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Faith and works are both factors in the work of salvation. Faith is the life root of which works are the fruit. The Jew sought to justify himself by his works, and then inferentially organized his faith to work the works of God, with Him was to drive a bargain with God. "What good thing must I do?" Christ shows that the way to the Father was by no such circuitous route, but by faith in Himself.

I. A GRAVE INQUIRY. This is not a Jewish question. It is the question of humanity.

1. Man has never been able to throw off a belief in God nor to escape the apprehensions such a belief creates. Hence, in their unrest and great mental hunger, men still ask this question.

2. You see evidences of this mental disquietude in the breaking away from the restraints of creeds, in retreats from the simplicity of the present into the traditions of the past; in the rush of various systems of mediatorial penance, in the impossibility of successfully impugning the Divine record and in the despair which ensues on its rejection. Philosophy in its wildest departures from God can neither answer this question nor escape the responsibility of discussing it. Men seem to treat it as a scoff, but they arc compelled to do homage to its impressiveness in the vague worship of the unknown.

II. CHRIST'S ANSWER.

1. The work of God is not the alone work of God's appointing. It is God and man mutually working. A fractured relation of the soul and God necessitates for its readjustment the correlation of two forces.

(1) In this work a factor is demanded that we cannot supply. "A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above." That which our working secures is just the willingness to receive what God alone can give.

(2) The want that goes in quest of God is not God's work but ours. On the other hand, to pacify the disquieted heart by renewing it is not man's work, but God's. Our first lesson, therefore, touches the pride of our self-sufficiency. We are powerless with all our power when power is needed most.

(3) Then there are things which we must cease to do. We must "cease to do evil," get clean away from all dependence on our own works.

2. The work of man.

(1) To believe in Christ's mission. Christ claims to have been sent into the world by the Father to perform a specific work. Miracles were His credentials. His own profound self-consciousness of His mission explains and necessitates this supernatural signature. Now, if Jesus believed Himself to be the "Sent" and the "Son of God," and was not, He was deceived and a deceiver; but if He was, we cannot put ourselves into harmony with God otherwise than as we accept this mission.

(2) Accepting the mission. What does a man do when he believes in the Person of Christ? What does a blind man do when he commits himself to a guide? He puts himself out on trust. A drowning man, when he clings to his plank, lives suspensively on that to which he clings. A penitent sinner, when he believes in Christ, does both. And this is the work of God for all men.

(John Burton.)

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KJV: Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

WEB: They said therefore to him, "What must we do, that we may work the works of God?"