John 6:28 Asks: What Shall We Do? – by Joseph A. Cortes

John 6:28 reads, “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

In the Old Testament Cain tried to impress God with his own works, produced by his own hands. Cain put some human hard-working effort in tilling his fields. He didn’t bring a cheesy offering to God. He brought the wrong type of offering and that is why he was disobedient to God, but he worked hard at tilling his fields, day and night, weeding, irrigating, whatever it took. He put in that human effort and brought an offering that was produced by human hands. I’m sure Cain really knew how to grow a garden; not the genetically modified organism plants that we eat today that only make people sick in the long run. He brought the best of the best to offer to God. Review the story in the Scripture again. The Lord rejected it instantly. Why? Because it was the production of dead works. They were dead works, because it was all based on human effort and God rejected it. It was not part of God’s requirement for the redemption plan for mankind. If you go to Isaiah 64, he warns all man’s self-righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags. Are you getting the point? Your very best effort, if you really think about it, if it is not part of what God wants from you, is offensive. It’s offensive to God! And that is the difficult truth many will reject. You could spend your whole life doing good things, feeding the starving, (and I am not saying not to do these things, so listen closely) clothing the naked, helping little children, and still go straight to hell because that isn’t the requirement to be saved. They are wonderful things to be participating in, but they are not the requirement to be saved. No amount of good deeds can counter the evil deeds.

Repent or repentance, as Christ meant it to be concerning salvation, means to change your mind from trusting in what you can do for God to only trusting what He can do for you. In other words, only trusting Him and what he can do for you. The only work that is required for salvation is that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. How you choose to live—and there are consequences to those choices—after you are saved has absolutely nothing to do with the gift of eternal life. That is why it is important to understand that all the things that you get involved in doing in your disciple journey that are pleasing to God, are separate from salvation.

And of course, I have said many times, not everything is equal in heaven. We are all not going to get the same gold star. Satan’s greatest weapon is the con job that he’s used against Christians, deceiving them into living what they call the “Christian life” without ever truly being born again.  I’m sorry; I’ll repeat it as many times as I must until the Lord takes me home; salvation is not doing your best. It never was. It never will be. God only saves those who are trusting in Him to be saved. The older I get the more I see that God is not saving those who are trying to be saved. Either God does the saving, all of it, no exceptions, or you are not saved at all. I know they are harsh words, it sounds harsh, but it takes us right back to Hebrews 6:1. It teaches we are saved, if you really think about it, not repenting from our sins but by repenting from our dead works.

“But I have to clean up my life of sin by doing good works.”  No!

“I got to stop desiring sinful activities.”   No!

Or, “Following Christ in obedience.”   No!

Or, “Joining a church membership.”   No!

“I have to keep the Sabbath.”   No!

These are all false securities that too many Christians or professing Christians have been banking on. Change your mind, the true meaning of repent, is required and stop trusting all those things I just listed for salvation. It’s not dead works that gets you saved. Think about it. Who can repent, using their definition for repent? Who can repent of all their sins past, present and future? No one. It’s a doctrinal error to add an unbiblical requirement that is not in God’s word for a person to forsake sinful behavior to be saved. That is a manmade requirement that God does not require. I’m sorry; more dead works.

Listen closely so you know where I am coming from. God wants, and in areas of his word, commands each of us to part from wickedness (more on that at a different time). But that is a call to Christians who are already saved. It is not a call to the lost who are not saved. All our hope is in Christ. Thank you Jesus.

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In 2 Corinthians 9:7 it reads, “God loveth a cheerful giver.” The Greek word for cheerful is Hilaros which means when someone is prompt to do something, they are ready in mind, with a joyful heart. In the Septuagint it also means to cause to shine. Today I am looking for Hilaros Givers who are ready and full of joy for the opportunity to cause others to shine by hearing, learning, and growing in God’s Word.

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