The Work of God!

‘Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”’ – John 6:29 NIV

First of all, we have to know the foremost work of God that He requires from us is to believe in Jesus Christ (John 6:29), the One who God sent into the world as an image of Himself (John 1:14) to be crucified on the cross as an atonement of our sins (Colossians 2:13-15). This is because Jesus proclaims to be the way of the life and the truth (John 14:6). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) To be specific, God has saved us through faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8), for He wants us to become righteousness of God through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24-25). However, the main reason for this is that we were still part of His creation (Genesis 1:27), and this is why God has loved us so much that He sent His only Son into the world to be crucified.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

Secondly, in order to transform our desires and passions from worldliness into godliness, God has poured His Spirit into us (John 14:15-27; 2 Peter 1:3-11). “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8) In fact, everything that we do, plan to do and what we will do in the future happens to be the will of God since He is the Creator of everything (Proverbs 16:9;19:21). However, He does not force us to believe in Jesus Christ, for He is humble and gentle (Matthew 11:28-30). This means that we have to decide whether we are going to follow Christ until the end of the age and enter the eternal kingdom of heaven by taking hard and narrow road, or take easy and wide road, then enter to the eternal death and destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). Nonetheless, the advantage of following Jesus Christ until the end of the age is that He is going to guide us with the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:28), for all of us actually have been made to be the temple of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 3:16). Thus, for this reason, the word of God declares, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) Nevertheless, if we are going to take easy and wide road, then we are on our own throughout our lives, and we cannot get fully saved because the word of God states, “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.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. (Galatians 6:7-10)