A JOURNEY THROUGH THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN

Trust in Christ – The Sole Basis for Salvation
St. John 6:28-40

Again, as we approach this momentous chapter, we find our blessed Saviour explaining to His critics that the sole requirement of God by them is to trust Christ, the Saviour of the world, for He was sent by the Father (St. John 6:28-29).  Mankind is always trying to appease God through some meritorious act; and the only requirement that pleases God the Father is entire faith and trust in His Son.  Jesus Christ is the only source of eternal life, for eternal life rests in the Son’s finished work on Calvary.  Because of mankind’s total depraved condition precipitated by Adam’s initial act in the Garden of Eden, every man of the accursed race is in dire need of eternal life.  Christ came as a missionary gift from heaven to rescue fallen man.  And if man is to be saved, he must trust in Christ for salvation, in that St. John 5:24 says – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death to life.”  As Christ’s discourse with His critics continues (St. John 6:30), we find them wanting proof to verify that He had been sent by the Father; or more important, they wanted proof of His credentials that authorized His mission!  With the feeding of the five thousand in this chapter, the people recalled how God supplied bread in the wilderness under the leadership of Moses (v. 31).  But, in verses 32-33, Christ presents the fact that the Father was the sole provider of the manna, and not Moses; and He went on to say, that He came down from heaven to offer eternal life to the world.  As this critic crowd continued to ask for continual bread, our blessed Lord exclaimed – “I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.  The missionary ministry of our Lord will be and is effective because the “ones” that have been drawn by the Father (St. John 6:44) will come and receive His Son.  Because all believers have been sovereignly drawn by the Father, we have been guaranteed that: (1) Our salvation is eternally secured (v. 37, 39a); (2) We will be raised at the last day (v. 39b-40).  May God bless!