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We live in a troubled world. The world is altogether troublesome. Family life, school life, and every type of occupation — all are troublesome. Who is at peace — the president, the senators, the congressmen? No one is at peace. Regardless of whom you are, you are troubled. We all have troubles. Do not boast that your marriage is the best. I do not believe that even one marriage is absolutely good; every marriage is at least somewhat poor. By God’s sovereign ordination, we all must marry — there is no escape — but everyone who is married finds himself in trouble.
Christ comes into this troublesome world as the peace-giving Christ (John 6:16-21). John 6 not only portrays the hungry world, but also the troubled world. Christ is the feeding Christ to the hungry world and the peace-giving Christ to the troubled world. The world may trouble everyone, but it cannot trouble Him.
The stirred-up sea and the strong blowing wind signify the troubles in human life. Under the sea are demons, and in the air are evil spirits. That is why we have trouble. How could we ever expect to have a peaceful day? We are in the wrong place for that.
Jesus walked on the sea (6:19). This signifies that the Lord can overrule all the troubles of human life. He can walk on the troubling waves of human life, and all the unrest is under His feet. Christ walked on top of all the waves. It seemed that the more waves there were, the more He enjoyed walking upon them. The waves terrified His disciples, but He trod upon them. He seemed to say, “Demons, please cause bigger waves. Then I will have more enjoyment. I can walk on top of your waves.” This is the peace-giving Christ.
When the disciples took Him into their boat, immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going (6:21). Do you want to have a peaceful life? If you do, then you must take Jesus into your “boat.” Your “boat” may be your married life, family, or occupation. When He comes into your “boat,” you will enjoy peace with Him on the journey of human life. If you receive Christ into your marriage, your marriage will be peaceful. If you receive Him into your family, your family will be at peace. If you accept Him into your job, your job will be peaceful. Without Christ, the world is hungry. Without Christ, the world is also troubled. But with Him, we have satisfaction and peace. He is the feeding Christ and the peace-giving Christ. Praise the Lord!
In verses 22 through 31 we find the seekers after the perishing food. They were seeking satisfaction. Regardless of the kind of food people are seeking, they all are seeking satisfaction. These people were trying to do something and to work for God. They were also seeking for signs and miracles. The concept of fallen man toward God is always that he must do something for God and work for God. This is the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2. The Lord’s concept concerning man toward God is that he believe in Him, that is, receive Him as the life and life supply. This is the principle of the tree of life in Genesis 2. The answer to the seeking after the perishing food is to receive the Lord by believing in Him (6:29).
In verses 32 through 71 we find the food that abides to eternal life. If we read this portion carefully, we find that the Lord was incarnated, crucified, resurrected to indwell us, and ascended, and we see that He has become the life-giving Spirit who eventually is embodied in His living Word. Let us now consider each of these aspects.
Verses 35 through 51 reveal that the Lord has come to man by being incarnated that He might give life to man. By what way can we take the Lord as food, as the bread of life? This chapter reveals the way figuratively, but for many generations people have overlooked it. First of all, the Lord said that He “came down from heaven” (6:33, 38, 41, 42, 50, 51, 58). By what way did He come down from heaven? He came down by incarnation. He became a man by partaking of flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14). He came in the flesh and He came as a man. The devil and the evil spirits hate this. The only way to test whether or not a person has an evil spirit is to ask the demon or spirit if he would confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (1 John 4:2). Incarnation is the first step that the Lord took in order to become our life.
Verse 35 says, “Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes in Me shall by no means ever thirst.” The bread of life is the life supply in the form of food, like the tree of life (Gen. 2:9), which is also the life supply “good for food.” He who comes to the Lord shall never hunger, and he who believes in Him shall never thirst. In the principle set forth in chapter two, this also is the changing of death into life. Death is of the source of the tree of knowledge, and life is of the source of the tree of life.
Verse 46 says, “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except Him who is from God, He has seen the Father.” The Greek preposition translated “from” means “by the side of.” The sense here is “from with.” The Lord is not only from God, but also with God. While He is from God, He is still with God (8:16, 29; 16:32).
In verse 47 the Lord says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has eternal life.” To believe into the Lord is not the same as to believe Him (v. 30). To believe Him means to believe that He is true and real, but to believe into Him means to receive Him and be united with Him as one. The eternal life mentioned in this verse is the divine life, the uncreated life of God, which is not only everlasting as far as time is concerned, but is eternal and divine in nature.
