“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them”

(Ephesians 2:10 NASB)

This new creation of ours is in connection with Christ, for we read in the text, “created in Christ Jesus.” We are the branches; He is the Vine out of which we grow. Your life, and all your fruit-producing power, lies in your union with Christ. You are not merely new-created, but you are created in Christ Jesus. It is not merely a change from a lower nature to a higher, but from separation from Christ to union with Him.

What a wonderful thing that is, that you and I should not only be creatures in the world, but new creatures in Christ Jesus! Creatures we were, in the first Adam; but our new creatureship is in the second Adam. 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. Joined to Jesus by faith in Him, love to Him, and imitation of Him.

“Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1 NASB). Our walk is in doing good works. “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6 NASB). Let me ask us this question: do we walk in good works? “For we have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21 NASB).

Our creation to holiness is our creation in Christ Jesus. As you become one with the anointed Savior, His anointing comes upon you by His Spirit, even as He was anointed. “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:20-21 NASB). Consider this principle: “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:37-38 NASB).

So the Lord ordains us to service, and therefore our salvation leads us into obedience. There cannot but be fruit on that branch which is vitally joined to that fruitful stem and our Lord Jesus Christ, who always did those things which pleased the Father. Our good works must flow from our union with Christ by virtue of our faith in Him. We depend upon Him to make us holy. We depend upon Him to keep us holy. We overcome sin by the blood of the Lamb. We reach after holiness by the constraining love of Jesus.

Love to Christ is the impelling cause of putting away, first one evil, and then another, and the energy enabling us to follow after one virtue, and then another. Love to Christ burns like a fire in the heart and soul of those who have conceived it, and as it burns, it makes the heart glow and become transformed to its own nature.

If you have ever seen a piece of iron put into the fire, all black or rusty, gradually it becomes red with heat. As it reddens it throws off the scales of rust, until at last it looks to be itself a mass of fire. The effect of the love of God, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, is to burn off the rust and scales of sin and depravity until we become pure love to God through the force of the love of God which has taken possession of our being.

Once God was finished making you new, you became a masterpiece, skillfully and artfully created in Christ Jesus. There is nothing cheap about you at all! Father God’s creative, artistic, intelligent genius went into your making. Look how much you have been given in Jesus Christ! Don’t you think it’s time to stop dwelling on how dumb, ugly, or untalented you feel compared to others? Those feelings are lies. Some of that may have been true before you were born again, but none of it is true of you now that you are in Christ. God turned you into something spectacular. That is who you are now. Lay claim to your new identity. Adjust your thinking and talking to reflect who you really are.

Perhaps your prayer needs to be this: Lord, forgive me for being so negative and for talking so badly about myself after You have given me so much. Lord, I have no excuse for accepting defeat or low self-esteem as a way of life, because You have made me totally new. Help me renew my mind to the truth about who You have made me to be, and help me guard the words of my mouth so that instead of speaking evil of myself I affirm the truth about who I am in Christ. I pray this in Jesus’ name.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 NASB). The word workmanship in Greek is poiema, from the same root word as poietes, the word for a poet or creative craftsman. This tells us that when we were saved, God put forth all His best efforts and creative powers to marvelously fashion and create us in Jesus Christ. We were not just mildly saved. Rather, God took us into His hands and marvelously made us new in Jesus Christ our Lord, releasing His most powerful creative forces to make us a workmanship worthy to bear His name.

Whether the word poietes is used to depict a poet or to describe God’s creative power, as in Ephesians 2:10, it always depicts someone putting forth their fullest creative abilities to achieve something. We cannot passively hope that the Word becomes a part of our lives. We have to get creative and find ways to make the Word a practical part of our daily living.

Never forget that we are His workmanship. We belong to God. We are His property to do with as He chooses. Father God does not make junk! The Master Artist has rendered each of us as His masterpiece, regardless of how we feel, if we are in Christ by grace through faith. This is amazing grace indeed!

The point is this: we are not our own masterpiece. We are not a masterpiece as a result of our own making, our own effort, or our own merit. We are a masterpiece only because we are His masterpiece. Totally and completely unrelated to anything we have done or could ever do. He made us. He fashioned us. He created us anew in Christ Jesus. And He did it so that we would walk in the good works He prepared for us before the foundation of the world.

So walk in them. Walk as the masterpiece you are. Walk as one created in Christ Jesus, joined to the Vine, anointed by His Spirit, and made new by the fullest expression of God’s creative power. The good works are already prepared and waiting. All that remains is for us to walk in them.