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Jesus, my sustainable Bread of Life
by Maretha Retief We all need food to sustain our bodies to operate on a daily basis. God knows the importance of food for the body. He provided the Israelites, His chosen people, with fresh manna every day to feed their bodies while they were in the wilderness searching for the Promised Land. The same is true for us today where God provides us with the Bread of Life through Jesus. Jesus said the following words in the Bible: John 6:48-51; 53-57 "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. So Jesus said to them, "TruIy, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he will also live because of me." How does this work? When Jesus is referred to as the Bread of Life it is a reference to the life that He gave through His crucifixion on the cross. When we take part in the Holy Communion, we eat of the bread which represents Jesus' body and we drink the wine, a symbol of His blood to remember His sacrifice on the cross. He died on the cross so that we can have life, without it, we are nothing. Jesus' took all our diseases, shortcomings and weaknesses on His perfectly healed body so that we in return can gain His health. We are healed today because Jesus already bore our sicknesses and pains. His pure and royal blood was shed to wash us clean from all our sins. Today, every child of God is the righteousness of God through Christ. During the great exchange that took place on the cross, Jesus took all our sins so that we could receive His righteousness to enter the presence of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, every time we partake of the Holy Communion, we partake of His full glory and we are reminded through the symbols of the bread and wine of Jesus' great sacrifice of love on the cross. A sacrifice that makes a blessed life available to us. A sacrifice that sustains us today in all our needs. Jesus became our provision for everything through that one act of love. We can now take from Jesus on a daily basis, because He supplies all our needs according to His riches and glory (Philippians 4:19). Today, Jesus is the Bread of Life, but it is your choice whether you are going to take from Him and be filled. The Scriptures in this article are quoted from the English Standard Version (ESV). Maretha Retief Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |