Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
Jesus replied to their plural “works” with the singular “work.” There is only one work that is required and that is to believe on Jesus. The tense of “believe on” is such that it literally means “keep on believing.” Note in Hab 2:4 it says that “the righteous will live by his faith”.
Faith is a work, but then again, it isn’t. Faith is putting trust and confidence in someone to be trustworthy and able to accomplish that which they have promised. We exercise faith all the time, in the marriage relationship, between a shopper and a merchant, and between an employer and an employee, for example. We place faith in humans, who will fail us. Why don’t we place faith in the One Who will never fail us?
Note that placing faith in God means we are conversely placing distrust in our own abilities and works. There is an opposite and equal reaction to the exercise of faith. The paper that becomes convex on one side is concave on the other. Trusting in God means distrusting in our own selves.
Faith in the One God has sent will result in a changed person and lifestyle. The works will follow the change. Such a faith produces a Christ-like life. Maclaren says that “God is pleased, not by what men do, but by what men are.” God’s word says that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6).
With which works are we trying to please God? What does He want from us? What are we going to do about it?