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"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."
(Ephesians 2:8-10)
GRACE: God's Riches at Christ's Expense. God's grace is His love poured out on us in giving us His Son as our Savior, our sacrifice, and our substitute. This great salvation comes to us, but how? It is by faith. We do not deserve it and surely cannot earn it. We are in no position to demand it; we can only be saved through God's amazing grace and us simply receiving His grace and mercy through faith. When we turn to God in faith, we also turn away from our sins in repentance. These are two sides of the same coin.
It is God's gift to us. The word "gift" has a beautiful and joyous connotation. His gift to us is forgiveness of sin and eternal life with Him in heaven. Who in their right mind would say no to such a gift?
Ephesians 2:9 says we do not work for this great salvation, or else we would boast for all eternity over what we had done. But the focus both now and for all eternity should never be on man's ability but on God, who He is, and what He has done.
Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His. I love that. We belong to Him. He purchased us, and we are the sheep of His pasture, as Psalm 100:3 states:
"Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture."
"We are His workmanship." The Greek word translated "workmanship" is poiema, from which we get the English word "poem". God has crafted us like a poet crafts or creates a poem. That poem had as much chance writing itself as the universe had coming into existence through its own power or will. The way we are His is through His Son. We are born again and become children of God only through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus!
God has done this for us so we can do good works for Him. We do these works out of love and deep gratefulness, in light of the salvation we have received, not a salvation deserved or earned. We are saved not by our good works but Jesus' work on the cross.
God has prepared the good works He wants us to do. I believe there are general good works and specific or tailored good works for the child of God. By general, I mean we should all be doing things like loving the Lord and our neighbors, praying for and sharing Jesus with them; we should be kind, generous, and modeling Jesus to a lost world. By specific, I mean doing what God has crafted you and only you to do. There is a real joy in knowing who you are in Christ and doing what He has called you to do. Staying in your lane of giftedness is a great and safe place. Wandering into someone's else's lane is not a good idea or even a safe place to be.
I think part of the good work all of us should be walking in and exercising is prayer. And I say work because prayer is work. It takes time, discipline, and desire. But the rewards are countless.
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