty now; you cannot hear the poor preacher whose voice was once like music to you. You cannot enjoy the things of God as once you did. Whose fault is that? The kitchen is the same, and the food the same: the appetite has gone, I fear. How ravenous I was after Gods Word! how I would wake early in the morning to read those books that are full of the deep things of God! I wanted none of your nonsensical novels, nor your weekly tales, for which some of you pine, like children for sugarsticks. Then one fed on manna that came from heaven, on Christ Himself. Those were good times in which everything was delightful. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

The food of the soul

Few passages have been so wrested as this. Men have turned meat into poison.

I. WHAT THESE VERSES DO NOT MEAN.

1. Literal eating and drinking, or partaking of the Lords Supper. We may eat that, and yet not partake of Him. For

(1) A literal eating and drinking would have been revolting to the Jews and contradictory to their law.

(2) To take this literal view would be to interpose a bodily act between the soul and salvation, for which there is no precedent in Scripture.

(3) It would involve most blasphemous and profane consequences. It would shut out from heaven the penitent thief, and admit to heaven thousands of godless communicants.

2. This view arises from mans morbid habit of paltry and carnal sense on Scriptural expressions. Men dislike that which makes the state of the heart the principal thing.

II. WHAT THEY DO MEAN.

1. Flesh and blood means Christs sacrifice.

2. Eating and drinking means reception of Christs sacrifice.

III. THE PRACTICAL LESSONS THEY SUGGEST.

1. That faith in Christs atonement is necessary to salvation.

2. That faith in the atonement unites us to the Saviour and entitles us to the highest privileges.

3. That faith In the atonement is

(1) A personal act;

(2) a daily act;

(3) a conscious act. (Bp. Ryle.)

The food of the soul

I. In Christ alone can we have any CERTAIN RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE.

1. Soul hungers for the knowledge which pertains to its nature and its relation to its Creator and destiny.

2. Christ is the Truth, and satisfies this hunger.

II. Christ is the food of the soul, because He alone SATISFIES OUR MORAL NATURES.

1. Them is a sense in which every man hungers after righteousness. We seek to relieve our troubled consciences

(1) By extenuating our faults;

(2) by forgetting them;

(3) by seeking pardon through priests.

2. But there is no satisfaction but in Christ. He sustains

(1) By justifying grace;

(2) by positive holiness.

III. Christ is the bread of life in that from Him we have the HOPE OF THE LIFE EVERLASTING.

1. No human speculation regarding the future, however pleasing, can kindle real hope.

2. Christ hath brought life and immortality to light, and is in us the hope of glory. (J. M. Ludlow, D. D.)

The food that Jesus gave to His own

1. To finish His work was bread to Himself; His work finished is bread to His people.

2. His words were startling but necessary. The rock must be laid down although superficial disciples may stumble, for it is the foundation of the true disciples faith and hope.

3. The Lords Supper is not the subject here. Both sacraments are omitted in John, but he records the fundamental doctrines on which they rest. In the conversation with Nicodemus we have the ground of the one; here the ground of the other. Wanting Christs sacrifice for sin the Supper would have contained nothing for us, and wanting faith in Christ crucified, we can get nothing from the sacrament.

4. Hunger centres naturally in human souls, and men have attempted to satisfy it

(1) With the good things of this life;

(2) with the inanities of self-righteousness. In the text Christ shows the satisfaction of this hunger. We have

I. ON THE PART OF CHRIST

1. His incarnation: the Son as Man. Not man, a man, a son of man. Neither a son of man nor a Son of God could be our Saviour. The one is near, but has no power; the other has power, but is not near. The Incarnation combines nearness with power to save.

2. His sacrifice. The Incarnation could not save us. Without shedding of blood is no remission. Christ converged all the testimonies from Abels sacrifice to His last passover on Himself, the Lamb of God.

II. ON THE PART OF CHRISTIANS. They believe and live. Although it is a spiritual and not a material food, it is a real supply of a real hunger. The souls hunger for righteousness and peace and God is a greater thing than bodily hunger, and must have a corresponding supply. This is found by the believer. Christs incarnation brings God near to Him, and His sacrifice brings peace and righteousness. The believer thus has the life of God in Christ. This life is

1. Present.

2. Everlasting. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

The vital relation to Christ

I. HE PRESSES THE GREAT DUTY OF CLOSING WITH HIM WHICH HE HAD ALREADY SET BEFORE THEM.

1. This He did by representing to them the danger to which they would expose themselves if they declined (Joh_6:53).

2. By directly announcing the blessings which are to be obtained by obedience (Joh_6:54-55). To partake of Christ by faith secures

(1) Eternal life;

(2) the resurrection of the last day.

