Latest / Reformed Thinking / God’s Workmanship: Grace That Works (Ephesians 2:10)
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to Reformed thinking. This is the deep dive where we
- 0:02work to sharpen our grasp of Scripture and theology.
- 0:06You know, for those of us who really hold to the doctrine of
- 0:08grace, there's this this constant tension that can pop
- 0:13up. We know we believe that
- 0:15salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone.
- 0:18Our actions, our moral performance, they don't add a
- 0:21single thing to our standing before God, right?
- 0:23But if that's true, then why all the effort?
- 0:26Why strive for holiness when forgiveness is already a done
- 0:29deal? And I think that question can
- 0:31push believers into the sort of Gray zone where striving feels
- 0:34suspicious, almost like a backdoor to legalism.
- 0:37It does. It can't feel that way.
- 0:38So today we're looking at a stack of sources that all point
- 0:41to one of the clearest Ansel's in the whole New Testament, and
- 0:43that's Ephesians 2 verses one through 10.
- 0:45Yeah, in just these 10 verses, Paul sets up these perfect
- 0:49guardrails. On one side he just demolishes
- 0:51legalism, the whole idea that you can earn your acceptance,
- 0:54and the other he completely refutes antinomianism, but the
- 0:58idea that grace gives you a license to be indifferent to
- 1:01God's law. So our mission today is really
- 1:03to see how Paul holds those two things together.
- 1:06That's it. We want to understand why good
- 1:08works are absolutely non negotiable for the Christian
- 1:11life, yet contribute nothing at all to our justification.
- 1:14How does he do? That.
- 1:16Well, he does it by looking at two key ideas.
- 1:19First, the Christian's identity as God's Poyama, His
- 1:22workmanship, and 2nd, the the detailed way God has sovereignly
- 1:28prepared our path of conduct. The need for works actually
- 1:32flows right out of the reality of grace.
- 1:34OK, so let's unpack that opening argument then.
- 1:37Paul is, I mean, he's a master of rhetoric and he always starts
- 1:39by setting the stage to really get the size of God's rescue.
- 1:42You have to 1st understand the depth of the hole we were in.
- 1:45Yes, the sources are all clear on this.
- 1:48He uses incredibly strong language to describe our state
- 1:51before God steps in. And he begins with the starkest
- 1:54definition you can imagine. He does dead of trespasses and
- 1:57sins. And we have to be clear, this is
- 1:58not a metaphor for being spiritually unwell or, you know,
- 2:02morally off course or even just sick.
- 2:04Right. Not just sick.
- 2:05It's the language of death itself, a corpse.
- 2:09If you're physically dead, you have 0 ability to respond.
- 2:13There is no internal mechanism for you to start your own heart
- 2:15again. You can't change your situation
- 2:17at all. And the spiritual parallel is
- 2:19what you're saying is it's a one to one parallel.
- 2:21It is. Our sources define this state as
- 2:23total inability and bondage. You're in hopeless darkness.
- 2:27A person who is spiritually dead can't reach out to God.
- 2:31They can't hear the gospel and understand it.
- 2:33They can't choose life. That theological point is so
- 2:36critical for Reformed thinking, isn't it, because it establishes
- 2:40that salvation has to be monarchistic?
- 2:42Monarchistic, meaning working alone.
- 2:45If you're dead, your resurrection has to be 100% the
- 2:49action of someone. Else an external agent.
- 2:51God, God, if we were just sick or injured, maybe we could
- 2:53contribute something, you know, a little bit of willingness, a
- 2:56choice, some tiny moral effort. But because the condition is
- 3:00death, God has to do all of it. And that's the starting point.
- 3:03That just levels any idea of legalism.
- 3:06But Paul doesn't just stop with the condition.
- 3:08He details the the activity that comes from that state of death.
- 3:12He calls it our former walk. Yes, and that word walk is the
- 3:15Greek term peripete. It's not talking about an
- 3:18occasional stumble or a wrong turn.
- 3:20It means a sustained, habitual pattern of life.
- 3:23It's the whole direction of your existence.
- 3:25So the unregenerate person didn't just commit sins.
- 3:29They once walked in them. It was their whole way of being
- 3:32their operating system. And the scary part of that walk,
- 3:35as our sources point out, is that it wasn't a free walk at
- 3:38all. It was a walk of what?
