Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
The work God requires is to believe in Jesus as the One He sent. Believing means trusting Him as personal Saviour, receiving Him by faith, and depending on Him alone for strength, righteousness and sanctification rather than on human beings. It is not earning heaven by penance, affliction or good works, for heaven is given through Christ's merit as the Lamb of God who takes away sin. To believe is to receive Him as the Bread of Life who gives life to the world, eating His flesh and drinking His blood by living by His words until they become part of daily life. Through such faith people receive everlasting life now, resurrection at the last day and life more abundantly, and true faith proves itself by obedience, love, fruit-bearing and labor to save the perishing.
Setting After Feeding Multitude
The saying was given in the synagogue at Capernaum on the morning after the feeding of the multitude, after the crossing of the sea and the walking on the water and the calming of the storm. The crowd had gathered there after hearing of that night passage, and those who had eaten the loaves sought Him for more temporal food and asked what they should do to work the works of God. That setting makes the answer a call to give chief labor and anxiety not to perishable food but to the food that endures to everlasting life.
They did not seek Him from faith in the miracles, from conviction of His divinity, or from recognition of Him as Teacher sent from God. They sought Him because they had eaten the loaves and were filled, thinking it profitable to unite with Him if He would keep furnishing bread to satisfy temporal wants. Their desire was for continued earthly rewards and for a king who would provide, with hopes of worldly power and temporal advancement rather than anxious labor for spiritual hunger. He therefore turned them from hopes of making Him an earthly king to the spiritual truth of His mission and kingdom.
When they asked what to do, they then demanded a sign to see and believe, pointing to the manna their fathers ate in the desert. They had already witnessed the feeding of the multitude, yet they wanted another and repeatable display of the miracle rather than accepting its lesson. Seeing wonders does not itself produce faith, and witnessing His works did not make them willing to believe in Him. Their demand for further evidence was not a true search for proof but an excuse to avoid the cross involved in accepting the Gospel, since piling evidence upon evidence could do no more than the evidence already given.
He had told them to labor not for food that perishes but for food that endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man gives as the One whom God the Father sealed. God is not unmindful of bodily necessities and will provide for physical wants, but the spiritual food Christ provides is of far more consequence than temporal food. That bread from heaven can be obtained from no human agent, for through the gift of Christ God Himself gives this living bread. To believe is therefore to make spiritual things the aim and object of life work, denying self, lifting the cross, and following wherever He leads until all hungering of soul is satisfied.
It was Christ Himself who led the Hebrews through the wilderness and fed them manna from heaven every day to preserve physical life. Moses did not give that true bread from heaven, but the Father gives the true bread from heaven. The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, and Jesus declares Himself to be that Bread of Life, so that whoever comes to Him never hungers and whoever believes on Him never thirsts. As God gave manna to preserve physical life, so God sent His Son that through believing in Him people may eat the bread of life and become immortal.
This plain testimony about Himself as the Bread of Life and about His spiritual kingdom tested those who claimed to be His disciples. The truths were spoken to lead hearers to choose for or against Him and to reveal what they truly believed. Because He offered no earthly rewards or worldly kingdom, those drawn by hopes of worldly power had to be shown the deeper meaning of His mission. The truth offended many, who would not accept its reproof and reform their lives, and some, including professed disciples, turned away from Him.
Work God Requires Belief
The work God requires is to believe in Jesus as the One He sent. Belief in Him is the way to receive the life He gives, the enduring food that leads to eternal life, for He is the true bread from heaven who comes down and gives life to the world. This is the response to God's gift of His Son: as God gave manna to preserve physical life, so He sent His Son that through believing people may eat the bread of life and become immortal. That bread from heaven can be obtained from no human agent; through the gift of Christ God Himself gives this living bread, which the Son of man, sealed by God the Father, gives. Chief labor and anxiety is not to be bestowed on perishable food but on the food that endures to everlasting life, though God is not unmindful of bodily necessities and will provide for physical wants, for the spiritual food Christ provides is of far more consequence than temporal food.
Eating His flesh and drinking His blood describes receiving Him and living by His words, by which believers dwell in Him, have eternal life, and are raised at the last day. The life-giving work belongs to the Spirit, not to the flesh. Belief is lived by faith: those who believe feed on Christ by keeping His Word and truth before them, studying and practicing its teachings, taking His words into the mind and applying them to life. Believing means trusting Jesus as personal Saviour, taking Him at His word, receiving Him by faith, and depending on Him as source of strength, sufficiency, sanctification, righteousness and reward rather than looking to human beings for strength, wisdom, or guidance. This faith means accepting Christ personally as the sin-pardoning Saviour who died for sinful people, bringing His life-giving words into the life; through faith in Him people receive pardon, His righteousness, salvation, and the gift of eternal life. The world was lost through unbelief and can be restored only through faith in Christ as its Redeemer; without this faith it has no hope, but receiving Christ by faith is necessary to become a child of God and receive spiritual life.
