This is part 7 of 7 parts in this series.
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
After laying all this groundwork regarding the nation Israel, the meaning of the miracles, and the message in Matthew to John, we come to the crux. Most people and commentaries regard this passage as saying something like, “Faith in Christ is the work of God.” Another way I’ve heard it is “The work that God does when He saves a sinner is to give a sinner the faith needed to believe in Christ as his all sufficient Savior, sin-bearer, Lord, and Master.” In other words, it is God that gives people the faith they need to be saved.
Following this line of reasoning has huge implications. The first statement above comes right out and tells us that faith is a work, even if it’s the work of God. Secondly, if it is God who gives faith, then free-will isn’t really a factor in believing the gospel. If this is the case, then is it not God who chooses to give faith to certain individuals? If it is God who chooses to give faith to certain individuals, then isn’t He really selecting some unto salvation and damning others to Hell? Bear in mind, this is only one line of reasoning. The problem with is that it ignores the “works of God” in the light of the passage and the entire book. So let’s go back for a minute and reconsider what we are reading in the context of the passage and the book of John.
We’ve already established that the “works of God” are the miracles performed by Christ. It’s already been shown that the miracles were performed in order to verify and validate that Jesus was in fact the Christ.
Acts 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
The people Jesus was dealing with didn’t get this. Remember, the context of the issue He is discussing is the feeding of the 5,000 (vs 26). Those who read the passage to mean that the work of God is the faith God gives to totally depraved men are completely ignoring the context both literally and dispensationally.
“This is the “work of God” = the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000
“that” = a word that denotes the purpose or the result
“ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” = the end result of the work of God in relation to the dispensational position of the nation Israel during the earthly ministry of Christ.
Jesus Christ was pointing back to the miracle and telling them the purpose of the feeding wasn’t to fill their bellies. Their motivation to “work the works of God” (vs 28) was to satisfy their physical desires (vs 26). But this has nothing to do with the signs performed by the Lord. The intention was to demonstrate that He was the Christ, the Saviour of Israel, and the miracles were the proof of it. The end result should have produced belief. The belief was to be a result of their witnessing the miracle. You can see they understood vs 29 in this light.
John 6:30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
1. They were looking for a sign
2. They were looking for a sign in order to believe (remember the “Jews require a sign” in 1 Cor 1:22?)
3. They understood the sign was the “work” – in other words, they did not get from Christ that it was “faith” but rather the work was a sign!
This is absolutely and totally consistent with the message in Matthew-John and early Acts regarding the earthly ministry of Christ. Unfortunately, people read their own theological systems into a passage without properly exegeting the passage. It never fails to amaze me how people who claim to be students read their theology into a passage rather than reading a passage and forming their theology from a proper understanding of it.
If only more than 18 people would read about this.