- 3:39Triple enslavement. Triple enslavement.
- 3:42That's a good way to put it. The dead person is still active,
- 3:45but all that activity is being dictated by these huge forces,
- 3:49both external and internal. OK, so let's break down those 3
- 3:52masters. So Paul lays out three
- 3:54controlling forces. The 1st is the course of this
- 3:57world. The term here is E gene, which
- 4:00refers to the spirit of the age. It's the whole system of
- 4:03prevailing values and philosophies in a culture that
- 4:06operates in a rebellion against God.
- 4:08If we were to translate that for today, that's just the
- 4:10overwhelming cultural story we're all swimming in, isn't it
- 4:13the secular ideas that tell you what success is, what your worth
- 4:17is based on defining everything in material terms?
- 4:20It's that pressure to conform to whatever the current acceptable
- 4:24rebellion is. Yes, whether that's chasing
- 4:26wealth or seeking constant gratification or just buying
- 4:31into ideas that say there's no such thing as objective truth.
- 4:34OK, so that's the first master. What's the second?
- 4:37The second is the sway of the devil, who he calls the Prince
- 4:40of the power of the air. This gets at the external
- 4:44organized forces of spiritual darkness.
- 4:47It's the direct influence of Satan and his Kingdom.
- 4:50And we're not just talking about temptation here.
- 4:52Like a little devil on your shoulder.
- 4:53No, no, this is about being fundamentally caught in the
- 4:56enemy's organized strategy. He is constantly working to
- 5:00arrange human societies and individual lives in a way that
- 5:03opposes God's rule. OK, so you have the culture
- 5:06outside the spiritual enemy above.
- 5:08What's the third master? The third is the internal 1 the
- 5:12desires of the flesh. And flesh here isn't just about
- 5:15bodily sins, it's our entire inherited corrupt nature that is
- 5:20by default hospital to God. It naturally screams for self
- 5:24gratification and autonomy. So if you put all three of those
- 5:27together. You're completely trapped.
- 5:29You're controlled by the hostile culture outside you, the world.
- 5:32You're governed by the organized enemy above you, the devil, and
- 5:36you're driven by the corrupted desires inside you, the flesh.
- 5:39That triple bondage, it just confirms the definition of
- 5:43death. You have a total inability to
- 5:45move toward God because every single influence is dragging you
- 5:48away from him. Yeah.
- 5:49And that terrifying summary is the immediate backdrop, the dark
- 5:52canvas for what might be the most hopeful 2 words in the Holy
- 5:55Testament. But God.
- 5:57But God. It's that moment where human
- 5:59inability runs straight into divine omnipotence.
- 6:01Paul just pivots from the darkness of verses one to three
- 6:04to the dramatic sovereign action of God in verse 4.
- 6:07And God acts not because of anything we did.
- 6:09No, but because he is rich in mercy and great in love.
- 6:13It's all about his character. It flows entirely from who he
- 6:15is. And the action itself is a
- 6:18resurrection. God moves people from death to
- 6:21life. How significant is it that Paul
- 6:24uses past tense verbs here? Made alive, raised up, seated.
- 6:28Oh, it is absolutely central to his point.
- 6:30Those past tense verbs tell us that the change is complete and
- 6:33certain. It's not a process of becoming
- 6:35alive. It's a decisive event that has
- 6:38already happened for the believer because of their union
- 6:41with Christ. So God made believers alive
- 6:44together with Christ. He raised them up with them.
- 6:46And incredibly, He has already seated them in the heavenly
- 6:50places. That idea of being seated in the
- 6:52heavenly places is one of the most amazing parts of this
- 6:55letter. It means we've been moved out of
- 6:58that realm of spiritual death and put into a secure, elevated
- 7:01position with Christ. It's a present reality, a
- 7:04positional truth, even while we're still walking around
- 7:08physically in this. World and that new position
- 7:09places believers in Christ. I know that phrase is not just a
- 7:13casual add on for Paul. No, it's the very heart of His
- 7:16theology here. Our sources identify being in
- 7:19Christ as the only sphere of new creation.
