Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1521
“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.” John 6:29.
NOTICE the connection or you will miss the meaning of the words, for, at first sight it looks as if our Savior taught us that it is the work of God for us to believe on Him. Now, that would be quite true and it is very plainly taught in other parts of Scripture that faith is the work of God, but that is not the teaching in this particular instance, as will be very plain if you look at the context. First, our Savior said to the people, “See how you labor after the bread of your bodies. You have been running all round the coast to find Me in order that I might feed you again with loaves and fishes. Now,” He says, “let your labor run after something better. Labor not for the meat that perishes, but for that which endures to life eternal.”
He gently rebukes them, “Do not spend all your strength in seeking after temporal good, but think about your immortal natures. Satisfy the hunger of your spirits, the better part of you.” They immediately answered, “You tell us to labor after the bread that does not perish. What shall we do that we might work the work of God and so obtain it?” Our translation fails to let us see that they used precisely the same words as the Savior had done. He said, “labor,” and they said, “What shall we do that we may labor this labor of God? What is it?” They took Him at His word and they put a question in accordance. When men begin to be awakened about spiritual things, they naturally cry, “What must we do to be saved? What must we do that we may work the work of God?”
It is a faulty question—it is a question very much shaped by their ignorance and error. They suppose that there are works to be done, and merit to be earned by doing and obeying a law. And so they put it in that shape—“What shall we do? What shall we work that we may work the work of God?” The Savior did not chide them for the shape of the question. It was not the time to expect accuracy, but He gave them such Truth as they could understand and He replied, “You want to know what work you must do that shall be ‘the work of God,’ or a work pleasing to God? This, then, is ‘the work of God,’ the work most pleasing to God of all the works that can be done by men, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.”
The teaching here is not that faith is worked in us by God, which I have already said is a great Truth of God, but it is this—that if men desire to work, the first and chief of all work is that they believe on Jesus Christ whom God has sent! Does any man object to faith being called the work of man? If he does, I ask him why he objects. It is true that faith is the gift of God, but this does not change, for a moment, the other Truth of God that faith is the work of man—for it is and must be the act of man. No one in his senses can deny that! Will you venture to say that man does not believe? Then I venture to tell you that he who does not personally believe in Jesus is a lost man! And if there is such a thing as a faith which is not a man’s own act and deed it will not save him.
The man must, himself, believe or perish! This is the plain doctrine of Scripture. Repentance is worked in us by the Holy Spirit, but we must, ourselves, repent or we shall never be saved. Faith is worked in us by the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit does not believe, or repent—these are a man’s own acts! With our hearts we believe unto righteousness. If we do not believe, then we are not partakers of the promise which is given to those who do believe! Faith is, therefore, the work of man and it is the chief of works, the work most pleasing to God, the most godlike work, or, as the text puts it, “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.”
To open up this one thought I pray for help from on high—it is just this—that faith is the most pleasing of all the works that man can do. It is here called, “the work,” but not strictly and properly, for it can never be ranged with the works of the Law, from which it essentially differs. But the Savior took up the word which they used and spoke to their ignorance that He might instruct them.
I. Regarding it as a work, faith is most pleasing to God, for, first, IT IS THE COMPREHENSIVE SUMMARY OF ALL TRUE WORK. There lies within the loins of faith every possible form of holiness. As a forest may lie asleep within an acorn, so within the bounds of faith, little though it is, every virtue lies hidden. It may be microscopic in form, but it is certainly there and only needs development. Repentance dwells in faith, for he that believes in Jesus Christ unto salvation knows that he is a sinner and he must have some hatred of sin, or else he would not have taken Christ to deliver him from his sin.
Love to God is there, for, most assuredly, when I trust a man—completely trust him—it would be impossible for me to do so unless I felt some leaning of my spirit towards him. The complete trusting of the soul to Christ, which is faith, has had in it no small measure of love to Christ. If I had before me a list of all the Graces of the Spirit of God and I were to take them up one by one and then analyze faith, I should find some measure of all these good works of the Spirit hidden away in the simple act of believing in Jesus Christ. I know what some of you have said—“Is that all that I am to do in order to be saved? Am I simply and only to believe in Christ, that is, trust myself with Him?”