Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
Jesus fed the 5,000 and walked on water. What does this mean for students of this Teacher?
Must a student attempt to duplicate these mighty works? If so, there have been no successful students of Jesus, because nobody has ever produced the scope and magnitude of the miracles He so easily performed.
Instead, Jesus says the work of a student is to believe in Him. Trust in His power to change everything.
Naturally, students of Jesus want to follow the teacher in compassionately serving others. The life of a student is an active one. A life filled with good works.
But according to the Teacher, the primary work of His students is to believe in Him.
This is the lesson all the miracles of Jesus teach.
What if this singular truth is missed?
Doesn’t religion become an endless series of human efforts to change things, ourselves and those around us? Christianity becomes puny and powerless, because it becomes our efforts, even if we attach His name to it.
For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
This is the very work of God. For God seeks to change the world through His Son. This then is the student’s work too – to believe in Jesus who opens for us a new life only He can create.
It is difficult to refrain from trying to correct the world with out efforts rather than simply believing in the power of Jesus to effect his will. Our part, faith and sevice to other should be enough to keep us occupied.
ReplyDeleteIt's cyclical.
ReplyDeleteWe believe in the bread of life - sent from heaven by the Father - Jesus our Lord and Savior.
Our faith in Him should motivate us to mimick him. According to Acts 10:38 Jesus "went around doing good."
So our faith and the desire to become more like Him should lead to good works.
Yet without that faith works means nothing.
Without His heart and His attitude and His mindset - works are ineffective at best.
Once we have that faith though, it should motivate us toward good works (Check out Eph 2:1-10 or Titus 3:1-8 basic ummary of both is - we were dirty rotten scoundrels, God saved us through His son - granting us mercy and grace and forgiveness through Christ - which should lead to us doing good works.)
Could we sum it up by saying the work of God is to believe in the one He sent? Jesus did. Knwing that the salvation found in Him will lead to us being His Creation for good works which he has planned for us to do.
So what are we doing to be "devoted to doing what is good" ?