THE MAKING OF A MASTERPIECE

To those who are saved by grace through faith, Paul writes: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” - Eph. 2:10 

“The Greek word from which the word workmanship is translated is Poiema. Interestingly, we also get our English words POEM and POETRY from poiema. Have you ever thought of your life, as a work of divine poetry? Well it’s true. If you’re saved, you are God’s masterpiece, His personal poem, and His Work Of Art. 

Timothy Keller asks, “Do you know what it means that you are God’s workmanship? What is art? Art is beautiful, art is valuable, and art is an expression of the inner being of the maker, of the artist. Imagine what that means. You’re beautiful, you’re valuable, and you’re an expression of the very inner being of the Artist, the divine Artist, God Himself. You see, when Jesus gave Himself on the Cross, He didn’t say, “I’m going to die just so you know I love you.” He said, “I’m going to die, I’m going to bleed, for your splendor. I’m going to recreate you into something beautiful. I will turn you into something splendid, magnificent. I’m the Artist; you’re the art. I’m the Painter; you’re the canvas. I’m the Sculptor; you’re the marble. You don’t look like much there in the quarry, but I can see. Oh, I can see!” Jesus is an Artist!” And you beloved are His crowning achievement, His masterpiece!

This is what it means to be a Christian. It’s not first about the work that we are doing for Him; it’s about the work that He is doing on us. He is the divine architect—He is the designer and we are His workmanship. 

In light of Paul’s awesome revelation that believers are God’s workmanship, an important question to ask is, what is the divine artist producing through the work of His hands? Paul wrote that we are God’s Poiema created in Jesus, unto good works. What are those good works? The good works, which we are to walk in, are works that exemplify Christ in our lives. 

But it’s important that we see also that the good works, which are the result of being God’s workmanship, are not just about us. The good works are about what God wants to do in others through us to create His masterpieces.  

Recently, after reading about the devotion of God’s people to the construction of the Tabernacle in the Old Testament (Exodus 36:1-7), my daily bible reading plan brought me to 1 Corinthians 9:1. While expressing his devotion to the spiritual health of the Corinthians, because some questioned it, Paul writes: 

“Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?” - 1 Corinthians 9:1 

Paul, who wrote in Ephesians 2:10, “we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus,” wrote also that believers in Corinth were His workmanship in the Lord.  So, were they God’s workmanship or Paul’s workmanship? The answer is that they were both. How can this be? 

What Paul is saying here is that his Spirit filled and sacrificial ministry to the church brought many in the church to a saving and transforming knowledge of Jesus. Reader, can you say like Paul of others, you are my workmanship in the Lord? Have you brought others to Christ and assumed responsibility for their spiritual growth? 

What does it take to create a work of art? First it takes skill that must be developed. Believers need to be equipped to lead others to Christ and bring them to maturity and ministry. In addition, if we are going to be able to say like Paul of others, you are my workmanship in the Lord, it’s going to take dedication, time, sacrifice and patience. 

However, there’s one quality that without it you can have all the skill, all the learning and it will not be enough. Without it you will not be dedicated, you will not take the time, you will not make the sacrifices and you will not have the patience. What’s that quality? Motivation.  Concerning the hearts of those who gave themselves to the work of constructing the Tabernacle, the bible says, “And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work” - Exodus 36:2 

Those who came to do the work, not only had the skill from God through the Spirit, but their heart’s stirred them to do the work. Is your heart stirred up and fired up to do the work of the Lord?  Where does that motivation come from? It doesn’t come from intelligence, but from intimacy. It doesn’t come from how much you know, but who you know. 

Someone asked Albert Einstein’s wife, "What is it like being married to such a brilliant man? How can you even relate to him? Einstein's wife Elsa responded, “I don’t know much about the theory of relativity, but I know my Albert.”  You don’t have to understand everything about God to know God. If we could, He wouldn’t be God. But we can know God’s heart through the revelation of scripture and by the illumination of the Spirit in a way that we come to know Him intimately and take on His heart. 

Unlike the Old Testament saints, through Christ finished work on the cross, we have full access to the Father to know Him and make Him known. This access, which is our greatest asset, is the primary means by which we are shaped and fashioned by God.  When we seek God in prayer with an open bible we can encounter the glory of God, which not only changes us, but stirs our hearts to make others our workmanship in Christ (2 Cor. 3:18).  

If you are the workmanship of Christ, let me ask you, who is your workmanship? If your answer is, “I can't say,” then consider the following question. Are you being intentional about giving yourself to that which will stir your heart, like seeking the Lord through prayer and the Word?" Or are you giving yourself more to things that will dull your heart? Is your heart being shaped by the Word, or by the world, by the scriptures or by social media? 

One of the great evidences that you are being pliable to God’s workmanship is a stirring in your heart to make others your workmanship in the Lord. But when you are resistant to God’s chisel and hammer, you will have little or no motivation to fulfill this awesome call of God. Instead, you will be preoccupied and troubled with your own life. 

In addition, the more we give ourselves to making others our work in the Lord through the Spirit, the more of the power and presence of God we will experience in our lives. O when I have given myself to making others my workmanship in the Lord, I’m in heaven. I have this awesome profound awareness that I was made by God for this. 

O but when you are moldable in the hands of the creator of heaven and earth, He will make something beautiful of your life. And you will be stirred to make something beautiful of the lives of others in the Lord. May this old hymn be the prayer of our hearts: 

Have Thine own way Lord

Have Thine own way

Thou art the potter I am the clay

Mold me and make me after Thy will

While I am waiting yielded and still

Have Thine own way Lord

Have Thine own way

Search me and try me Master today

Whiter than snow Lord wash me just now

As in Thy presence humbly I bow

Have Thine own way Lord

Have Thine own way

Hold over my being absolute sway

Filled with Thy spirit till all can see

Christ only always living in me