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Walk the Walk
“For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand in order that we might walk in them.”
(Ephesians 2:10)
As believers, God has created us to walk in good works. Certainly, the notion of walking in the Bible is often used to describe the way someone lives. When God is preparing the people to receive the Law, he instructs them that it is by these statutes and laws they are to walk (Exodus 18:20). In contrast, we are told that we are not to walk in the way of the Egyptians or that of the Canaanites (Leviticus 20:23). God promises that if we walk in His ways, he will provide for our needs (Leviticus 26:3-4), but if we choose not to walk in his ways, he will bring panic and fear and disease (Leviticus 26:14-16). King David describes difficult times as walking in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4) and Habakkuk speaks of the faithful one being made to walk in high places (Habakkuk 3:19). Finally, Isaiah calls the people to follow him into the Mountain of the Lord (Zion, which is the place of worship) so that God may teach us his ways and we may walk in them (notice that an important part of worship, according to the prophet, is to learn the things of God and live them out).
The analogy speaks to the mindset of the Christian. Walking is an intentional act. We don’t always do it perfectly — sometimes we trip and sometimes we get distracted and stumble — but it is something we decide to do. Walking also leads us to an intentional destination. When we get up to walk, we don’t let our feet just take us somewhere for the sake of walking, we walk in a particular direction that is governed by our minds. Even if we are the type to walk in circles or pace a room unconsciously, the walking is still a deliberate act.
For the Christian, the faithful life as a disciple of Jesus Christ is to be a deliberate act as well. Jesus said that we are to obey all that he taught us (John 14:15) and that a disciple is one who does the same (Matthew 28:20). And, to be obedient to a law, you must not only know what those laws are, you must also strive to live them out. Too often people think of Christian obedience as something that is optional. People get the notion into their heads: “I am saved by grace, not by works, so I can live however I want to live.” They forget the statement of Paul that we are saved to a life of good works to the glory of God. Oh, and what are good works once again? They are works that are conformable to the Law of God.
Dear Christian, Jesus did not die on a cross to give you fire insurance. He died on the cross to redeem you from the fire and to raise you to newness of life — to make you a different creature than you once were before you were a believer (that is the context of this whole chapter!). And newness of life means that the dead works of the flesh are meant to fall away and you are to go about walking in the good works that God has prepared for you to walk in — most namely in diligent obedience to the Law of God.
But what does this mean in a practical, and day to day sense? It means that your ideas about what is morally right and morally wrong should align with the scriptures. We should detest as morally evil all false worship, idolatry, blasphemy, sabbath-breaking, dishonoring of our parents, murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and covetousness. And, we should understand those things not only in terms of the letter of the law, but in light of the intent of the Law as Jesus interpreted them. We should love the brotherhood and sacrifice for fellow believers. We should seek to tear down every thought and idea in our own life and in the world around us that stands against the Word of God. This is an active and intentional calling, not a passive one. And, where there is no evidence of striving to walk in this way, there is no evidence of a transformation worked by Christ. True Christianity is not about sitting in a pew; it is about deliberately walking in obedience to God’s ways and not man’s.
Good Works
“For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand in order that we might walk in them.”
(Ephesians 2:10)
To clarify, then, the believer is a redeemed creation of God — God’s handiwork — and is thus at God’s disposal in terms of what he or she will become and should do. The “what to do,” Paul states, is that we are created for good works. But, what are good works? Or, to put it another way, what makes our works “good”?
As we might expect, the Heidelberg Catechism gives us a definition of what constitutes “good works.” Question 62 asks “But why can’t our good sporks be either all of or part of our righteousness before God?” In other words, is it possible that our works can be part of our salvation? The answer, of course is, “Absolutely not!” Our works are defiled by sin. Heidelberg answers the question in this manner:
“Because the righteousness which can stand before the judgment seat of God must be totally perfect and entirely conformable to the divine law. In contrast, even our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled by sin.”