The Lord’s death was the second step that He took to make Himself available for us to partake of as our food. He died for us, not in an ordinary way, but in a very extraordinary way. He was slain by being crucified on the cross. This death separated His blood from His flesh. If you were a Jew living during that time, you would have been very familiar with this. I once read an article describing how the Jews slew the lamb during the Passover. The article said that the Jews put the lamb on a cross. Of course, we all know that the Roman Empire used the death penalty of the cross to crucify criminals, but the Jews used this method long before the Roman Empire to slay the lamb at their Passover. They took two wooden bars and formed a cross. They tied two legs at the foot of the cross and fastened the other outstretched legs to the crossbar. Then they slew the lamb so that all its blood was shed. They needed all of its blood to sprinkle on their door frames; therefore, the blood was completely separated from its flesh.
The Lord died in the same manner. In fact, His death occurred at the time of their Passover. We have seen that John 6 was placed in the setting of the Jewish Passover. Thus, the minds of the people were filled with thoughts about the Passover. With this as the background, the Lord told them that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Instead of taking the shed blood of the Passover lamb and eating its flesh, they were now to understand that the Lord is the real Lamb for God’s Passover. All of their former Passover lambs were a type of Christ. Now He is the real Lamb who will be slain for them. His blood will be shed for their sins, and His flesh will be eaten for their real life. On the one hand, His blood will redeem them from their sins; on the other hand, His flesh will supply them with life.
The Jews did not understand this and even neglected the Lord as the Lamb of God. But today we know that the Lord is the Lamb of God who died for us, shed His blood for the redemption of our sins, and offered His flesh for us to eat as our life. It is by faith that we take His blood, and it is by faith that we eat His flesh. Then we have Him as our life.
In order to be eaten by man, the Lord had to be slain. Nothing can be eaten unless it has first been killed. So, the kitchen is a place of slaughter. For example, it is impossible for us to eat a live cow or chicken. They must first be killed. Even an onion must first be killed before we can eat it. If it is not killed with a knife, it will be killed by our teeth. Likewise, the Lord had to be slain for us to eat Him.
In verse 51b the Lord says, “And the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” At this point, the bread becomes the flesh. We have seen that the bread is of the vegetable life and is only for feeding and that the 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), only for feeding man. After man fell into sin, the Lord became the Lamb (John 1:29), not only for feeding man, but also for redeeming him (Exo. 12:4, 7-8). The Lord gave His body, that is, His flesh, to die for us that we might have life. The blood is added in verse 53, where the Lord says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” The blood is added here because it is necessary for redemption (John 19:34; Heb. 9:22; Matt. 26:28; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rom. 3:25).
In verse 54 the Lord says, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day.” Here flesh and blood are mentioned separately. When blood is separate from flesh, it indicates death. Hence, here the Lord clearly indicated His death, that is, His being slain. He gave His body and shed His blood for us that we might have eternal life. To eat His flesh is to receive by faith all that He did by giving His body for us, and to drink His blood is to receive by faith all that He has accomplished by shedding His blood for us. This kind of eating of His flesh and drinking of 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 this verse with verse 47, we see that to eat the Lord’s flesh and drink His blood is equal to believing in Him, because to believe is to receive (1:12).
We have seen that incarnation is the first step and that crucifixion is the second. Resurrection is the third step by which the Lord has made Himself available as our life. Several times in John 6 the Lord mentions something about “life” and “living.” On the one hand, He said that He was the bread of life; on the other hand, He said that He was the living bread (6:35, 51). Do you understand the difference between the bread of life and the living bread? Perhaps you may feel that both phrases mean the same. However, the proper way to study the Word is to investigate both phrases and determine the reason for the difference between them. The bread of life refers to the nature of the bread, which is life; the living bread refers to the condition of the bread, which is living. He is the living bread. Although He was crucified and slain, He is still living. He alone is the living One in resurrection. Verse 56 implies the matter of resurrection. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him.” This indicates that the Lord had to be resurrected that He might abide in us as our life and life supply. The Lord could not have abode in us before His resurrection. He could only abide in us after His resurrection. Thus, verse 56 indicates that He was going to be resurrected and become the indwelling Spirit.
In verse 57 the Lord says, “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me shall also live because of Me.” Eating is to take food into us to be assimilated into our body organically. Hence, to eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us to be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life. Then we live by Him whom we receive. It is by this that He lives in us as the resurrected One (14:19-20). In principle, this also is the changing of death into life.
