SUCH were the words that met our eyes as we entered the shop of our grocer, from whom we are in the habit of having Hovis bread prepared by the same maker, and which led the writer to inquire whether this article was not equally reliable with the one which the identical maker was now so extensively advertising. On the point being seen, the grocer smiled, but could vouchsafe no explanation. As my wife made the observation that she did not believe in people that advertise themselves, I remarked that there was One, our Lord Jesus Christ, whose words were absolutely reliable.
Yes, He is the “standard”— “the true light which coming into the world lighteth every man.” God’s standard measurement— “who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth,” “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” and who by the very fact of what He is proves “all have sinned, and do come short of the glory of God.” Thank God, however, that though separate from sinners, Jesus ate and drank with publicans and sinners, and Himself justified His action in the blessed words, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Moreover, He is the “bread.” As He averred, “Moses gave you not the bread from heaven; but my Father giveth (not selleth) you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world” (John 6:32, 3332Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. (John 6:32‑33)). As part of that world, and by nature like the rest, dead in trespasses and sins, has my reader ever thought of this gift of God to him, and accepted it? For it is “that a man may eat thereof, and not die” (ver. 50), so that he is welcome. And Jesus added, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world” (ver. 51).
What infinite love, what abounding grace Yes, it is for you. “Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life;... for my flesh is meat (food) indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” His death was needed by us, for “the wages of sin is death”; and His blood, for it is that alone that cleanseth, and from all sin. It is a spiritual appropriation of Him, and in this way of Him who died, shed His precious blood, and is now risen again. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” Oh, receive them ! They are, more than any human words, “absolutely reliable,” and He is absolutely to be trusted in all He says or does. When they asked Him, “Who art thou ?” this was His reply, “ Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning”—or, “Absolutely that which I also say to you.” His words represent Himself, and His message to you, lost sinner, is this, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)). Come then, and receive this life everlasting.
W. N. T.