“For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” John 6:33
Heaven’s bread is not a thing, but a Person. It is Christ Himself. That which distinguishes the bread from all others is this: it has not only the power to make the dead to live, but it is the very life of God given to men by the Spirit. It is Christ received and dwelling in the heart by faith. What then distinguishes the objective “bread from heaven,” for which we are to pray, and this living Bread, which is the Lord Jesus? The first is the expression of the other. It is also the means by which the disciple of Christ, or the believer, partakes of the living Bread, which is Christ Himself.
During the meal that Jesus had with His disciples prior to His trial, crucifixion, and resurrection, he took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, and gave it to the disciples, saying: “This is My body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19) The broken bread which He presented to the disciples was both a picture and a provision. It was a picture of His broken body which was soon to be offered upon Calvary for the sins of the whole world. The bread was also a provision, a Divinely designed means by which the disciples could truly know Him, and this life to which they were called. How? We know that there is nothing intrinsically spiritual concerning natural bread, nor the fact that it is broken. However, in the act of Christ giving the broken bread to be partaken of, there is the revelation that the call of God to know Him goes far beyond just a slight knowledge of His ways. Christ’s broken body was to be the picture of a love so total in His pursuit to save the sinner, that nothing else could compare. The broken bread from heaven would also declare God’s perfect provision for the sinful, lost condition of man. No other picture, nor provision, could reveal the desperate need, and only solution of lost man, than that of Christ on the cross. So, the Lord Jesus takes the bread at the last supper, breaks it, and distributes it to His disciples, well knowing that they will not grasp at present His meaning. But Christ is looking down the road, farther than the cross. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews wrote: “…for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:2) This joy was certainly regaining the fullest expression of the Father’s love and presence, but it was also because of bringing of many sons to glory.” Christ’s body, and believers of all time, are His inheritance, that for which He suffered and died. It was because He would see the travail of His soul, being satisfied, that this Righteous Servant of God, would justify many, bearing their iniquities. How important is it for us to grasp something of Christ as our living bread, even the Bread which came down out of heaven?
In John’s gospel, the Lord Jesus declares Himself to be: “the bread of life.” What does this mean? It means there is in that bread, the very real power to live, and live eternally. Not only is there the satisfying of the soul’s hunger that is met by partaking of this living bread by faith, but there is also the experience of the blessed, powerful life of Christ. There is the communication of His life to and through the heart, manifested in the life, and this, by the power of God. Perhaps the most essential truth concerning this bread, and our experiential knowledge of God is expressed in Jesus’ words: “…As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so, he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.” (Jn. 6:57) To partake of Christ, by faith, by the Spirit, is to know his Life and power.
Dear Father, Grant us grace to abide in Thy Son as our living Bread. In Jesus’ name, Amen.