May 12, 2018

 
Faith                        BEHAVIOR OR RELATIONSHIP
 
        This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.  John 6:29
 
    Our purpose today is to point out that faith is something more than the ordinary understanding of the word belief.  In John 6, the Jews came to Jesus and asked, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?"  Jesus answered, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."
 
    What is involved in "believing"?  We are told that the faith in Christ that saves the soul is not what it is represented by many people.  Believe, believe, is their cry.  Only believe in Christ and you will bee saved. (6 Bible Commentary, p. 1063).  One of the popular ideas of faith is that it is simply nodding your head, simply saying Yes to the fact that Christ exists, and that's all there is to it.  Coupled with the rising emphasis on the theme of salvation by faith in Jesus alone, comes the immature, naïve, license-ladened cry, All you have to do is believe.  Just believe.  Well, you'll find there's something far deeper than that if you study the the word believe and the context in which it is used in God's Word.
 
    When the question came to Jesus, obviously the Jewish leaders at that time were hung up on the usual idea that you must deserve heaven and work your way in.  And so their question is sort of a behavior-based question.  "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?"  What they were really saying was, What can we do to deserve heaven?  Jesus immediately shifted their attention from behavior to relationship when He said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."  Immediately you have a clue.  In the first place, belief is not based on what, it is based on whom.  It isn't what set of doctrines or creeds you consider to be correct.  I know inwhom I have believed--not in what I have believed.
 
    James says that even the devils believe--they believe and they tremble (James 2:19).  But the devils obviously don't have saving faith.  They don't trust God.  An intellectual assent to certain Bible truths will always be insufficient.  Even the devils believe to that extent.  But the belief that is saving faith refers to the deeper trust, which comes only from a personal relationship with Jesus.