- 7:22It is the environment, the location where all spiritual
- 7:25life comes from. It's where all the blessings
- 7:27are. Election, adoption, redemption,
- 7:30all of it. Our new identity is completely
- 7:32tied up with Christ's person and His work.
- 7:35Inseparable from it. So if God has already
- 7:38accomplished this huge monarchistic resurrection and
- 7:41relocation for us, that action has to lead directly into Paul's
- 7:46demolition of legalism in verses 8:00 and 9:00.
- 7:49It has to, otherwise the whole argument just falls apart.
- 7:51If salvation is all of God's grace, then he has protected
- 7:55from any human attempt to take credit.
- 7:57And that's what legalism is at its root, right?
- 7:59It's trying to smuggle works back into the foundation of our
- 8:02acceptance. It's the claim that says if you
- 8:04obey enough, then God will justify you.
- 8:06But the logic of spiritual death makes that completely
- 8:09impossible. It does.
- 8:10Since we started out as corpses, no amount of moral effort could
- 8:13have moved US one inch toward life.
- 8:15So Paul insists salvation is by grace through faith and not a
- 8:18result of works, so that no one may boast.
- 8:21That phrase, so that no one may boast, is like the theological
- 8:25lock on the vault. It is.
- 8:27Any room left for human performance is room for human
- 8:30pride. And since boasting takes away
- 8:32from the glory of God's action, God just removes the possibility
- 8:36of boasting. He makes the starting point
- 8:38death and the rescue 100% grace. So the person who is saved can
- 8:44only point to God's initiative. That's right.
- 8:46Not their own preparation, not their own moral striving.
- 8:50Nothing. But what if someone listening
- 8:52thinks, OK, that's fine for theology, but how does this
- 8:54demolition of legalism really affect me right now?
- 8:57Oh, it's acutely relevant because legalism doesn't always
- 9:00show up as trying to earn salvation from scratch.
- 9:03More often it shows up as trying to maintain our acceptance.
- 9:06You mean that little voice in your head?
- 9:08Yeah, that constant internal voice that says God will be
- 9:11happier with me if I pray for an extra 10 minutes, or I can't
- 9:14really expect God to help me until I fix this moral failure
- 9:17on my own. Paul's argument just stops that
- 9:19voice cold. It does.
- 9:21Your acceptance is based entirely on the resurrection God
- 9:24performed in Christ. It is not based on your
- 9:26performance today. And that assurance, that settled
- 9:29fact of grace, is the only thing that actually frees us up to do
- 9:33the next thing. Paul's going to talk about good
- 9:35works. That's the perfect bridge
- 9:38because we've set up that works contribute nothing to
- 9:40justification. But now Paul uses the word for
- 9:44in verse 10, for we are his workmanship.
- 9:46That little word connects everything he just said about
- 9:49grace to the necessity of works. It gives the why grace doesn't
- 9:53make works irrelevant. Grace explains their entire
- 9:56existence. So let's talk about that central
- 9:58term, Poyema workmanship. It's a great word.
- 10:01It's a Greek word that means something made, crafted or
- 10:03fashioned. We actually get our English word
- 10:06poem from. It a poem?
- 10:07Yeah. It presents the Christian not as
- 10:09some kind of self-made moral reformer, but as a divine
- 10:12artifact, a deliberately fashioned product of God's own
- 10:16artistry. I really like that idea of the
- 10:18artisan and the artifact. It immediately puts all the
- 10:20glory in the right place. God is the artisan, the master
- 10:23Craftsman, The believer is the created work.
- 10:26We're the poem that God is writing, which means we are not
- 10:29the authors. We are not the builders of our
- 10:31own spiritual life. And this identity crushes pride
- 10:34even more than verses 8 and 9 did.
- 10:38It does. Verses 8 and 9 say you didn't
- 10:40start the work. Verse 10 says you aren't even
- 10:43the product designer. A pot can't argue with the
- 10:47Potter, and it certainly can't boast about its own shape or
- 10:50strength. So the Christian has to look at
- 10:53every part of their new life, their faith, their ability to
- 10:56obey, and say this isn't my achievement.
- 10:58This is God's design and skill showing up in me.
- 11:01How does seeing ourselves as Poyuma help us practically?
- 11:04I mean, it sounds like a very high theological concept, but
- 11:07what does it change when I wake up tomorrow?
