Ephesians 2:10
Notes
Transcript
His Workmanship
His Workmanship
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
v. 8-9) Review. We made it clear last week that it is God who enables us to believe. And that Grace AND Faith are both gifts from God. And when we truly understand that, it takes the “boasting” part out of the equation.
Back to the “boasting” for just a minute though. It is a common thing for people in ministry to get sucked into the “people pleasing” mode to seek the praise of men first and put God’s glory in the backseat.
When we do that, we are leading our Christian lives in pride, and we know all too well how dangerous that is! What led Satan to fall?
So, we have to ask ourselves this question. Am I doing this for my glory or for God’s? Am I doing this to bring God glory or to get a pat on the back?
It’s something we all have to guard against. In the Sermon on the Mount, in chapter 6 Jesus talks about the Pharisees and how they loved to pray in public, give in public, and fast in public: ALL so they could be SEEN by MEN.
What did Jesus tell them? They HAD their reward. But if we are seeking God’s glory first, then our rewards will be eternal. We don’t do things for the rewards, but it’s almost a “don’t seek it and you’ll get it, but if you seek it, it’ll be elusive.” kind of thing.
So now onto verse 10.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
I want to look at this verse 10 tonight and I want to look at God’s work and our work.
v.10) We are His Workmanship
What does this word “workmanship” mean? In the greek it’s the word poiema, which means “creation”.
So, literally we are His Creation. I think the fact that we are HIS Creation, HIS workmanship tells us several things about God and several things about ourselves.
What does it tell us about God?
That He created us with a purpose.
That He created us with His glory in mind, not ours.
That He is a God of love, grace, and mercy.
What does it mean to us that we are God’s workmanship?
What does it mean to us that we are God’s workmanship?
It means we have value (In Christ Jesus).
Not value based on anything we have done, or anything that we were born with, but value based on what God created us for.
Genesis 1:27
Psalm 139:13-16
Jeremiah 29:11
Matthew 10:31
1 Peter 2:19
John 3:16
We have great value because of what God did for us in Christ. That is what gives us value. Our lives are valuable to God. The life of every person born on this Earth is valuable to God. It is only when those people choose to ultimately reject God that they diminish that.
No matter where you are in life or what hand your life has been dealt, you have value. If you are a child of God, you are a SON or DAUGHTER of the KING. That should make you realize your worth. You have worth because of who God says you are.
It means we have purpose.
Workmanship implies a purpose.
The potter has a purpose in His creation.
Woodworking shop. A wood worker takes a raw piece of wood and creates something valuable (furniture). But he takes the wood and cuts it, lathes it, routes it, sands it.
God didn’t send Jesus to die for you and save you for no reason. You have a purpose in this life and as we will look at it in a minute: God chose that purpose a long time ago (before you were even born!)
We weren’t created out of chance or at random. We weren’t created from a blob of random cells that “mysteriously“ came together. We were created by a divine designer.
It means we have work to do.
We were created FOR good works, not saved FROM good works.
His workmanship ENABLES our works!
