“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
Have you ever worked on a job that required you to be a step ahead of someone? For example, while working on a construction site, because you see what is being built you know what is needed next. If you are actively helping someone, they won’t need to go and look for what they need next because when they turn around you’ll be already there with what is needed.
This is a picture of the church. Our communities have many needs, both felt and spiritual; and if we the church, walking in the Spirit, can see ahead of time what they need, we can be prepared and present to help them.
God has prepared works for us to do
We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ apart from any works of our own. This is good news, since apart from Jesus we are dead in our works and condemned for our sins. But the result of His salvation is that we are given a brand new heart. We have been created for good works.
These works are prepared from eternity for us. This means that the church doesn’t lack things to do. We have much to do: good works which are strategically created by God Himself for the day we live in and the community we’re serving.
God has prepared wisdom for us to walk in
God has not only prepared works for us to do, but also wisdom for us to walk in. God does not give us works to do in our own wisdom and strength; rather, He has given us His Holy Spirit, who is the fountain of all wisdom. Therefore, the church should lack no creativity, skill or wisdom, but should be serving people, meeting needs, and setting standards that are only possible through the filling and leading of the Holy Spirit.
When God called by name Bezalel to build the Tabernacle, He also filled him with the Holy Spirit, through Whom he was given all the wisdom, creativity, intelligence, skill, talent, and craftsmanship to get the job done. God commissioned a man to build on earth something of which the pattern was found in heaven (Hebrews 8:5); an impossible task without His Spirit.
God has prepared worship for Him to receive
Paul says that God has saved us and prepared works for us to walk in so as to “show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). Matthew writes that we are to let our light shine before men by doing good works, not to keep our light hidden by doing nothing (Matthew 5:16).
The reason we do the works God has prepared for us to do through His wisdom is so that people will see and glorify Him. We have a light we can’t afford to hide. It is through the church that God supplies and meets the needs of people, not as an end in itself, but as a means to the end of the gospel. Why? Because God has prepared worship for Himself in every community on earth.
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