July 22

The Work of Faith

Jesus replied, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” — John 6:29 BSB

People often wonder how they can eat spiritual bread. They can’t see it or hold it in their hands. When they’re told to work for the food that gives eternal life, they ask how they can do it. Here, Christ says that the way to work for this spiritual food is to "believe in Him."

Of course, believing in Christ must be understood in its fullest sense. Merely believing that bread will satisfy hunger won’t feed a starving person; they must eat the bread so that its nourishment can be absorbed into their body. Likewise, merely believing that Christ can meet all our soul’s needs won’t bring spiritual satisfaction. We must receive Christ into our lives.

There are different kinds of belief. For example, a person may read in a book on astronomy that the sun is about ninety million miles away. They believe the statement, but it doesn’t have much of an impact on their daily life. But when a person reads that whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved, this truth is meant to bless them by first leading them to trust Christ for salvation, then to follow Him as their Master, and finally to have their life transformed into the beauty of Christ’s character. This is true for all spiritual truth. Simply receiving it isn’t enough; it must be absorbed into our hearts and lives, just as food is absorbed by the body.

It’s also important to note that we don’t obtain this spiritual food by working for it, but by believing in Christ. We live by faith.