Belief comes first and then work: faith in Jesus the Messiah is the first step on the way to heaven, and obedience to God's commandments and working the works of God follow. Heaven was bought by the only begotten Son of God as its price, and this answer must be understood or heaven will be missed. Christ asks people first to believe in Him and then to work, for those who believe will work the works of God, and eating His flesh and drinking His blood means being doers of His Word. This faith puts self out of sight in genuine humility, gives an abiding Christ in the soul, and causes the Lord to manifest Himself to the believer. Among laborers this believing oneness kills selfishness, rivalry and strife for supremacy and creates oneness and felt love for one another, so that when it exists the showers of grace of the Holy Spirit will surely come and meetings will bring many sheaves to the Master instead of ending in failure and few sheaves.
Believing in the One God sent is the work that includes all others and leads to heaven, for Christ is God's commissioner to reconcile humanity to God. Through Him people return to loyalty to God and draw near to Him, finding rest, peace, and security, and only through Him can people approach the Father and reach heaven. Belief means coming to Christ and following Him, confessing and forsaking sin, taking Him as personal Saviour and counsellor, continuing to hold fast to Him as the highest and chief Good, loving Him continually, feeding on Him as the bread of life, living by His words and by every word He speaks, and by studying and seeking His character becoming complete in Him. Work is valuable to God only when it is the work God requires; human labor is not valuable merely because it is strenuous or extensive, and those who lack saving faith in the One the Father sent do not do God's works but their inconsistent, half-hearted service denies Christ and brings Him shame. Few truly know God and believe in Jesus in this way, even among honest professed Christians, and lack of this faith is shown by pride instead of modesty and meekness and lowliness of heart, by shallow study and investigation, and by making wild, extravagant statements without foundation in truth.
Eating Bread Of Life
Believing is receiving Christ as the Bread of Life who gives life to the world, the true bread come down from heaven, so that those who come to Him never hunger and those who believe on Him never thirst. As God gave manna every day to preserve physical life, God sent His Son so that through believing people may eat the bread of life and become immortal, receiving the enduring food that leads to eternal life. It was Christ Himself who led the Hebrews through the wilderness and fed them that manna, though those who asked about working the works of God were seeking miracles and temporal favors and pointed to the manna their fathers ate in the desert. To labor not for the food that perishes but for the food that endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man gives, is to believe in this way and find lasting satisfaction in Him, dwelling in Him, having eternal life now, and being raised at the last day.
Eating His flesh and drinking His blood is receiving Him and living by His words. It means keeping His Word and truth before the mind, studying the Word God has made plain and bringing its principles home to the soul, studying and practicing its teachings, taking His words into the mind and applying them to life. Believers do not depart from its precepts but bring its truths into daily life and daily practice, receiving and assimilating His words until they become part of life and part of the self. This is living by every word God has revealed, which is all that is necessary for salvation, grasping the mysteries of godliness, praying and communing with God to prove His mind while striving for eternal life and knowledge of His will, knowing the truth in Christ in order to reveal it, and not leaving His word for human suppositions. Coming to Christ and relying on Him as personal Saviour is expressed in this feeding, and through such faith people receive the gift of eternal life.
The life-giving work belongs to the Spirit, not to the flesh. His words are spirit and life, and partaking of them is pictured as eating His flesh and drinking His blood. God's Word contains the Holy Spirit, the living undying element that gives spiritual life. Through belief in Christ people receive life, and the Spirit makes the truths essential to salvation clear even to those without much education, for faith means believing God's Word. Teachers can do God's work only by so believing, receiving Him and receiving His Word.
The Word does not address the understanding alone like a book of formulas, as a book of mathematical formulas addresses the intellect, because human beings are not creatures devoid of moral nature. Its aim is the heart, addressing the moral nature and taking possession of the will. It casts down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, since it is the wayward heart that has dragged down the faculties of the soul.
The words spoken in John 6 have special reference to the spirituality of the Word, for the living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son. Christ's work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel even before He was crucified. The directions given in the Old Testament Scriptures are full of nourishment, and no soul who takes those words and eats them will suffer spiritual hunger. The New Testament was given not to cast aside the Old but to reflect light back into past ages, giving significance to the whole Jewish economy, and the directions for practical holiness and practical obedience given to ancient Israel must enter the life of everyone who believes. The chapter presents the Old Testament Scriptures as sufficient, so that those who believe them will also believe the New Testament, and presents Christ's words as lessons that the Holy Spirit brings to mind and presses upon the conscience.
Believing is tasting that the Lord is gracious as actual personal experience. That experience is true conversion, being born again, learned as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby. It comes by opening the mind to the entrance of God's word with a determination to practice that word, and then light comes, for the word gives understanding to the simple. When it is obtained the frivolous life lived before changes, character is transformed, the frivolous common level is forsaken, the feet are placed upon the first round of the ladder which is Christ Jesus, the believer mounts step by step heavenward, and Christ is revealed in spirit, in words, and in actions.
