He Is That Bread

August 21

“Don’t work for food that spoils; rather, work for the food that stays good always and gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food because on Him has God the Father put His power,” John 6:27.

The essence of what Jesus is saying here is that the food that sustains temporal life is limited in its power. Yes, the body must be nourished and in order for it to remain in strength, consuming food is essential, but no matter how well we eat of the fruit of the vine and no matter how fully we satisfy ourselves of the meat served at our table, we will one day perish. Temporal food, like temporal life, has an expiration date.

But the food Jesus wants to impart to us is the ‘Bread of Life,” (see John 6:35), and He is that Bread. When we partake of Jesus, when we receive the salvation He shed His blood to supply for us, we are taking into our spirits of the sustenance of real and eternal life. When we partake of Jesus, we are consuming the spiritual food that will allow us to be alive for evermore.

He broke the bread and poured the wine at the Last supper and said, “Take, eat, for this is My body, broken for you; and drink of the cup, for this is My blood,” Matthew 26:26. Jesus was here affirming that His sacrifice for man is the only thing that can sustain life that is eternal. His death in our behalf sealed the covenant of life He carried out in our behalf.

Because the entire concept is ethereal, He promised to send a seal to make it concrete for us. He promised to send His Holy Spirit to assure believers that they are eternally alive because they have partaken of Christ’s Body and Blood. In II Corinthians 1:22, Paul states it thusly, “He put His mark on us to show that we are His and He put His Spirit in our hearts to be a guarantee for all He has promised.”

When we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord, when we begin to partake of the spiritual food that is Christ, we have the sustenance we need for life eternal. As Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh," John 6:51.

If the people of the world will partake of the salvation Jesus gives and of the spiritual food that He supplies, the world will live. If we turn our backs on Him, we will live and move and have our being as we consume the fruit of time but we will perish eternally. May we have eyes to see the difference and may we choose the eternal Truth that is Jesus, the Bread that sustains eternal life.