Ephesians 2:10 (NLT), “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Do you own anything that is valuable? If so, how do you treat it? Maybe you own an expensive piece of jewelry and keep it in a special place? Or have a nice car that you park in the garage every night to keep out of the weather? Some people own nice houses, cars, clothes, furniture and even expensive artwork, but do you know what God values most in all creation? You!
The God who made the heavens and the earth, said you were His masterpiece in Christ Jesus! Some people value gold over people, but God put gold on the streets of heaven for His people. Some people will kill for rare jewels, but Jesus died so that people could live in a city with walls made of jewels.
When you gave your life to Jesus, it might have been a surprise to you, but it was the perfect, foreordained plan of God. This means, it might not have been planned a month in advance in your mind, but God had been anticipating, from eternity past, to make you His masterpiece. The day you were born again you became the masterpiece of God — His Picasso.
Though you will grow and develop good works, the day you were saved, as God’s masterpiece, you were completed! You’re not being tinkered with and worked on as you grow, you were perfected and completed the day you were saved. God now wants your maturity (spiritual growth) to match your identity (spiritual perfection). The author of Hebrews wrote, “You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23). Your spiritual soul was perfected when you were saved. Now it’s time to live like it!
The life long journey of spiritual growth is all about learning who God made you to be the day you were saved, and then doing the good works He planned for you in advance. Take for example, if someone could buy you the most expensive manmade thing and give it to you as a gift — say — the international space station (worth over 150 billion dollars). How long do you think it would take you to learn all about it and do all the “good works” it could do? A long time? A lifetime? The same is true with how God made you.
It will take you the rest of your life to learn how to live and act like the masterpiece God made you to be, in Christ, but you will never be more valuable, special and beautiful than you were the day you first got saved.
A man once said, “In all other religions, you start your journey with the hope to gain salvation because of your good works. In Christianity, everyone who believes in Jesus, starts their journey at the finish line because they are saved by His finished work.”
Reflection
Action
- Ask God to remove all self-pity and condemnation from your identity. Believe you are who God said you are.
- Believe and act like the masterpiece God made you to be.
- If you fail to do any of the good works God prepared for you, repent. Ask Jesus to change your behavior and move forward in grace.
One Year Reading Plan
Genesis 39:1-41:16, Matthew 12:46-13:23, Psalm 17:1-15, & Proverbs 3:33-35. Click here to read online.