Faith Not Human Merit
The work God requires is to believe in the One He sent, not to do penance or to merit or purchase an inheritance among the saints by human works, bodily affliction, or good works meant to earn heaven. Heaven is given through Christ's merit, not earned by human merit, and those who accept Him as personal Saviour receive all that God promised without performing a special work to earn the reward. Repentance is turning from self to Christ, and when He is received so that through faith He lives His life in the person, good works and obedience will be manifest from faith and love as believers rely on His righteousness for acceptance.
Heaven was bought by the only begotten Son of God as its price, and He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the way to heaven and eternal life. This answer must be understood or heaven will be missed, for belief comes first and then work, and those who believe will work the works of God. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means being doers of His Word.
Whoever believes can come directly to Christ without a human intercessor, and believing brings acceptance by Jesus and cleansing from all moral defilement. There is direct communication of every sinner with Christ Himself, with no mortal interposed to receive confessions, because He made one sufficient sacrifice and is the only Mediator and sole Priest between God and man. His death as the sacrifice for sin, resurrection, ascension, and intercession serve this purpose, to bring sinners to believe in Him and to God. That belief is living experiential faith, justification by faith received not as a lifeless idea but as gospel truth, by which those dead in trespasses and sins are converted, receive love, forgiveness and grace, and are led to holiness.
Believing is love to God shown by keeping Christ's commandments and taking the way of the cross, the narrow path of obedience leading to heaven. Faith must take firm hold of Jesus Christ with the whole heart and undivided purpose, accepting the truth, the Word of the living God, and He will supply all spiritual necessities, giving power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil and linking the soul to infinite love. This requires accepting the righteousness of Christ as the wedding garment, God's given standard of character for fitness as a guest at the wedding where humanity is united with divinity. It means a firm stand for Christ and surrendering to God what is already His, not continuing in sin and not measuring character by human ideas, for presumption where eternal interests are involved results in loss of the soul, and one who draws back to the broad road to indulge evil tendencies or rejects truth because it exacts too much and cuts across selfish propensities refuses this work and will never reach heaven.
God accepts the ransom made by the Saviour in behalf of each one personally when obedient to the law of Jehovah, joined with education in that law and the penalty of transgression. This believing is by feeding upon Christ's words as His very flesh and blood, and this feeding is the most important education for children and youth and for men and women becoming workers together with God. When the rich stream of His salvation so flows to the believer it becomes in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, securing the mansions prepared and numbering him among those purified, made white, and tried who hold truth against fables, errors, and misdirected tendencies.
Gifts Received Through Belief
The work God requires is to believe in Jesus as the One He sent, and that belief is the way to receive the life He gives. As manna was given to preserve physical life, so the Son was sent that by believing people may eat the bread of life and become immortal. He is the true bread from heaven who gives life to the world, and believing in Him is receiving the enduring food that leads to eternal life which He gives. Those who come to Him never hunger and those who believe on Him never thirst.
By believing, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, a person has eternal life now and will be raised up at the last day. Even if he dies as Christ died, the life of the Saviour is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God. Christ came that they might have life more abundantly, and He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity. This belief is the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world and the response to God's gift of His Son.
Those who accept Him as personal Saviour have everything, for in this gift all heaven with its inexhaustible treasure is at their command. Those who accept Him receive all that God has promised, without performing a special work to earn the reward. Through faith in Him as the sin-pardoning Saviour who died for sinful people, they receive pardon, His righteousness, and salvation. Returning to loyalty to God through Christ brings rest, peace, and security, and only through Him can people approach the Father and reach heaven.
Belief cherished in the heart as truth that works by love and purifies the soul is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, by which eternal life is gained. It requires thorough conversion to a new life, laying aside self-esteem and boasting of personal capabilities, and becoming a humble Christian who bears the fruit of a good tree. When the rich stream of His salvation flows to the believer it becomes in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Those united to Christ find continuing refreshment and no longer thirst for wealth or honor, with the heart satisfied and moral powers strengthened.
Understanding and living by the teaching of John 6, which presents the conditions of eternal life, leads to a life that measures with the life of God. It secures the mansions Christ has gone to prepare. Those who believe in this way will hold the truth against fables and errors and misdirected tendencies of the natural heart and will be numbered among those purified, made white, and tried.
Living Out True Faith
True belief shows itself in action, for turning from self to Christ means receiving Him so that through faith He lives His life within, and good works are then manifest. That faith draws people to Christ and moves them to plan and labor for the saving of the perishing, producing love, self-denial, fruit-bearing, and a life that shines as light to the world. It is not mere hearing of the Word but receiving and appropriating it, taking it in meekness as able to save, and proving genuine belief by doing what it teaches. Treasured in the heart and built into life, truth changes character, words, thoughts, and conduct, so that believers stand steadfast against temptation and live for Christ rather than for themselves through difficulty and ease.
