the Messiah whom He had sent, and whom they saw before them.
When our Lord calls faith " the work of God," we must not suppose He means here, that it is the work of His Spirit, and His gift. This is undoubtedly true, but not the truth of the text. He only means that believing is '' the work that pleases God," and is most agreeable to God's will and mind.
Of course every well-instructed Bible-reader will remember, that, strictly speaking, believing is so far from being a " work," that it is the very opposite of workiag. '' To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness." (Eom. iv. 5.) But it is evi- dent that our Lord accommodates His manner of speaking to the ignorant minds with which He had to deal. Thus St. Paul calls the doctrine of faith the '' law of faith," (Eom. iii. 27.) It is much the same as if we said to an ignorant but awakened inquirer after salvation, Avho fancies he can do great things for his soul, — " You talk of doing. But know that the first thing to be done, is to believe on Christ. This is the first step toward heaven. You have done nothing until you believe. This is the thing that pleases God most. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. This is the hardest thing after all. Nothing will test the reality of your feelings so much as a wilKngness to believe on Christ, and cease from your own works. Begin therefore by believing." The very attempt to believe, in such a case, might prove useful.
Let us note in this verse the marvellous wisdom with which our Lord suited His language to the minds of those He spoke to. It should be the constant aim of a religious teacher, not merely to teach truth, but to teach truth wisely and with tact, so as to arrest the attention of those he teaches. Half the religious teaching in the churches and schools of our day, is entirely thrown away for want of tact and power of adaptation in impart- ing it. To profess truth is one thing : to be able to impart it wisely, quite another.
Let us note in this verse the high honour our Lord puts upon faith in Himself. He makes it the root of all religion, the foun- dation-stone of His kingdom, the very first step toward heave... Christians sometimes talk ignorantly about faith and works, ag if they were things that could be compared with one another as equals, or opposed to one another as enemies. But let them observe here that fiiitli in Christ is so immeasurably the first tiling in Christianity, that in a certain sense it is the great work of works. In a certain sense it is the seed and root of all reli- gion, and we can do nothing until we believe. In short the right answer to '' what must 1 do ?" is " believe.'
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30. — {They said tlierefore unto him.] The secret unbelief of the Jews begins to come out in this verse. Nothing so thoroughly reveals the hearts of men as a summons to believe on Chri.^t. Exhortations to work excite no prejudice and enmity. It is the exhortation to believe that offends.
[What sign showest thou then.] The word "thou," in this sen- tence is^emphatic in the Greek. It is as though the Jews said, " Who art thou indeed to talk in this way?" " What miraculous evidence of thy Messiahship hast thou got to show ?" There is an evident sneer or sarcasm in the question.
[That we may see and believe thee.] This seems to mean, " that we may see in the miracle wrought unanswerable proof that Thou art the Messiah, and seeing the miracle may thus be able to believe Thee." This is the common language of many uncon- verted hearts. They Avant to see first, and then to believe. But this is inverting God's order. Faith must come first, and sight will follow.
There is a difference that ought to be marked between the ''believing thee" of this verse, and the "believing on him whom he hath sent," of the preceding verse. "Believing on" is saving faith. " Believing " alone, is merely believing a person to speak the truth. The devils " believe Christ," but do not believe " on Christ." We beheve John, but do not believe " on him."
f What dost thou worh] It seems at first most extraordinary that men who had seen such a miracle as that of feeding the five thousand with five loaves, and had been themselves of the nuai- ber fed, and this only tw^enty-four hours before, could ask such a question as this ! Our first thought is, that no greater sign or miracle could have been shown. But th^j speak as if it was forgotten ! Surely when we see such proofs of the extreme dul- ness and deadness of man's heart, we have no reason to be sur- prised at what we see among professing Christians.
Bucer and Grotius suggest, that the speakers here can hardly be those who were witnesses of the miracle of feeding the five thousand. But I see no need for the suggestion, when we look round us and observe what human nature is capable of, or even look at the book of Exodus, and see how soon Israel in the wil- derness forgot the miracles they had seen.
Let us remember that this demand for " a sign," or great mira- cle, was common during our Lord's ministry. It seems to have been a habit of mind among the Jews. St. Paul says, " The Jews require a sign." (1 Cor. i. 22.) They were always deceiv- ing themselves with the idea, that they wanted more evidence, and pretending that if they had this evidence they would believe. Thousands in every age do just the same. They five on waiting
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