For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

 

This verse clearly teaches that you are not an accident—God created you on purpose for a purpose.

 

 

The Greek word translated “workmanship” is poiema, from which we get our English word “poem.”  A poem is a literary work of art—and here Paul is using it to describe Christians, that each of us as Christians is a living work of art, a masterpiece in the making.

 

 

The only way we can begin becoming God’s masterpiece is through the new birth where we become a new creation in Christ.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

 

As Christians, we are a part of God’s new creation and He continues to work in us and on us to make us what He wants us to be—His own personal work of art.  In other words, our conversion is not the end—it’s just the beginning of all that God wants to do in and through our lives.

 

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

 

We are God’s masterpiece in the making—but a masterpiece takes time.  Each child of God is a work in progress and God is sculpting our lives into the image of Jesus (Rom.8:29).

 

To do this, He uses three special tools: the Word of God (1 Thes. 2:13), prayer (Eph. 3:20–21), and suffering (James 1:2-4).

 

Warren Wiersbe said—
“As we read God’s Word, understand it, meditate on it, and feed on it, the Word goes to work in our lives to cleanse us and nourish us. As we pray, God’s Spirit works in us to release power. And as we suffer, the Spirit of God ministers to us. Suffering drives us back to the Word and prayer, and the cycle is repeated.”
 

But God has a purpose in it all—that we might produce good works.

 

 

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…” 

 

The purpose of God saving us and making us new creations in Christ is so that we would produce good works—

 

[Jesus] who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

 

This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.
 

There are many Christians who have a negative view of good works in the Christian life.  They no doubt feel this way because they have been taught, and rightly so, that we are saved by grace and not by our works. But because of this some have gotten the idea that any talk of good works in the Christian life is somehow bad.

 

It is true that we are not saved by good works—but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been saved for good works!  And that is exactly what Paul has been teaching us in Eph.2:8-10—

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
 

This is something that is emphasized from one end of the N.T. to the other.  The Lord Jesus Himself told us in Matt.5:16—“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”. 

 

We are commanded to always have an “abundance of every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8); and also to be “fruitful in every good work” (Col. 1:10).   We are admonished to know the Bible as believers so that we might be “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17); and as believers, we are to be “zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). 

 

We know the Bible teaches that good works don’t earn us our salvation but they are the fruit of our salvation.  James said that “faith without works is dead”—and as Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit.”

 

The fruit that Jesus is referring to are good works which always begin with a godly character—some of which Paul mentions in Galatians 5 calling these attributes of a godly character the “fruit of the Spirit.”

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
 

But Paul also compares winning lost souls to Christ to bearing fruit (Rom. 1:13), and he names “holiness” as a spiritual fruit (Rom. 6:22).

 

The writer to the Hebrews called praising God the “fruit of our lips”.  The idea of producing spiritual fruit in the life of a believer of Christ would include obedience to all God has said in every area of our lives encompassing character, conduct and conversation—everything from the Ten Commandments to the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Our good works are the supreme evidence that we have been born again.  

 

 

Now as I said earlier, God created you on purpose for a purpose—an eternal purpose, and He has been preparing you for that work even from before you were born.  The apostle Paul mentions this in Galatians 1:15 when he was giving his testimony how that it pleased God, “Who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace…”

 

God has been preparing you for His purposes even from the womb—you are no accident!  I mean, who you would be—your race and gender; where you would be born, the family and economic status you would be born into, the talents and abilities you were born with—all of these were God’s way of preparing you for the purpose He had for your life.

 

Ever since you were born God has been further preparing you through the experiences of your life—good and bad for this work—shaping and molding you into who you are today.

 

God has your future all mapped out and designed—He knows exactly the work that He wants you to accomplish for His glory and His kingdom.  The question is, will you submit to Him and fulfill the plans and purposes He has ordained for your life?

 

Jesus expressed His purpose for life when He said, “I have not come to do My will but the will of Him who sent Me.” And, “My food is to do the will of My Father and to finish His work.”

 

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

 

We have not been created to live for our own pleasures or to glorify self—we have been created for God’s pleasure and for His glory.  You don’t have to live for God’s pleasure or fulfill the work He has ordained for you—you can go on living for yourself—  But remember that Jesus said, “If you seek to find your life now you will lose it for eternity, but if you seek to lose your life now for My sake you will find it forever.”

 

And finally, please know this—happiness in life is never achieved by direct pursuit—it comes as the by-product of knowing and living for God.  Living for God and His glory is the greatest life a person can ever live because it fulfills the greatest purpose we can ever have!

 

Which is why Paul said, “All that you do in word or in deed do all for the glory of God.”

 

May that be the cry and passion of our hearts and lives!