Believing is lived by coming to Christ and following Him, confessing and forsaking sin, taking Him as personal Saviour, and continuing to hold fast to Him as the highest good. By studying and seeking His character believers become complete in Him, and returning to loyalty to God through Christ brings rest, peace, and security, since through Him alone people approach the Father and reach heaven. This is a great personal responsibility, essential to receiving everlasting life, and each person is also to carry the gospel message to others. That love when received does not lie like stagnant water but becomes wellsprings in the heart, flowing out as a current of love from Christ to bless those around, help those who ask, impart healing vigor, and make believers laborers together with God before probation closes; to dam it up frustrates God's purpose, while letting it flow shows they have been with Christ. Church members who feel deeply yet do not know how to find Jesus need personal instruction in how to find Him, and doing God's works means letting light shine in practical missionary effort where everyone has something to do, not merely passing resolutions or holding lifeless meetings.
The work begins with believing in Jesus as the One sent by God and the price of heaven, and only then working in and through Him. United with Christ, believers can do God's works, and their works testify to their faith and sense of obligation to serve Him. This believing oneness among laborers kills selfishness, rivalry, and strife for supremacy and creates oneness and felt love for one another, putting self out of sight in genuine humility with an abiding Christ in the soul to whom the Lord manifests Himself. When that oneness exists the showers of grace of the Holy Spirit will surely come, so that costly camp meetings and tent meetings do not end in failure with few sheaves but bring many sheaves to the Master. The instruction in John plainly expresses God's will and, when lived in practical life, cures dissension and leads to unity with Christ and one another, as people pray and obey while God works in them to will and act according to His good purpose. Accepting God's will cheerfully and gratefully leads to service and develops character, and doing God's work is for present and eternal good.
The sixth chapter of John holds lessons old and young alike need to learn by reading and studying it, meditating on its truths, eating the bread of life, and committing it to memory. Its instruction is the mystery of godliness that must be studied and made part of life, with its teachings brought into daily experience, and this knowledge alone gives power in perilous days to distinguish the true from the false. The verse about believing on Him whom God sent is spiritual food by which men and women are built up from the food they give the mind, for the Bible contains this heavenly bread. Those ministering in word and doctrine must not be dull of understanding but must read John 6 and ask God for clearness to comprehend it.
Keeping to this chapter means putting away worthless magazines and reading matter and using the dimes and dollars saved to help God's work. It means turning from worldly entertainments that weaken faith and leave the heart divided in service, since the chapter is spiritual food that sustains the soul's hunger for God. Believing on Him whom God sent means studying the Word made plain and bringing its principles home to the soul, not departing from its precepts, bringing its truths into daily life, grasping the mysteries of godliness, praying and communing with God to prove His mind while striving for eternal life and knowledge of His will. It is receiving and assimilating His words until they become part of the self, which is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son, living by every word God has revealed as all that is necessary for salvation, and not leaving His word for human suppositions. Spiritual life depends on this choice of whom to serve, turning to Christ rather than feeding the mind on what draws it from God or on books and magazines that lead the mind astray and hinder growth, and awakening soul hunger for Christ.
The chapter teaches students to bring Christ's words into practical life and receive Him as the bread of life, finding lasting satisfaction and the life He gives. It shows what Christ is to each person and the benefit of receiving His words as the center of life, for an education that endures through time and eternity. Teachers can do God's work only by so believing in Christ, receiving Him as in eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and receiving God's Word which is spirit and life. Those sent as Christ's representatives to give the bread of life to the people and feed hungry souls must first receive spiritual food themselves or they have nothing to impart, looking to God as the source of supply who will meet their need, and they must turn no hungry soul away unfed.
Many today take the same position as those hearers, claiming to be children of God while seeking Christ for temporal benefit and demanding outward signs, without understanding personal reception of Christ and never crucifying self. The work God requires is believing on the One He sent, which means studying and obeying Christ's words as His flesh and blood, receiving Christ as personal Saviour, crucifying self, and receiving the true bread from heaven that gives life so that those who come and believe never hunger or thirst. Those who lack this saving faith do not do God's works, and their inconsistent, half-hearted service denies Christ and brings Him shame. Lack of this faith, which few truly exercise even among honest professed Christians, is shown by pride instead of modesty and meekness and lowliness of heart, by shallow study and investigation, and by wild extravagant statements without foundation in truth.
Mere outward connection with any church will not save; what saves is personal faith in a personal Saviour, and that faith brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ. This belief leads people to seek His counsel and instruction, to pray, watch, and work. Those who learn from Jesus, meek and lowly in heart, show they have learned God's work by humbly serving others, including the poor, despised, and forsaken.
