John 6:29 (Amplified) tells us, "Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God ask of you: that you believe in the One Whom He sent, that you cleave to,trust in, rely on and have faith in His Messenger."
Jesus told those following Him (and us too) that "Doing the will of God, is imply believing in Him." Jesus didn't tell them to sacrifice, work, observe certain day, abstain from certain things according to the Law, but He simply told them to "Believe in the One Whom God sent to fulfill all things." We've been taught to believe certain scriptures, but have had little experience concerning others. Romans 10:17 (Amplified) says, "So faith comes by hearing what is told, and what is heard comes by the preaching of the Message that came from the lips of Christ, the Messiah Himself."
In Luke 4:18-19 (Amplified), Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me (the Anointed One, the Messiah) to preach the Good News (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed, who are down trodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord, the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound."
Jesus didn't come to preach the Law, but to fulfill the Law, according to Matthew 5:7 (Amplified), where He says, "Do not think that I have come to do away with or undo the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo BUT to complete and fulfill them." We sometimes find ourselves, coming back to the teachings of the Law and relating more the Law, rather than to Grace. Much of today's teachings, are based on how God dealt with those under the Law. We still observe the old customs of the old covenant and have all but lost out on what Jesus actually preached.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus was dealing with those who were still under the Law and couldn't yet see or understand the new covenant that was to come. They had served God for four thousand years, by these Laws and amendments and now Jesus was preaching Grace and deliverance to them. He wasn't only preaching release from the traditions, but from the condemnation of a never ending place of trying to receive the Blessing that had been Promised to them. Even those under the Law, weren't considered "righteous" before God.
Paul tells us in Romans 3:9-10 (Amplified), "Well then, are we Jews superior or better off than they? No, not at all/ We have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), are under sin (held down by and subject to its power and control As it is written, None is righteous (just and truthful and upright and conscientious) no, not one." Under the Law, righteousness depended on man's ability to be righteous. Under Grace, this is no longer true, according to Romans 3:21-24 (Amplified), which says, "But now the righteousness of God has been revealed independently and altogether apart from the Law, although actually it is attested by the Law and the Prophets. Namely, the righteousness of God which comes by believing with personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ (the Messiah), And it is meant for all who believe. For there is no distinction Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and Glory which God bestows and receives All are justified and made upright and made in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His Grace (His unmerited favor and mercy) through the redemption which is provided in Christ Jesus."
With this scripture, we can better understand John 6:29 (Amplified), where Jesus said, "This is the work (service) that God asks of you; that you cleave to (trust in, rely on and have faith in) His Messenger." This is the only way to obtain righteousness in God's eyes. The Law could never make a man righteous, because the sin was still always present.
Paul writes in Romans 4:13-16 (Amplified), "For the Promise to Abraham or his posterity, that he should inherit the world, did not come through observing the commandments of the Law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the Law who are to be heirs, then faith is made futile and empty of all meaning and the Promise of God is made void (is annulled and has no power). For the Law results in Divine wrath, but where there is no Law, There is no transgression of it either." Verse 16 goes on, "Therefore, inheriting the Promise is the outcome of faith and depends entirely on faith in order that it might be given as an act of Grace (unmerited favor) to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is thus the father of us all."
The Promise of righteousness through Jesus, is a Gift of Love that moved Grace to the cross, so that we too (through faith in Him) could obtain the place in God's right standing. The only thing required of us today, to received the Promise God gave to Abraham, is that we believe in Jesus. Everything has been done, that was needed for us to be given "the right to stand in God's Presence as clean, holy, and accepted" by faith.
Most of us think about the word "salvation," in terms of being born-again and going to be with God when we leave this earth. This is part of what salvation means, but the Promise God gave to Abraham, dealt with his life on earth, as well has his eternal life with God. Luke 3:6 (Amplified) says, "And all mankind shall see, behold and understand and at last acknowledge the salvation of God (the deliverance from eternal death decreed by God)." The Strong's Exhaustive Concordance tells us that the word "salvation," from the above scripture mean more than deliverance of eternal death and going to Heaven. Without deliverance from eternal death through the new creation provided by Christ Jesus, man could never reap the whole of the Promise, because sin still stood in God's way.
Thus, Strong's #4982 tells us, that "salvation" means "Safe, to save, i.e. deliver, or protect, (lit. or fig.) heal, preserve, save (self) do well, be (make) whole." #4983 adds, "The body as a sound whole, used in a very wide application (lit. or fig.) bodily, body, slave." #4984-#4992 say, "Salvation" means, "Corporeal or physical body bodily, as a safe Father, safe, strength, a Deliverer, i.e. God or Christ-Savior, rescue or safety, deliver, health, salvation, save, saving, defender, and defense."
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