Defining The Work of God

"Jesus said unto [His disciples], My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." (John 4:34). "But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17). In other words, "The Father is working up until now, and I am also working with My Father." "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work" (John 9:4). What does it mean, "I must work the works of him that sent me"? Jesus was healing the blind man in this chapter. That is the work of God. In Matthew 8, Jesus met the leper, and He healed him. In John 6, Jesus spoke to His disciples and then multiplied the bread. He was doing the work of public ministry through the Holy Spirit until it was time to go to the Cross. At that time, He stopped His public ministry, and He was revealed as the Lamb, slain from the beginning (Revelation 13:8), that takes away the sin of the world.

Though the crucifixion was seen in public, we could not see that as the Lamb on the Cross, He was both the expiation and the propitiation for our sin-an offering made unto God on our behalf, satisfying both the judgment and the justice of God for the penalty of our sin. That work was done out in the open so that everyone could see the salvation of our God (Isaiah 52:10). 

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John 3:14). "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32).

This is the work of God. Creation, and He did it. Redemption, and He did it. Now what is He doing? In 2 Corinthians 5:20, it says that we are here in His place, in His stead-ambassadors representing the kingdom of God. He sent the Holy Spirit into our lives, and He is ministering to us, in us, and through us.

Seeing the Grace of God

"And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision" (Galatians 2:9).

When the others saw Paul, they saw that he had personally received the grace of God. They saw him as a Spirit-filled believer. They knew about his background as one who persecuted believers, but now he was different. Perhaps he had a beautiful smile. We don't know. But when they saw his countenance, his spirit, his heart, his words, and his attitude, they saw the grace that was given unto Paul for his personal life.

Secondly, they extended the grace of God in fellowship. We not only have grace for our personal life. We also have grace for our fellowship.

We give the right hand of fellowship to our brothers and our sisters. We are not policemen. We are ministers of grace, and we say, "Grace, grace" unto that mountain (Zechariah 4:7), for this is the work of God in this period. Someday we will be finished, and He will say, "It is done, for I am Alpha and Omega." We will enter into an eternal age where there is no question or doubt, no shame or guilt, no fear or insecurity. But now there is a work of God and the work of grace.

Extending Grace to Others

We see it all the time. We love each other in the Holy Spirit, and out of our bellies flow rivers of water (John 7:38). God has commanded a blessing where we are. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1). It is the work of God, the work of grace, among us. We do not shun people. We do not judge people's motives. Instead, we give the right hand of fellowship that was extended to Paul and to Barnabas because they saw the grace of God. This right hand of fellowship is the characteristic of our heart, our spirit, our mind, and our life. It is the life that we now live.

The third work of God, as we see in Galatians 2:9, is reaching out to the lost: "...that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." Grace was seen in Paul and he was given the right hand of fellowship. And then they had the faith and the grace to believe that they were to go on and to reach out and to touch. It says, "that we should go unto the heathen."

We could change that word and say, "Go unto various people groups." Beginning with the apostles, we go unto the various ethnic groups throughout the earth. In India alone, there are 17,500 different people groups with hundreds of languages. It would seem impossible, but they had the right hand of fellowship. They had the grace of God that they knew was with them, and they had the desire and the vision to go into the world with the Gospel message. They believed that Paul and Barnabas were to go unto the heathen and they were to go to the circumcision, to the Jewish people, because grace does that.

Health to Thy Bones

Grace makes us healthy on the inside. Grace builds us up with words, Kingdom words in our heart and spirit. Grace gives us a vision for the regions beyond. When you are healthy on the inside, this is God's work, and He is still working. Jesus finished His work on the Cross, and then on that third day, the Father did a great work for us when He raised up His Son, our Savior.

Then God sent the Holy Spirit into us. This is the work that God is doing until the day when all the tears will be wiped away, when the world that we live in will be perfect, when we will be absolutely glorified state personally, and we will live in a universe that is perfected. Until that day, this is the work that we are doing right here. First, we perceive that we are objects of grace. Next, with love in our hearts we give the right hand of fellowship to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Then, we are here for the various people in the world who have not heard the Gospel. We are here on the earth to have a ministry and to do the work that God has sent us to do.