NIV Life Application Study Bible, Third Edition - Flipbook - Page 36
J ohn 6 : 3 9
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page 1812
not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. v 39And this is the will of him
who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, w but raise them up at
the last day. x 40For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes
in him shall have eternal life, y and I will raise them up at the last day.”
The People Disagree that Jesus Is from Heaven (100 )
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread
that came down from heaven.” 42They said, “Is this not J esus, the son of Joseph, z whose
father and mother we know? a How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” b
43“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44“No one can come to me
unless the Father who sent me d
raws them, c and I will r aise them up at the last day. 45It
is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be t aught by God.’ a d Everyone who has h
eard
the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46No one has seen the Father except the
one who is from God; e only he has seen the Father. 47Very truly I tell you, the one who
believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. f 49Your ancestors ate the manna in
the wilderness, yet they died. g 50But here is the b
read that c omes down from heaven, h
which anyone may eat and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heav
en. Whoever eats this b
read will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world.” i
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, j “How can this man give
us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the f lesh of the Son of Man k
and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and d
rinks my
blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. l 55For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in
me, and I in them. m 57Just as the living Father sent me n and I live because of the Father,
so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down
from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will
live forever.” o 59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus (101 )
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples p said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can ac
cept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this
a
6:38
vJn 4:34; 5:30
6:39
wJn 10:28; 17:12
xver 40,44,54
6:40
3:15,16
yJn
6:42
zLk 4:22
aJn 7:27,28
bver 38,62
6:44
cver 65; Jer 31:3
6:45
54:13
dIsa
6:46
eJn 1:18; 5:37; 7:29
6:48
fver 35,51
6:49
gver 31,58
6:50
33
hver
6:51
iHeb 10:10
6:52
7:43; 9:16
jJn
6:53
8:20
kMt
6:54
lver 39
6:56
15:4-7
mJn
6:57
nJn 3:17
6:58
over 49-51; Jn 3:36
6:60
pver 66
45 Isaiah 54:13
6:39 Jesus said he would not lose even one person whom the Father
6:47-58 The religious leaders frequently asked Jesus to prove to them
had given him. Thus, anyone who makes a sincere commitment to believe
in Jesus Christ as Savior can rest secure in God’s promise of eternal life.
Jesus will not let his people be overcome by Satan and lose their salvation
(also see 17:12; Philippians 1:6).
6:40 Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ will be resurrected from
physical death to eternal life with God when Jesus comes again (see
1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).
6:41 Some of the people grumbled in disagreement because they could
not accept Jesus’ claim of divinity. They saw him only as a carpenter from
Nazareth. They refused to believe that he was God’s divine Son, and
they could not tolerate his message. Many people reject Jesus because
they say they cannot believe he is the Son of God. In reality, though, it
is often the demand that he makes for their loyalty and obedience that
is hard for them to accept. So to protect themselves from the message,
they reject the messenger.
6:44 God, not people, plays the most active role in salvation. When
someone chooses to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, he or she does so
only in response to the urging of God’s Holy Spirit. God does the urging;
then we decide whether to listen and believe. Thus, no one can believe
in Jesus without God’s help (see 6:65).
6:45 Jesus was alluding to an Old Testament view of the messianic
kingdom, in which all people are taught directly by God (Isaiah 54:13;
Jeremiah 31:31-34). He was stressing the importance of not merely hearing
but learning. We are taught by God through the Bible, our experiences, the
thoughts the Holy Spirit brings, and relationships with other Christians.
Are you open to God’s teaching?
why he was better than the prophets of the past. Here Jesus refers to the
manna that God had given their ancestors in the wilderness during Moses’
time (see Exodus 16). This bread was physical and temporal. The people
ate it, and it sustained them for a day. But they had to get more bread
every day, and this bread could not keep them from dying. Jesus, who
is much greater than Moses, offers himself as the spiritual bread from
heaven that satisfies completely and leads to eternal life.
6:47 As used here, believes means “continues to believe.” We do not
believe merely once; we keep on believing in and trusting Jesus, following
him as our Lord and Savior day by day.
6:51-53 How can Jesus give us himself as bread to eat? To eat living
bread means to accept Christ into our lives and become united with
him. We are united with him in two ways: (1) by believing in his death
(the sacrifice of his body, or flesh) and resurrection and (2) by devoting
ourselves to living as he requires, depending on his teaching for guidance
and trusting in the Holy Spirit for power.
6:56 This was a shocking m
essage—to eat flesh and drink blood
sounded cannibalistic. The idea of drinking any blood, let alone human
blood, was repugnant to the religious leaders because the law forbade it
(Leviticus 17:10-11). Jesus was not talking about literal blood, of course.
He was saying that his life had to become their own, but they could
not accept this concept. He was predicting his death and what it would
mean to all believers. The Gospel writers and the apostle Paul used
the body and blood imagery in teaching about the Lord’s Supper (see
1 Corinthians 11:23-26).