Doing The "Work" God Requires

"Today's Devotion" For March 13, 2006

Read: John 6:22-29; I John 3:21-24

DOING THE "WORK" GOD REQUIRES

"Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent." (John 6:29)

In 1787, Thomas Jefferson gave his daughter, Martha, the following advice: "Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing." It's hard to argue with such advice. Certainly there is ample evidence in our lives of the truth of Jefferson's advice. No doubt there are more than just a few people who remember those long, hot afternoons of summer vacation when the days just seemed to drag and there "wasn't anything to do." No doubt every parent has, at one time or another, had a child complain about how bored they were and how there was nothing for them to do, especially with school out for the summer.

"Idle hands are the devil's workshop," goes another old saying about the value of working and engaging in constructive endeavors. Our whole culture has a foundation which historically has held to the Biblical principle of: "He who would not work, neither should he eat" (II Thessalonians 3:10). The hard work of immigrants has been instrumental in building the nation. One of the most important reasons people are driven to come to the United States, legally or illegally, is that so many of them are looking for an opportunity to work hard and attain their own conception of success.

Work has been established by God as an important part of human endeavor. In the beginning, God told Adam and Eve that they were to tend the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:15). While work was intended as a blessing, after the Fall into Sin, work became a part of the curse of Sin in our lives (Gen. 3:17-19). From that "stellar" beginning, work has always been essential to achieving great things, acquiring great wealth, and gaining power. In fact, work is so much a part of our lives that it's understandable, although incorrect, that we would see work as a way to make ourselves pleasing to God and get us into heaven.

That's the challenge Jesus was given when the people who had experienced His feeding of five thousand people with five small barley loaves and two small fish (cf. John 6:1-14) caught up to Him on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Yet, as Jesus noted, they were more interested in the fact that He had filled their bellies that they were missing the whole point of the miracle, which was that Jesus was (and is) the promised Messiah who would redeem God's people from their sins. Their question of Jesus, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" (Jn. 6:28), shows that they expected to earn God's forgiveness and achieve eternal life by pious works. It's an understandable error when we realize that we, too, are inclined to look for ways to work our way into heaven, rather than trusting in our redemption and salvation through Jesus Christ.

Jesus answers the question very clearly. He points them, and us, to the truth that the only true work God "requires" for salvation is that we "believe in the One He has sent" (Jn. 6:29). John further reiterates Jesus' response in his first letter (I John 3:23) when he writes, "And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us." By the power of God's Word and Spirit, that very faith He requires of us, that "work" we "need" to do to be saved and know God's forgiveness, is worked in our hearts and lived out in our lives. In that same faith, we also live out Jesus' love for us as we touch the lives of others, both believers and nonbelievers, with the hope and comfort of the Gospel. This is the work that's important to God and which He requires of us. If we want to keep "busy" and not "lose any time" there's no doubt that a living faith in Christ is a full time vocation and certain to make a difference in the world.

Prayer: Father, You have called me by the Gospel into the marvelous light of Your grace which You have revealed in Jesus Christ. You have worked a great miracle in my life, bringing me out of the darkness of Sin and despair - lost without Your love and forgiveness - into a saving relationship with Christ through the washing of Holy Baptism. You have made me Your very own, redeemed and restored child that I may declare the wonders of Your love and forgiveness for the whole world in Jesus. Keep me ever mindful that there are no works of my hands that can gain Your love and forgiveness, nor can I in anyway work my way into heaven, but that the "work You require" is to believe in Jesus as my Savior and Lord - the Word made flesh who has come into my lfie and made me Your own. Let my every word and deed be a reflection of Your love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness in Jesus to those I touch each day. Let them meet Jesus through me so they can also know "the work You require" and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life with You. In Jesus' precious and most holy name I pray. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright © 2006 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.