NOTES for Joh 10:27-38

“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works...” The works that Jesus does become, as it were, a bridge “leading those who are on earth up to heaven,” a bridge between unbelief and faith, for these are the works of God. The works of God and faith become mutually conditioning acts. It is very important to feel that our faith is not faith in some abstract principles, however beautiful they may be; our faith is inseparable from the very fabric of life. It matters that the Greek word used here is precisely ἔργον, a work or deed with a simple, everyday meaning, without the lofty tone we tend to give everything connected with our Lord. “To work a miracle,” the New Jerusalem Bible says of what Jesus does. The elevated Russian verb “to create” fails to convey this sense of real, everyday action and effort (recall “the arm of the Lord”). “Work” and “to work” are among the very important words throughout the Gospel of John. Let us recall the text: “The Son can do nothing by Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it; for whatever He does, these things the Son also does in the same way” (5:19). The verb “to do” appears four times in such a short passage. Now that we understand that the Lord labors so that we may believe, that the Lord enters the fabric of our lives so that our faith will not be an abstract ideology, let us recall another text: so they said to Him, what shall 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 (John 6:28, 29). Thus it is not only the works the Lord does that are mutually bound up with faith; our works too, if they are the works of God, are faith. It is difficult, and unnecessary, to separate faith from the works of God. Let us simply understand what the Apostle James said: for just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead (Jas 2:26).