Faith Comes From God

Faith Comes From God

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 entire Bible agrees on what it means to serve God. Scripture firmly establishes that if we want to serve him, we must believe in the one whom the Father has sent. If we want to know how to receive God’s grace, how to approach him, how to satisfy the penalty for our sins, how to receive forgiveness of sin and escape death, then we must do what God wants and believe in Christ. Here Christ is plainly telling us what we should do—believe.

Faith is the work we must do. Yet faith is also called God’s work. Later, Christ tells us how we are able to believe, for no one can believe on his or her own. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). He also says, “No one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him” (John 6:65). For faith is a divine work that God asks us to do. But at the same time, God must give us faith, for we can’t believe on our own.

What an excellent passage this is! Like a lightning bolt, it strikes down all wisdom and righteousness, every law and commandment, even the law of Moses. It lays before us a different work—a work that is above and beyond us. We cannot grasp Christ with our thoughts or our reason. Therefore, faith cannot be our own work. We are drawn to Christ, even though we can neither feel him nor see him.