A PLAIN ANSWER TO AN IMPORTANT ENQUIRY – Charles Spurgeon
A Plain Answer to an Important Enquiry
“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.” John 6:29.
Introduction: Clarifying the Meaning
NOTICE the connection or you will miss the meaning of the words, for, at first sight, it looks as if our Savior taught us that it is the work of God for us to believe on Him. Now, that would be quite true, and it is very plainly taught in other parts of Scripture that faith is the work of God, but that is not the teaching in this particular instance, as will be very plain if you look at the context. First, our Savior said to the people, “See how you labor after the bread of your bodies. You have been running all round the coast to find Me in order that I might feed you again with loaves and fishes. Now,” He says, “let your labor run after something better. Labor not for the meat that perishes, but for that which endures to life eternal.” He gently rebukes them, “Do not spend all your strength in seeking after temporal good, but think about your immortal natures. Satisfy the hunger of your spirits, the better part of you.” They immediately answered, “You tell us to labor after the bread that does not perish. What shall we do that we might work the work of God and so obtain it?” Our translation fails to let us see that they used precisely the same words as the Savior had done. He said, “labor,” and they said, “What shall we do that we may labor this labor of God? What is it?” They took Him at His word and they put a question in accordance. When men begin to be awakened about spiritual things, they naturally cry, “What must we do to be saved? What must we do that we may work the work of God?” It is a faulty question—it is a question very much shaped by their ignorance and error. They suppose that there are works to be done, and merit to be earned by doing and obeying a law. And so they put it in that shape—“What shall we do? What shall we work that we may work the work of God?” The Savior did not chide them for the shape of the question. It was not the time to expect accuracy, but He gave them such Truth as they could understand and He replied, “You want to know what work you must do that shall be ‘the work of God,’ or a work pleasing to God? This, then, is ‘the work of God,’ the work most pleasing to God of all the works that can be done by men, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.” The teaching here is not that faith is worked in us by God, which I have already said is a great Truth of God, but it is this—that if men desire to work, the first and chief of all work is that they believe on Jesus Christ whom God has sent! Does any man object to faith being called the work of man? If he does, I ask him why he objects. It is true that faith is the gift of God, but this does not change, for a moment, the other Truth of God that faith is the work of man—for it is and must be the act of man. No one in his senses can deny that! Will you venture to say that man does not believe?
Then I venture to tell you that he who does not personally believe in Jesus is a lost man! And if there is such a thing as a faith which is not a man’s own act and deed it will not save him. The man must, himself, believe or perish! This is the plain doctrine of Scripture. Repentance is worked in us by the Holy Spirit, but we must, ourselves, repent or we shall never be saved. Faith is worked in us by the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit does not believe, or repent—these are a man’s own acts! With our hearts we believe unto righteousness. If we do not believe, then we are not partakers of the promise which is given to those who do believe! Faith is, therefore, the work of man and it is the chief of works, the work most pleasing to God, the most godlike work, or, as the text puts it, “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.” To open up this one thought I pray for help from on high—it is just this—that faith is the most pleasing of all the works that man can do. It is here called, “the work,” but not strictly and properly, for it can never be ranged with the works of the Law, from which it essentially differs. But the Savior took up the word which they used and spoke to their ignorance that He might instruct them.
I. Faith is the Comprehensive Summary of All True Work
Regarding it as a work, faith is most pleasing to God, for, first, IT IS THE COMPREHENSIVE SUMMARY OF ALL TRUE WORK. There lies within the loins of faith every possible form of holiness. As a forest may lie asleep within an acorn, so within the bounds of faith, little though it is, every virtue lies hidden. It may be microscopic in form, but it is certainly there and only needs development. Repentance dwells in faith, for he that believes in Jesus Christ unto salvation knows that he is a sinner and he must have some hatred of sin, or else he would not have taken Christ to deliver him from his sin. Love to God is there, for, most assuredly, when I trust a man—completely trust him—it would be impossible for me to do so unless I felt some leaning of my spirit towards him. The complete trusting of the soul to Christ, which is faith, has had in it no small measure of love to Christ. If I had before me a list of all the Graces of the Spirit of God and I were to take them up one by one and then analyze faith, I should find some measure of all these good works of the Spirit hidden away in the simple act of believing in Jesus Christ. I know what some of you have said—“Is that all that I am to do in order to be saved? Am I simply and only to believe in Christ, that is, trust myself with Him?” Yes, that is all and it is so small an act that the most uneducated heart can perform it! But yet, within it there are inconceivable mysteries of goodness! Just as sometimes inside a walnut shell I have seen packed away with careful art all sorts of gems and jewels, “with my lady’s gloves to wear,” so within this little walnut shell of, “believe and live,” there will be found by any careful eye all the Graces of the Spirit of God. What is more, all the Graces come out of faith in due time, for faith sums up the whole of a Christian’s life! Now, my Brothers and Sisters, I challenge you to read the 11th chapter of Hebrews and see if you can think of anything noble, brave, glorious which has not its counterpart in that chapter. But remember, it is a description of the heroism—not of this virtue or of that, but of faith. In the long list, beginning with Abel and going down to the last, faith worked all. From faith comes the power that stops the mouths of lions, quenches the violence of flames! Out of weakness men become strong. It is faith that tramples on temptation. It is faith that overcomes the world. It is faith that attains to holiness. Within the compass of that little babe whom you hold in your hand, a slender weight that you can scarcely feel, there are all the elements of yonder man of six feet who leads the van in the royal host and so the true Christian man in the perfection of the stature of Christ is all within the babe in Grace who cries, “Lord, I believe. Help You my unbelief.”
