Ephesians 2:10
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
First Things First — Ephesians 2:8-9
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
not from works, so that no one can boast.
In 1924 the World Series, the New York Giants and the Washington Senators were tied after six games. Griffith Stadium in Washington was packed for the final game on October 10, 1924. At the beginning of the ninth inning the score was tied at three runs each.
New York didn’t score any runs and Washington came to bat. The home team fans screamed for one lone run, which would win the series and the world championship for the Senators. The first two men made outs and it looked like there would be extra innings. Then a player named Leon ‘Goose’ Goslin came to the plate.
Two strikes were called and then two balls. The crowd was watching every pitch. On the fifth pitch, Goslin stepped into the ball and slammed it to left center field. The crowd became delirious; it looked like a home run, but it hit inches below the top of the wall and fell back onto the field of play.
Goslin was running around the bases, slowing down for a triple when the third base coach waved him on to try for an in-park home run. The shortstop took the peg from left center and fired the ball to the catcher. Goslin slid into home in a cloud of dust, seemingly a split second before the tag. The catcher followed the routine of throwing the ball around the bases, just in case, while waiting for the umpire to make the call. The umpire delayed his call. After consulting with the other umpires he cried, ‘You’re out!’
Washington player/manager, Bucky Harris, along with his team and fans rushed onto the field, protesting the call. The umpire secured order and announced, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the batter is out…not because he didn’t beat the ball at home plate but because he didn’t touch first base!’ The players were always required to touch each base with their foot as they rounded the bases. Goslin didn’t do this!
The game went into extra innings. In the bottom of the twelfth inning, Early McNeely hit an infield ground ball that should have been an easy out. The ball took a bounce over the third baseman’s glove into left field. That was enough to score Washington catcher Ruel from third base with the winning run. It was the first World Championship Washington won. What a World Series.”
“For”
Verse 10 is connected to verses 8 and 9 with this preposition. What follows is the result of what God has done in verses 8 and 9. He saved us by grace, through faith alone and it is His gift to us to do so. The result is...
“We are His workmanship”
The word workmanship is from a Greek word used for works of art and fine literature. Each of us who have been saved by God’s grace through faith are considered by God, His workmanship…His masterpiece.
The Grand Canyon is not God’s masterpiece…nor Niagara Falls. The moon, planets and stars all declare the glory of the Lord but they pale in comparison to us. They are not trophies of God’s grace…they are not His crowning work of art. That title and privilege belongs to us alone who have experienced resurrected life in Christ by grace through faith alone.
There may come a time in your life that you don’t feel very good about yourself. You may be depressed, feel like a failure and lack any sense of worth. This verse is all you need...memorize and meditate upon it moments such as those.
Our value comes in who God created us to be and what HE thinks of us. He clearly states here that He has created us and thinks of us as His master stroke of creation. We are the result of the working of His grace and love.
When you are the product of God’s infinite grace and love you can be nothing short of perfection…we are perfect in Christ. We are clean, pure and magnificient.
“Created in Christ Jesus”
We were created in our mother’s womb. We were fearfully and wondrously made there. Psalm 139:14 makes this clear. This is something which might be said of any human being. Human life is valuable, even that life in the womb.
I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.
But in Christ Jesus we have been born again, recreated and made new. It is this life Paul has in mind when writing verse 10. God has taken the brokenness of our old life and made us new…made us into a completely new creation…and now, as this new creation, we are God’s masterpiece. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
All things are made new and it is in this new state that we are declared magnificient.
Part Two
Part Two
“Created for Good Works”
Why are you here? Why were you born? This is an age old question isn’t it? Everyone wants to know the reason or purpose for their existence.
I have a friend, an analytic philosopher and convinced atheist, who told me that she sometimes wakes in the middle of the night, anxiously turning over a series of ultimate questions: “How can it be that this world is the result of an accidental big bang? How could there be no design, no metaphysical purpose? Can it be that every life—beginning with my own, my husband’s, my child’s, and spreading outward—is cosmically irrelevant?”
In the current intellectual climate, atheists are not supposed to have such thoughts...But as one gets older, and parents and peers begin to die, and the obituaries in the newspaper are no longer missives from a faraway place but local letters, and one’s own projects seem ever more pointless and ephemeral, such moments of terror and incomprehension seem more frequent and more piercing, and, I find, as likely to arise in the middle of the day as the night.
We actually are created for a purpose…a purpose bigger than ourselves...Paul makes it clear in our passage that God created and then recreated us so that we might do good works.
The good works themselves do nothing to recreate us. They have absolutely no part in making us into God’s masterpiece. Only grace can do that! But our works are the result of becoming God’s masterpiece. It is what a masterpiece does. We are not saved by our good works but most certainly are created for them.
“Good Works”
Ultimately they are meant to glorify God…that is the reason for our existence itself! Remember, we are trophies of grace…so everything we do and all we are a part of is to show Him off to the world…to demonstrate He exists, His character is perfect and His power infinite.
Our purpose here is to enjoy God and make Him known to the world…and God has lined up a series of good works for us to be a part of with Him that will do just that.
Prepared in Advance
These good works are a part of God’s plan. They are not random or incidental acts but rather meticulously planned events that God has had in mind for us to be a part of before He created the universe.
Baking a cake illustration
Conclusion
Conclusion
We are saved…we are a new creation in and through Christ Jesus. We are created for good works…to be a part of what God is doing in the world…when we do this we glorify Him.
Are you a 210 Christian? Are you living out your purpose, His plans and glorifying God?
A 2:10 Christian is:
Saved
Masterpiece
Living an intentional life for God’s purposes
Are we a 210 Church? Are we living out our purpose, His plans and making much of Him?
Illustration: Living 210 on the street
Illustration: Living 210 as a church