Worship for Today: We are God's workmanship!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ephesians 2:10,

 

"We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

 

Here is something I don't often think of, something I certainly should and yet, I haven't given it the meditation and appreciation something like this deserves. I am God's workmanship! All believers are objects of God's workmanship! I am reminded of Paul's comment in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" We become renewed/remade/recreated as believers in Jesus Christ and are examples of what God does, the kinds of things he engages in, an expression of his intention for us.

 

Earlier in this chapter, Paul described our depraved condition prior to our turning to God and his intervening in our lives. He says we were dead in transgressions and sins as both a lifestyle and a conclusion to our lives. We used to follow Satan following the cravings of our own innate sinful nature, acquired when mankind turned his back on God in sin and rebellion. As such we were objects of God's wrath, living our lives awaiting our fate in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

 

In this horrible state of affairs, God's grace was manifested in an act of inexplicable mercy, kindness and love. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to take our place in punishment and made a way for us, through faith, to take a place at his table! Now that we have become God's children by embracing him in faith, God carries on his transformational work in our lives, creating a thing of beauty from that which is ugly, repugnant, dishonorable and unseemly. As Paul says in Romans 8:29, "Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

 

As I look at the wonderful things I have seen God do in the lives of brothers and sisters around me, I marvel at the handiwork of God!

 

Further, as God does his transformational work in our lives, we read that he does this that we might engage in "good works" that he has purposed us for. This provides our lives with meaning and purpose, answering the classical philosophical questions of "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?" From this perspective we can see just how it is that our lives fit into the bigger scheme of things in God's economy and establishes the worth of our lives as they are measured in terms of "God's workmanship".

 

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com