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May 3rd, 2025

We often hear Christians speaking about God doing this or that work. But is this way of thinking about God’s work biblically sound? The answer is, not exactly… There’s more to it.



What is work?

In its basic definition, work is simply the exertion or effort directed at producing or accomplishing something. So what’s the practicality key here?… It's to produce or accomplish something.



Perhaps we could say that if that “…something…” is not produced or accomplished, any related exertion or effort would have been a waste of time… Just useless exertion or effort (referred to as vanity in the Bible).

So, work is directly related to the production or accomplishment of something. With this in mind, if we want to know what God’s work is, we would need to know what the “…something…” related to God's work (His exertion/effort) is. I’ve long been a proponent of backsolving, a strategic approach to solving reasoning questions (used mainly in math calculations, but I’ve been doing this all my practical life). A simple example of this is I would read the end of a book so that I would have a better understanding of what I was reading about in the rest of the book… But I digress…

So, God’s work, and the “…something…” related to it… What is it?



Let's start with what the Bible tells us Jesus said regarding God's work...

John 6:28-29... "Then they said to Him, What shall we do that we may work the works of God? . . . Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe... INTO... Him whom He has sent."

This is clear... Jesus said that the work of God is that we believe... INTO... Him whom He has sent... In other words... God's work is to cause us to believe... INTO... Jesus.

And how does God do this... How does God cause us to believe... INTO... Jesus?

The simple answer is... It’s through revelation… God causes us to believe... INTO... Jesus by the revelation of God to and in man.



Sounds strange to you… That God's work could be revelation?… Well, what does a teacher do… A quick Google search presents this…

"Teaching is the practice implemented by a teacher aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the context of an educational institution. Teaching is closely related to learning, the student's activity of appropriating this knowledge.

"

Okay, and here is the Wikipedia intro for the word revelation… "...Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and theology...".



When comparing both teaching and revelation, it seems that the only difference is that the source for revelation would be divine (of God), whereas the source for teaching would be of man. But does this mean that God can’t teach?



Well… Let’s see what the Bible tells us…

2 Timothy 3:16-17… “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, . . . That the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.”



And… 1 Corinthians 2:10… “But to us God has revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.”



And… John 14:26… “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you.”



When we consider the three above scripture verses, we should see that there is a kind of all-inclusive effort taking place… God gives us scripture “… for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, . . . That the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.”… Then, God reveals “…the depths of God…” through the Spirit… Then God sends us “…the Comforter, the Holy Spirit…” to “…teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you.”



It certainly seems that God is revealing/teaching Himself to us through the Holy Spirit that He sent to us… And yes, that’s exactly what God is doing… God is revealing/teaching Himself to us through the Holy Spirit that He sent to us.



This is the work of God… It is the revealing/teaching of Himself to us through the Holy Spirit that He sent to us.



Yet, unlike the revealing and teaching of natural humanity, God’s revealing/teaching is something far more extraordinary… Follow me here… When God reveals Himself to man, there is something inherent within this revealing of God to man that brings God Himself into man and man into God.



Jesus said… John 14:20… “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”



And… John 17:21… “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”



God’s revealing/teaching of Himself to man makes God one with man and man one with God… This is the reality of the oneness between God and man that is realized in Christ Jesus.



We should never think of God’s revealing/teaching of Himself to man in the same way that we understand the revealing/teaching of natural humanity… These are two different things… The revealing/teaching of God is the realization (in the fullest sense of the word, meaning, something becomes our possession) of God in man and man in God. This is why the apostle Paul says…

2 Corinthians 3:18… “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”

 The “…beholding…” is the revelation of God to/in man… And when this takes place, spontaneously there is the “…and reflecting…”, meaning, our human expression becomes divine… God is expressed in and out of humanity. This is the realization of our “…being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”



And just in case you are wondering about the connection between God’s revelation/teaching of Himself in and to us, consider the following scripture verse in this light…



Philippians 1:6… “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun in you a good work will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus;…”.

This “…good work…” that God “…has begun in you…” is the revealing/teaching of Himself to you… The revelation of God to man, which includes both His revealing and teaching, is the “…good work…” that God is carrying out on this earth today… In both a positive sense and a negative sense…



2 Corinthians 2:16… “To some a savor out of death unto death, and to the others a savor out of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?”



When God reveals/teaches Himself to and in man, there is first a killing that takes place. This is the realization of the cross of Christ Jesus…

 Therefore, the revelation of God to and in man contains the reality of the cross of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:45… “So also it is written, 'The first man, Adam, became a living soul'; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.”



The phrase, “…the last Adam…”, is indicative of Jesus’ death on the cross… Jesus was “…the last Adam…”… But now, in His resurrection and ascension, Jesus “…became a life-giving Spirit…”.



So, how is this related to the revelation of God being the work of God in man?



1 John 3:2… “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been manifested what we will be. We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is.”



This… “…we will be like Him…”, which is God’s goal, the “…something…” that God desires to produce/accomplish… Takes place, “…because we will see Him even as He is.”



To “…see Him even as He is…” is the result of God revealing/teaching Himself to/in man… And when this takes place in its fullest, most complete context… Then, “…we will be like Him…”.



