Chapter 46

 

The Work God Requires

 

“The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but [that] his disciples were gone away alone; (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:) When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:22-29)

 

The Jewish Talmud states that, “The whole law was given to Moses at Sinai in 613 precepts.” It was summarized and given to the children of Israel in Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). Those Ten Commandments are holy, just and good. They reveal something of the character of God and show us our sin. Those Ten Commandments identify sin for us and show us our need of a Savior, a Mediator, a Substitute, a Redeemer and Representative: One who can stand between man and God, to meet the demands of God for us and satisfy our needs before God as men. That Mediator is Christ, the Son of God.

 

            Isaiah, writing by divine inspiration, reduced all the commandants to six, promising that all who (1.) walk righteously, (2.) speak uprightly, (3.) despise the gain of oppression, (4.) refuse to be bribed, (5.) despise the shedding of blood, and (6.) turn away from evil “shall dwell on high” (Isaiah 33:15-16). The Prophet Micah reduced all the commandments to just three (Micah 6:8). And during the days of his earthly ministry, our Lord Jesus Christ declared that all the commandments could be reduced to just two (Matthew 22:37-40).

 

            The six hundred and thirteen precepts of the law, when reduced to their essence, require but two things from us: that we love God and that we love one another perfectly. Yet, these two great and good commandments condemn us all. Not one of us loves God or his neighbor perfectly. Still, hope is not gone. We can yet fulfill the law of God completely and perfectly. We can do all that God requires of man, if we keep the one commandment to which God promises eternal life. Are you interested in the one work which God requires of men and women, the one work by which sinners fulfill all the law of God? Our Lord Jesus states it plainly in verse twenty-nine. — “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

                                                                 

            Our Lord Jesus knows the thoughts of every man’s heart; and he knew the thoughts of these people who pretended to honor him. He knew their secret motives. Commenting on verses 22-26, J. C. Ryle wrote…

 

“Let us be real, true, and sincere in our religion, whatever else we are. The sinfulness of hypocrisy is very great, but its folly is greater still. It is not hard to deceive ministers, relatives, and friends. A little decent outward profession will often go a long way. But it is impossible to deceive Christ. ‘His eyes are as a flame of fire’ (Revelation 1:14). He sees us through and through. Happy are those who can say — ‘Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee’ (John 21:17).”

 

            “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed” (v. 27). — What our Lord forbids here is not labor and care with regard to material things. The Lord God nowhere promotes sloth and idleness, and nowhere encourages indifference with regard to our earthly responsibilities. What he does forbid is excessive care for material things. Rather than devoting ourselves to that which is marked for destruction, the Lord Jesus here instructs us to seek him, to set our hearts on him, to devote ourselves to the pursuit of everlasting life, to live not for time but for eternity. This life everlasting is that which is the gift of the Christ, our God-man Mediator, “the Son of Man.” This Mediator, this Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, is that One that “God the Father sealed,” stamped with his royal signet, marked for security, and kept secret.

 

            “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” (v. 28) — We love works; don’t we? Give us something to do; and we’ll do it! That is the religion of man, the religion of the world, your religion, and my religion by nature. We all want to weave a web of righteousness of our own spinning, spinning a thread from our own entrails by which we might climb up to heaven. No man wants salvation free of cost.

 

            Martin Luther was exactly right when he called works religion “the devil’s feces.” Those who seek to be saved by works, he called “the devil’s martyrs,” because they take great pains to go to hell.

 

Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (v. 29). — Did you read that right? — This is the work of God, (The one and only work that God requires of you and me!), that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” This is the work God requires, the work God performs, and the work God accepts. We read in 1 John 3:23, “This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.Faith in Christ is what God requires of man!

 

Five Things about Faith

 

I do not claim to know a lot about faith. I feel like the centurion who said, “Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief.” But I am very interested in this subject, and you ought to be. The Word of God has a lot to say about faith.

