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John 6 reveals that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the Passover Lamb and the bread of life.
Christ is presented as the Passover Lamb in 6:4 and 51 through 56. Verse 4 says, “Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.” This indicates that the Passover was the background for what is recorded in this chapter. In the Passover people slay the redeeming Lamb, sprinkle its blood, and eat its flesh. This typifies Christ as our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7). He is the redeeming Lamb of God (John 1:29, 36) slain for us that we may eat His flesh and drink His blood, taking Him in as our life supply that we may live by Him.
At the time of the Passover, people also eat unleavened bread. Here we have three basic elements of the Passover feast: first, the slaying of the lamb and the striking of its blood; second, the eating of the flesh of the lamb; third, the eating of unleavened bread. Therefore, we have the blood of the lamb, the flesh of the lamb, and unleavened bread. These three matters are found in the Lord’s discourse in John 6.
In the Passover the main enjoyments are the Passover lamb with its blood for redeeming and its flesh for fighting and walking, and the unleavened bread, signifying a sinless living (Exo. 12:5-8). The flesh of the lamb is organic, and the blood is judicial. The blood redeems us judicially, and the flesh of the lamb is for God’s elect to eat so that they can be organically nourished and strengthened to walk out of Egypt. Christ today is the Lamb with His blood for redemption and with Himself for strengthening and nourishing us so that we can walk on God’s way out of Egypt. At the same time, we also eat Christ as the unleavened bread, signifying that we are living a sinless life.
As the Passover Lamb, Christ shed His blood for our redemption that God may pass over us (Exo. 12:12-13). In John 6:53 the Lord Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within yourselves.” Here the Lord spoke of His blood, which is necessary for redemption (19:34; Heb. 9:22; Matt. 26:28; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rom. 3:25).
At the time of the Passover, the blood of the lamb was applied to the doorpost. Yet, in John 6:53 the Lord Jesus spoke about drinking His blood. To drink means to receive. Hence, to drink the blood is to receive it. The proper way to receive something into our stomach is by eating and drinking. The significance of eating and drinking is to receive something into our being. To eat the Lord’s flesh and to drink His blood, therefore, is to receive the Lord’s flesh and blood into our being. To eat is to take food into us to be assimilated into our body organically. To eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us to be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life. The principle is the same with drinking.
In verses 54 and 55 the Lord Jesus continued, saying, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.” Here flesh and blood are mentioned separately. The separation of blood and flesh indicates death. Here the Lord Jesus clearly indicated His death, that is, His being slain. He gave His body and shed His blood for us that we may have eternal life. To eat His flesh is to receive by faith all that He did in giving His body for us. To drink His blood is to receive by faith all that He accomplished in shedding His blood for us. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to receive Him, in His redemption, as life and the life supply by believing in what He did for us on the cross. By comparing verses 54 and 47 we see that to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood is to believe in Him, because to believe into is to receive (1:12).
In John 6:56 the Lord Jesus went on to say, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.” The words I in him indicate that the Lord Jesus had to be resurrected so that He could abide in us as our life and life supply.
As the Passover Lamb Christ not only shed His blood for our redemption; He also imparts His life into us for our nourishment. Concerning this, in verse 51 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world.” At this point the bread (mentioned earlier in the chapter) becomes the flesh. Bread is of the vegetable life and is only for feeding; flesh is of the animal life and is not only for feeding but also for redeeming. Before the fall of man, the Lord was the tree of life (Gen. 2:9), which is only for feeding man. After man fell into sin, the Lord became the Lamb (John 1:29), which is not only for feeding man but also for redeeming him (Exo. 12:4, 7-8).
In John 6:51b the Lord Jesus tells us that His flesh would be given “for the life of the world.” The Lord gave His body, that is, His flesh, dying for us that we might have life.
Many verses in John 6 reveal that, for our experience and enjoyment, Christ is the bread of life (vv. 27, 32-35, 47-58, 63a, 68b). As the bread of life, He is the bread with eternal life. Spiritually speaking, everyone is hungry and in need of Christ as the bread of life.
This chapter clearly indicates that we need food. Our unique need according to this chapter is Christ as our food, Christ as the bread of life. We all are hungry and need food. Even though you may have been a Christian for many years, you still need Christ as your food every day. Christ is not only your life; He, as the bread of life, is also your life supply, your daily food.
In verse 27 the Lord Jesus said, “Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for Him has the Father, even God, sealed.” As elsewhere in the Gospel of John, eternal life is the divine life, the uncreated life of God, which is not only everlasting with respect to time but also is eternal and divine in nature.
The food which abides to eternal life is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He came from the heavens not only to be our Savior — He came also to be our food. This means that He came to be the tree of life. What we need today is Christ as the eternal food, as the tree of life. We do not yet realize to the fullest extent how much we need Christ to be our daily food.
In verse 32 the Lord Jesus referred to Himself as the true bread: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven.” As the true bread Christ is the bread of truth, or reality. Christ is true, real. He is the true food, and all other kinds of food are mere shadows of Him as the real food. The physical food we take in every day is a shadow of Christ. The reality of the food we eat daily is Jesus Christ. Christ is the true bread of life sent by God to bring us eternal life. We all need Christ to be the bread of life, the true bread, to us. We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that we need Christ as the true bread of life sent by God to bring us eternal life. Therefore, through the Word we need to feed on Christ as the living bread.
