This chapter includes a masterful play on words.
John purposefully relates the great efforts the crowd went through to find Jesus a second time. And Jesus knows their goal is not spiritual instruction but rather more food! So, He rebukes and redirects them:
John 6:27
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
Confused, they ask “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (v. 28). In other words, where should they put their efforts to obtain such eternal life-giving food? This is law-fulfilling language that borders on sorcery, which is making God do what you want.
But Jesus responds that there is only one “work of God” (v. 29).
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
But in their mind, this would still have been something they would have to do, to believe. So, Jesus had to explain further that, it was not about what did they need to do, it was about what God must do.
John 6:37a
All that the Father gives me will come to me, . . .
In other words:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
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