John 6:57 - Exposition

Here is the grandest assertion of all. Christ began by speaking of himself as the Bread of God, as the life-giving Bread, as the living Bread of human souls. He made it then clear that he was this by reason of his Divine humanity given for the life of the world. He added to this that he was specially to be appropriated and accepted as a sacrifice, as the death sacrifice, involved in his giving his flesh for the life of the world. The power conferred by his death in life and life in death for man, enabled him to institute eternal life-giving relations between himself and those who entirely accept and make their own this central reality. And now, to meet the nascent objection as to the unique grandeur of his position, he adds: As the living Father sent me. The phrase, "living Father," occurs nowhere else (cf. "righteous Father," John 17:25 ; "holy Father," John 17:11 ; "the living God," Matthew 16:16 ; 2 Corinthians 6:16 ; Hebrews 10:31 ; and above all, Hebrews 5:1-14 :26, "As the Father hath life in himself, so he gave also to the Son to have life in himself"). Christ is speaking of the human position he assumed before them as sent by the Father who has life in himself, who is more than all his laws or all his works. Not merely as the Word, but as the Word of the living Father made flesh, he stands before them. And I live because of the Father. "Because he lives, I live; my life is guaranteed by his." This is the premiss, the platform on which he now stands ( διὰ τὸν πατέρα must not be confounded with per Patrem, or διὰ τοῦ πάτρος , as M"Leod Campbell, who, in his interesting discussion on "Christ the Bread of Life," made this expression equivalent to the means and condition of the Saviour's life). From this premiss the Lord argues a corresponding relation of the believer to himself: So he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me. The points of comparison are: