Finding I Amنموونە

Jesus is the Bread of Life.

In John 6:35, we find God personalizing His original “I AM” statement from Exodus 3 through His Son’s declaration. 

Remember, God’s “I AM” statement from Exodus was so completely full that it needed no qualifier. It was the promise that His presence was everything we ever needed. It was all peace, all provision, all perfection, and all protection. That was His promise given. But our human hearts were designed by God not just for His completion but also for His companionship. We needed His promise and His presence to be personalized.

Jesus and His seven I AM statements from John personalize God’s promises.

Make no mistake, God is I AM. He is absolutely all we need, but He delights in us not only needing Him but also wanting Him.

So, He gives us something we’ve craved physically on a daily basis since the beginning of time—bread. But He isn’t just any bread. He’s the Bread of life.

There are two words for life in the Bible. One is bios, used 10 times in the Bible, which means “breath in your lungs or physical life.” The other is zoe, which means “possessed with vitality looking to the fullness of life.” It’s used 135 times in the Bible.1

Why do you think zoe is used 125 more times than bios?

Jesus doesn’t want us to just live with breath in our lungs walking around as a shell of existence. He wants us to have a rare vitality, experiencing the fullness of soul someone should experience when Jesus Himself does everyday life with us.

I believe it for me. I believe it for you. Because before the beginning of time, God has waited for you to read these words and come to this realization. That thing you’ve been so desperate to see come to pass? That unanswered prayer? That unrelenting ache? The cries you’re so afraid are unheard? The unyielding addiction? That unsung recognition? Your unraveling hope?

Those answers and the easing of that ache aren’t the source of finally becoming fully satisfied. They aren’t. And you believing this lie is a scheme of Satan to keep you in an unsatisfied place.

God is the source of life through His provision. 

Will you trust Him? Will you ask Him breathe life into those places of ache today?

1. William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 177; Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, and Geoffrey William Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1985), 290; Strong’s NT 2212; http://biblehub.com/greek/2212.htm.