WE ARE IN THE HANDS OF THE DIVINE CRAFTSMAN.
The Apostle Paul in Eph. 2:10 beautifully describes God’s children and the Church this way:
NKJV For we are His WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
NLT For we are God’s MASTERPIECE . He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
PASSION We have become his POETRY, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!
AMP.N.T. For we are God’s [own] HANDIWORK (HIS OWN WORKMANSHIP),recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].
MESSAGE No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
I have even heard a Preacher say we are God’s SYMPHONY, whether that is really expressed in the Greek, I am not so sure, but, we see in these various translations we are God’s:
WORKMANSHIP
MASTERPIECE
POETRY
HANDIWORK (HIS OWN WORKMANSHIP)
The Bible also describes God as the POTTER, and we are the clay, and from the day we are born again, we are on the Potter’s wheel, experiencing God’s thumb shaping and moulding us into the MASTERPIECE He pre-ordained for us to be. Of course, this includes often a time just “sitting on the shelf” (wondering what is happening), plus it includes a time in the kiln where the pottery must go to complete the process,
Isn’t it an awesome revelation, that God although He knows everything about us, He chose us in eternity past Eph. 1: 4-6 NKJV just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. The PASSION TRANSLATION reminds us in Eph. 2:10 “God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it”!
I am humbled and glad that when God looks at me, He doesn’t see what I used to be, He sees His MASTERPIECE, He continues to shape us so we can not only continue to do good works, but that they increase and He ever gets the glory.
We thank God today for His SO GREAT SALVATION amen.