The revelation of God to man is not just some common theological exercise… It is not some human effort to learn about God… The revelation of God is the intrinsic essence of God’s relationship to man, as it is the vehicle by which God carries out His eternal plan in and through man.



In the Merriam Webster dictionary, I found two applicable definitions of the word “…vehicle…” that speak to what I’m presenting regarding the revelation of God to man being a type of vehicle… The first tells us that a vehicle is “…an agent of transmission: a carrier…”, and “…a medium through which something is expressed, achieved, or displayed. . . . an investment vehicle. . . . especially: a work created especially to display the talents of a particular performer…”.



The revelation of God to man is “…an agent of transmission: a carrier…”.



The revelation of God to man is “…a medium through which something is expressed, achieved, or displayed…”.



The revelation of God to man is “…an investment vehicle…” (I found this very interesting, as it can be applied to God investing Himself in man).



The revelation of God to man is “…a work created especially to display the talents of a particular performer…”. In this case, the performer is God.



I hope what I’ve said above makes clear the matter of the revelation of God to and in man, being the work of God… But there’s more to this matter.



Remember earlier in this article, I referenced my penchant for “…backsolving…”?… Well, in this case, it has to do with the matter of the definition of work… Here it is again…



What is work?

In its basic definition, work is simply the exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something. So what’s the practicality key here?… To produce or accomplish something.



Now I’ll focus on what, in the context of the revelation of God to and in man being the work of God, this “…something…” actually is… It is God’s eternal resting place, Zion…



Psalms 132:13-18… “For Jehovah has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. . . . This is My resting place forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it. . . . I will abundantly bless its provision; I will satisfy its poor with bread. . . . And its priests I will clothe with salvation, and its faithful ones will shout with a ringing shout. . . . There I will cause a horn of David to shoot forth; I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one. . . . I will clothe his enemies with shame, but on him his crown will shine.”



Zion… God’s desired “…forever…” resting place, is the “…something…” that is the focus of God’s work… Zion is the intended goal of God’s exertion or effort toward man… In fact, this “…Zion…” is actually the realization of God in man and man in God… In a singular context, God’s “…forever…” resting place is Christ Jesus… And in an expanded context, God’s “…forever…” resting place includes all who have believed… INTO… Christ Jesus (His built up church).

Yet even this view is not specific enough… As in physical Jerusalem, which is a type of the kingdom of God, “…Zion…” specifically defines the center of the city of Jerusalem, where the temple, as God’s dwelling place on earth, was built.



And what was this center of Jerusalem, this “…Zion…”, this temple of God expressing?… It should have been expressing what is presented in the scripture below…



Revelation 21:1-3… “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more. . . . And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. . . . And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.”



The temple of God, in the Old Testament times, should have expressed God tabernacling “…with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.” Unfortunately, “…His people…”, the Israelites, proved themselves unable to meet/hold to God’s requirements for oneness with Him, and so God turned to another people, the Gentiles. Yet God didn’t abandon the Israelites, but simply set them aside for a season while He brought the Gentiles to Himself.



Oneness between God and man and man and God has always been the goal of God’s relationship with man… Oneness, in God’s eyes, equals “… the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.”



This is the reality of God’s purpose for creating man as a vessel… Man was created to contain God so that man could eternally abide in God and express God… And “…Zion…” defines those who have been perfected in this… Those who have been perfected in containing God, abiding in God, and expressing God… And this “…Zion…” actually expands from being the center of Jerusalem, being served only by the Levite priests, to being the entire city, which is called in the book of Revelation, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2), and that is served by all who have believed… INTO… Christ Jesus.



And this is produced/accomplished by the only work of God on this earth, which is the revelation of God to/in man.



And just in case you’re wondering, in typology, looking at Israel as a whole, when God brought Israel out of Egypt, He intended that ALL of Israel, not just the Levites, be priests unto Him…



Exodus 19:3-6… “And Moses went up to God, and Jehovah called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel: . . . You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. . . . Now therefore if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My personal treasure from among all peoples, for call the earth is Mine. . . . And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel.”



(God always tells us His intention and then makes it a reality.

.. In this case, those redeemed of Israel will become a type of earthly priesthood during the millennium reign of the Lord, whereas born-again believers who are in Christ Jesus will become kings during this time. But after the millennium reign of the Lord has ended and the new heaven and new earth have come in, both redeemed Israelites and born-again believers will just be one people before God.)

In Matthew 16:13-18, we read… “Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of Man is? . . . And they said, Some, John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. . . . He said to them, But you, who do you say that I am? . . . And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. . . . And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens. . . . And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”



Pay close attention to this that the Lord says… “…because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens.”



Here we see Jesus making it clear that revelation from “…My Father…” was needed for Peter to see/understand/grasp that Jesus was “…the Christ, the Son of the living God…”… And it is upon this revelation that the Lord declared, “…I will build My church…”.



Most Christians, when considering the matter of the work of God, tend to see the building of His “…church…” being His work… And this is not an error… But it is short of the full truth… As we can see from scripture, the building of the Lord’s church begins with and is founded upon revelation from God the Father.



