Becoming What God Has Made

Articles

David Maddox
04/24/21 - General

When Paul discussed the incredible things God did through Jesus Christ, Paul made this statement in Ephesians 2:10.

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

If you are a Christian, God did not forgive your sins just for your pleasure of being forgiven.
God re-created you in Jesus Christ--He made something out of you that never existed before.
As a Christian, you are God’s workmanship--in the same sense that a craftsman makes an object.
God designed each of us as Christians to be people who do good works.
That is what God intended.
Before you were ever born, this was God’s intention: “Any person who accepts what I did in Jesus Christ will be committed to living a life that does My good works.”
God forgave you and me so that each of us could do God’s good works.
God did not save you or me to live any way we pleased.
God did not save you or me for us to be a selfish, self-centered people.
God did not save you or me so we could justify any lifestyle we wanted to live.
God saved you and me for each of us to become more and more like Him.
God saved you and me for each of us to devote our existence to doing the things God wants.
Being a Christian involves the desire to become what I was born in Jesus Christ to be--the Christian wants to grow and to mature in God’s own nature. The Christian wants to live the life God wants and to do the things God wants done. The Christian does not want to act or live in ways that oppose God.
Christianity is for people who want to grow closer to God. Christianity is not for people who have no intention of living and acting like people who belong to God.

In the first three chapters of Paul’s letter to Ephesus, Paul wrote about what God accomplished in Jesus Christ.

In fact, what God accomplished in Jesus Christ is the source of every spiritual blessing available to us (1:3).
Through Jesus Christ, God made it possible for us to be adopted into God’s family (1:5).
Through Jesus Christ, God made our redemption possible (1:7).
Through Jesus Christ, God extended grace upon Christians (1:8)
Through Jesus Christ, God made it possible for Christians to understand His objectives (1:8-10).
Through Jesus Christ, God gave us an inheritance (1:13-14).
If we are to see what God is doing, we must realize what God did in Jesus Christ (1:15-23).

(Paul: my prayer is that you will see what God is doing, what is happening.)

- David Maddox