John 6 (2-14-18)
St. Joseph Missionary Baptist Church
Wed Night Bible Study
Dr. E.C. Gregory, PhD – Bible Facilitator 2/14/18 Dr. H.T. Rhim, Pastor
GOD’S REQUIREMENT FOR ETERNAL LIFE
(Put your trust in Jesus)
(Believe in Him Who God sent)
John 6:28-33 (NKJV) 28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” 30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
6:28. The people recognized that Jesus was saying God had a requirement for them. They said they would do God’s requirement if He would inform them what it was. They believed that they could please God and thus obtain eternal life by doing good works (cf. Rom. 10:2-4).
6:29. Jesus’ response to their question was a flat contradiction of their thinking. (1)They could not please God by doing good works. There is only one work of God, that is, one thing God requires. They need to put their trust in the One the Father has sent. Because of their sin people cannot please God by doing good works for salvation (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). God demands that people recognize their inability to save themselves and receive His gift (Rom. 6:23).
6:30-31. In response the people demanded a miraculous sign (“Jews demand miraculous signs” [1 Cor. 1:22]). (2)They thought God’s order is to see and believe. But the divine order is believe and see (cf. John 11:40). They did not have faith or spiritual perception, but they understood that Jesus was proclaiming something new.
His coming was claimed as an advance over Moses. They reasoned, “If You are more than Moses, do more than Moses.” The crowd that asked for a sign from Jesus must have felt that the feeding of the 5,000 did not compare with Moses’ gift of bread from heaven. They remembered the divine gift of manna (Ex. 16; Num. 11:7). They thought Jesus’ feeding was less significant because manna fed the whole nation for 40 years. But they missed two things. First, many of the Israelites who were fed 40 years did not believe. The important thing is not the magnitude of the sign but the perception of its significance (cf. Luke 16:29-31). Second, both Moses and Jesus were authenticated by God’s signs; therefore both should be listened to and believed.
6:32. In a solemn revelation (I tell you the truth; cf. vv. 26, 47, 53) Jesus corrected their ideas in three ways. (1) The Father, not Moses, gave the manna. (2) The Father, was still giving “manna”, not just gift merely in the past. (3) The true Bread from heaven is Jesus, not the manna. Therefore; manna was food for the body, and it was useful. But Jesus is God’s full provision for people in their whole existence. Jesus repeatedly said He had come down from heaven (vv. 32-33, 38, 41-42, 50-51, 58).
The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty.
