New Life in Christ
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
John 6:51
In the Gospel of John, we read the story of how Jesus fed more than 5,000 people with two small fish and five loaves of bread. The next day, after the miracle of walking on water, He arrived on the other shore of the Sea of Galilee. The people learned He was there and got into their boats to go in search of Him.
When they found Him, Jesus said, “You are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill” (John 6:26). He went on to remind the people that when the Israelites were in the wilderness, God sustained them by providing them with a daily portion of manna, or “bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4). He then said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35).
Most of the people who heard this claim immediately protested, because they identified Jesus as only the son of Joseph (see verse 42), not even to be compared with Moses. Jesus countered by saying that Moses didn’t give the Israelites the bread—it came from heaven. Furthermore, though the manna sustained the people’s physical lives, it could not give them eternal/spiritual life. Jesus, like the manna, had come from heaven, but unlike the manna—which could only satisfy the people’s need temporarily—Jesus was offering the bread of eternal life. What Adam and Eve lost was life, and Jesus came to restore that life (see John 10:10).
Earlier in John’s story of Jesus, a man named Nicodemus had asked Christ how to receive this bread of life. Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish ruling council, and Jesus knew full well what was in his heart. He said to him, “Truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3). He told Nicodemus that he had been born physically alive, but to have eternal/spiritual life, he needed to be “born of water and the Spirit” (verse 5). The only way for Nicodemus to receive eternal life was to believe in Jesus and trust in His works. As Paul would later write, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
New life in Christ—eternal and spiritual life—is given to us the moment we are born again. If we do not receive this “second birth” before we physically die, all we have to look forward to is an eternity without Christ. Jesus is our life (see Colossians 3:4)—the way, the truth and the life (see John 14:6). If we have been born again, our names are written in the book of life (see Philippians 4:3).
To be spiritually alive means that our souls are in union with God. It means that we are alive “in Christ” and that Christ is in us. The “life of Christ” is much more than a historical account of the 33 years that He appeared in the flesh—it is what every born again believer has within him or her. It means that we are again united with God but also that we have the power of His presence to live a righteous life.
a few questions to ponder:
Read John 6:30-33. What did the people ask Jesus to provide so they could believe in Him? How did Jesus respond?
What did Jesus mean when He told the people that He was the bread of life?
What did Jesus tell Nicodemus that must do to receive eternal/spiritual life? How do we receive that life?
What are the practical ramifications of knowing that your soul is in union with God?
What confidence can you draw from “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27)?
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.