John 6:28 Commentary and Bible Study

Well, their reply was not very encouraging. The crowd that had followed him to Capernaum. These are people who rate themselves as disciples in a sense. But they start to make unreasonable objections. First of all, you can see they have got this all wrong. ‘Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?’ They had a fixed mind.Well for years, you see, they had believed quite wrongly, that the standards of God’s Ten Commandments and all the other commandments of the ancient law were given to them so that they could obey them and earn the blessing of God. Now the commandments, of course, are given to us to be obeyed, yes. But they are also given us to prove to us that we cannot earn the blessing of God. They are too high for us. They are meant to shame us, and humble us, and bring us to see how much we need salvation as a gift from God, free pardon and forgiveness.But no, they thought that if God has given us the manner of worship, the ceremonial law, all the intricate things to do, then by doing them, well we please him. We can do it. They were very confident. And so this has to be cleared from their minds.