“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.” John 6:48-50.
Throughout the last half of this chapter the lack of desire for spiritual things becomes apparent as this group murmurs and quarrels over the words of Jesus, rather than asking Him for a plain explanation of the meaning of bread, flesh, and blood.
Because of their disbelief, the Lord became even more obscure as He speaks of spiritual things.
In part, this is to separate the sheep from the goats; that is to say, to draw out the ones who truly desire to know more about God and His Messiah; these will ask more questions, while the hangers on would leave Him.
Another reason for the obscurity of the Lord’s words is a rather harsh sounding principle which is true nevertheless.
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” Matthew 7:6.
For example, if someone is talking to a hardcore atheist, they would be talking to a God hater, not a person who does not believe in God; they know He exists, they just hate Him.
“For I [God] raise My hand to heaven, and say, ‘As I live forever, if I whet My glittering sword, and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and repay those who hate Me.’” Deuteronomy 32:40-41.
Those who reject God have among them haters of God as shown below.
“…backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents…” Romans 1:30.
As a result, Christians waste their breath arguing about evolution, the worldwide flood, Christian hypocrites, or the Inquisition, those are just things atheists argue about.
“If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace.” Proverbs 29:9.
Salvation verses such as John 3:16; Acts 4:12, 16:25-34; Romans 1:16-17, 3:23-26, 5:6-11, 6:23, 10:9-13; 2 Corinthians 5:20-21; are meant to speak to the heart. Be sure you understand them and any others you may find before using them.
On the other hand pearls are the deeper things of Christ. Things such as the bride of Christ, 2 Corinthians 11:1-2; Revelation 19:6-9 and 22:17; rest in Christ, Hebrews 3-4; Christ’s High Priesthood, Hebrews 5-8, will only bring mocking and derision.
These and other things are the pearls which strengthen the Christian’s faith, but will not benefit the unbeliever.
The contrast which the Lord draws between the fathers who ate manna and are dead and the true bread down from heaven that one may not die in verses 48-50, is a contrast between the physical and the spiritual.
“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.” John 6:48-50.
This is a warning that He is speaking of spiritual matters. If they had been listening to Him as if they were listening to a Man of God rather than to a baker, they might have realized this.
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” John 6:51.
Just as we partake of physical food with our mouth and it is digested refueling our bodies; so we partake of spiritual food with our hearts and minds. Unlike physical food, the word of God does more, because it gives eternal life and rejuvenates the spirit and the soul.
God told Adam the following.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” Genesis 2:16-17.
Did Adam die, well, no; he lived a total of 930 years, Genesis 5:5. What did happen is that when he and Eve ate the fruit they died spiritually. Spiritual death is eternal separation from God, so from then on they and all their descendents became hell bound sinners.
“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:18-19.
This is important though, as soon as God pronounced the curses that were a result of their sin, He also announced that the payment for those sins would be made, see Genesis chapter 3, specifically the promise in verse 15.
“And I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman [all women], and between your seed [Antichrist] and her Seed [Jesus Christ]; He [Jesus at the cross] shall bruise your head [Satan’s power vanquished], and you shall bruise His heel [on the cross].” Genesis 3:15.
By their acceptance of that promise Adam and Eve were again made alive to God, but they had lost everything else, the Garden of Eden, everlasting physical life, and God’s close presence. God did not abandon them; their relationship though would not be the same again in their lifetime.
The principle of salvation here is that Adam and Eve believed in the promise of God to send a Savior. This is the same thing the patriarch Abraham took hold of, faith in God’s word.
“And he [Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He [God] accounted it to him for righteousness.” Genesis 15:6.
“For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness’” Romans 4:2-3.
“… if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,’” Romans 10:9b-13.
This is the reason Christ is the true bread come down from heaven to give eternal life to those who will in faith partake thereof.
Down from Heaven, John 6:48-51 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-13-12, updated on 9-4-17.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.