The work God requires is to believe in Jesus as the One He sent. Believing means trusting Him as personal Saviour, receiving Him by faith, and depending on Him alone for strength, righteousness and sanctification rather than on human beings. It is not earning heaven by penance, affliction or good works, for heaven is given through Christ's merit as the Lamb of God who takes away sin. To believe is to receive Him as the Bread of Life who gives life to the world, eating His flesh and drinking His blood by living by His words until they become part of daily life. Through such faith people receive everlasting life now, resurrection at the last day and life more abundantly, and true faith proves itself by obedience, love, fruit-bearing and labor to save the perishing.
Setting After Feeding Multitude
The saying was given in the synagogue at Capernaum on the morning after the feeding of the multitude, after the crossing of the sea and the walking on the water and the calming of the storm. The crowd had gathered there after hearing of that night passage, and those who had eaten the loaves sought Him for more temporal food and asked what they should do to work the works of God. That setting makes the answer a call to give chief labor and anxiety not to perishable food but to the food that endures to everlasting life.
They did not seek Him from faith in the miracles, from conviction of His divinity, or from recognition of Him as Teacher sent from God. They sought Him because they had eaten the loaves and were filled, thinking it profitable to unite with Him if He would keep furnishing bread to satisfy temporal wants. Their desire was for continued earthly rewards and for a king who would provide, with hopes of worldly power and temporal advancement rather than anxious labor for spiritual hunger. He therefore turned them from hopes of making Him an earthly king to the spiritual truth of His mission and kingdom.
When they asked what to do, they then demanded a sign to see and believe, pointing to the manna their fathers ate in the desert. They had already witnessed the feeding of the multitude, yet they wanted another and repeatable display of the miracle rather than accepting its lesson. Seeing wonders does not itself produce faith, and witnessing His works did not make them willing to believe in Him. Their demand for further evidence was not a true search for proof but an excuse to avoid the cross involved in accepting the Gospel, since piling evidence upon evidence could do no more than the evidence already given.
He had told them to labor not for food that perishes but for food that endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man gives as the One whom God the Father sealed. God is not unmindful of bodily necessities and will provide for physical wants, but the spiritual food Christ provides is of far more consequence than temporal food. That bread from heaven can be obtained from no human agent, for through the gift of Christ God Himself gives this living bread. To believe is therefore to make spiritual things the aim and object of life work, denying self, lifting the cross, and following wherever He leads until all hungering of soul is satisfied.
It was Christ Himself who led the Hebrews through the wilderness and fed them manna from heaven every day to preserve physical life. Moses did not give that true bread from heaven, but the Father gives the true bread from heaven. The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, and Jesus declares Himself to be that Bread of Life, so that whoever comes to Him never hungers and whoever believes on Him never thirsts. As God gave manna to preserve physical life, so God sent His Son that through believing in Him people may eat the bread of life and become immortal.
This plain testimony about Himself as the Bread of Life and about His spiritual kingdom tested those who claimed to be His disciples. The truths were spoken to lead hearers to choose for or against Him and to reveal what they truly believed. Because He offered no earthly rewards or worldly kingdom, those drawn by hopes of worldly power had to be shown the deeper meaning of His mission. The truth offended many, who would not accept its reproof and reform their lives, and some, including professed disciples, turned away from Him.
Work God Requires Belief
The work God requires is to believe in Jesus as the One He sent. Belief in Him is the way to receive the life He gives, the enduring food that leads to eternal life, for He is the true bread from heaven who comes down and gives life to the world. This is the response to God's gift of His Son: as God gave manna to preserve physical life, so He sent His Son that through believing people may eat the bread of life and become immortal. That bread from heaven can be obtained from no human agent; through the gift of Christ God Himself gives this living bread, which the Son of man, sealed by God the Father, gives. Chief labor and anxiety is not to be bestowed on perishable food but on the food that endures to everlasting life, though God is not unmindful of bodily necessities and will provide for physical wants, for the spiritual food Christ provides is of far more consequence than temporal food.
Eating His flesh and drinking His blood describes receiving Him and living by His words, by which believers dwell in Him, have eternal life, and are raised at the last day. The life-giving work belongs to the Spirit, not to the flesh. Belief is lived by faith: those who believe feed on Christ by keeping His Word and truth before them, studying and practicing its teachings, taking His words into the mind and applying them to life. Believing means trusting Jesus as personal Saviour, taking Him at His word, receiving Him by faith, and depending on Him as source of strength, sufficiency, sanctification, righteousness and reward rather than looking to human beings for strength, wisdom, or guidance. This faith means accepting Christ personally as the sin-pardoning Saviour who died for sinful people, bringing His life-giving words into the life; through faith in Him people receive pardon, His righteousness, salvation, and the gift of eternal life. The world was lost through unbelief and can be restored only through faith in Christ as its Redeemer; without this faith it has no hope, but receiving Christ by faith is necessary to become a child of God and receive spiritual life.