- 11:09It changes everything about self worth and anxiety.
- 11:12If you see yourself as a self constructed religious project,
- 11:15your sense of value is going to be on a roller coaster.
- 11:18It's going to go up and down based on your performance.
- 11:20When you fail, you despair. When you succeed, you get proud.
- 11:24Right. But when you realize you are a
- 11:27Poyoma, A deliberate, unique creation of a master Craftsman,
- 11:31your value is rooted in the skill of the maker, not in the
- 11:35quality of your output on any given day.
- 11:37It grounds your identity and the fact that God chose to make you
- 11:41and He doesn't waste his time. He doesn't waste his materials.
- 11:46That is so freeing. It takes the pressure off of
- 11:48feeling like we have to invent our own purpose or our own
- 11:51spiritual path. The purpose is already built
- 11:53into the design. It is just like a Craftsman
- 11:56decides the design and the purpose of what he makes.
- 11:59God determines the design of the purpose of those he saves.
- 12:02The Christian is defined by the intention of the maker.
- 12:06If God remade you, he had a reason.
- 12:08And Paul is very specific about where this creation happens.
- 12:11We are created in Christ Jesus. This isn't just a moral tune up.
- 12:14This is new creation language. It is.
- 12:17The Greek word is dissentase. It means bringing something into
- 12:20existence that was truly new, something that did not exist
- 12:23before in that spiritual corpse. So this just reinforces that
- 12:26salvation is not a self improvement program.
- 12:28No, it's an act of creation on par with the creation of the
- 12:32world. And being in Christ Jesus points
- 12:35right back to that union with Christ we talked about.
- 12:38Christ isn't just our Savior. He is the the atmosphere, the
- 12:41sphere of our new existence. Like a branch drawing life from
- 12:45the vine. That's a perfect picture.
- 12:48We draw all our spiritual life and meaning from Him.
- 12:50So our new identity, our ability to do anything, our entire
- 12:54spiritual environment is tied to Christ's person and work.
- 12:58We're not independent agents, just getting a little help now
- 13:01and then. We're perpetually anchored to
- 13:02the source of life, and this brings us to a critical ordering
- 13:06that Paul establishes, which gets missed a lot in popular
- 13:09Christianity. What's that?
- 13:11Paul first tells us what God has made us to be, His poema his
- 13:15workmanship. He does that before he talks
- 13:17about what we are to do, which is good works.
- 13:19Identity precedes activity, always.
- 13:22Why is that ordering so important?
- 13:24It seems like a small detail, but you're saying it's a major
- 13:26theological hinge. It is because if you reverse the
- 13:29order, you try to do the works first in order to achieve the
- 13:32identity. You fall right back into
- 13:34legalism. You do.
- 13:36The Christian life is the unfolding of the new reality God
- 13:39has already brought into being. We don't obey to become God's
- 13:42workmanship. We obey because we are God's
- 13:45workmanship. So obedience becomes the
- 13:47natural, necessary expression of the new living thing that He
- 13:51created. It changes the motivation from,
- 13:54say, dread or duty to something more like joyful necessity.
- 14:00Because you are this new creation, you must walk in the
- 14:02way He designed you to walk. Not out of fear of being
- 14:05rejected, but just because of the design specs of the new
- 14:08self. And this brings us to the
- 14:09teleology of grace, the intended goal.
- 14:12What was God's aim in all of this rescue and recreation?
- 14:15And Paul states that so clearly we are created for good works.
- 14:19That little phrase is the engine that drives all of Christian
- 14:22morality. That phrase for good works.
- 14:24It works like a purpose clause, right?
- 14:26It signals God's design, his intention.
- 14:29Yes, and it's the necessary corrective for anyone who thinks
- 14:31Grace is just a get out of jail free card that leaves your
- 14:34character untouched. Dodd didn't rescue sinners from
- 14:36death just to leave them spiritually idle.
- 14:38He remade them with a view to a renewed life.
- 14:42And you have to see the grammatical structure.
- 14:44Works are the result and the fruit of salvation.
- 14:47They are not the condition or the basis of it.
- 14:49So this is what you called purposeful grace.
- 14:52It is. Grace isn't random.