II. HE STATES AND ILLUSTRATES THE RELATION IN WHICH, WHEN THEY CLOSE WITH HIM BY FAITH, HE STANDS TO BELIEVING MEN.

1. It is a mutual indwelling of believers in Christ and of Christ in them (Joh_6:56).

2. It is a relation of the same kind as subsists between Christ and the Father (Joh_6:57).

3. It is a relation, the certain effects of which is life for evermore (Joh_6:58). (J. A.Beith, D. D.)

Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man

Eating Christs flesh

I. THE MEANING OF THE TEXT.

1. The Romanist holds that it refers to a participation of Christs body in the sacrament. But it cannot mean that; for

(1)The Lords Supper had not been instituted, and as Christ refers to a present duty and privilege, He could not refer to something that did not then exist.

(2) Judas partook of the Lords Supper; had he eternal life?

(3) The dying thief did not partake of the Lords Supper, but he had eternal life.

2. The true meaning. Christ had said many things about bread, about Himself as the true bread, and about their eating Him as this bread; and in Joh_6:51 He declares that this bread and His flesh are one and the same thing. Let us, then, try to understand

(1) What bread means. In Joh_6:35 belief, not literal participation, is the process by which we become partakers of everlasting life. But belief presupposes the existence of something to be believed. Then what is there in Christ that I am to believe? Why, that He is the bread of life. It follows that by bread we are to understand truth, and by eating reception of that truth. The bread of life, then, is the doctrine of life--the revelation made by Him who hath abolished death, etc. This is confirmed by the fact

(a) That the Old Testament speaks of doctrine as meat and drink: Wisdom hath killed her beast and she crieth, Come and eat of my bread, and drink of the wine, etc.; and nothing was more common among the Jews than the representation of doctrine under this form. How natural, then, that the greatest Jewish teachers should have used this familiar figure to signify I am the doctrine of life.

(b) In Joh_6:63 Christ fully meets the difficulty; and that He was correctly understood is seen by Joh_6:68.

Note, then

(a) That if bread means doctrine, then flesh means doctrine;

(b) that I am not confounding Christs doctrines with Himself, but expounding them. It is one of the great doctrines of this book, and let those who deny Christs Divinity look to it, that He is evermore the subject of His own discourse. You might as well take the light out of the sun, and call it the sun still, as take Christ out of His teaching and call it His teaching still. Christ and His doctrine are the same: I am the truth.

(2) What eating and drinking mean.

(a) A sense of need--appetite.

(b) Activity towards some appropriate object for the supply of that need.

(c) Enjoyment in the use of the object.

(d) Resultant strength. This is eating and drinking literally.

Spiritually, meat and drink are before us in the form of doctrine.

(i.) There is hungering and thirsting after it.

(ii.) There is action toward Christ to get that need supplied: what He commands we obey; what He promises we expect; what He offers we accept.

(iii.) Then there is delight in Christ.

(iv.) Finally, spiritual strength: temptation is resisted, trial endured, work done for God and man; and the evidence of a mans living on

Christ is his living for Christ.

II. Let me ENFORCE THE SENTIMENT OF THE TEXT.

1. There is a lesson of obligation. You have heard of Christ, His incarnation, death, resurrection, etc. What has come out of the hearing? Hunger and thirst? You feel uneasy often, and fear. I want that uneasiness and fear to develop into a sense of spiritual need. Let this stimulate action towards Christ; then joy in Christ; then doing what Christ enjoins and avoiding what Christ forbids.

2. A lesson of privilege.

(1) The believer dwells in Christ; hence his safety.

(2) Christ dwells in him; hence his honour.

(3) Hence the believers satisfaction shall never hunger or thirst.

(4) To crown it all, eternal life. Life is the fullest capacity for enjoyment; then what must eternal life be? (W. Brock, D. D.)

Truly eating the flesh of Jesus

I. WHAT IS MEANT BY EATING THE FLESH AND DRINKING THE BLOOD OF CHRIST?

1. What is necessary to it?

(1) We must believe in the reality of Christ; not that He was a myth, but that He was very God incarnate, who lived, died, and rose again, and is now in His proper personality, sitting at the right hand of God, from whence He will come to be our Judge.

