Work of God

John 6:29: “This is the work of God...”

What did Jesus mean by this statement?

Jesus challenges the people who ate of the loaves and fishes, who only sought to be fed. . . “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." John 6:27

Jesus addresses their motives and what should concern them with respect to Himself. They are pursuing only their temporal needs from Him (being fed)--which they know He can provide--but they should be concerned about what He can provide for their eternal well being. Do they not know that “Man shall not live by bread alone?”

With Jesus present, their concerns should not be temporal but eternal.

Jesus uses the word “labor.” This may be because one has to labor to get food, and food is what they seek. And so Jesus uses what they labor for as an analogy of what they really should labor for.  The food they labor for perishes, but the food they should labor for, which He gives, does not, because it is obviously everlasting life. Just as He uses food as an analogy, I believe the word labor is an analogy for believing.

Picking up on the word “labor,” these people then ask, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" John 6:28

The word “labor” in the Greek is a verb in the middle voice, while “works” is the noun form of the word.

What are they asking? Jesus told them to labor for a non-perishing food. So naturally, they are asking what labor (“works”) they should then do. By saying “works of God,” they are saying works sanctioned and required by God; things that God would have them to do. Maybe they expected Christ to say that they should fast, weep and mourn, or offer a sacrifice.

Instead, Jesus said the work of God was that they should believe in Him.

There are two points that should be understood. Jesus changed the word “works” from plural to singular. There is just one thing that should concern them. The other point is that Jesus is responding in the same manner. They were asking what works they should be doing that God sanctions and requires--what He wants them to do. So likewise, Jesus is saying that the work--the thing God requires / wants them to do--is believe in the One sent.

Some try to make this phrase “work of God” out to mean that which God does.  Some think Jesus changed the “works” that they were asking to do to a “work” God does instead.   This view is unwarranted and changes the meaning of “of God.”

The “of God” in the people’s and Jesus’ response is the same.  The only thing that Jesus changed in their response was the plural “works” to a singular “work.”  The “of God” is the same.  Its not “of God” in the sense of something God does—which wouldn’t make sense in their question.  Why would they be asking what works they should do which God is doing?  They are not.  But they are thinking of certain kinds of works for God, while Jesus corrects them, speaking of only one work for God.  The "of God" is an objective genitive "for God" and not a subjective genitive "of God."

They asked what “works of God” they should do. They obviously mean works required by God. Jesus told them to “labor” for the right food. So obviously, the work is their labor and not God’s. If it was God’s labor, then they couldn’t do what Jesus said.

So they are asking in the sense of  the *requirement* of God.  The NET Bible interprets this correctly by translating “of God” as what “God requires.”  

Does this mean that believing in Jesus for eternal life is a work? I don’t think it is necessary to call it a work, though coming to faith involves effort, because of the need to be persuaded. I believe “work ” was an analogy for believing. But if you call faith a work, it is not the kind of work that the Apostle Paul says does not save us, for he means the work of the Law. But those who believe faith is a work, will then resort to arguing that we are not really saved by faith, but that faith is a result of salvation, otherwise we are then saved by works. But faith is not a work according to Paul.

Faith is not a work that has to be understood as from God to avoid the Pauline claim that we are not saved by works. When Jesus said in John 6:29 that “this is the work of God. . . ,” He was responding in the same manner to the question of the people who wanted to know what “labor” they were to be doing that was sanctioned and required by God. Jesus said the God-required thing they were to do was “believe in Him whom He sent.”

 And of course that belief is one of being persuaded that He is the Christ, the One who alone can give eternal life to those who believe in Him for it.