II. Faith is Pleasing to God
I can well understand why our Savior should say, “If you wish to work the work of God, you must believe in Jesus Christ whom He has sent,” for in that act lies all the virtues and out of that act will grow all the virtues in due time. But now, secondly, this simple matter of trusting Jesus Christ which is called FAITH, IS, IN ITSELF, MOST PLEASING TO GOD. First, it is the creature acknowledging its God. While a man says, “I do not care about my soul,” he lives in atheism, disowning God, living as if there were no God. When a man says, “I need no saving,” that is contradicting God’s testimony wherein He declares that we are all gone out of the way and have altogether become abominable. When a man says, “I may be wrong, but I can get right by myself. My own good deeds will save me,” he is setting himself up in independence of his God. In fact, he is making himself his own god and so, practically, setting up another god. But when the man cries, “I have sinned,” there is an acknowledgment that the Law is good and holy and just! When he then adds, “I have so sinned that I deserve punishment and I submit myself to it,” there is a recognition of the court of Heaven and an admission of the righteousness of its sentences! The rebellious heart submits itself to the authority of God! When he further says, “But I have heard, great God, that You have given Your Son to bleed and die for sinners and that He is able to save to the uttermost them that trust Him and I do trust Him,” the submission of the man to God is complete. Before, he said, “I do not believe it. It does not stand to reason”—that is proud Reason still a rebel. Or he said, “It may or may not be so, but I do not see the peculiar beauty of an atoning Sacrifice.” There, again, is the proud heart kicking against God. But the man comes into his right place when he believes. When he believes in Jesus Christ and accepts mercy through the great Sacrifice, God is well-pleased because His poor erring creature has come into its right place and God sees in the act of faith the restitution of rectitude.
III. Faith as the Test of Working for God
Again, God is pleased with faith because it accepts God’s way of reconciliation. God has given Christ that He might reconcile us to Himself by Him. When a man says, “I take Christ to be my Savior,” he accepts God’s way of reconciliation and then God must be reconciled, for He has promised to be so. As He longs to be reconciled and wills not that any should perish, but that they should come to repentance, so does He rejoice when they are willing to make peace with Him in His own appointed way. It shows a submission to His wisdom, a confidence in His love, a yielding to His Divine will, and that is what He seeks after. All this, I say, is included in faith and makes it well-pleasing to God. Perhaps the most acceptable element in faith to the eyes of God is the fact that it puts honor upon Jesus Christ, for He dearly loves His Son. We cannot tell how deep is the love of the Father towards His only begotten Son. That which dishonors Jesus must be very obnoxious to the Father and your self-confidence, my Friend, is a dishonor to the merit and salvation of Christ and God abhors it! But when you fling that all away and have no hope but in the great Atonement which He has made, then, I say, because your faith honors Jesus, therefore God delights in it and He will honor your faith. It is not possible that He should cast a soul away that clings to the great High Priest. Oh, if you look to Jesus, you shall never lose your sight! If your heart clings to Jesus, that heart of yours shall never lose its life! If your soul joys in Jesus, that soul of yours shall never lose its joy! The fact is, that faith puts us into a right relationship with God, for what is the right relationship of a creature to his God but that of dependence? Is it not most suitable that since God made us and He has all power and all strength, we should depend upon Him for our being, as well as for our well-being? See how He hangs the world upon nothing! This round globe never starts nor falters, but is steadily upheld in its mighty march by the unseen hand of God! Yonder stars, mighty worlds though they are, have no power to keep themselves in their places but the power of God which established them. All things hang upon Him and the only position for a created being is that of entire dependence—what is that but faith?
IV. Faith as the Seal of All Other Blessings
Faith restores us by putting us into a place of childlike rest. If a son has fallen into the hands of a malicious individual who has whispered into his ear that his father hates him—that he is doing all he possibly can to ruin him—at first the youth will not believe the accusation, but perhaps, after a while, he begins to think it is true. From that time forward every action that his father makes will be interpreted the wrong way—and if there is anything in the father’s life which is more kind than usual, it is highly probable that this poor misled boy will see a deeper subtlety of malice in it than in his father’s ordinary actions! The lad will break his father’s commands and vex and anger him. What is the first thing to be done to set that youth right? You may make him dread his father and then he will behave properly in his outward actions, but he will only be waiting his time to break loose. Suppose it to be possible to make him believe in his father and to be assured that his father loved him and had, all along, been the kindest man on earth? Why, he would run into his father’s arms! He will be willing enough to obey a parent whom he trusts—it will be his delight to do so! You have won his confidence and everything is right now. This is what faith does to us. The devil and our own corrupt nature say, “God is unkind, for He has made an awful Hell,” and so on. Faith interposes and cries, “He has put away His wrath. He has made full atonement for sin. He is willing to receive us.” Then faith says, “Trust Him. Trust Him implicitly.” And when the soul has done that, then faith testifies, “He has loved you with an everlasting love. Jesus died for you and He has provided a Heaven for you.” Let this be known and felt and what a change takes place! Oh, then you hate your sin! Oh, then you are ready to say, “How could I play the fool against One so kind, so good, so right?” Under this impulse you will serve Him and live for Him! That simple matter of believing Him has done it all! It is the hinge on which character turns. Hard thoughts of God lead to acts of rebellion, but a childlike confidence in Infinite Love softens the heart and sanctifies it and makes the man a true child towards the great Father. Do you wonder, then, that there is much in faith, in itself, which is pleasing to God? And if you ask what great works you are to do to please God, we shall not tell you to build a row of almshouses, or endow an orphanage, or give your body to be burned—believe in Jesus Christ and you have done more than all these things put together!