Ascension follows resurrection. The Lord’s ascension is referred to in verse 62. Responding to His disciples who were murmuring about His words, the Lord said, “What then if you should see the Son of Man ascending where He was before?” Here in this verse His ascension is clearly mentioned. Ascension is the proof of the completion of His redemptive work (Heb. 1:3). The Lord ascended to the Father, and the Father accepted Him. That was a proof that His work on the cross for our redemption was acceptable to the Father. Thus, the Lord was seated at the right hand of the Father. His work on the cross satisfied God the Father.
Verse 63 says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” 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 He can be the life and 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 to us.
Many people understand verse 63 incorrectly, thinking that the flesh signifies humanity with its human nature. According to the context, the flesh here refers to the meat of the physical body, the same as in the previous verses where the Lord said that His flesh was edible. The Jews could not understand how He could give His flesh for them to eat. They thought that He would give them the meat of His physical body (v. 52). They did not understand the Lord’s word rightly. To them it was a hard word (v. 60). At this point, the Lord said that it is the Spirit that gives life and that the flesh profits nothing. In other words, the Lord told them that He would become the Spirit. He would not be literally in the flesh, but would be transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit. Thus, in verse 63 the Lord explained that what He would give them to eat is not the meat of His physical body; the meat, which is of the flesh, profits nothing. What He would give eternally is the Spirit who gives life, who is Himself in resurrection.
What kind of Christ have you received? Have you received Christ in the flesh or as the Spirit? The Apostle Paul said that formerly some knew Christ in the flesh, but now they know Him in the flesh no longer (2 Cor. 5:16). Now they know Christ as the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Before His death and resurrection, the Lord was incarnated in the flesh; after His death and resurrection, He was transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Therefore, the Christ we now receive is not the Christ in the flesh, but the Christ who is the Spirit. When we come to John 20, we shall see that on the evening of His resurrection, He came to His disciples and breathed on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). That was Himself after His resurrection, for after His resurrection He was transfigured into the Spirit. He was no longer in the flesh as He was before His crucifixion. Now He is the Spirit; therefore, they had to receive the Spirit. Before His death, when He was in the flesh, all He could do was be with and among His disciples, but He could not be in them. Now, as the Spirit, it is easy for Him to be within 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. He is the life-giving Spirit. Since He is the Spirit, we can take Him and feed upon Him as our food.
When we receive the Lord Jesus, we get the Spirit who gives life. We can prove this by the matter of calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” we receive the Spirit. We call on the Lord Jesus, but we receive the Spirit. Why? Because the Lord Jesus today is the Spirit. The fact that we get the Spirit when we call on the name of Jesus is a strong proof that the Lord Jesus is the Spirit today. Whoever says, “Lord Jesus,” is in the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Jesus is the name, and the Spirit is the person. The Spirit is the person of Jesus. At this point we need to read John 14:26. “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all things which I said to you.” The Father sends the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Son. The Spirit is sent in the name of the Son. Who is the Spirit? The Spirit is the person of Jesus. Thus, we have both the name and the person. The best way to get the Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Whenever you call, “O Lord Jesus,” you receive the person, and the person is the Spirit. Whenever we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we get the Spirit. The Spirit is the person of the dear Lord Jesus.
Christ, as the bread of life, is embodied in the Word of life. Although the Spirit is wonderful, it is too mysterious. We need something solid, visible, tangible, and touchable — the Word of life. In verse 63 the Lord says that “the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.” The Word is substantial.
The “words” in this verse is rhema in Greek, which means the instant and present spoken word. It differs from logos, which means the constant word, as in John 1:1. At this point, the words follow the Spirit. The Spirit is living and real, but rather mysterious, intangible, and difficult for people to apprehend, but the words are substantial. Firstly, the Lord 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 life-giving Spirit. 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 receive the Spirit who is life.
The Word is outside of us. When I receive the Word into me, it immediately becomes the Spirit. When I speak the Word out, the Spirit once again becomes the Word. When you receive the Word into you, the Word becomes the Spirit once more, and when you speak the Word out, it becomes the Spirit again. When we preach the gospel, we are actually preaching the Word. When people believe the gospel, they believe the Word. As strange as it may seem, when people receive the Word, the Word actually becomes the Spirit within them. For example, if you came to the Lord through John 3:16, you might have prayed, “Lord, I thank You that You are so good to me. You have given Your Son to me.” What happened within you when you believed these words? When you believed these words, something within you was quickened and became living. I do not mean that you received some knowledge in your mentality, but that something became so living in your heart and spirit. You believed the Word, yet you received the Spirit. The Word outside of you became the Spirit inside of you. It was the Word without, but it became the Spirit within. When you listened to the Word and received it, you somehow received the Spirit also. This is very mysterious and marvelous.
