Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4:4 NKJV)

Why do we have to eat every day? Even after a scrumptious meal with all kinds of goodies, drinks, desserts, and all, why do we have to drink a cup of coffee next morning? There may a thousand and one different reasons to think about.

Why do we come to eat over and over again? We work hard to eat, fulfilling the hunger and thirst of body and mind. Why do we work hard to eat? It sounds silly, but there may be something that God wants us to learn and that may be significant in our life.

It perpetually tells that the visible and tangible food never satisfies us in full. Of course, it satisfies us bodily and psychologically, provisionally even. Here is the problem, very serious defect in them. Food and work cannot touch the most sacred part of humanity, spirit. Until the human spirit is filled, man is restless and agitated always. No matter how man tries hard to fill the cup of spirit, it avails not, because only the Holy Spirit can fill that cup in man.

So, it is a reminder that man needs something much deeper and higher to be filled and satisfied. When does the appetite cease anyways? It terminates when man dies. Crucifixion, the death of Christ, the bloody sacrifice for the sin of mankind is the new beginning of true life, the resurrection life. Christ’s death is the substitutionary death of mankind. He died, so we died with Him also. He buried, so we buried with Him also. He rose again, so we rose again with Him also.

Bodily and psychological hunger and thirst for food, sex, sleep, and anything is the reminders that we all need Him, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness (Romans 3:25).

What we really hunger and thirst is to be clothed with the righteousness of God, the wholeness, the sense of worth all the time, so that we can stand boldly in His sight without shame and guilt. We really hunger and thirst for wanting to be what God intended man to be even before the creation of everything. It is deeply and inherently inscribed in human race.

In Christ Jesus, a way to righteousness is open for us who believes in Him in truth and spirit, God willing.