Ephesians 2:10–God’s Workmanship For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. There is a great question to which many, even churchgoers, cannot give a clear answer. The question is this: What is a Christian? Ask the question and some will say, “A person who goes to church.” Others will say, “Someone who is baptised,” or, “Someone who does good.” Friend, these are not the correct answers. We need to be much clearer than this. Let us turn to the Bible for help. From the Word of God we can give an answer from the human side. A Christian is someone who believes the Bible and trusts in Jesus Christ; someone who has repented of his sins and found the forgiveness of God; someone who faithfully follows the Lord. Yet the question may also be answered from the divine side. This is always the more fundamental answer. It comes first. What God does in saving His people is the theme of the opening chapters of this epistle. In our text Paul joins himself with the believers in Ephesus and indeed saints in every place and every age and gives a full answer to our great question. What does he say? A Christian is a divine product. He is the workmanship of God. The term comes from a verb meaning “to make.” From the Greek word we get our English word “poem.” We can surely learn from this. A poem is a composition in verse. The finished item clearly has much thought behind it. There has been a skilful arrangement of words, phrases and sentences to produce something orderly, harmonious and beautiful. A believer may be compared to this. The wisdom of God has planned all his salvation, from election to glorification. He executes His work perfectly, producing at length an individual without sin and resplendent with the divine image. There is nothing of man in this work. Sinful and corrupt, we are like clay, and only the divine potter by His grace can fashion us into vessels “meet for the master’s use” (2Tim.1:21). A Christian is a divine product by divine power. We are told that a Christian is created. This is a term reserved for God, the Creator of all things. There is a physical creation of which we are all a part and there is a spiritual creation in which believers have a part. The Christian is a “new man” which “after God is created in righteousness and holiness” (4:24). When does this great work of re-creation take place? Many look to baptism, attributing far more to the sacrament than is warranted. Rather we need to be converted and united to Jesus Christ, the source of new life. From Him we get “grace for grace” (John 1:16). In the first creation there was an initial work and then a process by which the final creation was developed and completed. So in the re-creation of man by grace there is the regenerating work of the Spirit and then the lifelong sanctifying work of the Spirit. A Christian is a divine product by divine power for a divine purpose. The purpose of God in salvation is to produce a holy people by His gracious power. If we are truly converted then there cannot but be evidence of this in the character of our lives. We must be clear in this. While we cannot be saved by our good works, we are saved for good works. Consider the original creation. It was not only beautiful but fruitful. God furnished paradise with a great variety of living, growing and multiplying things. Can we say that the ‘boughs’ of our Christian profession are bearing the fruit of the Spirit – “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal.5:22,23)? Are we “fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col.1:10)? A Christian is a divine product by divine power for a divine purpose through divine predestination. What are the works which God would have us do to His glory? Every believer is called to faith, repentance and new obedience. The Bible teaches us the old and trustworthy paths of God’s revealed will. But every believer also has a individual, specific calling from God. It is our duty to prayerfully seek God’s secret will for us. Our attitude should be that of Paul, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6). God has a work in His kingdom which He has prepared beforehand for each one of His people to perform. Judge yourself then not by your own opinions but by this scriptural standard. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2Cor.13:5). May the Lord show us whether we are disciples indeed and true heirs of heaven.