We are God’s workmanship
For those of us that have received Jesus, and in Him, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), I’ve got good news!
I read the following verse for the umpteenth time. I love God’s message to us in this brief verse. However, as the Holy Spirit so often does when we read God’s Word, a little question popped into my mind. “Gary, did you catch that?” Catch what, Lord? I know this verse forwards and backward (despite my lack of ability to remember the book, chapter, and verse😉 ) Hmmm. Perhaps I should reread the verse.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10
So here’s a metaphor to communicate what I found in this verse.
A pile of wood is not a guitar
When a luthier (a maker of stringed instruments such as violins or guitars) gathers wood to begin making a guitar, he has already decided what he will craft and all the characteristics it will have to fulfill the luthier’s purpose for it. He knows what he’s doing. He knows that when it’s finished, it will not just look like the guitar he envisioned; its form and function will be what he expected.
The Luthier knows the tone it will possess. The guitar won’t strive to have that tone; the beauty will be in and of his guitar. All the qualities of his guitar are no surprises but are the outcome of the luthier’s skill. The guitar’s resonance, range, and responsiveness are all imparted as the luthier crafts his one-of-a-kind guitar.
The guitar has no characteristics that enable it to do anything other than what the luthier intended. The guitar simply is. How foolish it would be for a guitar to wish it were a violin (1 Corinthians 12:15-26). And how ridiculous it would be for a marvelously hand-crafted guitar to remain in a display case; never played.
God is the luthier of people
God is the Luthier of people. Before God spoke anything into existence, He selected a purpose for each of His children. Then God crafted His intent into us. And He made us like spiritual epoxy glue. We can’t be what God hand-crafted until we come in contact with Jesus. Only when Jesus enters us are we complete and become who God made us to be.
We don’t need anything except to be used
As Christians, it is foolish to ask God to make us into something; He already did that before He made heaven and earth. It’s silly for us to ask God to enable us to use His gifts in us. His gifts are crafted into us. Let me state that differently. God’s gifts are in us through the spiritual keys, frets, bridge, arch-top woodwork, and so forth God used to make us. I don’t need to ask God to give me “frets.”
We need to pray for us to get our foolish selves out of the way (Matthew 10:38). We need to ask God to help us throw off the sin that so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1). And we need to ask God to give us the boldness to be used by Him as the instruments He created (2 Corinthians 3:12).
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Photo by Austin Ramsey on Unsplash
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