John 6:58

“This is the bread which came down from Heaven. Not as the fathers did eat and died. He who eats this bread will live for ever.”

Now that He has revealed His coming death and resurrection He can say with greater force, ‘This is the bread which came down from Heaven.' He came down to be bread. It is as bread that He will be ground between the millstones, and undergo the heat of the oven, but then it is as the bread of life that He will meet the eternal needs of men.

‘Not such as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live for ever'. The contrast with Moses continues to the end. They must all recognise that what has come in Him is so much more than Moses could give, so much more than they could ever conceive, and so much better than they could ever have expected. It is the means of eternal life.

It is only when we recognise the supreme importance that Moses had for Israel as God's Lawgiver and Covenant Mediator that we can appreciate how astounding these claims of Jesus were, for He is pointing out that what Moses could offer could only be secondary. It could only satisfy partially. Whilst what He had brought would have eternal efficacy. Those who partook of Him would live for ever.