(2) We must believe in the death of Christ, blood, not as an example, but as the expiation of sin, a propitiation through faith in His blood.

2. What is this act?

(1) Appropriation. A man not only believes that bread is proper food, he takes it. So we cannot feed on Christ until we make Him our own, and for our individual selves: for we cannot eat for anybody else.

(2) Receiving into oneself. Bread is taken not to be laid aside or exhibited. Every one must do this from the empress to the pauper: so the poorest and the richest must receive Christ by faith.

(3) Assimilation. Faith is to the soul what the gastric juices are to the body; and so Christ by faith is taken up into the understanding and heart, and becomes part of the renewed man. He becomes our life.

3. Remarks to set this forth in a clearer manner.

(1) Christ is as needful to the soul as bread is to the body.

(2) Meat and drink do really satisfy. The supply of Christ is as real as the need of Him.

(3) A hungry man is not appeased by talking about feeding, but by eating. So Christ beckons you to a banquet not to look on, but to feast.

(4) In healthy eating there is a relish.

(5) Eating times as to the body come several times a day, so take care that you partake of Christ often. Do not live on old experiences.

(6) It is well to have set times for eating. People are not likely to flourish who have no regular meals. So there should be appointed times for communion with Christ.

(7) The flesh and blood of Christ are foods suitable for all conditions, for babes in Christ as well as old men, for sick Christians and healthy.

II. WHAT ARE THE VIRTUES OF THIS EATING AND DRINKING?

1. Life is essential (Joh_6:53). If you have no life in you you have nothing that is good. The sinner is dead, and there is no life to be developed and educated in him. Any good that may come to him must be by impartation, and it can never come to him but by eating the flesh, etc. Convictions of sin are of no use, nor ordinances, nor profession, nor morality. This is vital (Joh_6:54) for soul and body.

2. Substantial. Meat indeed, etc. The Jewish feasting was a mere shadow: so is pleasure, etc.

3. It produces union (Joh_6:56).

(1) To live in Christ is the peace of justification.

(2) For Christ to live in us is the peace of sanctification. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

The meat and drink of the new nature

I. WHAT CHRIST MUST BE TO US. Our meat and drink, our everything.

1. The doctrine of God incarnate must be the food of our soul.

2. We must feed on Christs sufferings.

3. This meat is not intended to be looked at, but to feed upon by the hearts belief.

4. By this means the believer realizes union with Christ.

II. WHAT IS BOUND UP IN THIS EATING AND DRINKING?

1. He who has not so eaten and drank has no spiritual life at all.

2. All who have received Jesus in this manner have eternal life.

3. They have efficient nourishment and satisfaction.

4. Christ dwells in them and is their strength.

5. They live in Christ and are secure.

III. WHAT REFLECTIONS ARISE OUT OF THIS TRUTH? If I have a life that feeds on Christ!

1. What a wonderful life it must be!

2. How strong it must be!

3. How immortal it must be!

4. How it must develop!

5. What company he that is fed must keep. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Meat and drink indeed

I. HOW CAN THE LORD JESUS GIVE US HIS FLESH TO EAT?

1. In all Christ said He realized that the body is not the man. He was always seeking to win the souls faith which would be the mans life. We have bodies; we are souls.

2. Since we are spirits there is fitting food for us, and Christ warns us off from fleshly ideas by saying, It is the Spirit that quickeneth. Christ is the souls food in His humanity, character, example, sacrifice, spiritual communions.

3. Nothing else can satisfy like this. Every receptive faculty of our soul can live on that incarnate life and renew strength. I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

4. Christ is the food of the soul in that He provides and adapts God for man.

(1) In God we live, and move, and have our being.

(2) But man has failed to live in God. God is not in all his thoughts. Our souls have lost their home food, preferring to it the husks which the swine do eat.

(3) But God graciously offers Himself to us in Christ Jesus.

II. HOW CAN WE BE SAID TO EAT THE FLESH OF THE LORD JESUS. We are obliged to speak of spiritual powers in language only worthy to represent the bodily powers.

1. There is a soul eye which receives the impression of the beauties of the Divine handiwork. The physical eye sees all things alike.

2. The soul ear can catch Divine harmonies to which the physical ear is deaf.

3. The hand of the soul gives all the meaning to what is done by the physical hand.

4. Christ only extended this when He represented the soul as having a mouth and a faculty of digestion. Eating and drinking is a going out of ourselves to lay hold of something outside ourselves that it may become part of ourselves. Men do not live on themselves. Only God being an all-sufficient Spirit can do that. The relation of the soul to outside food we call eating and drinking, believing, thinking, loving, communing. Man does not live by bread alone.

