Jesus was a poem creator

JESUS WAS A POEM CREATOR
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Ephesians 2:10 10Forwe are God's handiwork,
created in ChristJesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advancefor us to do.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
God's Workmanship
Ephesians 2:10
W.F. Adeney
I. AS CHRISTIANS, CREATED IN CHRIST, WE ARE GOD'S
WORKMANSHIP. It cannot be that our salvation comes by our works,
because it is such a quickening from death to life as amounts to nothing short
of a new creation, and because Godis the only Creator. We only become new
creatures through union with Christ, and by the grace ofGod that is in him.
To know if this is our condition, we must see if we bear the traces ofthe great
Workerupon our persons. God's work must have the characteristics ofgood
work.
1. Fitness. Godfinds us out of joint. He shapes us suitably for our vocation. A
house without adaptation to its ends may look handsome, but it is a failure. A

true Christian will not only have a saintly bearing, he will have a practical
suitability for his mission.
2. Thoroughness.How thorough is God's work in nature as seenin the
microscopic organs ofthe smallestinsects!The new creationis as thorough as
the old creation. Downto every thought and fancy God shapes the character
of his redeemed.
3. Beauty. The best work is gracefuland fair to look upon. God's spiritual
work is adorned with the beauty of holiness.
II. WE ARE THUS CREATED FOR THE PURPOSE OF DOING GOOD
WORKS. Goodworks are more honored by the doctrine of grace than they
are by the scheme of salvationby works;for in the latter they appeal only as
means to an end, as stepping-stones to be left behind when the salvationas
reached;but in the former they are themselves the ends, and are valued on
their own account. Thus we are taught not to perform goodworks as an only
or necessarymeans for securing some ulterior boon, but are invited to accept
that boon just because it will enable us to do our work better. Instead of
regarding the gospelas a pleasantmessageto show us how we may save
ourselves the trouble of work, we must hear it as a trumpet-call to service.
The Christian is the servant of Christ. In spiritual death we can do nothing.
Salvationis quickening to a new life. The objectof this life is not bare
existence. All life ministers to some other life. Spiritual life is given directly
with the objectof enabling us to do our work. It fails of its object if it is
unfertile. The barren tree must wither, the fruitless branch must be pruned
away. Purity and harmlessness are but negative graces,and are not sufficient
justification for existence. The greatend of being is the doing of positive good.
The judgment will turn on the use we have made of our talents.

III. THE WORKS FOR WHICH WE ARE CREATED HAVE BEEN
PREARRANGEDBY GOD. The road has been made before we have been
ready to walk on it. And there is a road for every soul. Eachof us has his
vocationmarked out for him and fixed in the ancientcounsels of God. No life
need be aimless since every life is provided with a mission. How may we know
the mission?
1. From our talents. Men do not gathergrapes of thorns, nor poetry of
commonplace minds, nor heroism of feeble souls. The nature of the tool
proclaims its use. The hammer cannot be made to cut, nor the saw to drive
nails. God's workmanship bears on its specialform the indications of its
purpose. To know our work we must pray for light that we may know
ourselves, orwe shall fall into the common error of mistaking our inclination
for our capacityand our ambition for our ability.
2. From our circumstances.Godopens providential doors. Let us not refuse to
enter them because they are often low and lead to humble paths. If they face
us they indicate the work for which we are created, and that should suffice
obedient, servants. - W.F.A.

Biblical Illustrator
For we are His workmanship, createdin Christ Jesus unto good works.
Ephesians 2:10
Justified persons are God's workmanship
H. Harris, B. D.
Grace here means God's free gift. Our salvationis entirely God's gift to us;
and it must be so, because we cannotmake it or getit for ourselves;we have
no power of our own to make it for ourselves, nothing of our ownto offer in
exchange for it. If our salvation does not come to us as God's free gift it can
never come to us at all. But, though our salvationis entirely God's free gift to
us, it is never forced upon us without our consent. Freelyas it is offered to us,
we must, on our parts, freely acceptit when it is held out to us; we must
acknowledge itthankfully; and unless we do acknowledgeit and lay hold on it,
it can never become curs. It may go on lying within arm's length of us all our
lives through, and yet be of no more service to us than if it were hundreds of
miles away; we must reachout our hand to take it, and this hand of ours
which we have to put forth to take it with is faith. "By grace are ye saved,
through faith." This reaching out of faith, in answerto God's stretching out
His hand to save us, is the secondstepwhich is necessaryto be takenin the
matter of our salvation. But here St. Paul finds it necessaryto put in a word of
caution to those who are the very foremostin accepting his teaching, and the
most earnestin looking to their faith as the sole instrument of their
justification. He foresaw that men would come to pride themselves upon this
faith of theirs as something peculiarly their own, which very few besides
themselves had any share in, and which entitled them to look down upon the
rest of mankind with something like a feeling of contempt. And so, after
saying, "By grace are ye savedthrough faith," he goes onto say, "and that not
of yourselves;it is the gift of God." Your salvation, yes, and your faith, too, by
which you lay hold of your salvation, is all God's free gift to you; you did not

