In 1936, the J.R. WATKINS CO. of Winona, Minnesota, published the “Watkins Cook Book”.  It contains many and various recipes for the popular food of that era.  What is surprising is the first recipe.  It is for bread.   The populous was still dealing with the Great Depression along with the dust bowl drought in the Midwest and the New Deal implemented by the Roosevelt administration.  Bread was important.  It is the most basic and sustaining food for us.  You might say it is the food for life.

The normal ingredients are listed.  Flour, yeast, salt, sugar, water or milk and shortening.  The instructions are included.  None of the ingredients alone would suffice to become bread.  Without some type of binder, all the ingredients would fall apart.  Flour and water become the binder that holds everything together and it is that binding that allows one to “make bread”.

Jesus is the recipe for life.  In John chapter 6, John records the discussion by Jesus about bread.  In verse 35, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.”  He can fill the soul with substance that endures; with bread that is holy bound by God; a food that gives life.  Paul describes these attributes that one has when Jesus becomes our “Bread of Life” in Galatians 5:22-23.   “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”  Peter expounds on this with his comments in 2 Peter 2: 3-11. 

Jesus is the binder that holds that fruit of the Spirit together.  He is the bread that provides the substance of life, nourishment that fills not only the body, but also the soul.  He is the recipe that contains the essential nutrients for life.  Paul wrote in Colossians 1: 15-17  “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

He is Supreme.  He is the Beginning and the Firstborn.  God’s fullness dwells in Him; He reconciled all things on earth and heaven.  He made peace through His blood.   When we take this bread of life, it becomes part of us.  He dwells in us, deep down inside of us, a supernatural filling, a miracle of life.  We become part of Him.  We partake and the ingredients become part of us.