We eat the flesh of Jesus

1. By the appropriations of faith. Whatever we believe we take into ourselves.

2. By the cherishing of thoughts; by meditations on the perfections of Christ.

3. By the communings of love. We know how two lovely souls in close fellowship nourish in one another all that is lovely, pure, and good.

Conclusion:

1. What a dignity our Lord has put on the most ordinary acts of life.

2. Lest we should lose this sacredness out of our common eating and drinking, Christ has set apart one eating time peculiar to Himself. (R. Tuck, B. A.)

Meat and drink indeed

I. WHAT IS HERE UNDERSTOOD BY FLESH AND BLOOD?

1. Not as the Capernaites did, in a carnal sense, but in a spiritual.

2. As symbolizing the effects of His body broken and His blood shed, or the merits of His death and passion, as

(1) The pardon of sin by His merit (Mat_26:28).

(2) The purification of our hearts by His Spirit.

3. The glorification of our souls in His presence (Joh_17:24).

II. IN WHAT SENSE ARE THEY SAID TO BE MEAT AND DRINK?

1. Is the body preserved in health by meat and drink?

2. Made strong?

3. Kept in life?

4. Refreshed? So is the soul by the merits of Christ.

III. How is it called meat INDEED, and drink INDEED?

1. Negatively. Not as if Christs body was really meat for the body, nor as if His body and blood were substantially turned into real meat and drink, nor as if He referred to any corporeal eating of Himself in the sacraments, as the Papists hold, basing transubstantiation on this text; not considering

(1) That He speaks not of a sacramental, but of a spiritual eating, as appears

(a) in that the sacrament was not ordained (Joh_6:4; Joh_7:2).

(b) In that he that eateth not of this bread shall die (Joh_6:53), whereas Every one that eateth it shall live (Joh_6:51; Joh_6:54; Joh_6:56).

(2) Suppose the Sacrament referred to it, it would not import any transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, but rather the transubstantiation of the body and blood of Christ into bread and wine.

2. Positively; because it really, and not only in show, does that for the soul which food does for the body (see chap. 15:1). Nay, in some sense, Christ is more really our meat than bread can be.

(1) He nourishes our souls, this only our bodies.

(2) He so nourishes us that we shall be for ever satisfied (Joh_6:35), this not.

(3) Bodily food so preserves our lives that sometimes it destroys them; but never so Christ.

(4) Food preserves but our natural, Christ nourishes us to an eternal life (Joh_6:51; Joh_6:58).

USES.

1. (Joh_6:27).

2. Do not only labour for it, but feed upon it

(1) Believingly (Joh_6:35).

(2) Thankfully. (Bp. Beveridge.)

Meat and drink indeed

I. THE RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE FLESH AND BLOOD OF CHRIST AND MEAT AND DRINK.

1. Both are necessary, the one for the soul, the other for the body.

2. Both are sweet and desirable to the hungry and thirsty.

3. Both have to undergo an alteration before they actually nourish. Corn has to be ground, and Christ had to suffer.

4. Both have a natural union with us.

5. Both must be frequently partaken of.

II. THE TRANSCENDENT EXCELLENCY OF CHRISTS FLESH AND BLOOD.

1. They were assumed into the nearest union with the second Person in the Holy Trinity.

2. They were offered up to God as the great sacrifice for our sins and purchase of our peace (Col_1:20; Eph_5:2).

3. They are the great medium of conveyance of all blessings and mercies to believers (Col_1:14-19).

USES.

1. Of information.

(1) See here the love of the Saviour.

(2) Learn hence a ground of content in the lowest condition.

(3) Learn the necessity of faith. What is a feast to him who cannot taste it?

(4) How excellent are gospel ordinances which set Christ forth.

2. Of exhortation.

(1) Come with hungry appetites.

(2) Feed heartily on Christ. (J. Flavel.)

The food that gives life

I. THE FOOD. Familiarity with these words and mental indolence have dulled our sense of their strangeness. However unintelligible to their hearers, they must have been felt in putting forth strange claims. On any other lips they would have been felt to have been absurd and blasphemous. Upon Christs lips they are that or something very wonderful. He presents the food of the soul in two forms.

1. He proposes Himself. He that eateth Me.

(1) Here you come across the great characteristic of Christianity, that it is all in the personal Christ. The great note is, I bear witness of Myself.

