25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?
Do you see Jesus giving these seekers after signs a list of sacraments required for eternal life? Do you see Jesus telling them to eat His flesh and drink His blood, yet?
The persistence by these seekers of self-righteousness is what Jesus answered with His purposed discourse on eating the spiritual to have spiritual life, and the seekers after signs were turned away because they could only discern the carnal perspective.
THIS is a spiritual issue, not a carnal one. When the seekers after signs wanted directions of what they could DO, what work they could perform to receive eternal life, what did Jesus answer? 'The work God requires is faithing in Whom He has sent for your redemption.'
To the carnally directed mind, the word 'work' translates into physical actions ... like fidelity to the Mass, working, striving to obtain, where the physical ingestion of mystical elements is played out, as if the physical act of eating the wafer --magically transformed into flesh and blood but remaining a wafer-- will be the work the god of catholiciism requires to obtain and maintain eternal life! It's the great lie!
The SPIRITUAL message is in the will, not the physical body, not mystical 'elements' ... believe, faithe, trust in the ONE WHOM GOD has sent for your salvation. The work God requires is not striving on a sacramental trail, it is BELEIVING / FAITHING in the ONE WHOM GOD sent for your spiritual need. God can and will change that which you cannot change because your 'deeds' arise from a sin nature such that your deeds cannot escape your pride in self. Jesus illustrated this with the scene at Judgment.
As a descendant of Adam the life in your blood is a sin nature. The ONLY cure for this sin nature is being born from above to have a new nature, a new life, LIFE of God's nature. The transformation from Adamic Nature to God's nature is based in a Promise from God, and you will be under that Life influence when you are born from above, to the degrees to which you yield your will to GOD's Holy Spirit direction. At death or in the Rapture you will shed the Adamic body and the life of Adam which carries your sin nature in your blood. The corruptible must put on incorruption, and you cannot accomplish that, especially by doing deeds while in your sin-nature body.
YOU cannot strive and obtain that which ONLY God has, that LIFE of Jesus which is not inherited from Adam. THAT Life is spirit in origin, not blood born in your sin nature body. Being spiritual food, you cannot physically eat it into your being.
The work GOD requires is not achieved through striving, it is Given as The Grace of God in Christ Jesus when you BELIEVE in WHOM GOD has sent for your new birth. THAT is the Grace of God in Christ, The Gospel of the Grace of God in Christ Jesus for you and for me. Accept that new Life by believing / faithing, or continue to strive for it believing you can earn the Grace of God. It is your choice.
Striving, working deeds is what the ones pleading with Jesus at the Great White Throne will offer, trying to be counted worthy, as if it takes their deeds to earn eternal life with Jesus. And in their self-righteousness Jesus will answer depart from Me, I never knew you, I never was given the right by your will to do the works you cite as your works ...
Have you heard the Gospel of God’s Grace in Christ now?
Salvation is not earned. It is the gift of God. We who are in the Messiah were created in Him to do good works and are commanded to do good works. When the LORD Jesus Christ speaks to the churches in Revelation, he mentions works twelve times, emphasizing its importance. We should obey the Messiah.
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Ephesians, Catholic chapter two, Protestant verses one to twenty you.