Wednesday, January 16, 2008
John 6:28-29 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."
FAITH COMES FROM GOD
The entire Bible agrees on what it means to serve God. Scripture firmly establishes that if you want to serve Him, you must believe in the one whom the Father has sent. If you want to know how to receive God's kindness, how to approach Him, how to satisfy the penalty for your sins, how to receive forgiveness on sin and escape death, then you must do what God wants and believe in Christ. Here, Christ is plainly telling you what you should do -- believe.
Faith is the work we must do. Yet faith is also called God's work. Later, Christ tells us how we are able to believe, for no one can believe on his own. "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him" (John 6:44). He also says, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father" (John 6:65). For faith is a divine work that God asks us to do. But at the same time, God must give us faith, for we can't believe on our own.
What an excellent passage this is! Like a lightning bolt, it strikes down all wisdom and righteousness, every law and commandment, even the law of Moses. It lays before us a different work -- a work that is above and beyond us. We cannot grasp Christ with our thoughts or our reason. Therefore, faith cannot be our own work. We are drawn to Christ, even though we can neither feel Him nor see Him.
-- Martin Luther
