John 6:35
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
What does Jesus mean?
Bread is an important food. It is a fundamental dietary item. We have phrases such as “someone’s bread and butter”, which means someone’s livelihood. In general, bread is often used as a symbol to represent all food.
By saying that He is the “bread of life”, Jesus is saying that He is essential for livelihood. Like how you cannot live without food, without Jesus you have no real life, no eternal life. People are often so caught up with their physical life. They forget that in the grand scheme of eternity, their physical life is less than a blink of an eye. What good is it if you excel in your earthly life – you have all the material things you want, you live in a huge mansion, you earn big bucks – but when you die, you live in desolation and pain without love and joy for the rest of eternity?
In this claim, Jesus also explains further about His deity and the kind of life we can have if we believe in Him. If you make a choice to come to Jesus, your spirit will be fed. People are constantly searching for a higher being and a deeper meaning to life. What is the point of your existence? Jesus fills these voids. He created us to build a relationship with us. All of us have a spirit and it cries out for God. Many search their whole life, never to be filled – because they search in the wrong places and/or accept wrong beliefs. With Jesus, a great sense of peace and assurance will come upon you. Inviting Jesus into your heart is the greatest life decision you can make. Your spirit will be revived, your spiritual needs will be fed. No longer will you feel a deep starvation to fill a void inside of you. Jesus is the answer.
How do you consume food? You must make a choice to pick it up and feed it to yourself. Similarly, you must make a personal choice to accept Jesus into your heart. No one can force you to do it. All through history, people have been creating ideas about what comes after death. Why? Because God created us with a longing for eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Many falsely think that they can earn their way to heaven. This is wrong. The bible explicitly states that you cannot earn your way to heaven because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Hence, you cannot fill this desire for eternal life yourself – no one is righteous enough to save a place for themselves in heaven. However, with Jesus, this desire can be met. When we accept and believe in him, our hunger and thirst for God and eternal life is filled.
We need food to survive. Eating is not a one time thing. You cannot eat tomorrow’s food today. You need to make a conscious effort to feed yourself in order to survive. Imagine you stuffed yourself with so much food today. You ate everything your heart desired and you’re so full. But I bet you’ll never say “I’m so full today, I think I’ll skip eating for the next 10 days.”. You can’t do that. You know as well as I know that that is silly! Stop eating food and you’ll start to starve, slowly withering.
This is the same with your spiritual life. You cannot purchase salvation. It’s not a one time acceptance deal. God will always look at the state of your heart. You cannot say “I will accept Jesus today and then I’ll take a break from Him for the next 10 days.”. Believing and following Jesus is a daily choice.
Walking away from Jesus, is like walking away from food. After a while, you’ll feel hungry again. You’ll start to feel empty and then you’ll start to wither. Not long after, if you do not eat, you lose your life – physical life without food and eternal life without Jesus.
