Forty Days Full - An Invitation To Real Life

Day Five: My Job Is To Believe

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:28-29 NIV)

B elieving in Jesus comes as a package deal. Belief is not just considering Him a great guy who said some crazy things. By believing in Jesus, the one the Father has sent, we also accept and believe in the work that He came to do. You cannot separate the two. To believe in Jesus is to align yourself with His death and resurrection. This finished work of Christ carries with it the promises of the New Covenant. So if there is a work to do it is to make every effort to grasp by faith all that is now mine because of Him. This is job one. The Jews were asking what price they had to pay to obtain eternal life. Jesus was letting them know that belief is where it all begins. When Jesus began His ministry He declared, “Repent! For the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What is he asking you to do? Stop doing bad things? Change your ways? Turn around? That is what most of us associate with that word, but that is not what it means at all. The actual Greek meaning of the word repent is, “To think in a new way, change your mind or reconsider.” So much of traditional religion is focused on adjusting our behaviors. “I'm doing bad things, so I must therefore stop doing those bad things and start doing good things.” This is true when you consider a transformed life, but it is a secondary factor to the way of Christ. To believe in Him and the work that He accomplished must precede any focus on exterior