Living Stones – Wednesday, September 13, 2017
His workmanship for good works
Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
We are still in this verse. We talked about identity and we talked about good works. Now we need to meditate on the foundational relationship between the two.
The good works are the evidence of our identity in Christ. That much we understand from yesterday. But how does that come about. It cannot be that we tell ourselves every morning that now that we have grace from God let us go looking for something good to do to prove it. Rather it flows from the presence of the Holy Spirit and the transformation we have experienced.
The chapter starts out with the declaration that “… you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” It is this transformation from death to life that is key.
We were motivated in the past by things which were dead; “you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”
Now, however, grace has come to us and we are alive in Christ and His life in us becomes our motivation.
Sin separated us from God and we were given over to a depraved mind, we didn’t think “right.” When we don’t think right we don’t do right. When we don’t do right we cannot be right.
We could go deeper. Sin was at the very root. We were born this way. I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me – Psalm 51:5. Also, now born this way, “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind – Ephesians 2:3.
The spiritual rebirth (through which we become His workmanship) however changes that, and we now have a well spring of motivation that is not seeking to fulfil the lusts and desires of the flesh or of the mind, but rather to do the good works prepared in advance for us.
Good works become second nature. Good works flow from our new nature. Good works are characteristic of our new identity.
Think of these things:
- Have you sensed the leading of the Holy Spirit with respect to good works?
- Have you resisted the leading of the Holy Spirit with respect to good works?
- What are you going to do to live in accordance with your identity in Christ?
Prayer focus:
Pray today that we learn to heed the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit to do good works as he prompts us.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex