It is likely the oldest question humanity has ever asked: “What must we do to perform the works of God?”  

And for millennia, honest, searching people have provided their own answers to the question. Magnificent temples and cathedrals have been built; exquisite liturgies have been composed; amazing acts of kindness have unfolded—all in the hope God would be pleased with the work, the toil, the effort, the prayers.  

But when the question was put to the One whom the Bible calls the Son of God, “Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent’”(John 6:29).

He who flung the galaxies for joy, who holds this tiny blue-green planet in His warm embrace—He doesn’t need our sweat and toil. What brings Him happiness is when we choose—in love, through grace, with gratitude—to place our trust in heaven’s greatest gift: “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him” (John.3.17).

Grace moves us to believe, and only then, to act. What work we do through faith in Christ grows from our gratitude. 

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott