Why do you go to church?

Is it out of a sense of obligation, a responsibility you feel to honor Jesus?

Today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg explains why true faith involves more than simply admiring Jesus from a distance or seeking his blessings.

Let's open our Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 6.

The Son of Man is Jesus' favorite self-designation. Over 80 times, Jesus uses the Son of man of himself.

As a picture, as a reminder of that great anticipation in the book of Daniel, that there would be one like under the Son of Man. And he does it in order

that he might make clear that in him the realities of heaven can be found on earth. In him,

the realities of heaven descend to the earth. He is the only one who came from heaven, who

can speak to people about heaven. He is the only one. And here these poor souls, he has to tell

them, I wish you were here for a different reason, but the fact is you're only here for the food.

Well, that gives rise to their second question in verse 28.

Well, then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

What do we have to do to do the works of God?

It's the routine question of religious people.

It's the routine question of people when you talk to them in the street.

At the baseline is this, salvation from this perspective is viewed as being as a result of human effort.

There must be something I can do to make sure of entry into heaven.

You have it in the rich young ruler, in the story that Jesus told, that the man came to him

and his opening gambit was the same, master, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?

Salvation is a gift to be received, not a reward to be achieved, not something to be sought after and provided

by our own agency. And it was this, of course, which sparked the revolution in the heart of a Roman Catholic

monk called Martin Luther, and across into Switzerland and France, and into Scotland

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