 

            Our Lord said, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). — If ye had faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye might say to this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you” (Luke 17:6). — “If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God” (John 11:40). — He once said to a harlot, “Thy faith hath saved thee!” (Luke 7:50). — “When he saw” the faith of four men who brought a sick friend to him, he said to the one they brought to him, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee” (Luke 5:20).

 

Paul wrote, “Being justified, by faith we have peace with God” (Romans 5:1). — He also said, “By grace are ye saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). The Word of God highly exalts faith! Here are five things revealed in the Word of God about faith in Christ…

 

1.     Faith is the foundation grace.

 

While love is the greatest of all graces and hope is the grace of comfort and expectation, faith is the foundation grace from which both love and hope spring (John 3:36; Mark 16:15-16; Romans 10:11-15). The first evidence of life in the soul is faith. Faith in Christ is the proof that we have life. Believing on Christ we have been delivered from penal death in justification and spiritual death in regeneration.

 

            No form of works, no religious profession, no amount of knowledge, no feelings and emotions can assure me that I am both absolved of guilt and born of God, but faith does (1 John 5:1).

 

            As faith is the first evidence of life in the soul, so all true, spiritual life is sustained by faith. The child of God does not trust his emotions or his devotions, his feelings or his doings. He looks to Christ. — “The just shall live by his faith!” Spurgeon said, “Hearty belief in God, his Son, his promises, his grace is the soul’s life, neither can anything take its place. ‘Believe and live’ is the standing precept both for saint and sinner.” John Flavel wrote, “The soul is the life of the body. Faith is the life of the soul. Christ is the life of faith.”

 

      Faith is the foundation grace. If you do not have faith in Christ, you do not have life. You are yet in your sins. The wrath of God is upon you.

 

2.  This faith is the gift of God.

 

You may believe many things. And there may be many types of faith in man. But saving faith, that faith that unites a sinner to Christ in a living, indissolvable union is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is not the product of the flesh (John 1:12-13; Philippians 1:29; Ephesians 1:19; Colossians 2:12).

 

3.  Sinners are justified by faith alone.

 

Faith is not the cause of justification. That is the grace of God. Faith is not the basis of justification. That is the blood of Christ. But faith is the voice of justification. Faith is the means by which we receive justification and by which God declares justification in the heart (Romans 4:25-5:1-11; Galatians 2:16).

 

4.    True, saving faith is a growing grace.

 

Everything that is alive grows. If our faith is the dead faith of religious profession and doctrinal orthodoxy, it does not grow and increase. But if our faith is a living thing, it grows. — “Your faith groweth exceedingly” (2 Thessalonians 1:3). Believers “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). As faith grows assurance grows. As faith grows love for Christ and one another grows. As faith grows rest and peace increase. The more we grow in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the less concern we have for life, the less interest we have in the world, and the less fretful we are in trials!

 

5.    There are many imitators of faith, many kinds of false faith that cannot save.

 

False faith can do much to impress men and to impress us with ourselves. —Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” (James 2:19). Even a casual reading of Holy Scripture reveals that false faith…

·      May be greatly enlightened and have great knowledge (Hebrews 6:4).

  • Excites the affections of the stony ground hearer.
  • Reforms the outward life and makes people religious Pharisees.
  • Speaks well of Christ as Nicodemus did in John 3.
  • Confesses sin with great sorrow like Judas.
  • May humble itself in sackcloth and ashes with Ahab.
  • May repent like Esau.
  • May do religious works with diligence.
  • May be very generous as Ananias and Sapphira were.
  • May tremble at the Word of God with Felix.
  • May experience much in religion (Hebrews 6:1-4).
  • May enjoy great religious privileges like Lot’s wife.
  • May preach, perform miracles, and cast out demons (Matthew 7:23).
  • May attain high office in the church with Diotrephes.
  • May walk with great preachers as Demas walked with Paul.
  • May be peaceful and secure like the five foolish virgins.
  • May even persevere and hold out until the Day of Judgment (Matthew 7:22-23).

