Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Six

                                                                                                                                      Verses 34-40

The crowd then asked Jesus to give them the bread that Jesus said would give them life, but they apparently only meant an eternal, physical life on the present earth. But they also called Jesus "Lord" which demonstrated that they all still had that latent faith that Christ had put into them when He created them. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31; Romans 12:3.

Jesus tried again to awaken their spiritual natures when He told them that He was "the bread of life" and that those who believe in Him will never have physical hunger or thirst. Jesus tried to get them to depart from material ways of thinking and begin to think in spiritual ways. Had they listened to Jesus with their spiritual ears, they would have realized that their spiritual natures would never need physical food or water. They should have allowed themselves to be inspired to believe that Jesus, "the bread of life," could give them an eternal, spiritual life.

Jesus knew that these people would not open their spiritual natures to His preaching. Jesus actually preached past these people to those in the future who would read the Gospel of John, and who would open their hearts to spiritual faith in Him. Jesus illustrated to His Church that in the future most people would not be able to be spiritual believers. These people saw Jesus' miracles, and they heard His preaching, and yet they refused to open their hearts to faith in Him.

But Jesus did not give up on them. God never gives up on any living human. God never gives up because He always succeeds in whatever He does. Jesus preached that His Father had given Him all that would come to Him in faith. When Jesus said this, He knew fully well that He, being God, had created all things and that all living humans belonged to Him and that He could never lose anything He had ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Psalm 111:7-8; Luke 20:38.

Jesus also knew that just as His Father had all authority in the Old Testament, and the Holy Spirit would have all authority over the Church in the New Testament, so His Father would give Him all authority over His recreated Heaven and earth when He would raise all living humans from the regions of the dead because He will cause them all to repent and believe in Him of their own free will. I Corinthians 15:20-28; Romans 8:18-23; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 21:1-5. Jesus also knew that His Father will "reconcile all things unto Himself" in Heaven and on earth. Colossians 1:15-23. The "firstfruits" means all living humans saved by grace whom God will raise from the dead prior to the final and general resurrection of all living humans still left in their graves. Matthew 27:51-53; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:4; Revelation 20:5; I Corinthians 15:20-23; John 5:28-29. Jesus also knew that He will "make all things new," and since He created all things, He knew that in the end of the world He would need to use His fiery wrath against evil to cleanse and purge all sin and evil from all repentant, living humans still in their graves, and from the rest of His creations, so that He will be able to recreate it all to be righteous. He will use His fiery wrath against sin and evil to dissolve every human system still in their graves to cleanse and separate every repentant, living human from their dead, evil natures so that He can recreate their living natures to live forever on His recreated earth, and He will cast their evil natures into the eternal lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Psalm 75:3; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5. Jesus told the Devil from the beginning that He would destroy him, not living humans. Genesis 3:15. Jesus came to destroy all of the evil works of the Devil, not living humans whom He creates and loves. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:27; I John 3:8; John 12:31-32.