Who We Are

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. [Ephesians 2.10]

We are God's masterpiece. Those are big words.

In another version, the wording is like this:

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 NKJV]

Between the words "masterpiece" and "workmanship," we find ourselves as believers in a special place in God's eyes. This is important.

Without feigning to be educated in psychology, I will point out that even most laymen today understand the need to be aware of "who we are" in this world. While I believe many have taken this to harmful extremes, even to the point of promoting selfishness and pride, it remains important that a believer in Jesus Christ is permanently mindful that he is Christ's, and, as such, God's masterpiece - God's workmanship - redeemed for a specific purpose: to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God did not create us anew to hang us on a wall or place us in a shrine to worship us adorning us with all manner of opulence and esteem. No, God created us in Jesus Christ to do what Jesus Christ did!

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” [Luke 4.18-19]

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. [Matthew 9.35-36]

We were created in Christ to do what Jesus did. Jesus very clearly articulated this:

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. [John 14.12]

It is pure damning religion that teaches its participants to "follow Jesus" without those participants doing what Jesus did. Doing "Jesus" is the evidence of a true believer being God's masterpiece - His workmanship. Not "doing Jesus" is a sure sign that a person is NOT a believer and is nothing of God's doing (let alone, His masterpiece). Jesus warned of such...

I know this: I don't want to be found guilty of discouraging a single soul from making every possible effort to look and act like Jesus in the earth today - regardless how uncomfortable it makes me or anyone else. Here is Jesus' own warning to that end:

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either. [Matthew 23.13]

Our being "God's masterpiece" is indeed a big deal. We are created in Christ Jesus to be Christ Jesus in the world today. Everything the Bible teaches supports this. This is God's handiwork - the miracle of salvation - the greater works that attest to the faith that receives grace. And, without surprise, our subject scripture above is preceded then by this well-known passage:

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. [Ephesians 2.8-9]

This was the plan all along. This is what "for God so loved the world..." was intended to accomplish. 

No matter how religious we think we are or how religious the world sees us, if we are not the continued manifestation of Jesus Christ in the earth today, we are not God's masterpiece - we are not God's workmanship, but instead we are the "cheap knock-off" of Satan who has successfully convinced the masses that simply going to church makes them a Christian. Any preaching or teaching that condones anything less than Christ-likeness in Christianity is nothing short of the lie of Satan designed to deceive people to think of heaven like the game of horseshoes: that "close" counts.

Religion is the masterpiece of man that will ultimately be discarded. Christ-likeness is the masterpiece of God that will remain with Him forever.

Father, may we take seriously the words spoken in Your Word that leave no doubt as to who we are and what we were created, in Christ, to do. So be it.