Several days ago I wrote a series titled Jesus/Bread/Meat/Law: Four Words–One Subject.  With the completion of part two I believed I had said all that needed to be said concerning the Apostle John’s teaching.  Admittedly, I was wrong.  The Lord has been speaking to me, rather forcefully in fact, about continuing that series with one more posting.  Obviously, it isn’t finished until HE says it is finished.  My mistake–lesson learned.  As a firm believer in a two-step solution to a self-caused problem: 1) admitting the mistake and 2) correcting it, I will use this posting to do just that.

In the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel beginning with verse 28 we find people saying to Jesus: “What must we do in order to work the works of God?”  He knew that they wanted to be able to multiply physical food, that they were not interested in God’s spiritual works.  Jesus did not answer their question, but rather told them how to do THE WORKS COMMANDED BY GOD: “This is the (one) work God commands you to do.  You must BELIEVE IN THE ONE WHOM HE SENT TO YOU.”  Sounds simple and easy enough.  In order to be saved one need only believe in Jesus Christ.  This message has been voiced millions of times over the past 2000 years.

THIS IS A LIE STRAIGHT FROM THE MOUTH OF SATAN.  The Holy Scriptures tell us that there is more to “BELIEVING” than meets the religious eye.  As has been repeatedly proven in the Scriptures, believing in Jesus does not mean to believe in His existence, His life, His sacrifice, His miracles, His death, His resurrection, etc.  Satan believes all of that.  The thief with a cross tatooed on his forehead and the whore on the street corner with one dangling in her exposed cleavage believe in that.  TO SPIRITUALLY BELIEVE IN JESUS IS TO BELIEVE HIS WORDS, MEANING TO HAVE FAITH–ROM. 10:19.  FAITH IS TAKING HIS WORDS AT FACE VALUE.  FAITH MUST BE PROVEN BY OBEDIENCE TO HIS WORDS WHICH HE RECEIVED FROM HIS FATHER (JN. 12:44-48).  ONE LIVES BY ONE’S FAITH (HEB. 10:38) OR DIES FROM THE LACK OF FAITH (HEB. 11:6).  FAITH MUST BE PROVEN.  THIS WAS TRUE OF JESUS OF NAZARETH.  Read James 2:10,14,17,18,20,24,26 which prove that belief (faith) in Jesus is the  is merely the FIRST of many steps LEADING TO conversion in this life which, if retained throughout life, will RESULT in salvation in the next life (Mat. 10:22/ Heb.6:11).  Until Christ returns with salvation we have the “hope of salvation” (1 Thes. 5:8).  We must do the WORKS of faith (obedience) until then.  Faith that does not include works of faith (obedience) is dead faith which shows spiritual death in the faith possessor.

Using symbolism repeatedly, Jesus noted time and again in John’s Gospel that He is the “bread of life,” the “meat” sent down from God which must be “consumed” by the believer in order for it to have it designed effect–the creation of the “new man” who “walks” as did Jesus of Nazareth.  As stated earlier, we are what we consume both physically and spiritually.  Only by consuming Christ (ingesting His Word) can we be made like Him through obedience to what we consume, which we are commanded to do in First John 2:6.  We are to consume Him (His Word) and become that Word in human flesh, just as He consumed God’s Word and became His Word in human flesh.  Jesus was the Word of God in human form.  We are commanded to consume and obey God’s Word until we “become the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).  Just as He was a God–one-half of the Godhead–Who became a man for our sakes, we must be men who become God-like in our human walk, just as He did as a man.  Being a God-like man, He could honestly say, “He who has seen Me has seen the (invisible) Father” (in human form).  He was the human representation of the spiritual God because He was the Word of God made flesh.  WE ARE COMMANDED TO FOLLOW IN HIS FOOTSTEPS.  In First Peter 1:15 the apostle tells us that, “AS He who has called you is holy, be ye ALSO holy.”  The word “as” means that there is only one definition of the word “holy”–to be like God, as was the man Jesus of Nazareth.  We all understand what “also” means.  Spiritually we must join His “me too” group

