Cheryl Schatz

Mark,

Now onto the new verses presented. There are more things that you missed.

John 6:34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

I mentioned this in my comments above but they actually belong right here so I will repeat. Jesus revealed in verse 33 that the bread of God (which is later revealed as His flesh) is given for the life of the world. So naturally the crowd asks for this bread. They were not asking for something that He wasn’t offering.

So the question I would like to ask, did Jesus offer eternal life to the crowd?

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

I agree that Jesus is revealed as the I AM and He is the Life. However Jesus also clearly said that just as a seed remains alone (remains as the only one who has eternal life) unless it dies, so He too cannot give eternal life unless He dies. He remains alone in life until He dies.

I also agree that coming to Jesus and believing in Jesus are used as synonymous things.

What you missed is that Jesus said “whoever” which is not a term that limits faith in Jesus to a select few who are alone “gifted” with faith. Rather they come and they believe as their own action since the word “believes” is a present, active verb. It is not passive as if it were a gift given.