How does this question assist us with the proposition that Paul is making here, that we have been created for good works? To begin with, it gives us the definition of what constitutes a good work. It must be “perfect and conformable to the divine law.” Perfection is a reference to being free from sin and the divine law is the law of God.
To anticipate the objection…”How can we be ‘created for good works’ when ‘none but God is good’?” Indeed, this is why Paul points out that the good works have been prepared by God that we might walk in them. Paul is not saying that the believer does truly good works in his own strength or power. Yet, in grace, God prepares good works for us to do, places us in a position to do those good works, and then brings about the good work by His own hand through us, graciously permitting us to participate in the process. We are like the child sitting on his father’s lap behind the steering wheel of a car and being allowed to touch the steering wheel. The father is doing the driving but we get to participate.
So, as we strive to grow in our faith, seeking out those good works which God has created us to walk in, what should govern our path? The simple answer is that the law of God should govern us. How do we know what work is good? We must examine the law and live by it. How rarely Christians do that, though. True, we are not saved by the Law, but that does not mean that the Law is invalid. It simply means that another has taken our place in the dock and will be judged by the Law as we deserve to be judged. Yet, as we seek to live out a life that is grateful to God for his good gift to us, our response ought to be to live according to the Law. And note…we don’t get to pick and choose, God gives us the Law as a whole and we ought to strive to obey it as a whole…part of which is keeping the Sabbath Day (as a whole day!), which has been almost uniformly ignored in the American church.
Christian, if you wish to live out those good works that God has prepared for you, start by practicing the Sabbath day as God designed the day to be practiced. Make it a day of rest and wholly seeking after God, not as an additional day of the weekend. See what God does with you from there.
God’s Handiwork
“For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand in order that we might walk in them.”
(Ephesians 2:10)
The word ποίημα (poiema) refers to that which has been made by another, more typically, a creation made by the hands of another. This is a theme that is present from the beginning of the Bible to the very end. God made Adam and Eve and God will remake us as glorified beings. God made the creation and God will remake the creation in the new heavens and earth. God is the potter and we are the clay. We are described as “new creations” in our regeneration as we are made believers and disciples of Jesus by the work of God’s hands.
There are two observations that ought to be driven home by these words. The first is that the created thing has no say over how it is created or what its purpose will be. The creator has the power and the right to make some items for honored use and others for dishonorable use. The clay has no rights over the potter but the potter has complete rights over the clay. We have talked a great deal about God’s sovereignty in election thus far, in the context of this passage, we can add to it the notion of God’s sovereignty in our sanctification. God has remade us and in that making, we are not our own. We belong to our maker and He and only He has the right to determine what we should or should not be doing.
In a broad sense, it is good works for which we have been created. And you will notice that those good works were prepared for us beforehand. In other words, God does not create us and then say, “Hmmm…how shall I use this person?” God has a purpose and a plan and creates us with that purpose and plan in mind. To simplify the idea with an analogy, a regular screwdriver can be used for lots of things — prying open cans of paint, loosening jammed windows or doors, banging in a nail or brad. Yet, a regular screwdriver was not created to do these things; it was created to tighten and loosen screws whose slots match the slot on the screwdriver. When used that way, its function will be best served and it will last longer without being broken or otherwise damaged. yet, the company doesn’t just put material in a mold and wonder what is going to come out. They set forth to manufacture a regular screwdriver that can be used to tighten or loosen flat-head screws. God has made you and me in a certain way with certain purposes in mind. Our design is thus different and situated to our calling; we will live longer and more fulfilled lives if we live in accordance with that design.
The second point that is worth noting here is that when God does a work of creating something anew, it is normally found in the context of redemption. God is redeeming the creation in the new creation to come. Even the remaking of the world as a result of the Flood is a kind of redemption — the land washed clean from the filth of sin. And, so when Paul is using this language, calling Christians a craftsmanship of God, a new creation, etc…, we should see this as a reference to redemption. Not just to our individual redemption but also to our redemption as part of the body of Christ. And so, as we think about the notion of being redeemed as a new creation for the purpose of good works, we ought to ask ourselves how we can best live out that role.
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