(2) He sets Himself forth here as the sufficient nourishment for my whole nature.

(a) Do I want truth of any kind except mere physical or mathematical truth? I get it here, social, ethical, spiritual, religious. He is Wisdom: He is Truth.

(b) Does my heart want nourishing with the selected elixir of love? His love is the only food for the hungry heart which does not bring bitterness or turn to ashes.

(c) Does my will want for its strength some law known to be good and deeply loved. I must go to the Master, and in His loving personality find the authority which sways, and by swaying emancipates the human will.

(3) He proposes Himself as the food for the whole world. If He is enough for me He is enough for all, and comes in living contact with all the generations right on to the end of time.

2. He offers His flesh and blood; His earthly life and violent death. It is not enough to speak in general terms of the personal Christ as being the food of the spirit. We must feed upon the dying Christ, and lay hold of His sacrifice, and realize that His shed blood transfused in mystical fashion into the veins of our spirits is there the throbbing source of life which circulates through the whole of the inmost being.

II. THE ACT OF EATING THIS FOOD. The metaphysical language is familiar in many applications. We speak of tasting sorrow, eating bitter bread, feeding on love.

1. This participation is effected by faith.

(1) He that cometh … believeth. By the simple act of trust in Him. You may be beside Him for a thousand years, and if there is no faith there is no union. You may be separated from Him, as we are, in time by nineteen centuries; in condition, by the difference between mortality and glory; in distance, by all the measureless space between the footstool and the throne; and if there go from your heart an electric wire, howsoever slender and fragile, you are knit to Him and derive into your heart the fulness of His cleansing power.

(2) This trust is the activity of the whole nature, for faith has in it intellect, affection, and will.

2. The original expression is employed to describe the act of eating by ruminating animals; a leisurely and pleasurable partaking; an act slow and meditative and repeated, which dwells upon Him. The reason why so many Christians are such poor weaklings is because they do not thus feed on Christ. The cheap tripper cannot take in the beauty of the landscape. You cannot know any man in a hurried interview, so in these hurrying days how few of us ruminate about Christ.

3. Our Lord here uses a grammatical form which indicates the continual persistance of this meditative faith. Yesterdays portion will not stay to-days hunger.

III. THE CONSEQUENT LIFE.

1. Separate from Christ we are dead. We may live the life of animals, an intellectual life, a life of desires and hopes and fears, a moral life; but the true life of man is not in these. It is only that which comes by union with and derivation from God.

2. Bread nourishes life, this bread communicates life. The indwelling Christ is the source of life to me.

3. This spiritual life in the present has, as its necessary consequence, a future completion. If Christ is in my heart the life He brings can never stop its regenerative and transforming activities until it has influenced the whole of my nature to the very circumference (Joh_6:54). (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

We must feed upon Christ

Why should we be hungering and thirsting, when Christ has given us His flesh to be meat indeed, and His blood to be drink indeed? Why should we be hanging down our heads like bulrushes to-day, when the Lord loves us, and would have His joy to he in us, that our joy may be full? Why are we so dispirited by our infirmities, when we know that Jehovah is our strength and our song, He also has become our salvation? I tell you, brethren, we do not possess our possessions. We are like an Israelite who should say, Yes, those terraces of land are mine. Those vineyards and olives and figs and pomegranates are mine. Those fields of wheat and barley are mine; yet I am starving. Why do you not drink the blood of the grapes? He answers, I can scarcely tell you why, but so it is--I walk through the vineyards, and I admire the clusters, but I never taste them. I gather the harvest, and I thrash it on the barn-floor; but I never grind it into corn, nor comfort my heart with a morsel of bread. Surely this is wretched work I Is it not folly carried to an extreme? I trust the children of God will not copy this madness. Let our prayer be that we may use and enjoy to the utmost all that the Lord has given us in His grace. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

No life without feeding upon Christ

You know the modern theory that there are germs alike in all men which only need developing. This is a philosophical notion, but it is not Gods way of putting it. He says, No life in you. No, not an atom of true life. The sinner is dead, and in him is no life whatever. If ever there is to be any good thing come into him it will have to come into him; it must be an importation, and it can never come into him except in connection with his eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The blood of Christ our only hope

It is recorded of Samuel Pearce, a useful and much blessed minister at Birmingham, that, at the time of his conversion, having read Doddridges Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, he took up the idea suggested in that book, and resolved formally to dedicate himself to the Lord. He drew up a covenant accordingly, and to make it more solemn and binding he signed it with blood drawn from his own body. But afterwards, failing in his vows, he was plunged into great distress. Driven therefore into a more complete examination of his motives, he was led to see that he had been relying too much on his own strength; and, carrying the blood-signed covenant to the top of his fathers house, he tore it into pieces and scattered it to the winds, and resolved henceforth to depend upon the peace-making and peace-keeping blood of Christ.