 

Three Questions

 

What is saving faith? — I cannot give you a plan or a blueprint and say, “Follow this, do that, say the other, and you will have faith.” Anyone who tells you how you can obtain faith knows nothing about faith. The gift of faith is God’s sovereign prerogative. God the Holy Spirit gives faith to chosen, redeemed sinners through the preaching of the gospel (Romans 10:17; 1 Peter 1:23-25). And saving faith has three characteristics (2 Timothy 1:12).

 

1.    Knowledge – “I know whom I have believed.” A man cannot believe what he does not know. You cannot trust an unknown, unrevealed Savior (John 20:30-31). No one has faith in Christ until he knows something of the Bible, something about the character of God, something about his own depravity, guilt, and sin, and something of the person and work of Christ. You cannot trust Christ until you know who he is, what he accomplished at Calvary, and where he is now. Saving faith is not a leap in the dark. Saving faith is based upon revealed truth and knowledge (Romans 10:13-14). But there is more to faith than knowledge. There must also be a…

 

2.    Persuasion – “I am persuaded.” Paul said, I know what God has revealed, and I am persuaded that it is true. I not only read the Scriptures and understand what they say about the person and work of Christ, but I give full consent and agreement to them. It is impossible for anyone to have saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who puts a question mark on the Word of God. Still, there is something more to saving faith than knowledge, or even persuasion. Many, I fear, are persuaded of gospel truth who do not have faith in Christ. This third, vital element of faith is missing in them.

 

3.    Commitment – “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” — Paul committed himself to Christ. He trusted to Christ all the affairs of his life and trusted Christ alone for his everlasting acceptance with God.

 

“My life, my love I give to thee,

Thou Lamb of God Who died for me;

O may I ever faithful be,

My Savior and my God!”

 

            “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Thomas Brooks wrote, “He that believeth on Christ shall be saved, be his sins never so many. He that believeth not on Christ must be damned, be his sins never so few.” “He that believeth on the Son (of God) hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

 

            Why is faith in Christ necessary? — Much could and should be said in this regard. But for the sake of brevity, let me just give you three reasons for the necessity of faith, three reasons why we must trust the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

1.    The only way fallen men and women can ever please the holy Lord God is by faith in Christ (Hebrews 11:6; Romans 3:31; 8:1-4). — No sinner has ever pleased God, except by faith in Christ; and every sinner who trusts the Lord Jesus pleases God and fulfills all the law of God.

 

2.    There is no true humility apart from faith. — Grace is for the humble. God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud. But the only humble person in the world is the one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone else has something to claim as a ground of merit before God, or imagines that he does. Believers are truly humble. We need a Savior and know it. We come to Christ with empty hands, trusting him for everything. We receive Christ and the grace of God in him as a gift, not a wage or reward. We trust Christ alone for our total, everlasting acceptance with God (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

 

“Nothing in my hands I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling.

Naked come to Thee for dress,

Helpless look to Thee for grace!”

 

3.    Faith in Christ is necessary, because there is no other way for a sinner to come to God and be saved (Romans 4:16). Christ alone is the Way (John 14:6). Christ alone is the Door (John 10:9). We cannot be saved any other way (Acts 4:12).

 

            Do you have this saving faith in Christ? — Do I? — This question is vital. It must not be passed over lightly (2 Corinthians 13:5). Find the answer to this question and you will make your calling and election sure. Do you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? I cannot answer that question for you. You must answer for yourself. But this much I know: — He who has saving faith experiences the power and grace of God in his Son. Faith is more than Doctrine! Faith involves personal experience; and the experience is a growing experience.

 

      He who has faith in Christ has great, high esteem for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. — “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious” (1 Peter 2:7). His blood is precious blood. His righteousness is precious to all who have no other righteousness but his. All who have faith in Christ renounce and continue to renounce all personal righteousness, knowing that all their righteousnesses are filthy rags! His very name is precious to all who know him, for his name reveals who he is.

 

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” — This is the work God requires, the work God performs, the work God gives. — “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

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