Lesson for June 22, 2025
The Book of John
Lesson 20
Chapter 6:41-58
“So, then the Jews were complaining about Him because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down out of Heaven.’ 42 And they were saying, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of Heaven’? 43 Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Stop complaining among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One Who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down out of Heaven, so that anyone may eat from it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give for the life of the world also is My flesh.’ Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?’ 53 So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread that came down out of Heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; the one who eats this bread will live forever.’”
These Jews understood that Jesus was claiming He was God in the flesh, from His analogy of the bread from Heaven. Jesus’ refusal to perform miracles for their entertainment stirred them up and got them to start complaining about Him. These were the same ones He had fed and who had seen Him walking on water. Yet, they refused to believe in Him as the Messiah (Savior). Instead, they continued to think about Jesus in human terms, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of Heaven’?
No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. Saving grace is called “efficacious grace,” meaning effective grace. When a spiritually dead person responds to the invitation from God (all are invited/drawn) to have eternal salvation, a person simply responds by believing in Jesus Christ as Savior. This is classified as “faith alone” or “faith plus nothing.” It is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to “invite” unbelievers to believe in Christ. So, the Holy Spirit makes the Gospel clear to an unbeliever (who is spiritual dead without a human spirit), by acting as a human spirit so they can understand spiritual things like the Gospel. (I Corinthians 2:14) Upon faith alone in Christ alone, the Holy Spirit makes that faith effective for salvation, eternal life, and the other spiritual assets that we receive as a result.
The faith of an unbeliever who is spiritually dead means that they have positive volition at the point of God consciousness and Gospel-hearing and exercise their faith in Christ, which is a non-meritorious function and is compatible with God’s grace. Works such as being water baptized, giving money, doing good deeds, observing certain rituals, are dead (useless) works with regard to salvation, and the Holy Spirit does not make dead works effective for salvation.
I will raise him up on the last day. The Rapture is a technical theological term for the resurrection of the Royal Family of God, the Church. Once the Royal Family of God is completed, the Church (the body of Christ) is resurrected to meet Jesus Christ in the air and then to become the bride of Christ. The Church Age in which we live is that period of human history when the Royal Family of God is being formed on earth. (Ephesians 1:22-23, 2:16, 4:4-5; Colossians 1:18, 24, 2:19) When the royal family of God is completed, then the Rapture occurs. (I Thessalonians 4:16-18; I Corinthians 15:51-58) During the conclusion of the Age of Israel called the Tribulation, the bride of Christ is prepared in Heaven in a resurrection body for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Jesus Christ). Then comes the Judgment Seat of Christ when all Church Age believers are evaluated and rewarded. (II Corinthians 5:10)
The Rapture is imminent, meaning that it could occur anytime during the Church Age, which began at Pentecost. Since it has not occurred, it is still future. There are no prophecies that have to be fulfilled before the Rapture occurs. The Rapture will occur when the last member of the body of Christ is saved, which is known only by God.
It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One Who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. This is a prophetic quotation from Isaiah 54:13, referring specifically to the Millennium. Jesus quoted this passage to illustrate God drawing a person to Himself and that person coming to Him.
The literal fulfillment of the passage in Isaiah is the Millennium, but “everyone” illustrates the principle of the entire human race. Every member of the human race gets a chance to believe in Christ, from Adam right down to the end of the Millennium, at the point of God-consciousness and at the point of Gospel-hearing.
God is the source of providing the information to a person who desires to know Him (taught of God). “Has heard” is the actual hearing of the Gospel, as Jesus presented it, which means simply to hear the content of the message. The Greek word for learned is “manthano,” which means to comprehend what is heard. Jesus made sure they understood the issue. However, if an unbeliever rejects the grace of God at the point of hearing the Gospel, they reject His salvation.
Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One Who is from God means the teaching and learning came from the One Who designed the plan of salvation, which was the Father. It was fulfilled by Jesus on the Cross and revealed to mankind by the Holy Spirit. And those who use their free will to believe in Jesus as their Savior are given eternal life.
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down out of Heaven, so that anyone may eat from it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of Heaven; if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give for the life of the world also is My flesh. Once again, Jesus used the metaphor of eating bread for faith. If a person eats physical bread, they eventually die, but Jesus was speaking of faith. In the desert, the manna sustained physical life temporarily, but faith in Christ provides eternal life. Therefore, eating manna is a picture of faith.
The bread which I will give for the life of the world also is My flesh. The crowd failed to comprehend that Jesus was speaking spiritually, not physically. Obviously, He was not telling them to eat His literal flesh. There is false doctrine called “transubstantiation,” in which it is claimed that the Communion “bread” becomes the literal body of Christ, and the Communion “cup” becomes the literal blood of Christ. However, this is mysticism, not Bible doctrine.
Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat? Now the crowd became openly antagonistic toward Jesus because they thought they had found a way to discredit Him. He’s telling us to eat His literal flesh was what they were implying. They used the same Greek word that Jesus used, “esthio,” which means to eat or gnaw on meat. So, Jesus switched words on them and used the Greek word “trogo,” which means to eat vegetables. When He did this, they knew that He was not talking about literally eating His flesh. He was talking about faith. He switched His verb to show that this was a spiritual concept, not a literal, physical concept. Jesus continued to repeat many things that He has previously said. He went over the whole thing again and again, using eating bread as an analogy for faith.
Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down out of Heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; the one who eats this bread will live forever. Jesus asserted His deity, once again, when He said the living Father sent Me, showing He coexisted with the Father in eternity past. Then, He closed His message with a simple explanation of the Gospel, which was that the one who has faith in Him (eats this bread) will live forever.