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“Believing in the Son Is the Work of God”
Categories: faith, gospel, JesusJohn 6.26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate some of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” 28 Therefore they said to Him, “What are we to do, so that we may accomplish the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
Jesus baffled these Jews with His talk of food that lasts for eternal life. That sounds lovely, doesn’t it? So they wanted to know how they could accomplish the works of God. Jesus said the work of God was that “you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
I thought Paul, especially, pointed out that faith and works are not the same. How is believing a work?
This is a good question out of this context.
Notice Jesus did not say just “a work” but “the work.” And it is singular, so He’s not talking about all the possible good works we can do but only the primary work. And that work is “of God,” meaning it either belongs to God or comes from Him. The context shows their question is about doing “the works of God” (verse 28), so when they said, “of God,” they meant the works belonging to Him. It’s not the work that God does, but the work we do which is from Him, commanded by Him, pertaining to Him.
It is THE WORK because faith in Jesus as the one the Father sent is the key to eternal life, the food that endures to eternal life. You can perform no good work outside of faith by which you can earn eternal life. Even as you obediently do the good works which God commanded and created you to do, it is not the doing of those works which saves you. On the other hand, you are not saved without doing good works because they are the fruit of your genuine faith, just as you bear fruit when you genuinely repent.
In this way, we understand we are saved by faith apart from works (Eph. 2.8-9; Tit. 3.5).
As Jesus calls faith “the work of God” here, He differentiates it from other works. Belief is a work done internally, in our minds and hearts. It’s a change of attitude when one graduates from unbelief to belief, and it is not simply our human effort of trying really hard to believe. God breaks into our lives in some way, breaks us down, knocks us off our donkey (like Paul), shows us His glory (like Peter in the boat), shines the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4.6). In other words, God always acts first in some way to call us, and all who are converted to Him can look back and see God’s work in our lives and give Him the glory for our faith and salvation.
Do you want to know God? Get to know Jesus. Do you want to see God? Look at Jesus. Do you want to be saved? Believe in Jesus as the one whom God made both Lord and Christ. Do you want eternal life? Work for the food which lasts unto eternal life. Feed on Jesus.
Life is all about Jesus!