The Lord is the Spirit and the Word. The resurrected Christ is the Spirit, the Spirit is the Word, the Word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the resurrected Lord for us to enjoy. Now we know what He is and where He is. Hence, when we contact the Word in spirit, we are actually contacting the Lord Himself as the living bread. When we receive the Word in spirit, we are receiving Christ Himself as the abundant supply of life. Now, day by day, we are participating in this wonderful, resurrected Christ as our food, life, and life-supply. He is the Spirit that gives life and He is the Word of life.
In verse 68 Simon Peter said something very interesting. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” This chapter closes with the Word of life, which is the only way to receive the Lord. The problem today boils down to the Word. If you receive the Word, you will have the Spirit within; if you have the Spirit within, then you have Christ as the inner supply of life.
We have seen six steps whereby Christ has made Himself available for us to receive — incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, becoming the life-giving Spirit, and being embodied in the Word of life. The Lord has been incarnated, crucified, resurrected, ascended, has been transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit, and has been embodied in the Word. The Word is the embodiment of the Spirit of the Lord. You cannot say that you do not know how to contact the Lord, for the Lord has been embodied in the Word. He is the Spirit and the Word. If you receive the Word, you will have the Spirit as your enjoyment of Christ.
Now we may appreciate the difference between the human concept and the divine thought. The human, religious concept is what the Jews asked in verse 28: “What shall we do that we may work the works of God?” Throughout the Scriptures, it is only in this chapter that the religious Jews asked such a question. Religious teaching always exhorts us to do and do. Man’s concept is doing; God’s thought is believing.
The work that God desired and predestinated for us to do is to believe into His Son. The preposition “in” in verse 29 (“on” in KJV) should be translated as “into” according to the Greek text. The Lord Jesus did not tell us to believe Him, but to believe into Him. John 6 shows two ways of believing — to believe Him and to believe into Him. After the Lord answered their question, the Jews retorted in verse 30, saying, “What sign will you do that we may see and believe you? What work will you do?” They said, “Believe you,” but that was not what the Lord said. The Lord told them to “believe into Him.” The preposition is exactly the same as that used in Romans 6:3 for “baptized into Christ.” As we have seen, to believe Him means to believe that He is true and that everything about Him is right. But to believe into Him means to receive Him and to be united and mingled with Him as one. When you believe into Him, there is a union and a oneness between you and Christ. In other words, you have come into Him and have received Him into you. According to the divine thought, there is nothing for us to do but to believe into Christ and receive Him into us day by day.
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in Him.” For us, the work of God is nothing other than eating Christ, receiving Him, and living by Him. We must be adjusted in our human concept about working for God. Daily we must eat Christ in order to live by Christ. Several times in this chapter the Lord says that he who eats Him shall live by Him (6:51, 57, 58). Today’s problem is not work, but life. What kind of life do you live? Are you satisfied with the life you are living? If you do not eat and drink of Christ, you simply do not have life. If you do not have life, how can you live? Verse 53 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” The divine thought is not to work for God, but to take Christ as our food and drink. By eating and drinking of Christ, we shall be filled with Christ. Then we can properly live for God.
The strongest and strangest sentence in the entire Bible is verse 57. “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me shall also live because of Me.” The Lord who is the Almighty God and the Creator of the universe exhorts us to eat Him. Man could never have such a thought. If this word had not been spoken by the Lord, I believe that none of us would possess enough courage to say that we must eat the Lord. Of course, we can say that we must worship and fear the Lord, trust and obey the Lord, pray and work for the Lord. We may use many other verbs to explain what we must do for the Lord, but we would be afraid to think that we should eat Him. We all must eat three meals a day in order to live. In other words, we live by eating. Likewise, we must eat the Lord so that we can live by the Lord. The most important point in the whole chapter of John 6 is that the Lord is our food, the bread of life. To eat Him is not a once-for-all matter. It is a daily matter and even a moment by moment experience of the Lord. Whether in the East or West, people continually eat so that they may live. So, we all must also contact the Lord and eat Him. We are not merely weak people, but hungry people who need the Lord as our life supply. The Lord is edible because He is the bread of life. He is as edible as a piece of bread. We must exercise our spirit to feed on Him as the Word and as the Spirit. Then we shall receive Him into us, digest Him, experience Him, and apply Him moment by moment. This is all — there is nothing else. We must forget about our doing and our working and learn to eat Christ and live by what we have eaten of Him. This is the divine way of life for our daily living.
