Although the giving in 6.27 is a
future event, this eternal life seems to be available to believers in the
present. Jesus indicates that the one who presently believes in the one whom
God sent receives eternal life. This becomes more explicit in 6.32 where Jesus
states that Moses did not give their fathers bread from heaven but ο πατηρ μου διδωσιν υμιν τον αρτον εκ του ουρανου τον αληθινον. Thus, the benefits of this food
that remains to eternal life can be experienced in the present, even though the
food will be given. As Frey points out, there is both a present and
future dimension to eternal life. It begins in the present but extends into the
future (Frey, Eschatologie 3.270). The tension between present and
future life-giving was also depicted in 5.24-26, 28-29, where eternal life is
presently realized and yet also remains a future reality. In 6.27, the heavenly
manna is available now. The giving of salvation takes place in the present for
those who believe in the one whom the Father has sent, suggesting that the time
of the messianic age and the greater things have already begun. Eternal life
stretches before and beyond the cross, even though the cross is important for
the giving of the bread of life. As in 1.51, so here in 6.27, the Johannine Son
of Man makes a future event possible in the present. (Benjamin E. Reynolds, The
Apocalyptic Son of Man in the Gospel of John [Wissenschaftliche
Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 249; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007], 152)
