Monthly Archives: August 2012

“…they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ ” (John 6:28-29)

Israelites in the New Testament, and Christians in our day, often approach Christ with an assumption that we must work for our salvation. But as pervasive as this assumption may be even in Christian circles today, it is a very long way from the truth. Our salvation comes by Grace, which might be defined as what God does independent from humanity. God saves us not through any work we can perform on God’s behalf, but through the complete, finished work of Jesus on Calvary’s cross almost two thousand years ago.

The eternal life God offers is a gift, rather than a wage; it comes to us through faith in Jesus’ work, rather than by our own works. God asks us to trust completely in Jesus’ work. But our trust in his work is less than total whenever we try to add our own efforts to his. We cannot pay or repay God for this gift. We cannot earn it by our efforts. We cannot add to what Jesus has done without losing its power.

So it may seem strange to hear Jesus talk about the “work” that God expects from his people. That work consists of belief in Jesus, “whom he [God] has sent.” Belief doesn’t require us to “break a sweat.” The exercise of faith does not require back-breaking labor, or bone-wearying effort, or long periods of concentration, or any other taxing exertion usually associated with the term “work.” But I must agree with Jesus when he calls belief work.

Followers of Jesus must work to attain and sustain a necessary and total trust in who Jesus is and what he has done for us. This is not a physically taxing kind of work, but rather a work of our will. It does not replace what Christ has done, but appropriates his work in our hearts as worthy of trust and completely sufficient.

It is work because we must continually stifle and overcome the objections of our flesh – those voices within us and around us that invariably meet God’s offer of Grace with a “But…” The ones that say, “It can’t be that simple.” “I don’t deserve God’s love.” “Only my performance pleases God.” “God will love me more if I work harder.” “God will love me less if I fail.” Have you heard the objections? Are you exhausted from living your life as if they were true? Don’t believe the objections; believe in the one whom God has sent! Receiving eternal life and wholeness truly is that simple.

Jesus empowers us to do the “work” of believing. His “yoke is easy,” and his “burden is light.” He even gives us the faith necessary to respond to his offer of eternal life. Against every voice that would have us trust our own efforts instead of his, Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, this is the work of God: that you believe in the one whom God has sent. I am the bread that comes down from heaven and  gives life to the world. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”