God the Sculptor

Series Introduction:

Most people think about what they’re supposed to do for God.

But what if we started with what God is doing in us?

The Bible presents God not just as a Judge or King—but as a Worker.

He doesn’t just issue commands from heaven.

He takes up roles. He uses His hands. He gets to work.

And when God works—He works with purpose.

John 5:17 NASB95

17 But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

This series is called “God Has a Job to Do.”

Not because He needs something—but because He refuses to leave us as we are.

Each week, we’ll look at a job God takes up—an earthly profession He adopts to reveal His divine work in our lives:

The Craftsman’s Hands – God defines us like a Potter and refines us like a Sculptor.

The Shepherd – He guides, guards, and carries us through every valley.

The Builder – He tears down what cannot last and builds lives that endure.

The Farmer – He plants truth, prunes sin, and produces lasting fruit.

The Advocate – He stands for us, speaks for us, and secures our place before the Father.

Each of these jobs is not just about what God does—but what kind of God He is.

He’s not absent. He’s not idle.

God has a job to do—and He’s doing it in you.

The Sculptor and the Stone

Defined by Vision, Refined by Process

We are Defined by the Sculptor’s Vision.

Romans 8:29 NASB95

29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

The sculptor doesn’t guess what he’s making.

He sees the image in the stone before he makes the first strike.

Likewise, God’s vision for you is not based on your finished performance but on His eternal purpose in Christ.

Purchased Before Progress

The artist doesn’t wait until the statue is complete to decide if it’s worth buying.

He purchases the raw stone—chipped, unshaped, unlovely.

Why? Because he sees what it will become.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 NASB95

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Christ did not die for a masterpiece. He died for a lump of stone.

You were purchased not after your transformation, but before it began.

Romans 5:8 NASB95

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Illustration:

The sculptor does not purchase the marble after he has carved it.

He chooses it as it is.

Even as a block of rough stone, it belongs to him the moment he pays the price.

In the same way, Christ bought you with His blood, not as a finished vessel, but as an unformed soul.

Your identity and value were sealed by that purchase, not by your refinement.

Your Definition Is in Christ, Not in Progress

You are not being chiseled to earn a place in God’s household.

You are being shaped because you already belong.

Refining is not the price of belonging. It is the evidence of belonging.

Like the Bible says: We are not disciplined to BECOME sons, we are disciplined because we ARE sons!

Hebrews 12:7–8 NASB95

7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

We are DEFINED by the sculptor’s love but we are :

Refined by the Sculptor’s Work

You were bought as a block of stone, defined by the price of Christ’s blood.

But that same Christ who purchased you now takes up the chisel—not to question your worth, but to reveal His glory.

What He defined by grace, He now refines by fire.

Refining is Not Redefining — It Is Revealing

Malachi 3:3 NASB95

3 “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.

The sculptor does not add to the stone. He removes what doesn’t belong.

God’s refining is not a threat to your identity—it’s the expression of it.

He refines not to prove your salvation, but to display it.

Refining is not a question of belonging; it’s a process of becoming.

The Sculptor’s Tools Are Often Trials

1 Peter 1:6–7 NASB95

6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; God’s chisel is often made of circumstance:

James 1:2–4 NASB95

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Delay - Patience

Disappointment - Hope

Conflict - Peace

Loss - Contentment

Weakness - Trust

These tools do not define you—but they are used to refine you.

Illustration:

A sculptor will use different chisels—some broad, some sharp, some fine—for different parts of the stone.

Likewise, God knows where and how to strike. And unlike human sculptors, He never misses.

We often cry out to be delivered from the chisel, not knowing the chisel is delivering us from ourselves.

Psalm 119:71 NASB95

71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.

Refining Is Always Done in the Presence of the Artist

Malachi 3:3 NASB95

3 “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.

God doesn’t throw you in the fire and walk away. He sits, watches, waits.

Philippians 1:6 NASB95

6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Illustration:

A silversmith said he knows the silver is ready when he can see his reflection in it.

God refines you until He sees Christ in you.

What Is Removed Never Belonged

Hebrews 12:1 NASB95

1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

God does not remove what is vital—He removes what is vain.

He doesn’t chisel away the real you—He chisels away the false you.

The bitter, fearful, proud, self-righteous, self-sufficient you.

The chisel isn’t taking away what God values—it’s taking away what’s blocking what God values.

The Fire Is For Glory, Not Proof

1 Peter 1:7 NASB95

7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

You do not go through trials to prove you’re saved—you go through them to show the glory of the One who saved you.

God refines what He defines.

He doesn’t refine to save you—He refines to show you. And what He’s showing is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The Goal: Christ Revealed in You

Galatians 4:19 NASB95

19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—

Not a Better You — A Clearer Christ

Colossians 1:27 NASB95

27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The chisel chips away not to reveal your strength, but to uncover His life.

A Final Word to the Weary Clay

You may feel like you are being broken, chipped, or ground down.

But remember:

You are not being reduced—you are being revealed.

You are not being cut down—you are being carved out.

You are not being rejected—you are being refined.

He is not destroying what you are—He is removing what you are not.

And when the work is finished—when the last strike of the chisel is made—you will not just look like Christ.

You will be with Christ, in glory.

1 John 3:2 NASB95

2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Closing Prayer:

Lord, thank You that I am already Yours—not because I am refined, but because I am redeemed.

And now I say, have Your way—chisel what must be chiseled,

until what remains is Christ in me, the hope of glory.