- 14:53It is aimed at producing a specific kind of person who
- 14:57lives a specific kind of life. And this purpose clause then
- 15:00becomes the guardrail against that second big distortion we
- 15:03mentioned at the beginning, antinomianism.
- 15:06It does. Let's define that clearly.
- 15:08Antinomianism literally means against law.
- 15:12It's the attitude that says since I'm saving by grace, my
- 15:15obedience is optional. It's irrelevant.
- 15:18It might even somehow take away from grace.
- 15:20And Paul's statement just demolishes that view.
- 15:23Utterly, Paul is saying the very reason believers were created
- 15:26anew in Christ is so they could live lives marked by good works.
- 15:30Grace doesn't make holiness optional.
- 15:32It makes holiness necessary. It makes it inevitable for a
- 15:36truly redeemed heart. So if you claim to be God's
- 15:39poema, his workmanship, but you refuse to walk in the way he
- 15:43designed you. Then the reality of your
- 15:45transformation has to be seriously called into question.
- 15:47OK, that brings up attention point though.
- 15:50If works are necessary evidence of faith, how do we keep
- 15:54believers from constantly looking at their own works for
- 15:58assurance? Because that feels like it gets
- 16:00very close to legalism again. That's a great question.
- 16:03The difference is in the direction of your gaze.
- 16:06Legalism looks at works as the basis of your acceptance
- 16:10assurance. True assurance looks at works as
- 16:14the evidence or the fruit that flows from an acceptance that is
- 16:18already securing Christ. So your assurance rests on the
- 16:21finished work of Christ. That's the grace part.
- 16:23Yes, but the sign that that reality has taken hold in you is
- 16:27a changing life. That's the works part.
- 16:29If a tree is alive, it has to bear fruit.
- 16:31The fruit doesn't make the tree alive.
- 16:33OK, so then we need to get clear on what these biblical good
- 16:36works actually look like, because I think a lot of people
- 16:38hear that and they immediately think of dramatic missionary
- 16:40work or formal church ministry. Right.
- 16:42And that's part of it, but it's so much bigger.
- 16:44Paul defines good works very broadly.
- 16:46They have to conform to God's revealed will, his moral
- 16:49standard, and they have to flow from a heart of faith and love.
- 16:52And Paul says elsewhere, the new self is created after the
- 16:55likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness.
- 16:58So a good work is any action, any attitude, any thought that
- 17:02reflects God's moral character. Can you give us some some
- 17:05tangible, non spectacular examples?
- 17:08Things that aren't necessarily in a formal ministry setting.
- 17:11Absolutely. Good works cover your entire
- 17:14existence. They include having integrity in
- 17:17your job, refusing to cheat on your expense report or cut
- 17:21corners on a project when nobody's looking.
- 17:23They include faithfulness in your marriage, patiently
- 17:26persisting with your kids when you're exhausted, even just
- 17:29being honest in a difficult business negotiation.
- 17:32So it's the small things. It's the small things, enduring
- 17:35suffering with a quiet trust in God, or offering humble service
- 17:38and some unglamorous role at church.
- 17:41Those are prime examples of the good works God has prepared.
- 17:44The key is that they are done by faith and for God's glory.
- 17:48I think that's a vital corrective.
- 17:49If we're only looking for the big spectacular moments, we're
- 17:52going to miss the vast majority of the path God actually laid
- 17:55out for us. And that would be a huge tragedy
- 17:58because the scope is so comprehensive.
- 18:01The intended goal of salvation is not just a bear acquittal
- 18:04that leaves your character the same.
- 18:06It is the production of a transformed, obedient life
- 18:10characterized by good works. So if there's no pattern of
- 18:13conduct that reflects this new reality.
- 18:15Then Paul is clear the profession of faith stands empty
- 18:19and suspect. It's what James meant when he
- 18:21said faith without works is dead.
- 18:23It seems like Paul has built this argument.
- 18:24That's just airtight. Spiritual death demands
- 18:27monarchistic grace to justify us.
- 18:29But that very grace, because it recreates us as God's
- 18:32workmanship, then necessitates a new pattern of life.
- 18:35Good works. That's the perfect summary.
- 18:37Grace is not just the mechanism for forgiveness, it's the engine
- 18:40for holiness. And now we get to the final
- 18:43stunning layer of detail in verse 10, which connects our
- 18:46obedience today to God's eternal planning.
