Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. I. THE SINGULAR ORIGIN OF A CHRISTIAN MAN. As many as are truly saved, and brought into union with Christ, are the workmanship of God. No Christian in the world is a chance production of nature, or the outcome of evolution, or the result of special circumstances. Of regeneration we must say once for all, "This is the finger of God." The spiritual life cannot come to us by development from our old nature. 1. We are God's workmanship from the very first. The first stroke that helps to fashion us into Christians comes from the Lord's own hand. He marks the stone while yet in the quarry, cuts it from its natural bed, and performs the first hewing and squaring, even as it is He who afterwards exercises the sculptor's skill upon it. 2. We shall remain the Lord's workmanship to the very last. The picture must be finished by that same Master-hand which first sketched it. If any other hand should lay so much as a tint or colour thereupon, it would certainly mar it all. 3. This is very beautiful to remember, and it should stir up all that is within us to magnify the Lord. I was surprised when I was told, the other day, by a friend, who was a maker of steel-plate engravings, how much of labour had to be put into a finely executed engraving. Think of the power that has cut lines of beauty in such steel as we are! Think of the patience that lent its arm, and its eye, and its heart, and its infinite mind, to the carrying on of the supreme work of producing the image of Christ in those who were born in sin! 4. If we are God's workmanship, never let us be ashamed to let men see God's workmanship in us. Let us be very much ashamed, though, to let them see the remains of the devil's workmanship in us; hide it behind a veil of repentant grief. Christ has come to destroy it; let it be destroyed. II. Secondly, here in the text we see THE PECULIAR MANNER OF THIS ORIGIN. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." "Created in Christ Jesus." Our new life is a creation. This goes further than the former expression; for workmanship is less than creation. Man may produce a picture, and say, "This is my workmanship": a piece of mosaic, or a vessel fresh from the wheel, may be a man's workmanship, but it is not his creation. The artist must procure his canvas and his colours, the maker of a mosaic must find his marbles or his wood, the potter must dig his clay, for without these materials he can do nothing; for he is not the Creator. To One only does that august name strictly belong. In this world of grace, wherever we live, we are a creation. 1. Our new life is as truly created out of nothing as were the first heavens, and the first earth. This ought to be particularly noticed, for there are some who think that the grace of God improves the old nature into the new. That which is of God within us is a new birth, a Divine principle, a living seed, a quickening spirit; in fact, it is a creation: we are new creatures in Christ Jesus. 2. Creation was effected by a word. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made." "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." "God said, Let there be light: and there was light." Is not that again an accurate description of our entrance into spiritual light and life? Do we not confess, "Thy word hath quickened me"? "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 3. In creation the Lord was alone and unaided. The prophet asks, "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counsellor hath taught Him?" Creation is the prerogative of Jehovah, and none can share it with Him. So it is in the regeneration of a soul; instrumentality appears, but the real work is immediately of the Spirit of God. III. We come, thirdly, to dwell upon THE SPECIAL OBJECT OF THIS CREATION: "Unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." When Adam was created, the Lord made him for His own glory. When the Lord creates us the second time, in the second Adam, He does not make us that we may be merely comfortable and happy. We may enjoy all that God has given us, for of every tree of this garden you may freely eat, since in the paradise into which Christ has introduced you there is no forbidden fruit. Around you is the garden of the Lord, and your call is that you may dress it, and keep it. Cultivate it within; guard it from foes without. Holy labours await you, good works are expected of you, and you were created in Christ Jesus on purpose that you might be zealous for them. 1. Works of obedience. 2. Works of love. 3. Good works include the necessary acts of common life, when they are rightly performed. All our works should be "good works"; and we may make them so by sanctifying them with the Word of God and prayer. 4. God has not created us that we may talk about our good works, but that we may walk in them. Practical doing is better than loud boasting. 5. And they are not to be occasional merely, but habitual. God has not created us that we may execute good works as a grand performance, but that we may walk in them. IV. Fourthly, THE REMARKABLE PREPARATION MADE FOR THAT OBJECT, for so the text may be rendered, "which God hath prepared that we should walk in them." 1. The Lord has decreed everything, and He has as much decreed the holy lives of His people as He has decreed their ultimate glorification with Him in heaven. Concerning good works, "He hath before ordained that we should walk in them." The purpose is one and indivisible: there is no ordination to salvation apart from sanctification. 2. But, next, God has personally prepared every Christian for good works. "Oh," say some, "I sometimes feel as if I was so unfit for God's service." You are not unfit, so far as you are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. When God creates a bird to fly, it is the best flying machine that can be manufactured; indeed, none can equal it. If God creates worms to plough the soil, and bring up the more useful ingredients to the surface, they are the best fertilizers under heaven. God's purpose is subserved by that which He makes, else were He an unwise worker. We are in a special degree God's workmanship, created to this end, that we may produce good works; and we are fitted to that end as much as a bird is fitted to fly, or a worm is fitted for its purpose in the earth. 3. Everything around you is arranged for the production of good works in you. On the whole, you are placed in the best position for your producing good works to the glory of God. "I do not think it," says one. Very well. Then you will worry to quit your position, and attain another footing; mind that you do not plunge into a worse. It is not the box that makes the jewel, nor the place that makes the man. A barren tree is none the better for being transplanted. A blind man may stand at many windows before he will improve his view. If it is difficult to produce good works where you are, you will find it still difficult where you wish to be. Oh, sirs, the real difficulty lies not without you, but within you. If you get more grace, and are more fully God's workmanship, you can glorify him in Babylon as well as in Jerusalem. Moreover, the Lord has prepared the whole system of His grace to this end — that you should abound in good works. Every part and portion of the economy of grace tends toward this result, that thou mayest be perfect even as thy Father which is in heaven is perfect. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. |
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