The Bread of Life Part 1

Check out John 6:22-71 .  Go ahead.  I’ll wait.

Done?  Awesome.

Many passages exist in the Bible which point to Jesus as the only way to salvation  Perhaps the most recognizable (and one of my favorite), John 3.16, state ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  The Bible makes it clear.  There is one name by which we are saved.  Period.

Many people in our modern, pluralistic society cannot stand this thought.  We live in an age of tolerance where we proclaim we love and accept all faiths, religions, creeds, etc.  However, when a faith makes a statement like Jesus does in John 6:22, stating that He is the bread of life (and by extension, everything else is not), people get upset.  Because of this, many people either change Christianity to embrace more people or hate Christianity altogether.

This leads to one of my personal pet peeves.  Whether people want to believe it or not, all religions bring their own version of ‘intolerance’ to the table.  Mormonism believe that Joseph Smith received revelation from an angel and wrote the book of Mormon under divine inspiration.  Muslims believe Jesus was just a prophet, not God in the flesh.  Hindus believe in the pluralistic existence of many gods.  Dispute these ‘facts’ with any leader of those organizations, and you will see that, at best, they will argue with you until the cows come home.  They all hold onto their way of thinking, and if you believe opposite from them, they take issue, albeit politely (for the most part).

One of My Favorite Passages

As most of you know, I’m working my way through the book of John.  I love this passage from Chapter 3.

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

It always surprises me how many people say they are Christian, but do not know this verse.  Now, I doubt I need to review with you just how it BLOWS my mind that the LORD of all creation gave His only Son for us.  And this one act, more than any other, defines love.  It amazes me how people look for love, or mess it up, when this one line shows us so well, exactly what it means.  John 15: 13 underscores John 3:16’s demonstration of love with the statement, “No greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

In a world full of tolerance and the idea that we will each reach heaven by our own way, John 3: 18 rebukes what our country pretty much accepts as truth.  There, in black and what, is intolerance from God Almighty.  “Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”   You repeat this verse in most modern circles and you risk alienation.  John 14.6 reinforces this with Jesus statement, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No man comes to the Father except through me.”

The final verses here just bring into focus something we all see everyday.  Angry atheists and people who hate the God of the Bible…the God of “Intolerance,” often fight so hard against His Holy Word for one reason.  They do not want to stand in the light, lest their deeds are exposed.  The vast majority of them do have not true, intellectual issue with God’s Word, but, rather, a spiritual desire to justify their selfish lifestyles to themselves.  We have all done it at one time or another.

There so much here, I could go on and on, but I will not bore you.  Ponder upon John today (and all through the month or so), as I do, and we shall grow in His Faith, together.