(Written by THEO GROENEVELD, serving at Emmanuel Presby Pretoria.)
--------------------------
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians2:6-10
We're still exploring the idea of Mission as SERVICE...
Paul makes a very very forceful point in v.6-9.
There is _absolutely_ NOTHING we can do to earn our salvation.
* There's not a drop that we can add to the ocean of mercy we get to swim in.
* There's not even a single hair that we comb into the right place to make us more worthy to receive God's love.
* We can't even contribute the wrapping paper that the gift of grace comes in.
* There's no part of the Good News story in our lives that we can claim to have authored.
-Do you get it?
--Do you understand it?
---Has it sunk home yet?
We have received incomparable riches and kindness as a GIFT.
But then Paul talks about good works...
Good works aren't the _reason_ for our salvation, they are the _result_ of our salvation.
When we do good, we're living out the ongoing salvation of God in our lives. We're His workmanship (the Greek word "poiema" implies handiwork, masterpiece, poetry-in-motion). When good deeds (acts of service) are on display in our lives, these good deeds are a signpost that point towards something awesome that has happened in our lives.
When I hand out a cup of cold water because Jesus saved me,
when I visit a lonely person because Jesus love flows through me,
when I stand up against injustice because Jesus died unjustly for me,
then the world will see His incomparable riches!
---
--------------------------
Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
