The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. IDods, Marcus
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I
Dods, Marcus
Bible. John; Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
For my part, I do not see that this can mean anything less than that
Christ is Divine, that in Him we have God, and in Him touch the actual
Source of all life. In Him we have the one thing within our reach which
is not earth-grown, the one uncorrupted Source of life to which we can
turn from the inadequacy, impurity, and emptiness of a sin-sick world.
No pebble lies hid in this bread on which we can break our teeth; no
sweetness in the mouth turning afterwards to bitterness, but a new,
uncontaminated food, prepared independently of all defiling influences,
and accessible to all. Christ is the Bread from heaven, because in
Christ God gives Himself to us, that by His life we may live.
There is another sense in which Christ probably used the word “living.”
In contrast to the dead bread He had given them He was alive. The same
law seems to hold good of our physical and of our spiritual life. We
cannot sustain physical life except by using as food that which has
been alive. The nutritive properties of the earth and the air must have
been assimilated for us by living plants and animals before we can use
them. The plant sucks sustenance out of the earth—we can live upon the
plant but not on the earth. The ox finds ample nourishment in grass; we
can live on the ox but not on the grass. And so with spiritual
nutriment. Abstract truth we can make little of at first hand; it needs
to be embodied in a living form before we can live upon it. Even God is
remote and abstract, and non-Christian theism makes thin-blooded and
spectral worshippers; it is when the Word becomes flesh; when the hidden
reason of all things takes human form and steps out on the earth before
us, that truth becomes nutritive, and God our life.
4. Still more explicitly Christ says: “The bread which I will give is My
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” For it is in this
great act of dying that He becomes the Bread of Life. God sharing with
us to the uttermost; God proving that His will is our righteousness; God
bearing our sorrows and our sins; God coming into our human race, and
becoming a part of its history—all this is seen in the cross of Christ;
but it is also seen that absolute love for men, and absolute submission
to God, were the moving forces of Christ’s life. He was obedient even
unto death. This was _His_ life, and by the cross He made it ours. The
cross subdues our hearts to Him, and gives us to feel that
self-sacrifice is the true life of man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account