“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV)
Many of us fear that we’ll make the wrong decisions in life, due to verses like these, and often that fear keeps us timid and risk-averse, worried that we won’t become what God has planned for us.
We tend to interpret these kinds of passages like this:
“God has a purpose, a plan, a position, a place, and my job is to pray and find out exactly what He wants me to do and do that only for the rest of my life. I better find out His will.”
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
— Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
But, “Plans” and Wills” are actually talking about God’s “desires”
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8-10 NIV)
The question then is: What does God like?
“In Ephesians 2:10 good works is a general and comprehensive expression for godly behavior… Put simply, it is God’s will that those who belong to the new creation should be characterized by a lifestyle which ultimately reflects his own character and action.” (Peter T. O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians)
His “Plan” (Desire) from the beginning was that we may look like Jesus!
“God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son… We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.” – Romans 8:29-30 MSG
This means: Life is not a fixed maze, but a work of art.
The term “workmanship” (poiema) in the verse is the word from which we get the English word “poem.”
“… In a very real sense the redeemed person is God’s poetry… The translators of The Jerusalem Bible here render the noun poiema as “a work of art,” somewhat expanding the picture.” (D. Edmond Hiebert)
So then, as Pastor Bryan said, “life is an expression of gratitude, rather than a test in spiritual aptitude.”
“Above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live it as if it were a work of art. You’re not a machine. When you’re young, start working on this great work of art called your own existence.” — Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1972 Interview
As children of God, our Father loves gifts made from the heart. Thus, “good works prepared beforehand” doesn’t mean a fixed, unchangeable will of God. What if it means, we can dream up ways to bless and move God’s heart in our everyday lives.
If we are His workmanship (His poetry) than we must take care of and protect ourselves.
And if life is an expression of gratitude, we must be willing to take risks and be vulnerable and courageous.
There’s a story from a pastor named Jon Tyson. After he and his son walked around a cemetery; Jon says, “The thing you will notice about all these people is that their tombstones contain two dates. There is the date of their birth (show a date on the left side of the dash now), the date of their death (show a date of death on the right now), and a tiny dash between them. The whole of your life on earth is going to come down to that tiny little dash.” Then I pressed in a bit further. “Nate,” I said, “what will your dash be?” “I don’t know,” he said, “I guess I’m still trying to figure it out.” After a moment of reflection, he said,
“What do you think makes a great dash, Dad?”
Pray with us this week:
May my life be a PoemÂ
written on the palms of Your hands,
sung by the chords in Your voice,
heard by the people You love.
May it move Your heart.
May it bring tears to Your eyes.
May it be pleasing to You.
Amen.
You can listen to the sermonA Work of Art from the Ephesians series that inspired this post here.Â