gregoryfl
11-11-2008, 07:39 AM
"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal. They said therefore to Him, 'What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?' Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.' They said therefore to Him, 'What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?' " John 6:27-30
I heard a story related of a Bible College teacher dramatically explaining this passage. He said to picture the Pharisees (and other legal-minded people) standing with their "Legal Pads" taking notes. So, after Jesus gave them the "first" one, to believe in Jesus, they wrote it down and looked up at him waiting for the "next" thing. But it never came. The students, and most likely us as well, were so used to hearing that the only thing we had to DO was to believe that they accepted what he said hook, line, and sinker. But I want to consider another possible understanding of what Jesus said, based on the fact that believing is not a thing we "do" so that we can say, "I did the one requirement for salvation."
I know there are a lot of verses that SEEM to say this, but it is only because we have been trained in this mindset so that we see things that aren't there - like this verse.
There is a little word in the Greek that somehow gets overlooked by those interpreting scripture, and I have to wonder why. It is the word for "that" in the phrase "that you believe". It is usually translated, "so that" or "in order that" or "for the purpose of". I can only guess that it didn't make sense to the translators to translate it in the usual way. Let's see if translating it as "so that" rather than simply as "that" makes any difference in understanding:
"This is the work of God SO THAT you believe in Him whom He has sent." vs. 29.
Let's compare this with verse 28, translating it the same way:
'What shall we do, SO THAT we may work the works of God?'
Notice the difference between their question, and Jesus answer. Jesus wasn't giving them a list, not even consisting of one thing-believing. He totally took away any list by saying that working the works of God is entirely the work of God. See that? They are asking what THEY SHALL DO so they can do God's work. Jesus doesn't tell them THEY can do anything. God's works being entirely of himself, not from us, produces the desired effect, it produces belief in Jesus. Wow, have we had this verse turned around! So believing is not some work we do in order to work God's works, belief is the response given from the miraculous work of God in the heart of those he is working in! What a difference the word THAT makes! :)
We can also consider the context to see that this is in fact what Jesus meant. I have learned to pay attention to the reactions of those who were spoken to in order to get a better idea of what was actually said. Take for example the reaction of the people in the crowd (at least the outspoken who got recorded). Did they even HINT that they were expecting a LIST of things to do? Not a chance. Did they suggest that "believing" sounded too easy? Not one peep about it. How did they respond?
"They said therefore to Him, 'What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?' "
They were offended. They did not challenge OUR perceived ideas of what Jesus might have meant, they challenged HIS CREDENTIALS. They were offended in HIM. They heard him loud and clear about the work of God that would produce faith in JESUS, and all of a sudden the miraculous events of the day before (the feeding of the 5,000) vanished as having any significance whatever in the reality of who this man was who stood before them.
"What WORK do you perform?" "This is the WORK of God ..."
Do you see the connection? They had been there, they had seen the "bread of God", and yet they didn't come after Jesus the day after because of the miracle but to get another belly-full. "I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw SIGNS, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled"(6:26). Everything had pointed to Jesus, but they only saw food.
"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal." (6:27) They had spent all day long in an effort to get another free meal. Jesus was not telling them they had to work real hard to find Him, but was putting their search in perspective. The food was the goal of their search, not the real food of God, for the real food would have made much more sense to come after. Jesus is the giver of the real food of God that satisfies without end, Jesus is also the food itself. The giving of Jesus, the real food, is the work of God.
This is what offended the people. This is why they immediately challenged his legitimacy. They considered him as having no substance worth believing. Oh, the food part they hoped to control, but they refused to go beyond that idea. And then they pulled out their "scriptural" comparisons and contrasts: He was nothing compared to Moses!! We still see games like these played with the Bible today, don't we?
The giving of the bread of heaven is the work that God has done so that we believe Him, for through Christ we believe in GOD.
Ron
I heard a story related of a Bible College teacher dramatically explaining this passage. He said to picture the Pharisees (and other legal-minded people) standing with their "Legal Pads" taking notes. So, after Jesus gave them the "first" one, to believe in Jesus, they wrote it down and looked up at him waiting for the "next" thing. But it never came. The students, and most likely us as well, were so used to hearing that the only thing we had to DO was to believe that they accepted what he said hook, line, and sinker. But I want to consider another possible understanding of what Jesus said, based on the fact that believing is not a thing we "do" so that we can say, "I did the one requirement for salvation."
I know there are a lot of verses that SEEM to say this, but it is only because we have been trained in this mindset so that we see things that aren't there - like this verse.
There is a little word in the Greek that somehow gets overlooked by those interpreting scripture, and I have to wonder why. It is the word for "that" in the phrase "that you believe". It is usually translated, "so that" or "in order that" or "for the purpose of". I can only guess that it didn't make sense to the translators to translate it in the usual way. Let's see if translating it as "so that" rather than simply as "that" makes any difference in understanding:
"This is the work of God SO THAT you believe in Him whom He has sent." vs. 29.
Let's compare this with verse 28, translating it the same way:
'What shall we do, SO THAT we may work the works of God?'
Notice the difference between their question, and Jesus answer. Jesus wasn't giving them a list, not even consisting of one thing-believing. He totally took away any list by saying that working the works of God is entirely the work of God. See that? They are asking what THEY SHALL DO so they can do God's work. Jesus doesn't tell them THEY can do anything. God's works being entirely of himself, not from us, produces the desired effect, it produces belief in Jesus. Wow, have we had this verse turned around! So believing is not some work we do in order to work God's works, belief is the response given from the miraculous work of God in the heart of those he is working in! What a difference the word THAT makes! :)
We can also consider the context to see that this is in fact what Jesus meant. I have learned to pay attention to the reactions of those who were spoken to in order to get a better idea of what was actually said. Take for example the reaction of the people in the crowd (at least the outspoken who got recorded). Did they even HINT that they were expecting a LIST of things to do? Not a chance. Did they suggest that "believing" sounded too easy? Not one peep about it. How did they respond?
"They said therefore to Him, 'What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?' "
They were offended. They did not challenge OUR perceived ideas of what Jesus might have meant, they challenged HIS CREDENTIALS. They were offended in HIM. They heard him loud and clear about the work of God that would produce faith in JESUS, and all of a sudden the miraculous events of the day before (the feeding of the 5,000) vanished as having any significance whatever in the reality of who this man was who stood before them.
"What WORK do you perform?" "This is the WORK of God ..."
Do you see the connection? They had been there, they had seen the "bread of God", and yet they didn't come after Jesus the day after because of the miracle but to get another belly-full. "I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw SIGNS, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled"(6:26). Everything had pointed to Jesus, but they only saw food.
"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal." (6:27) They had spent all day long in an effort to get another free meal. Jesus was not telling them they had to work real hard to find Him, but was putting their search in perspective. The food was the goal of their search, not the real food of God, for the real food would have made much more sense to come after. Jesus is the giver of the real food of God that satisfies without end, Jesus is also the food itself. The giving of Jesus, the real food, is the work of God.
This is what offended the people. This is why they immediately challenged his legitimacy. They considered him as having no substance worth believing. Oh, the food part they hoped to control, but they refused to go beyond that idea. And then they pulled out their "scriptural" comparisons and contrasts: He was nothing compared to Moses!! We still see games like these played with the Bible today, don't we?
The giving of the bread of heaven is the work that God has done so that we believe Him, for through Christ we believe in GOD.
Ron