- 18:49Right. This is where grace gets
- 18:50incredibly specific and personal.
- 18:52Paul adds that these good works are those which God prepared
- 18:54beforehand. The idea that our specific acts
- 18:57of obedience were prearranged, that just takes us to a whole
- 19:00other level. The verb here, pro ituimazu, is
- 19:03so strong it suggests a careful prior arrangement, A detailed
- 19:08structuring of events. It pulls our daily conduct out
- 19:11of the realm of random chance and roots it firmly in God's
- 19:14eternal counsel and providential ordering.
- 19:16It sounds a lot like an extension of the doctrine of
- 19:18election. Just as God shows believers
- 19:20before the foundation of the world, He also, in a sense,
- 19:24extended that same eternal horizon to the specific actions
- 19:27they would perform once they were saved.
- 19:29That is precisely what the sources are saying.
- 19:32God determined not only the end the believers final
- 19:35glorification, but also the means and fruits along the way.
- 19:39So the specific acts of obedience, The time you choose
- 19:42patience instead of anger, the moment you choose integrity over
- 19:45profit. Those aren't spontaneous acts
- 19:47that catch God by surprise. They are integral parts of His
- 19:50eternal plan for you. OK.
- 19:51But this brings up a serious theological question.
- 19:53If God prepared these works beforehand, how do we avoid
- 19:56fatalism? If the path is already set, why
- 19:59bother trying to make moral choices?
- 20:01Doesn't this get rid of human responsibility?
- 20:03Not at all. Divine sovereignty and human
- 20:05responsibility always exists side by side in scripture.
- 20:09They aren't a contradiction. God prepares the path, yes, but
- 20:13He prepares it for us to walk in.
- 20:15So his preparation doesn't make our effort unnecessary.
- 20:19No, His preparation guarantees the meaningfulness of our
- 20:22effort. The reason you should exert
- 20:25effort is because your effort is the very means God ordained to
- 20:28bring about the result He intended.
- 20:30When you choose to obey, you are actively taking part in the
- 20:34precise good work God scheduled for that moment.
- 20:37So the Believer isn't a puppet. We're more like an actor
- 20:39performing a part that's been perfectly written by the master
- 20:42playwright. We have to willingly and
- 20:44consciously choose to step onto the stage and deliver the lines.
- 20:47That's a great analogy, and the master Craftsman who created you
- 20:50a new also custom fits the arena of our obedience.
- 20:53Custom fits the arena. What do you mean by that?
- 20:55Think about your specific circumstances.
- 20:57You're a difficult boss. You're challenging financial
- 20:59situation. The particular talents you were
- 21:01given, the health crisis you might be facing right now.
- 21:04These are not accidents. They're the context.
- 21:07They are the custom fitted context for your obedience.
- 21:10They are the soil in which the good works he prepared are meant
- 21:13to grow. I want to stay with that idea of
- 21:15custom fitted obedience for a minute.
- 21:18What does that do for the person who feels like their life is
- 21:21just mundane, or for someone who's going through a season of
- 21:24failure? It infuses the most ordinary
- 21:27tasks with real significance. Take the person patiently caring
- 21:31for an aging parent. That's an act that's largely
- 21:35unseen, unrewarded by the world. That is not a distraction from
- 21:38their spiritual life. That is the path he specifically
- 21:43prepared for them to express Compassion, long-suffering love.
- 21:46Or the business person who loses a contract because they refuse
- 21:50to lie. Right.
- 21:51Their professional failure, which the world sees as a loss,
- 21:54is actually a successful step along the prearranged path of
- 21:57integrity. So the person who thinks, oh, if
- 22:00I were just a missionary overseas then I could do great
- 22:02works for God is missing the point.
- 22:04They're missing the point that the work God requires from them
- 22:07right now is the faithfulness demanded by their current
- 22:10situation. This truth frees you from the
- 22:12tyranny of comparison. It does.
- 22:15You're not meant to walk in someone else's path.
- 22:18You're commanded to walk in yours.
- 22:20The smallest, most hidden act of kindness done from a heart of
- 22:23faith is just as much unnecessary, eternally purpose
- 22:27good work as some big public act of generosity.