In verse 33 we see that Christ is the bread of God who, through incarnation, came down out of heaven and gives life to the world. As the bread of God He is God, He was sent by God, and He was with God. Although Christ is the very God, He became flesh in order to be the bread of life for us to eat.
In verse 35 the Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” and in verse 51 He said, “I am the living bread.” Bread of life refers to the nature of the bread, which is life; living bread refers to the condition of the bread, which is living.
In verse 47 the Lord Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes has eternal life.” From this we see that everyone who believes in Him receives eternal life.
According to the word of the Lord Jesus in verse 29, the work of God is that we “believe into Him whom He has sent.” The Lord’s concept concerning God is that man should believe into Him, that is, receive Him as life and the life supply. This is the principle of the tree of life, which brings in life, as seen in Genesis 2. It is in contrast to the principle of the tree of knowledge, which brings in death.
In John 6 there are six sections related to Christ as the bread of life (vv. 32-71). In the first section we have Christ’s incarnation (vv. 32-51a); in the second, Christ’s death (vv. 51b-55); in the third, Christ’s resurrection (vv. 56-59); in the fourth, Christ’s ascension (vv. 60-62); in the fifth, Christ’s becoming the life-giving Spirit (vv. 63-65); and in the sixth, Christ’s being embodied and realized in the word of life (vv. 66-71).
We receive eternal life through Christ’s death and resurrection (vv. 51b, 53-57). Verse 51b says, “The bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world.” As we have pointed out, this refers to the Lord’s dying for us. He was slain, crucified, that we might have eternal life. In order to make Himself available to us to partake of as our food, the Lord Jesus had to die. The Lord Jesus was slain on the cross so that we could eat Him.
Resurrection is the next step by which the Lord Jesus made Himself available to us as the bread of life. Although He was slain, He is still living. He is the living One in resurrection. In verse 56 the Lord Jesus speaks of abiding in the one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood. Here Christ’s resurrection is implied. This verse indicates that He had to be resurrected that He might abide in us as our life and life supply. The Lord Jesus could not have an abode in us before His resurrection. He could abide in us only after His resurrection.
Because Christ has been resurrected, not only does He abide in us, but we may abide in Him. He who eats His flesh and drinks His blood abides in Him (v. 56).
Having received Christ as eternal life by believing in Him, we now live because of Him. Regarding this, the Lord Jesus said, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). To eat the Lord is to receive Him into us as food to be assimilated by us organically. Then we live by Him whom we receive. It is by this that Christ lives in us as the resurrected One (14:19-20).
In 6:53-57 the Lord Jesus, the Almighty God and the Creator of the universe, exhorts us to eat Him. Apart from the divine revelation in the Word, we would never have such a thought. If this word had not been spoken by the Lord Jesus, we surely would not have the boldness to say that we must eat the Lord. But both physically and spiritually we live by eating. Just as we need to eat three meals a day in order to live, so we need to eat the Lord so that we can live by the Lord.
The most important point in the entire chapter of John 6 is that Christ is our food, the bread of life. To eat Him is not a once-for-all matter. Rather, we daily need to contact the Lord and eat Him. Because He is the bread of life, He is edible. Now we must exercise our spirit to feed on Him, receiving Him, digesting Him, experiencing Him, enjoying Him, and applying Him moment by moment. We all need to concentrate on this one thing — eating Christ and then living by what we have eaten of Him. This is the divine way of life for our daily living.
In verse 58 the Lord Jesus declared that the one who eats the bread which came down out of heaven shall live forever.
“It is the Spirit who gives life” (v. 63a). At this point the Spirit who gives life is brought in. After resurrection and through resurrection, the Lord Jesus, who had become flesh (1:14), became the Spirit who gives life, as is clearly mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:45. It is as the life-giving Spirit that Christ can be life and the life supply to us. When we receive Him as the crucified and resurrected Savior, the Spirit who gives life comes into us to impart eternal life into us. We receive the Lord Jesus, but we get the Spirit who gives life. It is as the Spirit that Christ is the redeeming and generating life to us. Today we do not need to contact the Lord physically. Since He is the Spirit, we can contact Him as the Spirit within us. Because He is the life-giving Spirit, we can feed upon Him and assimilate Him as our food.
Christ as the bread of life is embodied in the word of life. He is the Spirit embodied in the Word. In addition to the Spirit, who is wonderful, we need something solid, visible, tangible, and touchable — the word of life. Concerning this, the Lord Jesus says that the words which He has spoken to us are “spirit and are life” (v. 63b).
The Greek word for words in verse 63 and also in verse 68 is rhema, which denotes the instant and present spoken word. It differs from logos (translated Word in 1:1), which denotes the constant word. In 6:63 “the words” follow “the Spirit.” The Spirit is living and real, yet He is very mysterious, intangible, and difficult for people to apprehend; the words, however, are substantial. First, the Lord Jesus indicated that for giving life He would become the Spirit. Then He said that the words He speaks are spirit and life. This shows that His spoken words are the embodiment of the Spirit of life. He is now the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, and the Spirit is embodied in His words. When we receive His words by exercising our spirit, we get the Spirit, who is life.
At the end of John 6, in verse 68, Simon Peter said to the Lord, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” This chapter closes with the word of life, which is the means for us to receive the Lord as the bread of life. If we receive the Word, we will have the Spirit; and if we have the Spirit within, we will have Christ as the inner supply of life. May we all realize that our need is Christ as our life supply and then daily contact Him as the life-giving Spirit embodied in the Word.
