Ephesians 2:8-10: “We Are God’s Workmanship”

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever heard this scripture?

By grace you have been saved through faith;

and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—

not of works, lest anyone should boast.

From my earliest days in church I remember hearing those verses from Ephesians quoted often in gospel sermons.

We memorized it in Sunday school.

That scripture was popular with preachers because it makes it so clear that we can never earn salvation.

Some people thought that they could earn their salvation by their good works.

And that idea leads to two bad results:

1. Some people have sensitive consciences and realize that they can never be good enough to be sure of salvation. So they live in anxiety. They say to themselves: “I hope I will go to heaven, but I might go to the other place.”

2. But the more common error is that people compare themselves with other people and decide that they are pretty good—at least as good as some church members—so they are sure that a kind God will welcome them into his heaven. At least they hope so.

I. This scripture tells us that salvation is by grace, and our preachers reminded us that “grace,” means something we can’t earn or deserve—a gift. And salvation is a gift.

A. I remember one preacher illustrating the point by this story:

Long ago there lived a poor widow who had an only daughter who was sick and dying. The doctor told the mother that the child’s life could be prolonged if she could eat fresh fruit. But the mother was too poor to buy fresh fruit; she had hardly enough for the bread they needed every day to keep from starving.

One day the woman was near the king’s palace. The gate was open and she could see the beautiful trees in the garden laden with fruit. She went into the garden, but she was met by the gardener who asked her what business she had there, and ordered her to be gone.

But just at that moment the princess came along. When she heard the poor woman’s story and learned how she needed fresh fruit to prolong the life of her daughter, she ordered the gardener to pack a large basket of fruit and give it to the woman.

The poor woman was overcome with gratitude and took out her purse. In it were only a couple of copper coins, but she begged the princess to take them.

The princess said, “I can’t accept your money. My father is the king. He is much too rich to sell anything. And you are much too poor to buy it.”

B. So we can forget about earning our way to heaven by our good works. Salvation is a gift received by faith in Jesus.

And faith—as your pastor reminded you many times—doesn’t just mean believing in God or believing the facts about Jesus.

Saving faith means giving myself body and soul to God, to live for him in love and obedience.

II. But it is the next verse in Ephesians that I want to talk about because I can hardly remember hearing a message on that verse.

The sentence I read tells me how to become a child of God, but it’s the next sentence that tells me what happens once I get into God’s family.

Listen, as I read all three sentences—Ephesians 2:8, 9, and 10:

By grace you have been saved through faith;

and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—

not because 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.

A. “We are God’s workmanship…”

I want to tell you about the Greek word that’s translated “workmanship” in my Bible.

The Greek word is poiema. It’s the word from which we get our word “poem.”

But in Greek it doesn’t just mean “poem.”

In the version I read to you it is translated “workmanship.”

In other versions it’s translated “creation,” or “handiwork,” or “masterpiece,” or “work of art.”

It means something that is made—but not just anything that it made.

It means something special that is made—like a poem, or a painting, or a piece of music, or a beautiful building.

I used to make things out of wood in my basement.

Sometimes I made some shelves for the garage—they were not a poiema.

Sometimes I made toys for my granddaughter—they were not poiema.

But one time I made what, for me, was a work of art.

I took great care and made a beautiful wall clock. It had a door in the front that you could open and see the pendulum going back and forth.

It was the one thing I made in my life that I was proud of.

I took the movement out every year and carefully oiled it. It ticked away and chimed the hours in our living room for 35 years.

Our youngest son said, “Dad, when you die, can I inherit your clock?”

So when we moved into Village Place, I turned it over to him.

How does it make you feel to know that you are God’s “handiwork”? His “work of art”? His “masterpiece”? His “creation”?

Perhaps you don’t feel like you are a work of art—but that’s because God isn’t through with you yet.

B. The rest of the verse explains God’s purpose in your salvation.

I used to think that the whole deal was that God saved me so that I could go to heaven when I died.

Now going to heaven is really important—and something that most people don’t think nearly enough about.

I like to think about how wonderful it will be when I am with Jesus in Glory—with the saints and angels for my companions—and when I will see Jesus face-to-face.

For me, the idea of spending eternity with Jesus is the main thing that makes this life so important.

But that’s not what Paul says in Ephesians 2:10 is the purpose of salvation.

Let me read it again:

For we are God’s workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand,

that we should walk in them.

Salvation is not only a gift to receive and enjoy; it is not only a ticket to heaven.

Salvation is also a life to live—a road to travel.

Our verse says, “we are created in Christ Jesus for good works that we should walk in them.”

According to Paul, God’s purpose in saving you and me is good works.

We aren’t saved by good works, but we are saved for good works.

C. So what does it mean to live a life of good works?

Good works are the results of God in our life.

The good works that God has prepared for us are unique to each of us.

The good works God has prepared for you aren’t the good works of St. Paul, or St. Francis, or John Wesley, or Mother Teresa, or Billy Graham.

The good works God has prepared for you are the things God has given you to do and fitted you for.

The things God gives his children to do vary with the stages of our lives.

I used to teach children in Sunday school and VBS at church. I can’t do that any more. Younger people are better with children.

For years I planted and maintained beautiful flower gardens around two of the churches we attended. But I can’t do that any more.

I used to do a lot of painting at church, but when we moved here I got rid of my brushes and painting clothes.

I used to volunteer with Aging Services taking people to appointments. But I can’t do that any more.

But there are still things I can do.

Charlotte and I pay for the education several children in India who are from the impoverished class called “Untouchables.”

They are children so desperately poor that they have no hope of a decent life without education—which they could not have without our help.

The mission we support also trains pastors and sends out pastor couples—a man and his wife—to pastor churches so that these poor oppressed people can be, not only be educated for a better life, but also know Jesus and have the promise of eternal life.

So we also send money for the training of pastors.

We get a lot of satisfaction out of supporting this mission and a couple of other missions.

But there are opportunities close to home. We are surrounded by needy, hurting people.

A young woman prayed this prayer every day: “Lord, I’d appreciate it if today you’d bring someone to me who I can serve.”

If we pray that prayer and mean it, God will send us someone we can love and serve in some practical way.

I had an aunt who lived to be 100. She lived in a nursing home. She couldn’t do much, but she ordered several copies of a devotional booklet—maybe it was Guideposts or The Upper Room. So she kept them in her room and when the housekeepers came in to clean, or the CNAs came in to care for her, or when the medication aide came in with her meds, she would ask them if they would like one of her devotional booklets.

It got so that some of them would even ask her for them: “Do you have another one of those little booklets like you gave me last month?”

We have a friend at Keystone Cedars assisted living who writes notes to encourage people. She writes about four or five notes to people every day. She apologizes because her handwriting isn’t very good any more, but she keeps writing—mostly to people in her church. She congratulates them on birthdays and anniversaries. She writes to the sick ones, and many of her notes are just notes of appreciation or encouragement. 

Several years ago a woman at Village Ridge named Hazel asked me if we could have a Bible study at Village Ridge. So Charlotte and I came every Wednesday, and we had a Bible study. Hazel talked it up and got a number of her friends to come. That Bible study went on for several years until all the members had died. Hazel was the one who kept it going to the end.

Sometimes the best things we can do are little things—a listening ear, a sympathizing tear, a prayer.

Mother Teresa said once, “We can do no great things for God; we can only do little things with great love.”

These are the “good works that God has prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them.”