[But, or then £] Jesus said to them, now dropping all disguise, and gathering up into one burning word all the previous teaching, which they might have fathomed, but did not. I am the Bread of life; or "that which cometh down out of heaven, the veritable life-eternal-giving Bread, which I, as the steward of the Divine bounty, am giving, is my very self, my Divine humanity."
On other occasions the Lord said, "I am the Light of the world" (John 8:12), "I am the good Shepherd" (John 10:14), "I am the Resurrection and the Life" (John 11:25), "I am the veritable vine" (John 15:1).
He claims here to be giving himself to the world, as the Source of its true life. The mode in which any human being can so assimilate this Bread that it should accomplish its purposes and transform itself into life, is by "coming"" or "believing."
The two terms are parallel, though in "craning" there is more emphasis laid on the distinct act of the will than in "believing." The process is very impressively conveyed. He who has started to come, he that is coming to me, shall by no means hunger; he that is believing on me—endeavouring to effect such inward approval and surrender—shall never thirst (the πώποτε responds here to the πάντοτε).
There is no special significance in the two-foldness of the parallel. "Coming" does not stand in any more immediate relation to "eating" than to "drinking," to the satisfaction of hunger than to that of thirst, nor does "believing" connote exclusively either the one or the other.
The parallelism is a strengthening of the same idea. Approach to himself, believing surrender to the reality of his word, will satisfy the most pressing spiritual need, and do it in such a way that the hunger and thirst shall not, shall never, return.
There is an invincible and unalterable assent produced by a real apprehension of Christ, which cannot be shaken out of the soul. Satisfaction of hunger may possibly (as Godet suggests) point to the supply of strength, and the appeasing of thirst to the supply of peace.
The deeper idea is that the desire of the soul is satisfied, and it is not a recurrent desire. There are certain realities which, if once perceived, can never be unknown afterwards. There are consolations which, if once supplied, absolutely stanch and heal the wounds of the soul.
Christ, in "coming down from heaven," by revealing the Divine Sonship in a Son of man. brings all heaven with him, opens all the Father's heart. To come to him and to believe on him is to feed on the corn of heaven and drink of that river of life, clear as crystal, which is ever issuing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.