GOD'S PROMISES # 9

'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.'

In this promise we can identify a number of significant facts:

1. That here Jesus Christ claims to be the one and only source of spiritual nourishment. He is the bread of life - not one among many, but 'the'. By inference, all other sources of spiritual nourishment will, in the long run, prove unsatisfying, unable to sustain us spiritually.
2. That the way to be sustained by this 'bread of life' is to 'come' to Jesus Christ, that is, to 'believe in' him. This is not some superficial, uncommitted coming to or believing in Jesus Christ. It is a coming, a believing, that expresses a fundamental acknowledgement that he is exactly who he claimed to be, and to relate to him on that basis.
3. That whoever has come to Jesus and believed in him will from that point on be filled with a deep and lasting spiritual satisfaction and contentment: they will have no more need to seek here, there and everywhere for 'god' or for 'truth' or for 'union with the divine', or for any other spiritual blessing, for they know that in coming to Jesus Christ, in believing in him, they have come to the one supreme God of the whole universe; they have come to him in whom there is limitless love, grace and forgiveness; they have returned to him by whom and for whom they were created, and in that returning have found their true and complete identity.

In union with Christ, they are complete. In union with Christ they have perfect rest for their souls.

Scriptures: John 6:32-35; John 8:30-31; Matthew 7:15-27; James 2:14-24; Romans 9:5; 1 John 5:20; John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 3:1; 4:9,10; Ephesians 1:6-8; 2:4-9; Colossians 2:13,14; 1:15-17; 2:10; 3:3; Matthew 11:28-30; Hebrews 4:10.