What Must We Do?
(written July 22nd by Bryan Roe)
For this week's devotional, I wanted to encourage you all with just a few brief thoughts from John 6:28-29. Here a crowd was essentially asking Jesus about what they are to do to have eternal life, something I wonder if you think about often. If you were to ask a random stranger at the park about what it takes to have eternal life (or to go to Heaven), there are many ways they might respond. Assuming they believe in God, they might say that God requires that they do good things and not do bad things. In hoping that the good they do outweighs the bad, they believe this is what will keep them on God's good side, and what will one day get them into Heaven. What do you think about this response? Would you agree?
Now let's look at today's verses:
"Then they said to him, 'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?' Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.'"
Because you and I are sinful people, our tendency is to want to work our way into God's good graces. We want to prove ourselves. We want and need rules to keep so that we can do enough to earn good things from God. Instead, what He requires of us is that we believe in Jesus, the One whom He has sent to save us from our sins. When any of us first becomes a Christian, it is because we have realized our sin and hopelessness to earn anything from God. We then turn to Jesus in faith and ask Him for forgiveness. He is the One who has earned our salvation for us through His perfect life and death in our place.
Now, passages like this aren't just for non-believers to make them Christians, though, so please don't tune out if you are a Christian! If you are like me, there are still temptations in your life. You make decisions you know that God does not approve of. In short, you still sin. This can lead to us questioning our faith and salvation. Does our sin mean we are not saved? If we are looking at our sin and wondering if we are saved, we might be making the mistake of thinking we are saved because we stopped sinning.
Now, I want to be clear, as Christians we should in fact be seeing less sin in our lives as we believe in Jesus. Even still, what God requires of us is that we believe in Him. As we turn to Jesus, there will be evidence of us turning from sin and from bad choices and instead seeking to make right choices. God promises to help us along the way as we do so because we are imperfect.
If you are ever overcome with guilt over your sin, and wondering if you are truly a Christian, consider whether you are repenting and believing (repenting meaning confessing and turning away from sin). One pastor, Tim Chester, writes, "We begin the Christian life through faith and repentance, and we continue the Christian life through faith and repentance." If you are a Christian, you were saved by grace through faith. You cannot lose your salvation by bad choices that you make. This is because you are not saved by your good works or not saved by your lack of good works.
The invitation in this passage to Christians then, is the same as for non-Christians: to believe in Jesus, turn from sin, and find eternal life. For all Christians, good works will naturally follow faith, but they are not what save us. If you ever find yourself lacking good works, keep believing and repenting. If you are still believing and repenting, know that it is because you are saved and God is faithful to you. Give thanks to Him!
As the director of student ministry here at Redeemer Church, my passion is to help students know and love Jesus. I want them to find true hope and freedom in the Gospel, rather than fear and discouragement. The Gospel is indeed good news, and our lives should reflect this. Students and parents, if you need anything at all, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to seeing you all, Lord willing, very soon.