In chapter 6, then, it is the Lord come down from heaven, humbled and put
to death, not now as the Son of God, one with the Father, the source of
life; but as He who, although He was Jehovah and at the same time the
Prophet and the King, would take the place of Victim, and that of Priest in
heaven: in His incarnation, the bread of life; dead, the true nourishment
of believers; ascended again to heaven, the living object of their faith.
But He only glances at this last feature: the doctrine of the chapter is
that which goes before. It is not the divine power that quickens, but the
Son of man come in flesh, the object of faith, and so the means of life;
and, though, as plainly declared by the calling of grace, yet it is not the
divine side, quickening whom He will, but faith in us laying hold of Him.
In both He acts independently of the limits of Judaism. He quickens whom He
will, and comes to give life to the world.
It was on the occasion of the Passover, a type which the Lord was to fulfil
by the death of which He spoke. Observe, here, that all these chapters
present the Lord, and the truth that reveals Him, in contrast with Judaism,
which He forsook and set aside. Chapter 5 was the impotence of the law and
its ordinances; here it is the blessings promised by the Lord to the Jews
on earth (Psalm 132: 15), and the characters of Prophet and King fulfilled
by the Messiah on earth in connection with the Jews, that are seen in
contrast with the new position and the doctrine of Jesus. That of which I
here speak characterises every distinct subject in this Gospel.
First, Jesus blesses the people, according to the promise of that which
Jehovah should do, given them in Psalm 132, for He was Jehovah. On this,
the people acknowledge Him to be "that Prophet," and desire by force to
make Him their King. But this He declines now-could not take it in this
carnal way. Jesus leaves them, and goes up by Himself into a mountain. This
was, figuratively, His position as Priest on high. These are the three
characters of the Messiah in respect of Israel; but the last has full and
special application to the saints now also, as walking on the earth, who
continue as to this the position of the remnant. The disciples enter a
ship, and, without Him, are tossed upon the waves. Darkness comes on (this
will happen to the remnant down here), and Jesus is away. Nevertheless He
rejoins them, and they receive Him joyfully. Immediately the ship is at the
place to which they were going. A striking picture of the remnant
journeying on earth during the absence of Christ, and their every wish
fully and immediately satisfied-full blessing and rest-when He rejoins
them.
[see note #28]
This part of the chapter, having shewn us the Lord as already the Prophet
here below, and refusing to be made King, and also that which will yet take
place when He returns to the remnant on earth-the historical framework of
what He was and will be-the remainder of the chapter gives us that which He
is meanwhile to faith, His true character, the purpose of God in sending
Him, outside Israel, and in connection with sovereign grace. The people
seek Him. The true work, which God owns, is to believe in Him whom He has
sent. This is that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which is given
by the Son of man (it is in this character we find Jesus here, as in chapter 5 it
was the Son of God), for He it is whom God the Father has
sealed. Jesus had taken this place of Son of man in humiliation here below.
He went to be baptised of John the Baptist; and there, in this character,
the Father sealed Him, the Holy Ghost coming down upon Him.
The multitude ask Him for a proof like the manna. He was Himself the
proof-the true manna. Moses did not give the heavenly bread of life. Their
fathers died in the very wilderness in which they had eaten the manna. The
Father now gave them the true bread from heaven. Here, observe, it is not
the Son of God who gives, and who is the sovereign Giver of life to whom He
will. He is the object set before faith; He is to be fed upon. Life is
found in Him; he that eats Him shall live by Him, and shall never hunger.
But the multitude did not believe in Him; in fact, the mass of Israel, as
such, were not in question. Those that the Father gave Him should come unto
Him. He was there the passive object, so to say, of faith. It is no longer
to whom He will, but to receive those whom the Father brought Him.
Therefore, be it who it might, He would in no wise cast them out: enemy,
scoffer, Gentile, they would not come if the Father had not sent them. The
Messiah was there to do His Father's will, and whomsoever the Father
brought Him He would receive for life eternal (compare chap. 5: 21). The
Father's will had these two characters. Of all whom the Father should give
Him, He would lose none. Precious assurance! The Lord saves assuredly to
the end those whom the Father has given Him; and then every one that should
see the Son and believe on Him should have everlasting life. This is the
gospel for every soul, as the other is that which infallibly assures the
salvation of every believer. But this is not all. The subject of hope was
not now the fulfilment on earth of the promises made to the Jew, but being
raised from the dead, having part in everlasting life-in resurrection at
the last day (that is, of the age of the law in which they were). He did
not crown the dispensation of the law; He was to bring in a new
dispensation, and with it resurrection. The Jews
[see note #29]
murmur at His saying that He came down from heaven. Jesus replies by the
testimony that their difficulty was easy to be understood: no one could
come unto Him except the Father brought him. It was grace that produced
this effect; whether they were Jews or not made no difference. It was a
question of eternal life, of being raised from the dead by Him; not of
performing the promises as Messiah, but of bringing in the life of a widely
different world to be enjoyed by faith-the Father's grace having led the
soul to find it in Jesus. Moreover, the prophets had said they should all
be taught of God. Every one, therefore, who had learned of the Father came
unto Him. No man, doubtless, had seen the Father excepting Him who was of
God-Jesus; He had seen the Father. He that believed in Him was already in
possession of eternal life, for He was the bread come down from heaven,
that a man might eat thereof and not die.
But this was not only by the incarnation, but by the death of Him who came
down from heaven. He would give His life; His blood should be taken from
the body which He had assumed. They should eat His flesh; they should drink
His blood. Death should be the believer's life. And, in fact, it is in a
dead Saviour that we see the sin taken away which He bore for us, and death
for us is death to the sinful nature in which evil and our separation from
God lay. There He made an end of sin-He who knew no sin. Death, which sin
brought in, puts away the sin that attached to the life, which there comes
to its end. Not that Christ had any sin in His own Person; but He took sin,
He was made sin, on the cross, for us. And he who is dead is justified from
sin. I feed, therefore, on the death of Christ. Death is mine; it is become
life. It separates me from sin, from death, from the life in which I was
separated from God. In it sin and death have finished their course. They
were attached to my life. Christ, in grace, has borne them, and He has
given His flesh for the life of the world; and I am freed from them; and I
feed on the infinite grace that is in Him, who has accomplished this. The
expiation is complete, and I live, being happily dead to all that separated
me from God. It is death as fulfilled in Him that I feed upon, first for
me, and entering withal into it by faith. He needed to live as man in order
to die, and He has given His life. Thus His death is efficacious; His love
infinite; the expiation total, absolute, perfect. That which was between me
and God exists no longer, for Christ died, and it all passed away with His
life here on earth-life as He had it before expiring on the cross. Death
could not hold Him. To perform this work, He needed to possess a power of
divine life which death could not touch; but this is not the truth
expressly taught in the chapter before us, although it is implied.
In speaking to the multitude, the Lord, while rebuking them for their
unbelief, presents Himself, come in the flesh, as the object of their faith
at that moment (v. 32-35). To the Jews, in laying open the doctrine, He
repeats that He is the living bread come down from heaven, of which if any
man eat he should live for ever. But He makes them understand that they
could not stop there-they must receive His death. He does not say here, "he
that eateth me," but it was to eat His flesh and drink His blood, to enter
fully into the thought-the reality-of His death; to receive a dead (not a
living) Messiah, dead for men, dead before God. He does not exist now as a
dead Christ; but we must acknowledge, realise, feed upon, His
death-identify ourselves with it before God, participating in it by faith,
or we have no life in us.
[see note #30]
Thus it was for the world. Thus they should live, not of their own life,
but by Christ, through feeding on Him. Here He returns to His own Person,
faith in His death being established. Moreover, they should dwell in Him
(v. 56)-should be in Him before God, according to all His acceptance before
God, all the efficacy of His work in dying.
[see note #31]
And Christ should dwell in them according to the power and grace of that
life in which He had gained the victory over death, and in which, having
gained it, He now lives. As the living Father had sent Him, and He lived,
not by an independent life which had not the Father for its object or
source, but by reason of the Father, so he that thus ate Him should live
because of Him.
[see note #32]
Afterwards, in reply to those who murmured at this fundamental truth, the
Lord appeals to His ascension. He had come down from heaven-this was His
doctrine; He would ascend thither again. Material flesh profited nothing.
It was the Spirit who gave life, by realising in the soul the mighty truth
of that which Christ was, and of His death. But He returns to that which He
had told them before; in order to come to Him thus revealed in truth, they
must be led of the Father. There is such a thing as faith that is ignorant
perhaps, although through grace real. Such was that of the disciples. They
knew that He, and He only, had the words of eternal life. It was not only
that He was the Messiah, which they indeed believed, but His words had laid
hold of their hearts with the power of the divine life which they revealed,
and through grace communicated. Thus they acknowledged Him as the Son of
God, not only officially, so to speak, but according to the power of divine
life. He was the Son of the living God. Nevertheless there was one among
them who was of the devil.
Jesus therefore, come down to earth, put to death, ascending again to
heaven, is the doctrine of this chapter. As come down and put to death, He
is the food of faith during His absence on high. For it is on His death we
must feed, in order to dwell spiritually in Him and He in us.
