47. — [VeHIy, verily. ..He that helieveth on me...N/e.] In this vers* our Lord returns to the main tliread of his discourse, which had been interrupted at the 40th verse. He now speaks out much more clearly and plainly about Himself, dropping all reserve, and revealing Himself as the object of faith, openly and without figure. It is one of those great, broad, simple declarations of the Gospel way of salvation, which we can never know too welL
He that would have his sins pardoned and his soul saved must go to Christ for it. It is to " me," says Christ, that he must apply. — What are the terms held out ? He must simply trust, lean back, rest on Christ, and commit his soul to His hand. In a word, he must "believe." What shall such a man get by beheving? He "hath everlasting life." The very moment he beheves, life and peace with God are his own. — (a.) Faith, (b.) the great object of faith, (c.) the present privileges to which faith admits a man, are three subjects which, however often repeated in the Gospel, ought never to weary the Christian's ear.
The frequent repetition of this doctrine of "believing," is a strong proof of its great necessity and importance, and of man's infinite backwardness to see, understand, and receive it. " We must believe, — we must believe," says RoUock, "is a truth that needs constant repetition."
48. — [Tarn that Iread of life.] Here our Lord distinctly proclaims to the Jews, that He himself is that "bread of Hfe," that soul-satisfying food, the true bread, the bread of God, of which He had spoken generally in the earher part of His discourse. He had awakened their curiosity by speaking of that bread as a real thing, and a thing worth their attention. He now unveils the whole truth to them, and tells them plainly, " I am that bread." — " If you ask what it is, and where it is, you have only to look at me."
49. — [Your fathers did eat manna... dead.] In this verse our Lord points out the inferiority of the manna which the Jews ate in the wilderness, to the bread which He himself offered. Tha manna not only could do nothing for the soul, but was unable to pre- serve from death those who ate it.
Here, as before, we shonld observe how our Lord speaks of the miraculous feeding of Israel in the wilderness, as an un- doubted historical fact.
Piscator remarks, that our Lord here says emphatically, " your fathers," and not " our fathers." — He thinks it was intentionally done to remind the Jews how little lasting good their fathera got from the manna, and how unbeheving they were even while
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they ate of it; for they all died in the wilderness. It was a tacit caution to beware of doing like them.
50. — [This is the hread...heaven...eat..Mnd not die.'] The object of this verse is to show the superiority of the " true bread from heaven " to the manna. It is as though our Lord said, — " This bread that cometh down from heaven is bread of such a nature, that he that eateth of it shall never die. His soul shall not be hurt by the second death, and his body shall have a glorious resurrection."
I am not without doubt whether our Lord did not point to Himself in speaking the words of this verse : — " This person who now stands before you is that bread which came down from heaven, that any one eating of it should not die." But I throw out the conjecture with much diffidence. Lampe seems to favour the idea, — saying, "the pronoun ' this ' is here demon- strative and pointed to Himself." Trapp and Beza also take this view.
51. — [I am the living dread.. .heaven.] This sentence is a repetition of the idea that has been already given out in the 50th and 49th verses. The thought is repeated in order to impress it on the minds of the Jews, and make it impossible for them to mis- understand our Lord's meaning.
We must never be ashamed of repetition in religious teaching.
[If any man eat of this dread he shall live for ever.] The thought here is only an expansion of the one contained in the 35th verse. There it is said, '• He that comes to Christ shall never hunger." Here it is " The eater of the bread of life shall live for ever." The meaning is that the soul of the man who feeds on Christ by faith, shall never die and be cast away in hell. There is no condemnation for him. His sins are put away. He shall not be hurt by the second death.
[The hread...give is my flesh.] In these words our Lord goes e^ven further than he has gone yet, in explaining the great theme of His discourse. When He speaks of " my flesh," I beheve he means, " my body offered up in sacrifice on the cross, as an atonement for man's sins." It is our Lord's death that is specially meant. It is not merely His human nature. His incarnation, that feeds souls. It is His death as our substitute, bearing our sins and carrying our transgressions*
[ Which I ivill give for the life of the world.] These words appear to me to make it certain that the Lord meant " His ])ody offered in sacrifice as an atonement for sin," when He said "my flesh is the bread." For He does not say, "I have given," or, "I do give," but "I will give." That use of the