In James 1:21-23 the apostle makes an important statement relative the spiritual effect of consuming God’s Word.  Here he likens the effect of the spiritually consumed Word to the act of physical grafting in the natural realm.  In nature, one can physically graft the limb of one tree to the body of another tree.  Because the grafted limb is permanently affixed to the trunk, it will become rooted to the host tree and thereby partake of the “food” the tree receives from the earth, thereby becoming one entity.  That “food” is what keeps the tree and its added limb, alive.  Speaking in the spiritual realm, James calls this process the “engrafting” of God’s Word into the heart (mind) of the Word receiver, therefore turning man and Word into one entity.  Man becomes the “Word made flesh,” exactly as Jesus became God’s Word made flesh so that when man saw Him in the flesh man was actually looking at God’s Word in human form.  God’s true, Law-obeying saints are, in spiritual reality, God in the flesh.  God, Christ, their Word and the true believer are spiritually ONE ENTITY.  As Jesus said in Matthew 7:13,14 and 22:14, few will find and enter His strait gate and walk His narrow way to true oneness with Him.  Many are called to do so but few are chosen for having answered His call.  The price (death to self) is too high a cost for most people.  Satan deceives them into believing that salvation comes at no cost to them.  “Only believe” is the easy way taker’s mantra whose god is Satan–the “father of lies” (Jn. 8:43,44).

Returning to the question about doing the work of God (John 6:28), recall Christ’s reply that the “work of God is to believe on Him Whom He (God) has sent.”  Now let us return to James’ epistle for the “fine print” relative to Christ’s answer: “Remove from yourselves (totally reject) ALL sin and receive with meekness the engrafted Word of God which is ABLE TO save your souls.  Be DOERS OF THE WORD and not hearers only, thereby deceiving yourselves.  For if one is only a hearer of the Word and not a doer of it, he soon forgets what he has read or heard (and goes back to religious business as usual–see the introduction to this website).  “But a doer of the WORK (Word) will be blessed in his doing (working) ….”  James summarizes his words to his beloved brethren, telling them: “To practice pure religion and remain undefiled before God is this–to keep oneself unspotted by the world” (Jam. 1:21-27).  In Ephesians 2:10 the Apostle Paul tells God’s true saints that they “are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD WORKS.”  The words “in Christ” are significant.  God’s Very Elect are “in Christ.”  We are told in First John 1:5 that in Christ “there is no darkness (sin) in Him at all.”  Only those “in him” will rise to meet Him in the air at His Second Advent (1 Thes. 4:16), for only those “in Him know Him because they obey His Law” (1 Jn. 1 Jn. 2:5).  “He who says, ‘I know Him’ and does not obey His Law is a liar and the Truth is not in him” (1 Jn. 2:4).

Now let us return to the Gospel of John chapter 6.  Jesus has been talking to some Jewish people while His disciples listened to the conversation.  He has said much about Himself being the “bread” of life Whom one must “eat” in order to be saved.  At that time His disciples numbered 82 that we are aware of.  Beginning with verse 59 we find them discussing among themselves what He has just said.  Many of them murmured about His comments and found them impossible to accept.  He, knowing from the beginning which disciples were true to Him, chastised them.  At that point many of them left Him and returned to the world.

I will inject a side lesson at this point.  These UNBELIEVING DISCIPLES had been preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, casting out demons, etc.  In Luke 10 we find Jesus sending them out to minister in the towns where He would later visit (vss 1-17).  In verse 16 He told them that when people heard THEIR Words they would be hearing HIS WORDS.  By this we know that they spoke His Words.  In the next verse we find them returning from their ministry trip rejoicing that “… even the devils are subject to us in Your Name.”  THESE TRUTH- PREACHING, HEALING, DELIVERING MIRACLE WORKERS WERE FALSE PROPHETS.  Read All That Glitters.  Key word–Glitters as well as Matthew 7:21-23 where we find Jesus speaking about such “disciples” relative to the Day of Judgment.  Also, remember the five foolish “virgins” (church people) of Matthew 25.

Returning to Luke 10 we find Jesus asking the 12 remining disciples if they were going to leave Him as had the 70.  Peter’s reply says it all: “To whom shall we go, YOU HAVE (ARE) THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE.”   Peter understood that only the Words of Jesus and the Father could save the soul, and that in order for those words to result in salvation one had to “eat” them and “engraft” them into one’s heart.  Only then can Their Words produce the fruit of righteousness, holiness and godliness necessary for eternal life.  Such fruit is produced only by obeying God’s Law (commandment/Words/Gospel/Truth).  L.J.