Creation Craftsmanship

Ephesians 2: 1-10

 

 

          Today, our lesson comes from Ephesians, often called the crown of Pauline theology. More specifically, it comes from the first ten verses of Chapter 2, the passage which highlights that by grace we have been saved through faith. The passage has a number of important points, but they all converge on verse 8, which I just highlighted. I have tried all week to bring a message built around other verses in this passage and I’m not sure it should be done. The message of salvation by grace through faith is so powerful that it overwhelms any other message around it. Let’s look at this wonderful passage for a few moments.

          The first three verses are about the human condition. Paul describes it as pretty much in a state of hopelessness. He says we were dead in our sins, that we were walking not in the Christian way, but in the way of the world, the way of Satan; that we were following in disobedience and answering to selfishness and evil. Paul says that in such condition, our humanity was as children of wrath. We cared only for ourselves.

          We live in such a world today.  Our human condition will not change without divine intervention. The question is not whether that world exists, for we all know that it does. The question is how we will exist in our world. A story is told about a woman who was living in Tennessee some years ago. She was home and confined to her bed, recovering from hip surgery when the spring rains came. A flash flood occurred at night, and the waters swept into her house. Unable to save herself, she was in danger of drowning in her own bed. Luckily, paramedics arrived in time to save her. The human condition Paul describes is like the condition of that bed ridden woman. We can’t save ourselves any more than that woman could save herself. We are sinners. We need a divine paramedic to save us from the flood of God’s wrath.

          Contrasting the human condition described in the first three verses of this passage is God’s divine motivation, which we see in Verse 4.  Paul reminds us that God is rich in mercy and loves us with a great love, a love which we cannot earn, but have the opportunity to claim. A foul-mouthed sailor experienced that great love when a storm struck his ship on March 10, 1748, just a few days ago but over two hundred sixty years back. When he later wrote about the storm that struck his ship that day, he said that
“Almost every passing wave broke over my head. I expected that every time the vessel descended into the sea, she would rise no more. I dreaded death.” He survived the storm and it changed his life. Shortly afterward, John Newton discovered God’s amazing grace. He later wrote the hymn we sing today (Amazing Grace) to commemorate that discovery.

          The third division of this passage finds Paul preaching of God’s eternal salvation.  Verses 5-9 talk of being made alive in Christ, of being raised up with him and even seated with him in the heavenly places. It is God’s kindness and love that give us this opportunity. It is God’s saving grace brought to us through Jesus Christ that makes it possible.

          So by the grace of God, we are saved…through faith. Is it our faith that saves us? No, it is God’s grace that saves us.  Paul tells us that this salvation is not of our own doing, but rather the gift of God. Yes, we have to have faith, meaning we have to trust God to save us. We have to believe the story of the gospel. Can you trust God to save you? Can you accept in your heart that he is sufficient, that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has done all the work that needs to be done for you to inherit eternal life? That is the choice you have. Will you trust God, or will you rely on yourself?

          If you trust God, then you will begin to understand the last verse of this passage. Paul says that we are God’s workmanship, that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand for us. Our trust saves us, and we return our love through how we live our lives. We do this with the good works that we return to God as our love offering.

          In 1925, a young Scotsman named Eric Liddell won an Olympic gold medal in the 400 meter race. He won it because he declined to run in his best event, the 100 meter dash, and so was substituted into the 400m. He declined the 100m race because it was to be run on Sunday, and Sunday was the Lord’s Day for this son of Scottish missionaries to China.  Liddell went on to win the 400m, besting his previous best time by a full two seconds. When asked to what he attributed such a breakthrough time, he replied: “I run the first 200m as hard as I can. Then, for the second 200m, with God’s help, I run harder.” 

          Liddell always had his eye on the prize, but it wasn’t the one for which he became famous. When asked about his Olympic experience, he had this to say: “It has been a wonderful experience to compete in the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal. But since I have been a young lad, I have had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals.” Liddell went on to become a missionary to China, where he gave himself unselfishly to God’s mission in that country. He died of a brain tumor in a Japanese concentration camp in 1943. Even at the end of his life, he saw God’s greater purpose. When his release had finally been obtained through much effort and negotiation by Winston Churchill, Liddell stayed behind, giving up his passage home to a pregnant woman in the camp, saving not only her but her unborn child. He was to never see his wife and three children again.

          “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” What a beautiful thought. As you leave today, take that thought with you. You are God’s workmanship. You were created in Christ for good works. God did all that before you ever took your first breath. We are created by him to walk in the works that he pre-ordained for us to do. Each of us has our place in the body of Christ. Are you listening? Where is your place?

          Sometimes when I think of God’s craftsmanship, I think of the ocean or the beach or the Blue Ridge Mountains or the Grand Canyon. Sometimes I think of tigers or wolves or antelope. As majestic as all those things are, together they cannot hold a candle to the divine craftsmanship I see every time I look in the mirror, or out into this congregation. I am God’s creature, designed for good works. I am God’s handiwork, built for kingdom ventures. So are you. The Bible tells us so.

          In this Easter season, a season of remembering the great love of Jesus coming for us, living with us, dying for us, rising in victory over sin and death, are you experiencing the craftsmanship God fashioned for you? Are you living the life he designed for you? Of finding his place in the the Christian life, Eric Liddell had this to say: “You will know as much of God, and only as much of God, as you are willing to put into practice.”

          Listen to the words of the apostle Paul. Listen with your heart. It’s not about this world, except that this world is where we begin our walk with our Savior. God in his great love and rich mercy, wants to raise you from the death of sin, wants to seat you in the heavenly places with him, wants to show you the incomparable riches of his grace in Christ Jesus.

          Will you let him?