The True Bread From Heaven

They said therefore unto Him, What sign showiest Thou then, that we may see, and believe Thee?  what dost Thou work?  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, Ι say unto you, Μοses gave you not that bread from heaven; but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.  John 6: 30-33

     The Jews, who were in a merely natural state, desired signs or miracles to testify to the truth of the Lord's words.  Their minds were not open to see the truth or divine light, but their spiritual eyes were closed and holden by their sensuality.  Hence they did not know the Lord, who is the true Light of the world, when He was present with them in the flesh.  They were satisfied with the measure of good and truth which they already possessed; and for the genuineness and purity of these they were disposed to refer back to the miracles which attended their communication.  “Our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness—as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat."  Νow, although the revelation that had been made to them was a divine revelation, yet by their perverse manner of receiving and applying it, it failed of giving them any spiritual life.  “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead."  They died in the wilderness, and reached not the promised land.

     Such is the character of sensual men of every age.  When the Lord speaks, their spiritual ears are closed, when He sends out His light, their spiritual eyes are shut.  They ask for signs to prove that the truths are real heavenly truths: and if signs are given to those evil and adulterous generations that seek after them, most of them are ineffectual, and the rest only silence external opposition to the truth and make the external mind submit to it, but do not open the internal mind to the perception and acknowledgment of spiritual truth.  To them the good and truth of the Word of the Lord are not from heaven.  To them the manna is mere natural food; they eat it in the wilderness, and die.

     There is a strong tendency in the minds of all men to look with peculiar regard on the principles which they have long possessed and made a part of their own lives.  No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new; for he saith the old is better.  To cherish and maintain old principles, usually requires little humility.  By long holding them and making them subservient to our selfish affections, they become an essential part of our personal possessions; and, like the rich man in the parable, it makes us very sorrowful to think of parting with them.  To receive new principles of faith and life involves an acknowledgment that our former principles are imperfect; that we, in holding and conforming to them, were in the wrong; and that repentance and reformation are required.  Hence is the difficulty of receiving new doctrines of faith and life.  Hence Jewish minds in every age maintain those old principles which possess no spiritual power in the soul—which give no bread from heaven,—and reject all new manifestations of divine truth.  They say—We know that God spake unto Moses; as for this one, we know not whence He is.

     Another reason why the natural man so readily rejects all new revelation of good and truth, is that what is now given by the Lord, if it be acknowledged to be directly from Him, presents Him to the mind as near—as with us.  The natural, sensual man is unwilling to acknowledge the Lord as present, and operating now; but will consent to confess Him as having been, having done, and having spoken in time long past, and at a distant place.  To acknowledge any thing as coming new and fresh from a Lord who is now present, implies a degree of dependence upon Him which the natural mind loves not to confess.

    The natural sensual man also continually mistakes natural truth and natural good, for spiritual truth and spiritual good.  The Jews in the wilderness had no knowledge of any other heaven than the firmament from which the material manna fell.  This manna was a representative of the divine good which flows from the Lord through the heavens into the minds of men.  Hence, in reference to this manna, it is said—He gave them bread from heaven to eat.  By bread, in a general sense, is signified every good and truth which nourishes the soul.  In the highest sense it denotes the Divine Body or Humanity of the Lord, from whom all spiritual lift is received.  The bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.

     But more specifically the term bread has reference to the divine good of the Divine Humanity, and signifies the same as His Flesh which He gives for the life of the world.  Hence the same is said of the bread which represents His love or the good of His Humanity, as of His flesh, viz, that it giveth life to the world.

     Lest a vague idea concerning the divine good of the Divine Humanity should prevail in the mind, it is lawful to illustrate it by comparison with good in man.  When man receives from the Lord in the most internal principle of his mind the love of doing some use to his neighbor, and brings forth this love into his affections, thoughts, actions, and words, we then think of it, and speak of it as good; and we ought to regard every one as good, only in proportion as be thus receives from the Lord, and brings forth into his life, the love of doing good to others.

     Now, the Divine Love Itself, Jehovah, the Father, was the very soul or internal life of the Lord Jesus Christ.  And when He assumed a human body, He brought forth this love of doing good, by redeeming and saving man, with divine fullness into every thought, affection, word, and action.  He brought it forth thus in His Humanity; and thus He removed and expelled all the hereditary evil of His Humanity, and made it Good—made it Divine Good—made it one with the Father.  This Good—this Divine Humanity, is the bread which came down from heaven.  And because the goodness of this Divine Humanity is what is imparted to men, producing in them every kind affection, every disposition to usefulness, and thus every good which they will and do, and hence all the genuine life which they possess, therefore it is said that this bread or this flesh giveth life to the world.  And this is the good which was particularly represented by the manna.

    When particular reference is made in the Word to the Divine Truth of the Lord's Humanity, it is called His blood,—and sometimes it is called wine.  Thus the cup or wine used in the Holy Supper is called the New Testament or covenant in His blood.  And because all real good and truth in man are received from the Divine Humanity of the Lord—and thus all spiritual life—it is said "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you: My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed: he that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, bath everlasting life."

     This Divine Humanity of the Lord is denoted in the text by the true bread from heaven; and the good and truth which He imparts to those who hear His sayings and do them, are referred to when it is said—"He that eateth Me, shall live by Me."  But the manna eaten by the children of Israel was not true spiritual bread from heaven; and those who ate of it died.  "Moses gave you not the bread from heaven, but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven: For the bread of God is He that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world."

