John 6:38 38Because I have come down from heaven in order not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.
Jesus continues his dialogue with the crowd in Capernaum by restating his connection to God the Father. Verse 38 repeats the idea of earlier verses that Jesus does only what the Father directs him to do. Jesus is so connected to God that the two become indistinguishable. Each point in the dialogue gets more intense with more profound revelation about the person of Jesus. The opening of this verse is a significant claim. The bread from heaven the people were looking for was right in front of them. Jesus came from heaven as God’s representative to provide the people with the spiritual nutrition they hungered for. Coming down from heaven is another way to state 1:14, that the eternal and divine Word became flesh.
There are two significant implications of this idea. One is that Jesus came from God as God’s representative. Christianity is from heaven to earth as a matter of grace, not humanity somehow seeking the divine through effort or works of righteousness. Salvation is not based on how good we are but on how gracious God is.
Jesus also came with the approval and authority of God. Everything Jesus did was God directed, so his actions were perfect and just what people needed to hear. The words that he speaks meet our deepest questions. The actions that he does exemplify the love, grace, and holiness of God. To look at Jesus is to see who God is. This verse touches on the doctrines of Incarnation, from heaven to earth, and God’s sovereign grace of mercy extended to sinful humanity.
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