105 as we have seen, it was to unbelieving jews that Jesus answered, 'this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent'. under other circumstances, another answer might have been given.
for example, in other circumstances, it might be important and proper to direct the careless, unawakened sinner, who knows nothing of his depravity or helplessness, to the law of God as the standard that it is his duty to follow. it is not that we expect to directly bring about holiness in him by doing this, but we expect to convict him of sin. for this reason, we find Christ requiring the young man who was wrapped up in self-righteousness to 'keep the commandments' (matthew 19.17). Christ was bringing before his mind his supreme love of the world. this produced regret and discouragement in the young man. when he was required to part with all that he had and follow Christ (luke 18.22), he 'became very sorrowful'. v23
however, to the anxious sinner who asks, 'what shall (I) do that (I) may work the works of God? (john 6.28), Christ's answer in our text is the only appropriate answer. also, to the christian who is seeking sanctification, this is the only appropriate answer. in short, to
106 anyone who is convinced of his real character, this is the only proper answer.
but to the one who is already full of faith and love and the Holy Spirit, another answer may be given, simply because he means something different when he asks this question. when he asks, 'what shall I do, that I may work the works of God? his heart breaks forth with the question, 'what should i do to honor and glorify god?' - not 'what should i do to be saved?' such a person should be directed to the whole instructional part of the Bible. 'Do this' and 'avoid that' are just the instructions that he needs. he will eagerly seize them so that he may glorify god with all his heart...
107 we learn another valuable truth from this study. we see why the people in the church are not living in holiness. they overlook the fact that faith alone can produce acceptable obedience to God. they try to obtain faith by works instead of first exercising the faith that will produce in them a clean heart. (see acts 15.9) in this way they seek for sanctification in vain.
how common it is to see people full of bustle and works and outward efforts -fasting, praying, giving, doing, struggling - but after all that, not having the fruits of the Spirit: 'love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control'. galatians 5.22-3 they have not, after all, 'crucified the flesh with its passions and (lusts)' v24. they do not live in the spirit and walk in the Spirit. v25 they do not experience the truth of the saying, 'you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You' isaiah 26.3 without this trust, they cannot have peace; they cannot be sanctified.
others try to force themselves to exhibit the various christian virtues - love, submission and so on - without faith. they forget that repentance and submission - the surrendering of our wills to the will of God - are the results of faith. we certainly cannot submit to God without confidence in the character of God. in short, every christian virtue has faith as its foundation...
we also see what the problem is with those who are constantly complaining about religion. they seem to know that they are guilty, but they do not understand why they are guilty. sometimes they think that a neglect of one duty is the problem, and other times the neglect of another duty. they determine to break away from this sin and that transgression and practice this self denial and that duty - all without the faith that fills the heart with love. as a result, they go around and around in circles. they do not see that unbelief is
108 their great, their damning, sin. if this sin is not removed, no other sin can be repented of or forgiven. all their efforts are entirely legalistic, hypocritical and futile until they exercise faith.
let us go to the other end of the spectrum. some people set aside all biblical instruction and think that obedience to the commands of God is legalism. they are mistaken. they do not make the distinction that i am making . what i am saying is this: if people without faith, in an unsanctified state, determine to obey the commandments of God, their efforts will be legalistic, self righteous and disastrous. to them, the precepts of the Gospel, as well as the commandments of the law, are a horrible pit of quicksand.
if you throw a man into quicksand, the more he struggles, the deeper he sinks. so it is with the person who is struggling to obey God without faith. every effort at obedience without faith is sin and since it strengthens self righteousness, it is causing him to sink further and further away from God and hope. the more fiercely he struggles, the more desperate and alarming his case becomes. the mud surrounds him, clings to him, suffocates and kills him. to an unbelieving heart, the commands of god are a snare and a pit. they are suffocating quicksand, without faith, there is ruin and damnation in them.
we see how to the jews and to all unbelievers, the commandments of God are a stumbling block. all outward conformity to them is useless - yes, disastrous. love without faith is impossible. consequently, the merciful directions and teachings contained in the instructional parts of the Gospel are made the food of self righteousness and the snare of death.
but to those whose souls are full of faith and love, the commandments of god are just the instruction they need when, in their ignorance, they earnestly ask what they should do to glorify god. 'do this' and 'avoid that' are just the things that hearts of love will seize. they are the needed directions of their heavenly Father.
109 someone may ask, do people not learn to exercise faith by what you call legalistic efforts and by trying to obey the law's directions? No. they only learn that all such directions are futile and that they are totally depraved and dependent, which they ought to have believed before. they determine to pray and read and struggle, expecting at every meeting they attend and with every prayer they offer, to obtain grace and faith. but they never do until they are completely discouraged and despair of obtaining help in this way.
the story of every self-righteous sinner's conversion and every anxious christian's sanctification would develop this truth -that deliverance did not come until they saw by experience that their self-righteous efforts were utterly futile and they abandoned them as useless and threw the whole matter on the sovereign mercy of God. giving the matter to the sovereign mercy of God is the very act of faith that they should have put forth long before. but they would not do it until they had tried every other means in vain.
but perhaps you are saying, if by this self-righteous struggle they learn their depravity and dependence and in this way come to prove the truth of God, why not encourage them to make these efforts as at least an indirect way of obtaining faith? i answer, blasphemy and drunkenness and any of the most shocking sins, may be and often have been, the means of working conviction that will result in conversion. why not encourage these things? the truth is, when a sinner's attention is awakened and he is convicted and asks the question, 'what should i do? and when a christian, struggling with his remaining corruption, asks the same question, why should they be thrown into the horrible pit of which i have spoken? why not tell them at once, 'this is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He sent? john 6.29
let me say something to you who would ask the question, 'what shall we do, that we may work the works of God? v28 don't wait to fast, read, pray or to do anything else. don't expect to break away from any sin in your unbelief. you may break away from the outward act -you may substitute praying for swearing, reading your bible for reading unwholesome material, sobriety for drunkenness, honesty for
110 theft, industry for idleness and anything you please. but that is, after all, only exchanging one form of sin for another. it is only varying the mode of your warfare. remember that in unbelief, whatever your conduct is, you are in rebellion against god. faith would instantly sanctify your heart, sanctify all your actions and render them, in Christ Jesus, acceptable to God. unbelief is your great, heinous, damning sin - against which the heaviest thunderbolts of Jehovah are hurled.
don't wait for any particular revelation of Christ before you believe. when people in the state of mind that i have been describing hear those who live in faith describe their revelations of Christ, they say, 'Oh, if i had such revelations, i could believe. i must have these before i can believe'. now, you should understand that these revelations are the result of faith, not the cause of it. these revelations are what faith discovers in those passages of Scripture that describe Christ. faith grasps the meaning of those passages. it sees in them the very things that you mistakenly expect to see before you exercise faith and that you think would produce faith. take hold, then, of the simple promise of God. take God at His word. believe that he means just what He says. this will at once bring you into the state of mind that you are seeking.
a believer in New York asked me in a letter what she should do to obtain the blessing of sanctification. my dear child, you ask whether you will obtain sanctification by reading the , by prayer, by fasting or by all these put together. now, let what i have said be your answer. know that, in the absence of faith, none of these things will help you grow any better or find any relief. you speak of being in darkness and of being discouraged. no wonder you are, since you have plainly been seeking sanctification by works of law. you have 'stumbled at that stumbling stone. romans 9.32 you are in the horrible pit of quicksand that i have spoken of. exercise faith in the immediately. it is the ffirst thing - the only thing - you can do to rest your feet upon the k and it will immediately put a new song in your mouth. Psalm 40.2-3
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