The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 49

true bread which cometh down from heaven;" and it cannot be but that t.his feature in the type will be reflected in the antitype. There is provision in Christ for all. He gives his flesh for the life of the world (ver. 51). He is come that men "might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John x. 10). Ko stint, no lack no scarcity in the salvation of Christ. IV. 'fHE PROVISION NOW, AS THEN, NEEDS TO BE APPROPRIATED. Jt was notbi11~ to the Israelites that the manna, sparkling like pearls in the morning sunshine, lay "1 1 around them; they must gather, they must eat, they must make the " bread from heaven" food· for their own life. So with Christ and his salvation. lie calls himself "bread," to bring out strongly, not only what he is in 1:imself in relation to human wants, but what men must do with him, if they wouid partake in the life he come.q to give. He must be received," eaten," inwardly appropriated, fed upon, made part, so to speak, of our very selves; only thus will the new life be begotten in us. This "eating" of Christ is parallel with the "believing" of other verses (vers. 29, 40, 4i). Some, remembering this, may be disposed to say, it is only believing. But the use of such a metaphor should rather teach us how real, and inward, and appropriating a principle, this believing on Jesus is. It is clearly no slight, transitory act of mind or heart which is denoted by it, but a most spiritual, most inward, most vital and personal energy of appropriation; a process of reception, digestion, and transformation into spiritual substance, and new powers of spiritual life, of what we have in the Sa,iour. How great Christ must be, who thus declares himself to be the bread of life for the whole world-the support and food (consciously or unconsciously) of all the spiritual life there is in it! :No wonder that the work of works which God requires of us is that we believe on him whom he has sent (John vi. 29). V. WHAT THERE IS IN CHRIST WHICH CONSTITUTES HIM THE WORLD'S BREAD O!i LIFE. We set aside as unsupported the analogies which some have sought between the roundness, sweetness, whiteness, etc., of the manna, and qualities in the person and work of the Redeemer. It is, however, clear that if Christ is the anti type of the manna., and the true bread which cometh down from heaven, it must be in virtue of certain qualities in him which admit of being specified. And what these are, it is not difficult to show. He is the bread of life to men-1. As incarnate God. In the humanity of Jesus Christ, the Divine is brought near to us, and made apprehensible, and provision is also made for the communication of the Divine life in its fullest, richest form to our souls. In him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. ii. 9). He is the medium of the communication of that Divine fulness to us (1 John i. 16). In him, the Divine life is embodied in a holy, perfect humanity; and in that form-a form which brings it within our reach, which makes apprehension and assimilation possible-it is pre- sented to us to be partaken of. 2. As an atoning i:,aviour. Diel Christ not bear this character of Atoner, he would not be truly bread of life to the guilty. Our guilt, our sin, our whole moral condition, stands between us and God, an insuperable barrier to the peace and fellowship for which we crave. But Christ has taken away tnat barrier. He has made a sacrifice of himself for sin (John vi. 51). To appropriate what I have in Christ, is, accordingly, to appropriate to myself the certainty of forgive- ness through hi. death, the assurance of peace with God, the knowledge of recon- ciliation. And to have done this is already to have begun to live. It is to feel the awakening within me of new-born powers of love, and trust, and service; to feel the dread and despair that before possessed me vanishing like a dark nightmare from my spirit, to be replaced by the joy of pardon, and the sense of the Divine favour. It is to realise the accomplishment of that spiritual change which the Scriptures describe as a "passing from death unto life" (John v. 24). "Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. v. 17). 3. As a life-giving ::-pirit. Jesus is what he is to man, in virtue of bis possession of the holy, life-giving :Spirit-the personal Holy Ghost--by whom be dwells in the hearts of his people, and through whom he communicates to them all the fulness of bis own life. This operation of the Spirit is already implied in what we have said of the results of faith in him. He is the effectual agent in converting, quickening, enlightening, sanctifying, comforting, strengthening, beautifying, and spiritually edifying the souls of such as attain to salYa- tion. The influences of this Spirit in the soul are but another name for eternal life. And Christ is the giver of this Spirit. It is from him the Spirit comes. llis work on earth EXODUS-II, Ji; 50 THE DOOK OF EXODUS. [cu. XVI. lG-22.