- 22:31And that assurance that God has already gone ahead of us and
- 22:34arranged the circumstances for our obedience, that must be a
- 22:37huge comfort when we're struggling with weakness or
- 22:39doubt. It is the ultimate comfort.
- 22:42Your assurance is not based on your ability to find or invent
- 22:45good works. It's based on the faithfulness
- 22:47and skill of the One who planned them.
- 22:50When you feel weak, you know the path is defined by God's
- 22:53perfection, not your fluctuating strength.
- 22:55Your job is just to put 1 foot in front of the other.
- 22:57That's it. And that brings us right to the
- 22:59human responsibility part of it, that we should walk in them.
- 23:02Divine preparation doesn't mean we can just go into spiritual
- 23:05cruise control. No, the new walk is an active
- 23:08command. This is a decisive break from
- 23:11that former walk in sins we talked about earlier.
- 23:14The new life is not a passive reception of blessings.
- 23:17It's a sustained, spirit enabled lifestyle.
- 23:21It's a settled pattern, a deliberate movement toward
- 23:24holiness. So if the works are already
- 23:26prepared, what does that real, conscious, deliberate effort
- 23:30look like on our part? It looks like intentionality.
- 23:33It requires the believer to discern and embrace the good
- 23:36works God has set before them. I mean studying Scripture so you
- 23:39know what God's will is. It means praying for the
- 23:42Spirit's strength, and it means actively choosing obedience over
- 23:46sin in real time. For instance, God has prepared
- 23:49the good work of patience for you when you're stuck in
- 23:51traffic, but you still have to consciously choose patience
- 23:54instead of laying on the horn or getting frustrated.
- 23:56The choice is still yours to make.
- 23:58And if we fail, if we choose sin and fail to walk in the path He
- 24:02prepared for us, what happens to God's plan?
- 24:04When we choose sin, we are overturning God's eternal plan,
- 24:08but we are actively refusing in that moment to participate in
- 24:12the blessing and the conformity to Christ that He designed for
- 24:15us. So we forfeit the joy of that
- 24:17moment of obedience. And the opportunity to reflect
- 24:20His glory right where He placed us.
- 24:21Sin is just stepping off the prepared path.
- 24:25So to wrap this whole section up, the master Craftsman
- 24:27provides the design that's our new identity in Christ.
- 24:30He provides the materials and he provides the blueprint, the
- 24:34prepared path of good works. Our role is the intentional
- 24:37spirit aided execution of the walk.
- 24:40Every single step of obedience, no matter how small or hidden it
- 24:43seems, is a participation in the grand story God established
- 24:47before time began. It means that cleaning up a
- 24:49difficult mess at work or forgiving an insult in your
- 24:52family is an act that is integrated into the very
- 24:55architecture of God's plan. So the works aren't for
- 24:58justification. But they are absolutely
- 25:00essential for our sanctification and for the display of God's
- 25:03artistry in the world. This really does reconcile the
- 25:05tension. Grace is the power works of the
- 25:08purpose. To summarize Paul's argument
- 25:10here, in Ephesians 2, salvation by grace alone rescues sinners
- 25:14from condemnation and from spiritual death.
- 25:17But this grace is purposeful because God creates us anew as
- 25:22His poyoma. He at the same time sets the
- 25:25agenda for our existence. So the Christian life is the
- 25:27necessary result. The evidence and the purpose of
- 25:30that new creation and it's expressed as a spirit empowered
- 25:33walk along a path that was meticulously prepared by God.
- 25:37This truth should radically alter your perspective on your
- 25:39life tomorrow. Since God prepared the specific
- 25:42acts of obedience for you beforehand, how does knowing
- 25:45that change the way you approach the challenges you face?
- 25:48If a task seems tedious or an interaction feels frustrating,
- 25:51remember your present circumstances, your current
- 25:53relationships, your daily labor. They are the custom fitted arena
- 25:57of your obedience. What does it mean that the
- 25:59specific opportunity for quiet, faithful perseverance that
- 26:02you're going to face tomorrow is integrated into God's eternal
- 26:05counsel? Think about that as you consider
- 26:07your next step along the path He has prepared.
- 26:10Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into Reformed
- 26:13thinking.