Jesus turns the crowd away from their desire for more bread and reveals that He Himself is the true bread from heaven. Eternal life is not gained by religious performance or by demanding more signs, but by believing in the Son whom the Father sent. Those who come to Him in faith are received, kept, and raised on the last day.

This passage takes place the day after Jesus fed the large crowd. The people realize that Jesus had not left in the boat with His disciples, yet now He is gone. When more boats arrive, they go to Capernaum looking for Him. That search sets up Jesus’ exposure of what is really driving them.

When they find Him, they ask when He arrived. Jesus does not answer their question about travel. Instead, He addresses their true motive. They are seeking Him not because they understood the sign, but because they ate the bread and were filled. Their problem is not lack of evidence. The feeding miracle had already been given. Their problem is that they failed to grasp what the sign revealed about Jesus. They wanted another meal more than they wanted the One to whom the sign pointed.

So Jesus tells them not to labor for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life. Even here, He is not teaching salvation by human effort, because He immediately says that this enduring food is what the Son of Man will give. The point is not to earn life by effort, but to receive the life that Jesus gives. The Father has set His seal on the Son, openly marking Him out as the One who carries His authority and approval.

The crowd responds by asking what deeds God requires. They are still thinking in terms of performance, as though eternal life comes by doing the right set of works. Jesus overturns that whole way of thinking. He does not give them a list. He says, “This is the work of God: to believe in the one He has sent.” In this context, the meaning is clear: the response God requires is faith in Jesus. Believing is not a meritorious work that earns life. It is the fitting response to the Father’s revelation in His Son.

Still, the crowd resists. They ask for a sign so that they may see and believe, and they mention the manna in the wilderness. This does not mean they had forgotten the feeding miracle or had never seen a sign. Rather, they are still interpreting Jesus mainly in terms of bread and provision, and they seem to want another Moses-like credential on their own terms.

Jesus corrects them directly. First, Moses was not the true giver of the bread from heaven; that gift came from the Father. Second, the Father is now giving the true bread from heaven. That shift is important. Jesus speaks of this giving as a present reality, not merely something in the past. And the true bread is not simply another object like manna. Jesus says the bread of God is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The image moves from bread as something given to bread as a person. God’s saving gift is inseparable from Jesus Himself.

When they say, “Sir, give us this bread always,” they still do not seem to understand. As often in John’s Gospel, Jesus’ hearers first take His words in a limited or material sense. So Jesus makes the matter plain: “I am the bread of life.” This is the center of the passage. Jesus is not merely the distributor of life. He Himself is the life-giving bread from heaven.

Jesus then explains what it means to receive this bread: “The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.” Coming to Jesus and believing in Him are parallel ways of describing the same reality: personal faith in Him. He is not giving two different conditions, but describing trust in Himself as the only true satisfaction for spiritual need.

Yet Jesus also says, “You have seen me and still do not believe.” Physical sight does not automatically produce faith. The crowd had seen both Jesus and His works, yet remained in unbelief. Their unbelief is therefore blameworthy.

In verses 37–40, Jesus explains the certainty and security of those who truly come to Him. He says that all whom the Father gives Him will come to Him, and the one who comes to Him He will never cast out. In the flow of the passage, this is first a promise of gracious welcome. No true comer to Jesus will be rejected. At the same time, Jesus roots that welcome in the Father’s initiative. The Father gives, and those given come. This does not cancel the open call to believe. Verse 40 makes clear that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life. The passage holds both truths together: the Father’s action and the human responsibility to believe.

Jesus then grounds His promise in His mission from heaven. He came down not to do His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him. And the Father’s will is that Jesus should lose none of all that He has given Him, but raise them up at the last day. The wording may be collective, but the meaning is personal: these are people whom the Son preserves. The same ones whom the Father gives, who come to the Son, are the ones He receives, keeps, and will finally raise.

Verse 40 restates the Father’s will in clear invitational terms: everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and Jesus will raise him up at the last day. This joins present faith to future resurrection. Eternal life is not only future here; it is already possessed by the believer in relation to the Son. But its full outcome includes bodily resurrection on the last day.

The flow of the passage is plain. The Father gives the true bread from heaven in His Son. People are called to come to the Son and believe in Him. Those whom the Father gives to the Son come, are received by Him, are kept by Him, and will be raised on the last day. The crowd wanted bread that perishes. Jesus offers Himself as the bread who gives eternal life.