“Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and however believes in me, shall never thirst.”
– John 6:35
What a great statement, word picture, promise, all packed in to this one sentence of John 6:35. I’m the bread of life. We’re immediately taken back to what we saw in Exodus in the Bible, God feeding his people every day with manna, bread from heaven. God’s provision that kept them alive, sustained them. Jesus comes on the scene and he says, I’m that bread. I am the sustenance of God. Just like that bread.
Think about it. It was the staple of their diet. It’s what they depended on every day. It’s what nourished them. What strengthened them. It’s what gave life to them. It’s what satisfied their cravings. Jesus says, I’m all those things. I’m the one who nourishes you. The one who strengthens you. I’m the one who satisfies your cravings. I’m the bread of life. And you come to me and you won’t be hungry anymore. You believe in me, you won’t be thirsty anymore. Those two phrases parallel each other. Basically saying the same thing. To come to Jesus is to believe in Jesus. And when you do, your thirst is quenched and your stomach is satisfied, because Jesus indeed is the only one who can quench the thirst of our souls. Can satisfy our every desire.
Whoever comes to Christ will never be hungry and whoever believes in Him shall never thirst.
This Verse Reminds Us We Will Be Safe If We Trust In Him
Jesus is that good. He’s that good for you. He’s that good for me. He satisfies us in a way that will never, ever, ever leave us unsatisfied again. We’ll never hunger. We’ll never thirst again. Because He is the bread of life. What we read later in John, chapter 6, when Jesus says, Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, will be raised up on the last day. This satisfaction that’s found in Jesus will never, ever, ever end. So we pray, Jesus, we believe this. We believe you are our sustenance. There is no one like you.
John 6:35 Trusts In God As The Bread Of Life
There is nothing like you give, you give eternal life. Through belief in you, God, we praise you for making this all hinge not on our works, but on our faith, on our trust in you. So Jesus, yes, we trust in you as the bread of life. You’re the staple of our lives. We need you and we want you, just like we crave food, we crave you. We crave time with you, we crave closer relationship with you, we want to walk in obedience to you, we want to experience all the depth of satisfaction you’ve designed for us. So help us to live lives totally centered on you, Jesus. You are our life. You are our Lord. You’re not a compartmentalized part of our life. You’re not over here or over there. You are everything to us.
Help us to live today with you as our life. You as our constant nourishment, sustenance, strength and joy. It all comes from you Jesus. And we praise you for making these realities possible in our lives. In your name we pray. Amen.
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David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