Christ the true food and drink of believers

In respect of that typical meat which the Jews had lately spoken of (Joh_6:31), Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, etc., our Saviour tells them that is but typical bread, but His flesh is bread indeed; it is the real substance, of which that was but a mere type and shadow. Thus for explication. The observation is this.

1. That the Lord Jesus Christ is really and truly the food and meat of believers. Flesh is here put for the whole person of Christ. Jesus Christ, as lie is held out in the Scriptures, is the true, real, and very meat of believing Christians; Christ, as He is propounded in the gospel, dead, broken, crucified. Christ, in all His perfection, completeness, fulness, is meat indeed to a true believer. It is the very scope of this sermon, from verse 27-59, in which this truth is inculcated over and over again, and all objections answered which the carnal reason and unbelief of mans heart can make against it. All other food, in respect of this, is but cibi tantummodo umbra et vana imago, as Cameron saith. As natural life, in respect of the spiritual, is but a shadow of life; so the meat that is appointed for the natural life, if compared with the meat of the spiritual life, is but a very image of meat. Christs flesh is real meat.

2. The blood of Jesus Christ is drink indeed. Blood is here put for the whole person, as flesh was. And it is rather His blood is drink than that He is drink; because the great efficacy of all Christ did lies principally in His Heb_9:22). And in the same respects as His flesh is said to be meat indeed, His blood is said to be drink indeed. And those three things which concur to the act of eating His flesh concur also to this act of drinking His blood, the mystical union, saving faith, the ordinances. (Ralph Robinson.)

How Christ is to be fed upon

1. In the ordinances. These are the conduits. Jesus Christ hath instituted and appointed His ordinances to be the means of carrying His nourishing virtue to the soul. The ordinances are the dishes of gold upon which this heavenly meat is brought. Prayer, reading, preaching, meditation, holy conference, the sacrament; in these Christ presents Himself to the soul. He that forsakes these can expect no feeding from Christ. In this mountain will the Lord of hosts make a feast of fat things. etc. (Isa_25:6).The feast is made in the mountain of Gods house, and the ordinances are the dishes on which this meat is set and the knives by which it is carved out to the soul.

2. Saving lively faith. This is the instrument. What the hand and mouth and stomach are in the corporal eating that is faith in this spiritual eating. Faith is the hand that takes this meat, the mouth that eats it, and the stomach that digests it. Yea, faith is as the veins and arteries that do disperse and carry this nourishment to every power of the soul. This is abundantly cleared in this very chapter (Joh_6:35), He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; he that believeth in Me shall never thirst. Cometh is expounded by believeth. Eating and drinking are here put for believing. Crede et manducasti. He that believes eats, and he that eats not it is because he believes not; Hic edere est credere. (Ralph Robinson.)

We must feed upon Christ for ourselves

Dr. Bonar, in his Memoir of MCheyne, says of him: He seems invariably to have applied for his personal benefit what he gave out to his people. We have already noticed how he used to feed on the Word, not in order to prepare himself for the people, but for personal edification. To do so was a fundamental rule with him; and all pastors will feel that, if they are to prosper in their own souls, they must so use the Word--sternly refusing to admit the idea of feeding others until satiated them- selves. And for similar ends it is needful that we let the truth we hear preached sink down into our own souls. We, as well as our people, must drink in the falling showers. Mr. MCheyne did so. It is common to find him speaking thus: July 31, Sabbath afternoon--on Judas betraying Christ; much more tenderness than ever I felt before. Oh, that I might abide in the bosom of Him who washed Judas feet, and dipped His hand in the same dish with him, and warned him, and grieved over him--that I might catch the infection of His love, of His tenderness, so wonderful, so unfathomable! (Sword and Trowel.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Reception of the body and blood of Christ, Joh_6:47-59.

