Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst.
— John 6:35
He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.
— John 7:38
We should not only enjoy Christ as life in a general way; we should also eat Him as the very bread of life. Christ is the bread of life to be the strength of our daily living. “Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst” (John 6:35). “As the living Father has sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (John 6:57). It is by eating Christ as the bread of life that we are constantly made alive. When we eat the bread of life, we live because of Him.
We also need to enjoy Christ as the water of life to quench our thirst. “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). In our human life we need to eat, and we also need to drink. That means we need to be strengthened, and we also need to be refreshed. No matter how much we enjoy Christ as the bread of life, we still need Him as the water of life. In our Christian life it is possible to be made alive and strengthened, but still be thirsty. We need something that can refresh us. We need to drink something for our thirst to be quenched. The world has many kinds of drinks to quench our thirst, but if we drink them, as the Lord said, we will thirst again (John 4:13). When we drink Christ Himself as the water of life, we are refreshed, and our thirst is truly quenched.
Adapted from Born Again, pages 61-62.
Tomorrow: “Enjoying Christ as Our Light of Life”