Belief comes first and then work: faith in Jesus the Messiah is the first step on the way to heaven, and obedience to God's commandments and working the works of God follow. Heaven was bought by the only begotten Son of God as its price, and this answer must be understood or heaven will be missed. Christ asks people first to believe in Him and then to work, for those who believe will work the works of God, and eating His flesh and drinking His blood means being doers of His Word. This faith puts self out of sight in genuine humility, gives an abiding Christ in the soul, and causes the Lord to manifest Himself to the believer. Among laborers this believing oneness kills selfishness, rivalry and strife for supremacy and creates oneness and felt love for one another, so that when it exists the showers of grace of the Holy Spirit will surely come and meetings will bring many sheaves to the Master instead of ending in failure and few sheaves.
Believing in the One God sent is the work that includes all others and leads to heaven, for Christ is God's commissioner to reconcile humanity to God. Through Him people return to loyalty to God and draw near to Him, finding rest, peace, and security, and only through Him can people approach the Father and reach heaven. Belief means coming to Christ and following Him, confessing and forsaking sin, taking Him as personal Saviour and counsellor, continuing to hold fast to Him as the highest and chief Good, loving Him continually, feeding on Him as the bread of life, living by His words and by every word He speaks, and by studying and seeking His character becoming complete in Him. Work is valuable to God only when it is the work God requires; human labor is not valuable merely because it is strenuous or extensive, and those who lack saving faith in the One the Father sent do not do God's works but their inconsistent, half-hearted service denies Christ and brings Him shame. Few truly know God and believe in Jesus in this way, even among honest professed Christians, and lack of this faith is shown by pride instead of modesty and meekness and lowliness of heart, by shallow study and investigation, and by making wild, extravagant statements without foundation in truth.
Eating Bread Of Life
Believing is receiving Christ as the Bread of Life who gives life to the world, the true bread come down from heaven, so that those who come to Him never hunger and those who believe on Him never thirst. As God gave manna every day to preserve physical life, God sent His Son so that through believing people may eat the bread of life and become immortal, receiving the enduring food that leads to eternal life. It was Christ Himself who led the Hebrews through the wilderness and fed them that manna, though those who asked about working the works of God were seeking miracles and temporal favors and pointed to the manna their fathers ate in the desert. To labor not for the food that perishes but for the food that endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man gives, is to believe in this way and find lasting satisfaction in Him, dwelling in Him, having eternal life now, and being raised at the last day.
Eating His flesh and drinking His blood is receiving Him and living by His words. It means keeping His Word and truth before the mind, studying the Word God has made plain and bringing its principles home to the soul, studying and practicing its teachings, taking His words into the mind and applying them to life. Believers do not depart from its precepts but bring its truths into daily life and daily practice, receiving and assimilating His words until they become part of life and part of the self. This is living by every word God has revealed, which is all that is necessary for salvation, grasping the mysteries of godliness, praying and communing with God to prove His mind while striving for eternal life and knowledge of His will, knowing the truth in Christ in order to reveal it, and not leaving His word for human suppositions. Coming to Christ and relying on Him as personal Saviour is expressed in this feeding, and through such faith people receive the gift of eternal life.
The life-giving work belongs to the Spirit, not to the flesh. His words are spirit and life, and partaking of them is pictured as eating His flesh and drinking His blood. God's Word contains the Holy Spirit, the living undying element that gives spiritual life. Through belief in Christ people receive life, and the Spirit makes the truths essential to salvation clear even to those without much education, for faith means believing God's Word. Teachers can do God's work only by so believing, receiving Him and receiving His Word.
The Word does not address the understanding alone like a book of formulas, as a book of mathematical formulas addresses the intellect, because human beings are not creatures devoid of moral nature. Its aim is the heart, addressing the moral nature and taking possession of the will. It casts down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, since it is the wayward heart that has dragged down the faculties of the soul.
The words spoken in John 6 have special reference to the spirituality of the Word, for the living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son. Christ's work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel even before He was crucified. The directions given in the Old Testament Scriptures are full of nourishment, and no soul who takes those words and eats them will suffer spiritual hunger. The New Testament was given not to cast aside the Old but to reflect light back into past ages, giving significance to the whole Jewish economy, and the directions for practical holiness and practical obedience given to ancient Israel must enter the life of everyone who believes. The chapter presents the Old Testament Scriptures as sufficient, so that those who believe them will also believe the New Testament, and presents Christ's words as lessons that the Holy Spirit brings to mind and presses upon the conscience.
Believing is tasting that the Lord is gracious as actual personal experience. That experience is true conversion, being born again, learned as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby. It comes by opening the mind to the entrance of God's word with a determination to practice that word, and then light comes, for the word gives understanding to the simple. When it is obtained the frivolous life lived before changes, character is transformed, the frivolous common level is forsaken, the feet are placed upon the first round of the ladder which is Christ Jesus, the believer mounts step by step heavenward, and Christ is revealed in spirit, in words, and in actions.