This paragraph is celebrated in what is called the Sacramentarian controversy. It will be made clear, perhaps, by viewing it in three parts:

I. Joh_6:47-50. Here Jesus gives the key to the whole paragraph, by explicitly showing that what the manna was to the fathers who received it by eating, that Himself is to the souls of all who receive him by faith. The manna was temporal life to Israel; He is eternal life to all believers. The spiritual faith is parallel to the physical eating. Those unperverted and unperverting hearers, therefore, disposed to accept him by faith, would be ready to accept this true interpretation through all that follows. Perverts would simply pervert his meaning, and still more pervert themselves.

II. Joh_6:51-52. Jesus takes a step further, and identifies the bread with his flesh. At this point the perverts revolt, and a contest arises between them and the spiritual hearers. But as the bread was spiritual and the eating was by the act of faith, so must the flesh and its eating be spiritual and by faith.

III. Joh_6:53-59. Jesus to the bread and the flesh now adds the BLOOD. This completely sloughs off the perverts; and by opening a topic which could be understood only by future developments, he tries the faith of his disciples, and even of his twelve apostles. So far as the figures of bread and flesh extended, the meaning might be filled by his incarnation and living mission. But the figure of blood could only be explained by his propitiatory death; and then from his propitiatory death a new meaning is reflected back upon the bread and the flesh.

47. He that believeth… hath everlasting life—This verse, in its literal sense. embraces all that is figuratively embodied to Joh_6:58.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 6:47. Ἔχει) hath. Present. Where the bread of life is, there life is; even before the last day, Joh 6:40.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_6:47-48. Jesus had given His answer to the murmurings of the Jews in Joh_6:43-46. He now returns to the subject which He had left, and first repeats in solemn asseveration what He had said in Joh_6:40; then He again brings forward the metaphor of the bread of life, which sets forth the same thought.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He that believeth, &c.--(See on Joh 3:36; Joh 5:24).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 47. Hath everlasting life.] He is entitled to this, on his believing me to be the Messiah, and trusting in me alone for salvation. Our blessed Lord recapitulates here what he had said in the preceding discourse. The person who is saved is,

1. drawn by the Father;

2. hears his instructions;

3. accepts the salvation offered;

4. is given to Christ Jesus, that he may be justified by faith;

5. is nourished by the bread of life;

6. perseveres in the faith;

7. is not lost, but is raised up at the last day; and

8. is made a partaker of eternal life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

47. He who believeth in me. This is an explanation of the former statement. For we are taught by these words that it is when we believe in Christ that God is made known to us; for then do we begin to see, as in a mirror, or as in a bright and lively image, God who was formerly invisible. Accursed then be every thing that is declared to us concerning God, if it do not lead us to Christ. What it is to believe in Christ I have already explained; for we must not imagine a confused and empty faith, which deprives Christ of his power, as the Papists do, who believe in Christ just as far as they think fit. For the reason why we obtain life by faith is, that we know that all the parts of our life are contained in Christ.

The inference which some draw from this passage — that to believe in Christ is the same thing as to eat Christ, or his flesh — is not well founded. For these two things differ from each other as former and latter; and in like manner, to come to Christ and to drink him, for coming to him is first in order. I acknowledge that Christ is not eaten but by faith; but the reason is, because we receive him by faith, that he may dwell in us, and that we may be made partakers of him, and thus may be one with him. To eat him, therefore, is an effect or work of faith.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(47) He that believeth.—This thought gives a new force to what He has said in Joh_6:40. He there declared the Father’s will, that every one seeing the Son and believing on Him may have eternal life. No man had ever seen the Father, but the Son was then standing in human form before them, and this will was being accomplished, and for the believer eternal life was not only of the future but of the actual present, “He hath eternal life.” (Comp. Joh_3:15; Joh_5:24.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

47–50. Christ returns from answering the Jews to the main subject

47. hath everlasting life] Hath eternal life (Joh_3:16). Note the tense. Christ solemnly assures them (the double ‘Verily’) that the believer is already in possession of eternal life. See on Joh_3:36 and Joh_5:24.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I am that bread of life. See Gill on Joh 6:35.

.

John 6:49

joh 6:49

joh 6:49

joh 6:49Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness,.... All the while they were in the wilderness, for the space of forty years, till they came to the borders of the land of Canaan; this was their only food on which they lived, during their travels through the wilderness. It is observable, that Christ says, not "our fathers", but "your fathers"; for though Christ, as concerning the flesh, came of these fathers, yet in every sense they were rather theirs than his; because regard may be had to such of them more especially who ate the manna as common food, and not as spiritual meat, as typical of the Messiah, as others did; and whom these, their offspring, did very much resemble. Though perhaps the reason of the use of this phrase may be, because the Jews themselves had used it in Joh 6:31, and Christ takes it up from them.