     When natural men are somewhat instructed in the truths of Christianity, and have learned that there is a state of heavenly happiness in which those will live eternally whom the Lord saves, they are accustomed to regard His salvation as consisting wholly or principally in being admitted to the society of heaven.  They do not think of the Lord's coming down from heaven into the world of their minds, and imparting to them truths and good affections; and giving life to their world by imparting to it continually these living principles from Himself.  They do not think of being saved by denying themselves, renouncing their own thoughts, their own loves, and their own ways, and receiving this bread of God—these heavenly principles, in their minds—and living according to them.

     But this is the true salvation.  Heaven must be thus formed in the mind, or man cannot be prepared for heavenly society.

    Let those who imagine that they would love heavenly society and be happy in it, duly consider whether they now love it.  If they do not now love to have the bread of God come down from heaven and give life to their minds, they would not love what is heavenly if they were in the spiritual world.  Here are the words of the Lord, which are both good and truth from Him: do you love to read, and receive them, and have them operate within you as the very principles of your life?  The Lord is also with you by His Holy Spirit, reproving you for sin, showing you what is good and true, and evil and false, and endeavoring to lead you in the paths of righteousness.  Do you love His presence, and His directing influence?  The angels of the Lord—the very people of heaven—are also ministering spirits to you, and are as near you, and as much allied to you, and do exert as much heavenly influence upon you as you will permit.  Do you love their company, and endeavor to invite them to intimate association with you, by putting away from your thoughts and affections, all that is opposed to the pure principles of their heavenly life?  If not, you have no reason to suppose that you are saved with the true salvation, and that you could be happy in heaven.  You cannot be prepared to ascend up to heaven, except by having the bread of God come down from heaven and give you life.

     "God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, [the Divine Human of the Lord] that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  And there is no salvation in any other.  We must therefore go to Him alone: and to go to Him is to open our minds to receive His love and His truth for our direction and our whole life.  If we look away from the Lord Jesus Christ, and seek for any other God,—any other Fountain of living waters—any other source of life—we cannot receive life.

    And if we will look to the Lord Jesus Christ for life, expecting and desiring to receive from Him the living bread which cometh down from heaven, we must think of Him as the true God in a Divine Human form, as that Glorious Being in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  It does not enable us to be conjoined with Him, and to abide in Him, and have Him abide in us and feed us with living bread, if we think of Him as an impersonal being of whom the mind can have no determinate idea, or as one person of two or three persons who constitute the Godhead.  He cannot dwell where such falsities dwell: or, to state this principle in different words, we may say that true views of Him are given to the mind by His being present in the mind, and guiding it into all truth; and when He does dwell in the mind and enlighten, and direct it, He keeps it free from the acknowledgment and worship of any other God.  The commandment is—"Thou shalt not have other gods before My faces": and this is a law of divine order.  When the Lord dwells in the mind, and causes His face to shine upon us, and gives us the living bread, no other God can be seen, acknowledged and worshiped.  The mind cannot be divided, in such case; and the reason why more persons than one in the Godhead, are ever thought of and worshipped, is that there is a deficiency of love for the bread of God which cometh down from heaven.  Where there is no deficiency in our love for this bread, we shall have no other gods, and shall not imagine that there is salvation in any other.  We shall see that He is the Lord our Righteousness,—the true God, and eternal life.  There may be a speculative—a merely intellectual acknowledgment even of this great truth, without love for this living bread; but not a true acknowledgment of it in the heart.  And this may be the meaning of that text in John's first epistle—"Every one that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God." Every one who truly and heartily acknowledges the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lord, his life, desiring to live from Him alone, is of God.  The bread of God which cometh down from heaven, is his food, and giveth him life—life eternal.

     But in order that man may thus live from the Lord Jesus Christ, he must apply his mind to the Lord—think of Him, look constantly to Him, and pray to Him as the Source of good and truth, and man must desire to receive good and truth from Him; and must daily take up his cross, by putting away from his affections, thoughts, conduct, and conversation, whatever the Spirit of Truth teaches him is contrary to good and truth from the Lord; and must diligently bring forth into actual life the good which the Lord imparts to his affections, and the truth which the Lord imparts in his understanding; and all the good and truth which he thus receives, and does, he must ascribe heartily, and truly, and constantly to the Lord.

     This is the way of life,—this is true religion; and whoever lives this life, does constantly eat the bread of life,—that bread, of which if a man eat, he shall live forever.

     There is one spiritual view belonging to this subject, that is of great importance to be regarded, and which seems to be involved in the verse—"Moses gave you not the bread from heaven, but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven."

    When the husbandman performs the various labors of cultivating his field according to the proper rules of husbandry, he is apt to ascribe the growth and production of the grain and fruit to himself.  He regards them as really produced by his labor.  But this is a fallacy; whoever may plant and water, it is God that giveth the increase.

     So, when we keep the commandments, and in keeping them do receive a great reward of good in our affections, we are apt to regard the good as the effect or production of our obedience to the truth.  Whenever we feel any love of the Lord, of our neighbor, of our duty, and have any delight and satisfaction in doing right, we think of this good affection, delight and satisfaction, as really procured by ourselves by our obedience.

     But the bread or good which we receive in our affections, and the delight and satisfaction which properly accompany our obedience to the truth, do not thus flow from the truth, and are not thus produced by our obedience to it, Moses gives us not the bread from heaven: but the good in our affections, and the delight and satisfaction are given gratuitously, and adjoined to our obedience to the truth, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, it is the Father—the Divine Love—which gives the true bread from heaven.

     When we regard this bread as of Moses,—as produced by our obedience to truth,—we always ascribe some merit to ourselves for our obedience, and regard the good as partly or wholly our own; but when we have done all that is commanded us, we should still regard ourselves as unprofitable servants,—as having done but our duty;—and should acknowledge and continually regard the good of our affections and the delight and satisfaction which attend obedience to the truth, as flowing immediately from the only Fountain of good—the Lord our Righteousness.  Moses gave you not the bread from heaven, but My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.