The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 1:15-16… “But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, . . . To reveal His Son in me that I might announce Him as the gospel among the Gentiles, immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood,…”.



Here we can clearly see that God reveals Christ Jesus in the apostle Paul… This is the essence of God’s revelation in man… It’s not knowledge, and not even some type of mental understanding… It is actually a Person that God reveals… A living Person, the Person of the resurrected, ascended, and enthroned Son, Christ Jesus… He is the essence of God’s revelation of Himself to man.



Now I’m going to also repeat something else I said earlier… As I want to connect this matter of the revelation of God to and in man being a Person, the Person of Christ Jesus, to our new creation living and being… Meaning… Christ Jesus becoming our very person and therefore our very living and being…



Let’s go over this again… I said earlier…



Yet, unlike the revealing and teaching of natural humanity, God’s revealing/teaching is something far more extraordinary… Follow me here… When God reveals Himself to/in man, there is something inherent within this revealing of God to/in man that brings God Himself into man and man into God.



Jesus said… John 14:20… “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”

And… John 17:21… “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”



God’s revealing/teaching of Himself to/in man makes God one with man and man one with God… This is the reality of the oneness between God and man that is realized in Christ Jesus.



We should never think of God’s revealing/teaching of Himself to/in man in the same way that we understand the revealing/teaching of natural humanity… These are two different matters… The revealing/teaching of God is the realization (in the fullest sense of the word, meaning, we become God's possession and God becomes our possession) of God in man and man in God. This is why the apostle Paul says…

2 Corinthians 3:18… “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”



The “…beholding…” is the revelation of God to/in man… And when this takes place, spontaneously there is the “…and reflecting…”, meaning, our human expression becomes divine… God is expressed in and out of humanity. This is the realization of our “…being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”


So the beginning of the work of God… This being the revelation of God to and in man… Has the intended purpose/goal of making God, in Christ Jesus, the reality of man’s person (“…being transformed into the same image…”), so that man can abide in God and express God in and out of our humanity.



The apostle Paul says in Galatians 1:11-12… “For I make known to you, brothers, concerning the gospel announced by me, that it is not according to man. . . . For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation by Jesus Christ.”



Even here we see that, regarding the gospel he declared, Paul “… received it through a revelation by Jesus Christ.”

And we know from his writings that he considered the gospel he declared to be synonymous with his living and being… Meaning… Paul saw the gospel, he declared, and his living and being, as the same… His living and being were for his declaring of the gospel…



Acts 20:24… “But I consider my life of no account as if precious to myself, in order that I may finish my course and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus to solemnly testify of the gospel of the grace of God.”



And, concerning the gospel, because the apostle Paul had “… received it through a revelation by Jesus Christ…”, we can understand that since Paul’s living and being was for his declaring of the gospel, then the revelation that he had received was for his living and being.



The apostle Paul says in Philippians 1:21… “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”



Paul had come to realize that his life was to live Christ. To him, to live was Christ… Christ was not only his life but also his living. He lived Christ because Christ lived in him (Gal. 2:20). He was one with Christ in both life and living. He and Christ had one life and one living. They lived together as one person. Christ lived within Paul as Paul's life, and Paul lived Christ outwardly as Christ's living.



And this came about by the revelation of God in Him… The revelation of God became Paul’s person, and the energizing power for Paul to live Christ as his own living and being… This is the fullness of God that is contained in the revelation of Himself to us.



The revelation of God to and in man is the source and center of God accomplishing/gaining His eternal desire in His creation in and through man… The revelation of God to and in man causes man to be transformed “…into the same image…” that we are beholding in His revelation to us… The revelation of God to and in man is the reality of the Lord’s declaration of, “…I will build My church…”, as the Lord’s church is built on the revelation of God to and in man… The revelation of God to and in man is what brings about God gaining His desired eternal resting place, "...Zion...", which expands into the city called, New Jerusalem, spoken of at the end of the book of Revelation (chapter 21), in which God “… will tabernacle with (man), and (man) will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with (man) and be their God.”… The revelation of God to and in man becomes the glory of God that man is led into (Heb. 2:10) and even becomes, which is the fulfillment of God’s purpose for creating man.



The revelation of God to and in man is living and operative, and will be living and operative for eternity, as there is no end to the infinite God.



God’s revelation of Himself to man not only begins the process of our transformation to the image of Christ Jesus, but it is the intrinsic vehicle that carries out of the process of man’s transformation through to its intended conclusion/goal of man, corporately, as the church, possessing the fullness of God in Christ Jesus.



This is the work of God… The revelation of Himself to man, for the purpose of accomplishing His eternal desire in and through man.



I’ll end with this warning and exhortation…



The next time you find yourself considering a matter… Be absolutely clear that if you choose the way of your old man over the leading of the Spirit… You will be rejecting/denying the revelation of God, and in doing so, willfully choosing to turn away from the work of God in you that is for the accomplishment of His eternal desire.



May the Lord have mercy on us all, and by His grace, cause us to never reject His revelation of Himself to us.



Amen.