28 They said therefore unto him, What must we do, that we may work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. Jn 6
That doesn't establish that faith is work Paul was making a play on their words since they assumed they must DO something in order to be acceptable unto God.
What must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house. Acts 16:30, 31
In fact, the text simply is stating - The 'work' is Gods, you must believe.
Christ was asked:
“What must we do, that we may work the works of God?”
Christ replied:
“This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
It seems pretty straight forward to me. Our belief/faith is a work which is well pleasing to God.
Gill:
Ver. 29. Jesus answered and said unto them,
this is the work of God,.... The main and principal one, and which is well pleasing in his sight; and without which it is impossible to please him; and without which no work whatever is a good work; and this is of the operation of God, which he himself works in men; it is not of themselves, it is the pure gift of God:
that ye believe on him whom he hath sent; there are other works which are well pleasing to God, when rightly performed, but
faith is the chief work, and others are only acceptable when done in the faith of Christ. This, as a principle, is purely God's work; as it is an act, or as it is exercised under the influence of divine grace, it is man's act: "that ye believe"; the object of it is Christ, as sent by the Father, as the Mediator between God and men, as appointed by him to be the Saviour and Redeemer; and believing in Christ, is believing in God that sent him. The Jews reduce all the six hundred and thirteen precepts of the law, for so many they say there are, to this one, "the just shall live by his faith", Hab 2:4. {e}
JFB:
29 This is the work of God--That lies at the threshold of all acceptable obedience, being not only the prerequisite to it, but the proper spring of it--in that sense,
the work of works, emphatically "the work of God."
Clarke:
Verse 28. "That we might work the works of God?" - That is, Divine works, or such as God can approve.
Verse 29. "This is the work of God, that ye believe" -
There is nothing you can be employed in more acceptable to God than in yielding to the evidence set before you, and acknowledging me as your Messiah and the saviour of a lost world.
Thus in truth it also affirms my previous statement that is backed by and establish in scripture (Rom 4:3-6) Faith is not, nor can it ever be considered a work.
No, in truth, it does NOT affirm any such thing. In truth, the line between genuine faith and acceptable works, BOTH of which spring forth by nature from the heart which has had the law written upon it (read born from above), is a very fine if not blurred one:
....the righteous by his stedfastness liveth. Hab 2:4
....the doers of the law shall be justified Ro 2:13
....I by my works will show thee my faith.
...by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. Ja 2:18, 24
Faith AND works have the same origin, the heart circumcised not with hands.