Theological Term of the Week
Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at 8:13PM Bread of Life Discourse
Jesus’ teaching discussion on the bread of life found in John 6:22-58.
- From scripture, an excerpt of the Bread of Life Discourse:
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:47-51, ESV)
- From The God Who Is There by D. A. Carson:
Jesus says he is the Bread of Life and unless we eat him we will die. At a superficial level, the notion of eating Jesus might sound jolly close to cannibalism. Or those of us who are more religiously inclined might think, “Maybe it’s the sacrament of holy communion or something like that.” Originally, that was not what Jesus meant at all. We must not forget that in the ancient world just about everybody worked with their hand or on farms, so they were closer to nature than we are today… . [I]f you were to ask anybody in the first century where [food] came from, they would reply, “From plants, fish, and animals.” They have grown or caught this food themselves. So anybody in the first century knows that you live because the chicken died… . All of this organic material that we feed ourselves with—which we must have or we die—has given its life for us in substitution… .
Either you die or something else living dies so that you may live. Jesus picks up on that language and says, “Unless you eat my flesh, you will die. I die so that you may live.”
Learn more:
- In Scripture: John 6:22-58
- R. C. Sproul: The Bread of Life
- Bob Deffinbaugh: The Bread of Life
- Arthur Pink: Exposition of John 6:28-40
- John Macarthur: I Am the Bread of Life (sermon video, audio, and transcript)
- D. A. Carson: The Bread of Life (audio)
Related terms:
Filed under Person, Work, and Teaching of Christ
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