John 6:35-59

Living Bible

³⁵ Jesus replied, “I am the Bread of Life. No one coming to me will ever be hungry again. Those believing in me will never thirst. ³⁶ But the trouble is, as I have told you before, you haven’t believed even though you have seen me. ³⁷ But some will come to me—those the Father has given me—and I will never, never reject them. ³⁸ For I have come here from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to have my own way. ³⁹ And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them to eternal life at the Last Day. ⁴⁰ For it is my Father’s will that everyone who sees his Son and believes on him should have eternal life—that I should raise him at the Last Day.”

⁴¹ Then the Jews began to murmur against him because he claimed to be the Bread from heaven.

⁴² “What?” they exclaimed. “Why, he is merely Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. What is this he is saying, that he came down from heaven?”

⁴³ But Jesus replied, “Don’t murmur among yourselves about my saying that. ⁴⁴ For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me, and at the Last Day I will cause all such to rise again from the dead. ⁴⁵ As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They shall all be taught of God.’ Those the Father speaks to, who learn the truth from him, will be attracted to me. ⁴⁶ (Not that anyone actually sees the Father, for only I have seen him.)

⁴⁷ “How earnestly I tell you this—anyone who believes in me already has eternal life! ^48-51 Yes, I am the Bread of Life! When your fathers in the wilderness ate bread from the skies, they all died. But the Bread from heaven gives eternal life to everyone who eats it. I am that Living Bread that came down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread shall live forever; this Bread is my flesh given to redeem humanity.”

⁵² Then the Jews began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.

⁵³ So Jesus said it again, “With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless you eat the flesh of the Messiah^[a] and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. ⁵⁴ But anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him at the Last Day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is the true food, and my blood is the true drink. ⁵⁶ Everyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood is in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ I live by the power of the living Father who sent me, and in the same way those who partake of me shall live because of me! ⁵⁸ I am the true Bread from heaven; and anyone who eats this Bread shall live forever, and not die as your fathers did—though they ate bread from heaven.” ⁵⁹ (He preached this sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum.)