"Are my daily choices reflecting the truth that I am His workmanship, that I belong to Him, that I am not my own any longer?" With His loving hands, He begins to make of us a monument to His genius and grace. Our good works must back up our good words. You are His work of art. The new man receives the power (Ed: Via learning to surrender, submit, yield to the indwelling Holy Spirit) in the very structure of his spiritual being; for, having died with Christ, he is risen with him that he should walk in newness of life. But they are consequences, and they are the very purpose of it. Eph. Daily-Bible-Verse.net was created to help you easily find those answers by providing a fresh Bible verse each day with an easy-to-understand Bible commentary. More like the Master I would live and grow, I've been wondering when Christians started to become so unlike Christ." We are here to be perfected, We can understand why this new convert was perplexed. In God's hands "ordinary" good works become extraordinary. --J E Yoder (Ibid). This hymn text by Thomas Chisholm is one of his more than 1,200 fine poems, many of which have been set to music and have become enduring hymns of the church. And the Apostle, in the context, summons all his force to destroy that error, and to substitute the great truth that we have to begin with an act of God’s, and only after that can think about our acts. (Rom. Yet he can say I believe that medicine. And now there is another step to take, and that is that this union with Christ, which results in the communication of a new life, or, as my text puts it, a new creation, depends upon our faith. Without lightning, there would be no thunder, because the one is the cause of the other. He called the universe into existence out of nothing. Think of your life as "canvas" on which the Master is producing a work of art which will bring Him eternal praise and glory! It is going to take all of your life on Earth. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul says that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. He wanted some counsel on how to handle it. We are born afresh in Christ, and born to do those good deeds which God planned for us to do. On the other hand, we can recall with grief some lost persons who rejected the Word because of the inconsistent lives of "professed" believers. Dead works without faith are useless, and “faith without works is dead” also, getting you nowhere. Christian life is examined in terms of a “before and after” contrast resulting from divine intervention. Even Christians have a tendency to think that way. The only thing many people will ever know about God is what they see of His radiance reflected in our daily lives. God designed. 10 For “For” gives … Cain's gift of fruit may be both fair and fragrant; but it is rejected because it is an attempt to purchase God's favour, instead of being the outcome and flower of his faith. For purposes divine. (1PAAS), Amplified: For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His 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]. Enjoy a daily dose of God’s Word! ", Illustration - The Way People Choose - Michelangelo and Raphael had totally different perspectives on lifestyle. And those changes are a gradual process called sanctification, that can be likened to an endurance race. (see Ep 4:24-note) then read Ep 4:25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32-Ep 4:25 26; 27; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32 for what the walk of the "new man" looks like) Then repeat them. This phrase places emphasis on God’s grace; even our works come from His grace. Now, you will find that in this profound letter of the Apostle there are two ideas cropping up over and over again, both of them representing the facts of the Christian life and of the transition from the unchristian to the Christian; and the one is Resurrection and the other is Creation. Here we have one of the Divine safeguards against the abuse of the doctrine of salvation by grace. What's the point of this word? Digital format also). you'll be out of step with the world. Abide in Me, and I in you.’ If our nineteenth century busy Christianity could only get hold of that truth as firmly as it grasps the representative and sacrificial character of Christ’s work, I believe it would come like a breath of spring over ‘the winter of our discontent,’ and would change profoundly and blessedly the whole contexture of modern Christianity. The organist had almost prevented the song's creator from playing his own music! The reason is that “we” (recipients of salvation) are “his” (God’s) workmanship. There is not a thought of our heart, word of our lips, or work of our hands, which is truly holy and heavenly, simple and sincere, glorifying to God or profitable to man, of which He is not by His Spirit and grace the divine and immediate Author! God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything (cp 2Co 12:9-note; 2Co 12:10-note, cp Name of God - EL Shaddai), you may have an abundance for every good deed (2Cor 9:8). In answer, the apostle distinguishes between the law and faith, the letter and grace. Gandhi in his autobiography wrote that in his student days he was truly interested in the Bible. That toy lamb became his most cherished possession. Our good works must flow from our union with Christ by virtue of our faith in Him. Beloved, if you are what you profess to be, you are one with Jesus by that vital union which cannot be dissolved; and good works follow upon that union. God took only six days to bring order out of the chaos of the disturbed original creation and to call into existence the present earth and heavens, but He spent forty days with Moses in directing him to build the tabernacle, because the work of redemption is more glorious than the work of creation. There is a wholesome mysticism and there is a morbid one, and the wholesome one is the very nerve of the Gospel as it is presented by Jesus Himself: ‘I am the Vine, ye are the branches.