2. I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.

(Continued from page 221.)

The parallel thought suggested by the miracle preceding the discourse of John 6:is that, as bread is the sustenance for the natural life, so He who is the " Bread of life " is this for the life He has given. Such a life was what the world needed in its state of spiritual death and alienation from God. The light of such a life, as shining from the Word become flesh, was required to fully manifest the darkness of the world. And the gift of this life, to whoever would receive it, turned that one from the darkness to the glory of the light of life. Therefore "work not for the food that perisheth but for the food that abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." Satan's and man's opposition make labor necessary to obtain this food. " The work of God," which they must do, is to "believe on Him whom He hath sent." This would obtain for them eternal life (verse 40). He enforces this a little later on. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath eternal life ; " and He is the Bread of that life-the means of its sustenance and the power of its perpetuity (vers. 47, 48). "This is the Bread that cometh down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die." The secret and power of eternal life is in Him, and He came down from heaven to give it to men.

He is this Bread, the "Bread of God" (ver. 33) -the "true Bread from heaven " that they who eat of it may live forever.

He is the "living Bread," the Son to whom the Father hath given to have life in Himself (John 5:26). We may well note in connection with this the comparison the Lord draws between His own life and the Father, and that of the one who feeds upon Him and lives by reason of this. "As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by reason of the Father, so he that feedeth on Me shall live by reason of Me" (ver. 57). The Father abides in Him, and, in this place of obedience and dependence He had taken, it is the life of the Father given to Him by which He lives. The carrying out of the Father's will and purpose was the whole expression of His life. He that feedeth on Me, Christ says, "abideth in Me and I in him" (ver. 56). The parallel is plain. As the Father is the explanation of the life of Christ here, so now Christ is the explanation of the believer's life. It is that, doubtless, in the mind and counsel of God, and will be that in fulness in the glory of eternity ; but to what extent is it that in our daily life here ? Is He the motive of thought and action in our lives here ? and is our obedience and service springing from love for Him ? Thus He is "the bread of life," assimilated by those to whom
this life has been given, through faith in Him. This is eternal life, and is sustained for eternity by the same Bread-"he that feedeth on this Bread shall live forever" (ver. 58).

As the Lord speaks of Himself under the figure of bread, the process of preparation should also be instructive in this connection.

First as to the grain. "A body hast Thou prepared Me." Of this body the grain in plainly a type, speaking of the Person of Christ. The grain must be crushed and undergo the action of fire. This tells of how Christ, in the body prepared Him, must needs bear the fire of God's wrath that He may be '' the Bread of life " to others. He links with this title the fact that the bread He will give is His flesh which He will give for the life of the world (ver. 51). The language, of course, we understand to be figurative. It is in connection with His death that Christ becomes this bread, just as the prepared grain only becomes bread through the action of the fire. Thus the bread, in accord with the Lord's language, is the flesh of the sacrifice after it had been subjected to the action of fire (Exod. 12:9).

The grain of wheat the Lord uses as a type of Himself. It "consists of an outer husk or covering, an embryo or germ, and a central mass of farinaceous material." The husk or covering is separated in the grinding process and does not become part of the wheaten flour; the germ is that from which the life of the plant springs; and in the central mass, in which the germ is hid, we find that matter on which so much of the nutritive value of the grain depends. This mass, with the germ, when ground constitutes the flour. Here we have a parable of nature stamped with that triple character which marks it as full manifestation of Him concerning whom it is a type. We have, in the outer covering of the grain, the body of humiliation, the tabernacle of Deity. "The Word became flesh." In the germ of life we have the fact that " in Him was life," that "as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." In the central mass of the grain, in which the germ of life is hid, we have the elements of His Person, in which is found the eternal life He had in Himself – that germ, as we may say, from which alone springs all of new creation life and fruitfulness. It is this central mass with the germ in it which, when ground and subjected to the action of fire, becomes the bread of natural life. So, too, the elements of the Person of Christ in which is the eternal life, becomes the Bread of life after He passes under the fire of divine wrath for others, that they might feed on this Bread.

In the process of preparation, the crushing of the grain is the first step; then the flour is combined with water in the kneading; and, finally, it is subjected to fire. Christ, the true grain of wheat, passed through all of these three stages.

We have spoken of the central mass of the grain with its germ, as typical of the elements of the Person of Christ. It is these elements which come out under the crushing-stones of suffering and affliction, constituting the life manifested, with the Eternal Life permeating throughout, even as the germ and the central mass are crushed together and displayed in the fine flour-the product of this process. Thus was the Eternal Life, which was with the Father, manifested here. That fine flour speaks to us of the separate, holy, altogether lovely character of in all its perfect elements, crushed out in a wondrous display of perfection by the awful pressure in every form of trial to which He was subjected. What material for the food of the creature! The fine flour is not ready for the fire, however, until it has been kneaded with water. Water is a type of the written Word. Here the thought seems to be that all which He endured, the whole of His life, as manifested in the fine flour, is perfectly mixed, as we may say, bound up together with the fulfilment of, and in obedience to, the word of God. Its every requirement is met by Him. This all proved Him as the One alone fit and ready to bear the fire of judgment and be the Bread of life, just as the wheat is made ready by this double process, to be baked and then fed upon by man.

The fire is that which finally makes the bread ready for food. It is the fire of judgment endured by Christ which makes Him the Bread of life for the believer. " My flesh " (the perfect humanity, the fine flour) is the bread Christ declares He will give for the life of the world. It becomes this, therefore, through sacrifice and the shedding of His blood.

The Christ who lived, but passed through death, is the Bread of life for those who, linked with Him, stand in the glory of His resurrection. Here we may draw a distinction. It is not the bread which gives life; it is the sustenance of life. "The blood is the life;" and Christ links flesh and blood together. The drinking of the blood gives life-that is the entering by faith into the work accomplished by the life given up, to which the blood shed bears witness. Then for this life we have what sustains it, "My flesh." In the types of the Old Testament it was only after the sacrifice, the blood all poured out, that the flesh could be eaten. In this we see how He becomes the Bread in connection with His death. It is that which makes it good to us. How precious the food thus provided for the need of new-creation life! How infinite its value since the cost was so great by which it was made good to us. But let us consider this question:To what extent does our regularity in partaking of this food compare with our regularity in partaking of "the food that perisheth?" Our hearts are searched, surely, as we think of how seldom we sit at meat with our blessed God. May we by His grace be quickened afresh to feed upon this bounteous provision of divine love which has spent itself to the full in providing for the objects of its affection. Let us remember that Christ is the Bread of our life-not the world nor the things of the world. "I am"-absolute and excluding all else,-"the bread of life." J. B. Jr.