Is believing/faith a work ?

[Paul E. Michael]

Interesting, God calls 'Faith' as work ... John 6:29 Jesus answered, “This is the work of God: that you believe [adhere to, trust in, rely on, and have faith] in the One whom He has sent.” .... maybe He made a mistake and you are correcting it

Jesus is not saying that faith/believing is work any more than He is saying that you are His mother:

Matthew 12:47-50 Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.
But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

Are you Jesus's sister and Jesus's mother?

 

[Fastfredy0]

Jesus is not saying that faith/believing is work any more than He is saying that you are His mother:

Are you Jesus's sister and Jesus's mother?

Well, that reply made no sense to me.
Aside: Ah, I am not Jesus's sister of mother .... lol

 

[Paul E. Michael]

For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

I am not Jesus's sister of mother

Interesting. Then either you are not someone who does the will of Jesus's Father which is in heaven, or maybe Jesus made a mistake and you are correcting Him.

 

[Fastfredy0]

I am not Jesus's sister of mother.

For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
Interesting. Then either you are not someone who does the will of Jesus's Father which is in heaven, or maybe Jesus made a mistake and you are correcting Him.

Hey, are you a tranny activist? Like, I don't believe I can change my sex so "I am not Jesus's sister of mother". LOL

What's that got to do with Faith being a work or not?
My last response as you are not rational.

 

[Paul E. Michael]

I am not Jesus's sister of mother.

Then, according to Jesus, you are not someone who does the will of Jesus's Father which is in heaven:

For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

 

[brightfame52]

See Faith is in contrast to works only when its viewed correctly in Gods Salvation package,

That is, Faith/Believing is not a action of the natural man, the unregenerate man that God views in them in order to save or justify them. However Faith or Believing is the Gift of God by which by Grace reigning, men are caused to believe in Christ or call upon His Name. Believing is the manifestation of the Sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in those whom God has chosen and predestinated to believe the Gospel of their Salvation, Acts 13:48

48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

2 Thess 2:13-14

13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 34

 

[brightfame52]

I found this article on the internet and its something I have said for years:

Faith: A gift? A work? Something in Between?​

My last post explained why the Arminian view of salvation ultimately is salvation by works. I explained that a “work” as conceptualized by Paul included the idea of doing something in exchange for a reward. The Arminian idea of justification by faith, therefore, necessarily leads to justification by works. In today’s post I’d like to look at and explore another reason, and a rather simple one, as to why Arminianism constitutes salvation by works: Faith is a work. More specifically, the activity of faith, which is believing, is a work. Hearing such a thing might sound like nails on a chalkboard even to many “Reformed” and “Sovereign Grace” folks. I have seen individuals from these backgrounds spinning their wheels trying to explain why faith somehow is and is not a work, and it seems to me that there is just as much confusion among sovereign grace affirming believers as there is among Arminians on this issue.
Let’s start off by simply looking at the definition of what a “work” is. Here is how a “work” is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition:

1.
a. Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something
3.
a. Something that one is doing, making, or performing, especially as an occupation or undertaking; a duty or task

Chambers’ is another reputible English Dictionary which gives nearly identical definitions:

1 physical or mental effort made in order to achieve or make something
8 anything done, managed, made or achieved, etc;

Mounce’s Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament gives this as the first definition for the Greek word for “work”:

ἔργον
ergon
anything done or to be done;

So a “work” by definition is simply that which someone does, whether physically or mentally. It is really just that simple. Let us now go to the Scriptures to see how faith is categorized:

John 6:28–29 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? (29) Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

The Son of God directly, in no uncertain terms, categorizes faith as a work in this verse. It is something that a person does. Let’s look at another text:

Acts 16:30–31 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? (31) And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Paul was asked directly by the jailor what he must do to be saved. Paul could have said “You don’t have to do anything!”, but that’s not what he said. He said that the jailor needed to do something, namely, believe. A work is something that is done, therefore believing is a work.
Moreover, believing is a commandment which is pleasing to God. If you asked the average free-willer if a person gets to heaven by commandment-keeping, they would emphatically deny this, yet believing is categorized as exactly that:

1 John 3:22–23 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. (23) And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

Now, some will object that faith is a gift of God, and therefore is not a work. This is partially correct. I will explain. Faith is a God-given capacity which is implanted within the elect sinner upon regeneration. Historically theologians have referred to this as the habit or “seed” of faith. Elect, regenerate infants possess the habit or capacity of faith. What they do not possess is the activity of faith, i.e believing. Believing is what the sinner does, and is therefore his/her own, and is a work. This is why historically Arminianism was condemned all around by Reformed, Presbyterian and Particular Baptists as nothing short of works salvation. Because Arminians posited that a man was saved on the basis of his act of believing. Thus while it is true that the habit or capacity of faith is a gift of God, the act of faith is man’s act, not God’s. In other words, man believes, God does not believe for man, and therefore believing is a man’s doing, or work. It is that simple.
Whenever this perspective is brought up, there will inevitably be several texts of scripture that will be brought up contrasting faith with works. I will probably address these in later posts, Lord willing. For now I simply want to point out what should be rather obvious from Scripture. If we are just going by the dictionary definition, believing is a work.

Faith: A gift? A work? Something in Between?​

My last post explained why the Arminian view of salvation ultimately is salvation by works. I explained that a “work” as conceptualized by…

sinnersaved.medium.com