And are dead. This food, though it supported them in life for a while, could not preserve them from a corporeal death, and still less from an eternal one: for some of them not only died the first, but the second death.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

Ver. 47. Hath life eternal] sc. In Christ’s purchase, in God’s promise, in the firstfruits of the Spirit, who resteth upon the elect as a Spirit of glory and of God, 1Pe 4:14.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thus Jesus Christ concludes the first part of his discourse: "Amen, amen, he that believeth in me, hath everlasting life;" which shews that faith is a necessary predisposition to the heavenly bread.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

See Poole on "Joh 3:18". See Poole on "Joh 3:36". See Poole on "Joh 6:35".

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath eternal life. He has here given a new turn to the conversation, and repeated what had been the substance of several discourses, (Joh_3:16, Joh_3:18, 36 5:24) and formed, indeed, the starting place of this (vers. 27, 35, 36). The full acceptance of Christ provides "living water" for the thirsty, "living bread," "bread from heaven," for the hungry an inward refreshment, a Divine nourishment, an inexhaustible supply. "He that believeth on me" (whether the eiv eme were in the original text or not, they are involved in the sense)has entered on the possession of an eternal blessedness of being, superior to death, transcending time and sense he "hath eternal life."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Living Bread to eat:

v. 47. v. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.

v. 48. I am that Bread of Life.

v. 49. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead.

v. 50. This is the Bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.

v. 51. I am the living Bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live forever; and the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Jesus changes neither text nor contents of His sermon in one particle. He repeats the main thoughts again to impress them upon His hearers. It is faith in Him which gives eternal life; that is the only way in which salvation may be obtained, by believing in Him. For He is that Bread of Life in which they must trust. The Jews themselves had referred to the manna in the wilderness and had called it bread from heaven. But what lasting value could be in food which did not sustain life beyond the few years of this earthly existence? Their fathers had died. But he that receives the Bread of Life by faith would have sustenance to carry him beyond this life into life eternal. Anyone partaking of Him by faith will live forever. Jesus here gave a powerful testimony of His own person. By repeating the great facts which are the substance of His sermon, Jesus wants to work faith in the hearts of His hearers. The teaching concerning Jesus, His person and His office, the great facts of His salvation, is the means by which God draws hearts to the Savior, works willingness to believe And in one short statement Jesus also tells the manner in which He will earn salvation. He will give Himself, His body, His flesh, into death, for the sake of the life of the world. The human nature of Christ was sacrificed, was given for the salvation of the whole world, for all men without exception. In this way Jesus becomes the Bread of Life, the Bread from Heaven.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

47–50. Christ returns from answering the Jews to the main subject

47. ἀμὴν ἀμ. With the authority of Him who alone has seen the Father, Jesus solemnly assures them that the believer is already in possession (ἔχει) of eternal life: see on Joh 3:36, Joh 5:24.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

47.] Our Lord now recurs to the subject of their murmurs, and gives the answer for which He has been preparing the way, repeating nearly ver. 40, and adding,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

47. ἀμὴν ἀμήν κτλ. See on 1:51. This opening phrase introduces a saying which is the keynote of the Fourth Gospel, ὁ πιστεύων (used absolutely as at v. 36) ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον (cf. 20:31, and see on 3:15).

After ὁ πιστεύων the rec. adds εἰς ἐμέ, with ACDΓΔN (from such passages as 3:16, 36); but א BLTWΘ om. εἰς ἐμέ. Jn.’s use of πιστεύειν, without specifying the object of the πίστις, has been noted on 1:7.

The sequence of argument is clear. No one has “seen” the Father but Christ (v. 46); but it suffices to believe in Christ, for such a believer has eternal life (v. 47). As He said later, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (14:9).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 47-51. “Verily, verily, I say unto you: He who believes on me has eternal life. 48. I am the bread of life. 49. Your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness, and they are dead. Joh 6:50. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. 51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and this bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.”

The words verily, verily, are uttered with the sense of authority which Jesus derives from the unique position which He holds according to Joh 6:46, and in opposition to the objections of the Jews (Joh 6:41-42). “It is thus, whatever you may say of it.” Jesus’ tone becomes gradually more elevated, and assumes more of energy and solemnity. The words εἰς ἐμέ, on me, omitted by four Alexandrian documents, are perfectly suited to the context, in which the principal idea is the person of Jesus.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.