Faith Not Human Merit
The work God requires is to believe in the One He sent, not to do penance or to merit or purchase an inheritance among the saints by human works, bodily affliction, or good works meant to earn heaven. Heaven is given through Christ's merit, not earned by human merit, and those who accept Him as personal Saviour receive all that God promised without performing a special work to earn the reward. Repentance is turning from self to Christ, and when He is received so that through faith He lives His life in the person, good works and obedience will be manifest from faith and love as believers rely on His righteousness for acceptance.
Heaven was bought by the only begotten Son of God as its price, and He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the way to heaven and eternal life. This answer must be understood or heaven will be missed, for belief comes first and then work, and those who believe will work the works of God. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means being doers of His Word.
Whoever believes can come directly to Christ without a human intercessor, and believing brings acceptance by Jesus and cleansing from all moral defilement. There is direct communication of every sinner with Christ Himself, with no mortal interposed to receive confessions, because He made one sufficient sacrifice and is the only Mediator and sole Priest between God and man. His death as the sacrifice for sin, resurrection, ascension, and intercession serve this purpose, to bring sinners to believe in Him and to God. That belief is living experiential faith, justification by faith received not as a lifeless idea but as gospel truth, by which those dead in trespasses and sins are converted, receive love, forgiveness and grace, and are led to holiness.
Believing is love to God shown by keeping Christ's commandments and taking the way of the cross, the narrow path of obedience leading to heaven. Faith must take firm hold of Jesus Christ with the whole heart and undivided purpose, accepting the truth, the Word of the living God, and He will supply all spiritual necessities, giving power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil and linking the soul to infinite love. This requires accepting the righteousness of Christ as the wedding garment, God's given standard of character for fitness as a guest at the wedding where humanity is united with divinity. It means a firm stand for Christ and surrendering to God what is already His, not continuing in sin and not measuring character by human ideas, for presumption where eternal interests are involved results in loss of the soul, and one who draws back to the broad road to indulge evil tendencies or rejects truth because it exacts too much and cuts across selfish propensities refuses this work and will never reach heaven.
God accepts the ransom made by the Saviour in behalf of each one personally when obedient to the law of Jehovah, joined with education in that law and the penalty of transgression. This believing is by feeding upon Christ's words as His very flesh and blood, and this feeding is the most important education for children and youth and for men and women becoming workers together with God. When the rich stream of His salvation so flows to the believer it becomes in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, securing the mansions prepared and numbering him among those purified, made white, and tried who hold truth against fables, errors, and misdirected tendencies.
Gifts Received Through Belief
The work God requires is to believe in Jesus as the One He sent, and that belief is the way to receive the life He gives. As manna was given to preserve physical life, so the Son was sent that by believing people may eat the bread of life and become immortal. He is the true bread from heaven who gives life to the world, and believing in Him is receiving the enduring food that leads to eternal life which He gives. Those who come to Him never hunger and those who believe on Him never thirst.
By believing, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, a person has eternal life now and will be raised up at the last day. Even if he dies as Christ died, the life of the Saviour is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God. Christ came that they might have life more abundantly, and He carries on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity. This belief is the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world and the response to God's gift of His Son.
Those who accept Him as personal Saviour have everything, for in this gift all heaven with its inexhaustible treasure is at their command. Those who accept Him receive all that God has promised, without performing a special work to earn the reward. Through faith in Him as the sin-pardoning Saviour who died for sinful people, they receive pardon, His righteousness, and salvation. Returning to loyalty to God through Christ brings rest, peace, and security, and only through Him can people approach the Father and reach heaven.
Belief cherished in the heart as truth that works by love and purifies the soul is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, by which eternal life is gained. It requires thorough conversion to a new life, laying aside self-esteem and boasting of personal capabilities, and becoming a humble Christian who bears the fruit of a good tree. When the rich stream of His salvation flows to the believer it becomes in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Those united to Christ find continuing refreshment and no longer thirst for wealth or honor, with the heart satisfied and moral powers strengthened.
Understanding and living by the teaching of John 6, which presents the conditions of eternal life, leads to a life that measures with the life of God. It secures the mansions Christ has gone to prepare. Those who believe in this way will hold the truth against fables and errors and misdirected tendencies of the natural heart and will be numbered among those purified, made white, and tried.
Living Out True Faith
True belief shows itself in action, for turning from self to Christ means receiving Him so that through faith He lives His life within, and good works are then manifest. That faith draws people to Christ and moves them to plan and labor for the saving of the perishing, producing love, self-denial, fruit-bearing, and a life that shines as light to the world. It is not mere hearing of the Word but receiving and appropriating it, taking it in meekness as able to save, and proving genuine belief by doing what it teaches. Treasured in the heart and built into life, truth changes character, words, thoughts, and conduct, so that believers stand steadfast against temptation and live for Christ rather than for themselves through difficulty and ease.
