March 5, 2023

John 6: 28, 29 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.” (NIV)

Good works do nothing to help us obtain God’s favor, but they follow naturally as we experience the love of Christ.*

Jesus knew the hearts of the people who asked the question, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Chances are, he saw that they were more interested in what he could do for them – feed them, perform miracles – than in how to be saved. So Jesus doesn’t answer a question they didn’t ask. Their faith is at ground zero so that’s where he starts. “Believe that I am the Messiah,” he says.

Doesn’t sound so hard, does it? It’s where we all have to start. But we can’t stay there. It sounds paradoxical: there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves but we can’t be saved if we do nothing. But like these people, we’re always wanting to know what we can do – to please God, to be saved, to meet the minimum requirements . . . Why do we think God is so hard to please? And if we believe he’s hard to please, why are we always on the lookout for what we can get away with?

God hasn’t drawn up a check-list of requirements for us to perform before we get his approval. All he wants is for us to love him. When we love him, we will want to please him. We will find out what pleases him by looking into his word and being directed by the Holy Spirit. Our works will not be items on our to-do list, they will be the bouquet of roses and the box of chocolates we bring to our true love.

His deepest desire is not that we would do great work, but that we would desire His fellowship above everything else.*