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.”
No one can “work” their way to salvation, healing, or deliverance. Nothing of God is earned by anything we do. We could never work hard enough to earn what the Lord has done and is doing for us.
We work BECAUSE of what the Lord has done for us. We work so others will believe and be saved. Our work is representative of our belief in the One God sent, the One who paid our sin debt.
Jesus made it very clear what the work of God is. “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”
When we live our lives believing in Jesus and His Work on the Cross, our work takes on a whole new meaning and significance.
Our work is to believe; that’s it! To believe in Jesus Christ and the Message of the Cross is all God requires of us. If work were required, a quadriplegic could never be saved. What could they do? They are unable to work. They are saved in the exact same way every other person is saved: By believing in the Message of the Cross of Christ.
Believing takes no physical effort. You don’t need to be able to do anything to believe. Belief is the knowing inside ones self that something is true, real, and trustworthy.
As Jesus spoke these words to the people, they did not understand because it was the exact opposite of everything they ever knew. To be forgiven of sin, they had to go to the priest and make blood sacrifices. This was their “work” every day. Without this work, there would be no forgiveness of their sin, and they would be condemned by God. Their belief in the Sacrificial process and their obedience to this every day is what guaranteed their forgiveness and kept them in right standing with God.
The people who lived in the time Jesus ministered on earth had the privilege of sitting at the Feet of the Master and under His Teaching. What He was teaching was diametrically opposed to everything they had ever known or been taught. That’s why they remained so focused on the question, “What must we do to do the works God requires?
Although Jesus gave them the answer, they still could not understand it. It simply did not make sense to them. Surely they had to do something! They had spent their lives trying to sacrifice enough. They had watched their fathers and their fathers' fathers trying to do enough.
Not much has changed. People still think they have to do something to earn their Salvation. This thought process is the attack of the enemy, Satan. He will do his best to fill your mind with thoughts of having too much sin in your life or not having done enough to deserve the Forgiveness, Salvation, Healing, or Deliverance of God. The enemy does not want you to believe you are worthy of these benefits of God. He is a liar! It doesn't matter what you have done; you are worthy, and all you need to do is believe!
If you believe…..you will receive Forgiveness, Salvation, Healing, and Deliverance with NO work required. That is a Promise of God to you, personally. It’s as easy as A B C. A: ADMIT you are a sinner. B: BELIEVE Jesus is the Son of God and died on the Cross for your sins. C: CONFESS your sins and repent.
To repent is the part most people fail to do because they don't understand what true repentance is. We will talk about that tomorrow. For today, we will ADMIT, BELIEVE, and CONFESS, putting all the emphasis on BELIEVE.
Believing in the One God has sent will……..turn the tide
Believing, Doreen
www.bettsministries.org
