What God Requires

John 6:28-29

If you are a spiritual person, you have probably wondered what takes to please God.  What does God require of me?  Even the disciples who walked with Jesus and saw Him perform miracles wondered this very thing.

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.” (John 6:28-29)

The disciples were sincere in their question and were ready to do whatever Jesus told them.  But Jesus’ answer surprised them, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Note that the work of God is not simply to believe.  But to believe in the ONE He has sent.  The work of God is to believe in Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  It is not enough to simply believe, to simply have faith.  To be saved, you must believe in the ONE God has sent.  Acts 4:12 tells us this about Jesus, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

What, then, is the place of works?  While we are saved by faith, we are saved unto works.  Ephesians 2:8-10 sums it up wonderfully, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in the ONE God sent – Jesus Christ alone.  And we are saved unto good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.  Let us walk today in those good works, knowing and trusting that Jesus has done everything that God requires for our salvation.