Monday, November 20, 2023

* John 6:28,29 -- Believe in Him Whom God Has Sent

John 6:28-29 -  They said therefore to him, "What must we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." -- World English.


Sometimes some present the above verses as proof of the trinity, although as yet we have not found any explanation as to what exactly in the verses is thought to present the trinity.

"God" in these verses refers to only one person. Jesus referred to that one person as being the one who had sent him. The one person who is "God" in these verses is that same one person who is "the Lord Jehovah" of Isaiah 61:1,2. This is the same one person whom Jesus spoke of as his Father and the "only true God [Supreme Mighty One}" in John 17:1,3.

Some of the Jews who had been among the "great multitude" that Jesus fed from five barley loaves and two fish had sought Jesus out. (John 6:1-25) Jesus told them, "Most assuredly I tell you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled. Don't work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of [the] Man will give to you. For the Father, even God, has sealed him." -- John 6:26,27, World English; we have added the definite article before man to reflect the Greek text which has a definite article before "Man". 

Jesus, however, had told them to work for the food which gives eternal life. They probably wondered what kind of work it was they should that would give them eternal life. They possibly thought Jesus meant to please God by their works as associated to the Law Covenant. As Jews, they more than likely were thinking that God had a made a covenant of works with their nation, which contained promises of eternal life to any who would obey those laws perfectly. Perhaps, however, they thought that since there are so many commandments in the Law, that only by doing the works of this or that commandment they would accomplish what God required of them. Paul later pointed out that, for those under the Law, if one is disobedient to even one of the commandments, it is the counted as the same as having disobeyed all of them. 

Jesus answered, however, that the work of God is to believe on him whom God sent. Jesus knew that God had sent him for the very purpose of dying on the cross to release mankind from the condemnation in Adam, as well as to release those under the Law from the curse of the law. The apostle Paul later shows that justification is through faith, not by obeying the works of the Law. The work most pleasing and acceptable to God would be their exercise of faith in him as the one whom God had sent in fulfillment of His promise to their fathers.

Today, many think along this same line. They consider that there must be something kind of works that they must perform to atone for their sins. Such rarely come to realize that atonement is through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, whom God had sent. 

Regardless, we definitely find nothing in any of this that means that we need to imagine, assume, add to, and read into the scriptures that Jesus is God Almighty, or that Jehovah is more than one person, or that that Jesus is a person of his God, Jehovah, etc.




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