Believing is lived by coming to Christ and following Him, confessing and forsaking sin, taking Him as personal Saviour, and continuing to hold fast to Him as the highest good. By studying and seeking His character believers become complete in Him, and returning to loyalty to God through Christ brings rest, peace, and security, since through Him alone people approach the Father and reach heaven. This is a great personal responsibility, essential to receiving everlasting life, and each person is also to carry the gospel message to others. That love when received does not lie like stagnant water but becomes wellsprings in the heart, flowing out as a current of love from Christ to bless those around, help those who ask, impart healing vigor, and make believers laborers together with God before probation closes; to dam it up frustrates God's purpose, while letting it flow shows they have been with Christ. Church members who feel deeply yet do not know how to find Jesus need personal instruction in how to find Him, and doing God's works means letting light shine in practical missionary effort where everyone has something to do, not merely passing resolutions or holding lifeless meetings.
The work begins with believing in Jesus as the One sent by God and the price of heaven, and only then working in and through Him. United with Christ, believers can do God's works, and their works testify to their faith and sense of obligation to serve Him. This believing oneness among laborers kills selfishness, rivalry, and strife for supremacy and creates oneness and felt love for one another, putting self out of sight in genuine humility with an abiding Christ in the soul to whom the Lord manifests Himself. When that oneness exists the showers of grace of the Holy Spirit will surely come, so that costly camp meetings and tent meetings do not end in failure with few sheaves but bring many sheaves to the Master. The instruction in John plainly expresses God's will and, when lived in practical life, cures dissension and leads to unity with Christ and one another, as people pray and obey while God works in them to will and act according to His good purpose. Accepting God's will cheerfully and gratefully leads to service and develops character, and doing God's work is for present and eternal good.
The sixth chapter of John holds lessons old and young alike need to learn by reading and studying it, meditating on its truths, eating the bread of life, and committing it to memory. Its instruction is the mystery of godliness that must be studied and made part of life, with its teachings brought into daily experience, and this knowledge alone gives power in perilous days to distinguish the true from the false. The verse about believing on Him whom God sent is spiritual food by which men and women are built up from the food they give the mind, for the Bible contains this heavenly bread. Those ministering in word and doctrine must not be dull of understanding but must read John 6 and ask God for clearness to comprehend it.
Keeping to this chapter means putting away worthless magazines and reading matter and using the dimes and dollars saved to help God's work. It means turning from worldly entertainments that weaken faith and leave the heart divided in service, since the chapter is spiritual food that sustains the soul's hunger for God. Believing on Him whom God sent means studying the Word made plain and bringing its principles home to the soul, not departing from its precepts, bringing its truths into daily life, grasping the mysteries of godliness, praying and communing with God to prove His mind while striving for eternal life and knowledge of His will. It is receiving and assimilating His words until they become part of the self, which is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son, living by every word God has revealed as all that is necessary for salvation, and not leaving His word for human suppositions. Spiritual life depends on this choice of whom to serve, turning to Christ rather than feeding the mind on what draws it from God or on books and magazines that lead the mind astray and hinder growth, and awakening soul hunger for Christ.
The chapter teaches students to bring Christ's words into practical life and receive Him as the bread of life, finding lasting satisfaction and the life He gives. It shows what Christ is to each person and the benefit of receiving His words as the center of life, for an education that endures through time and eternity. Teachers can do God's work only by so believing in Christ, receiving Him as in eating His flesh and drinking His blood, and receiving God's Word which is spirit and life. Those sent as Christ's representatives to give the bread of life to the people and feed hungry souls must first receive spiritual food themselves or they have nothing to impart, looking to God as the source of supply who will meet their need, and they must turn no hungry soul away unfed.
Many today take the same position as those hearers, claiming to be children of God while seeking Christ for temporal benefit and demanding outward signs, without understanding personal reception of Christ and never crucifying self. The work God requires is believing on the One He sent, which means studying and obeying Christ's words as His flesh and blood, receiving Christ as personal Saviour, crucifying self, and receiving the true bread from heaven that gives life so that those who come and believe never hunger or thirst. Those who lack this saving faith do not do God's works, and their inconsistent, half-hearted service denies Christ and brings Him shame. Lack of this faith, which few truly exercise even among honest professed Christians, is shown by pride instead of modesty and meekness and lowliness of heart, by shallow study and investigation, and by wild extravagant statements without foundation in truth.
Mere outward connection with any church will not save; what saves is personal faith in a personal Saviour, and that faith brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ. This belief leads people to seek His counsel and instruction, to pray, watch, and work. Those who learn from Jesus, meek and lowly in heart, show they have learned God's work by humbly serving others, including the poor, despised, and forsaken.