DISBELIEF HAS PECULIAR children:
There was the woman who was afraid to fly. After her flight she was asked if she had been nervous. “No,” she responded. “I never sat down on the seat.”
There was a king who left his servant in charge of the castle while he went on a journey. The king had a falcon. The servant had never seen a falcon and so when he saw the king’s falcon, he thought it was a deformed pigeon. Out of compassion for the bird, he clipped its claws and filed its beak so it would look more like a pigeon.
There was a handsome prince who fell in love with a simple maiden. She wasn’t attractive. She didn’t trust his love. “How could you love me?” She would ask. “I’m not beautiful. I’m not rich. I’m not royalty.”
“I just love you,” he would answer.
He asked her to marry him. She still didn’t trust his love, but she agreed. “I will marry you. I will clean your house and prepare your meals and bear your children.”
“But I don’t want to marry you for what you will do for me. I want to marry you because I love you.”
And so they married. And so she cleaned his house and fixed his meals and bore his children. And he loved her. But she left him. She told a friend she didn’t think he loved her anymore.
And so we have three people. Three people who couldn’t believe. A woman who never enjoyed the flight because she couldn’t trust the plane. A man who maimed a falcon because he’d never seen one. And a woman who lost the love of her life because she tried to earn what he wanted to give.
Disbelief has peculiar children. Children who are miserable on the journey, blind to the beauty, and oblivious to once-in-a-lifetime romance with God. Children who never fully relax in the palm of his grace. Children who forever trim and file at the splendor of his love. And children who hear his proposal but are always looking for the fine print and the hidden agenda.
The feelings of these children are captured in John 6:27–29. Jesus begins by saying: “Don’t work for the food that spoils. Work for the food that stays good always and gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because on him God the Father has put his power.”
Jesus reduces the number of life’s struggles to two. We either strive for food that rots or food that lasts. Food that rots is anything that is temporal: achievements, awards, applause … Any object that stays in the grave is a food that spoils.
Food that lasts, on the other hand, is anything that is eternal. And how do we get this food? Underline the promise, “The Son of Man will give you this food.” You don’t buy it, barter for it, or earn it. It is a gift. Just board the plane and sit down. Just unleash the falcon and watch it fly. Just accept his love and enjoy it …
Just believe.
But his listeners didn’t get it. Look at their question: “What are the things God wants us to do?” (John 6:28). That, my friends, is the question of disbelief. “I know he said he would give it, but honestly now, how do we pay for this bread? How do we earn this meal? How long do we have to stand in the cafeteria line to get the eternal food?”
They missed the point. Didn’t Jesus say, “The Son of Man will give you this food”?
Suppose I missed the point with you. Suppose you gave me a gift. Let’s say you presented me with a new tie. I take it out of the box and examine it. I say thank you and then reach for my wallet. “Now how much do I owe you?” I ask.
You think I am kidding. “It’s a gift,” you say. “You don’t need to pay me.”
“Oh, I understand,” I respond, but then show I don’t by asking, “Could I write you a check?”
You’re stunned. “I don’t want you to pay me. I want you to accept the gift.”
“Oh, I see,” I respond. “Perhaps I could do some work around your house in exchange for the tie?”
“You just don’t get it, do you?” you state firmly. “I want to give this to you. It is a present. You can’t buy a present.”
“Oh, forgive me,” I hasten. “Perhaps if I promised to purchase you a tie in return.”
By this time you’re insulted. In trying to buy your gift I have degraded your grace. I have robbed you of the joy of giving.
How often we rob God.
Have you ever considered what an insult it is to God when we try to pay him for his goodness? God loves a cheerful giver because he is a cheerful giver. If we, who are evil, enjoy giving gifts, how much more does he? If we, who are human, are offended when people want to turn our gift into a bribe, how much more is God?
Spend some moments slowly reading the response of Jesus to their question, “What are the things God wants us to do?” (John 6:28).
Jesus replied: “The work God wants you to do is this …”
Can’t you see the people lean closer, their minds racing? “What is the work he wants us to do? Pray more? Give more? Study? Travel? Memorize the Torah? What is the work he wants?” Sly is this scheme of Satan. Rather than lead us away from grace, he causes us to question grace or to earn it … and in the end we never even know it.
What is it, then, that God wants us to do? What is the work he seeks? Just believe. Believe the One he sent. “The work God wants you to do is this: Believe the One he sent.”
Someone is reading this and shaking his or her head and asking, “Are you saying it is possible to go to heaven with no good works?” The answer is no. Good works are a requirement. Someone else is reading and asking, “Are you saying it is possible to go to heaven without good character?” My answer again is no. Good character is also required. In order to enter heaven one must have good works and good character.
But, alas, there is the problem. You have neither.
Oh, you’ve done some nice things in your life. But you do not have enough good works to go to heaven regardless of your sacrifice. No matter how noble your gifts, they are not enough to get you into heaven.
Nor do you have enough character to go to heaven. Please don’t be offended. (Then, again, be offended, if necessary.) You’re probably a very decent person. But decency isn’t enough. Those who see God are not the decent; they are the holy. “Anyone whose life is not holy will never see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
You may be decent. You may pay taxes and kiss your kids and sleep with a clean conscience. But apart from Christ you aren’t holy. So how can you go to heaven?
Only believe.
Accept the work already done, the work of Jesus on the cross.
Only believe.
Accept the goodness of Jesus Christ. Abandon your own works and accept his. Abandon your own decency and accept his. Stand before God in his name, not yours. “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, but anyone who does not believe will be punished” (Mark 16:16).
It’s that simple? It’s that simple. It’s that easy? There was nothing easy at all about it. The cross was heavy, the blood was real, and the price was extravagant. It would have bankrupted you or me, so he paid it for us. Call it simple. Call it a gift. But don’t call it easy.
Call it what it is. Call it grace.
Max Lucado