make your faith for yourselves any more than you made your salvation; you
had nothing of your own with which to make it. And how dare you, then,
presume upon your faith, and pride yourselves upon it, as if it were your own
creating? And now that St. Paul has securedhis position againstattack on one
side, he turns cautiously round, like a skilful general, to secure it on the other:
"Notof works," he proceeds to say, "lestany man should boast." And here,
after all, is the quarter from which an attack is chiefly to be lookedfor. It is in
man's nature to make as much of himself as he can; it is in his nature to seek
to justify himself, to work all out by himself, to sethis ownaccountstraight
with God. But now, of course, if he canearn his salvationfor himself, he can
make a merit of what he has done, he can claim his justification as his own
work. And so, in order to put a stop, once for all, to such notions and attempts
on the part of man to justify himself, the apostle lays down his next great
principle in the doctrine of justification: "Notof works, lestany man should
boast. For," he proceeds to say, "we are His workmanship." So far from
having any works of our own with which to purchase our salvation, we are
ourselves nothing but a piece of work of another's making. Godmade us, and
not we ourselves;He put us together, just as a workmanputs a piece of
machinery together, piece by piece, and we have no more ground for boasting
or making a merit of what we do than a clock has ground for boasting of
being able to point to the time or to strike the hours. We are simply, then, a
piece of workmanship, designedand put togetherby God. Still, a piece of
machinery is designedfor some setpurpose or other, and so are we; we have
been made, and made over again, "createdin Christ Jesus unto goodworks,
which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them."
(H. Harris, B. D.)
Believers are God's workmanship
Paul Bayne.
The apostle, having shownthat our salvationis only of grace, and the means
by which we are made capable of all saving goodin Christ, by faith, excluding
all causes in man, and that from the end lesthe should boast himself: he now

gives a reasonwhy God's grace is all in all, drawn from our redemption by
Christ. As in the first creationthere was no dispositionin man to make
himself a man, so no virtue in man now createdto make him able to bring
himself to eternal life; he confers nothing to the works of his new creationin
Christ, no motion of man's will, thought, or desire, or any preparatory work;
all proceeds from the infinite creating powerof God, He gives all.
1. All the faithful are new creatures in Christ.(1) This proves to many that
they are not believers as yet. Why? Becausethey live in their old sins. So long
as the love of any sin is retained there is no part of new creationin that
person.(2)To prove we are in Christ we must approve ourselves new
creatures.(a)The parts of this new creationare — holiness of the spirit, and of
the body, mind, will, affections, andevery member of the body.(b) Degrees —
babes in Christ; young ones;old men, the perfectionof stature.(c) Signs —
change;spiritual motion in the heart; desire for the sincere milk of the Word;
desire to draw on others to grace.
2. God is the author of our new creation.
(1)This shows the dignity of the saints. They are God's children.
(2)It teaches us to whom we are to ascribe all that we are.
3. God gives us our new creationthrough Christ. Let us magnify Him
accordingly.
4. The new creature has new works. The two go together;there cannot be the
one without the other. As is the fountain, such will be the streams which flow
from it.

5. We come to have goodworks whenwe are made new in Christ. Before that
we can do nothing, not only meritorious, but even good(John 15:15). If the
things which are necessaryconditions of a goodwork be considered, this will
be clear. It must be done
(1)From the heart.
(2)In the obedience offaith.
(3)To God's glory.
6. Goodworks are the very end of our new creation. As we plant our
orchards, to the end that they may bring us fruit, so does the Lord plant us on
purpose that we may bring Him fruit. Hence His people are called "Trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, in whom He may be glorified."
"Herein is My Fatherglorified," said Christ, "that ye bear much fruit."
Honour God with thy graces. It is reasonable thatevery one should have the
honour of his own. We see plainly that other creatures glorify God in their
kind, and fulfil the law of their creation;man alone, who has the greatest
cause and best means, comes behind.
7. We must walk in the ways which are prepared by God. Our life must be a
tracing of the commandments; we must not salute the ways of God as
chapmen coming to fairs; we must walk in them. Men in the world may
become so prosperous that they may give over trading, and live comfortably
on what they already possess;but it is not thus with the soul, which, where it
ceases to profit, waxes gross.(1)As thou wouldst have comfort that thou art a
new creature in Christ, made alive by the Spirit, try it by this — how thou

walkest.(2)Everstrive to be going forward, exercising the faculties we have,
and looking to God for all.
(Paul Bayne.)
Christian men God's workmanship
R. W. Dale, LL. D.
These words suggestfar-reaching speculationsaboutthe Divine ideal of
humanity, and about how that ideal is suppressedby human folly and sin;
they suggestinquiries about the ideal relations of all men to Christ, relations
which are only made real and effective by personalfaith in Him. But Paul was
thinking of those who by their own free consentwere in Christ, of those who,
as he says, had been "savedby faith." Of these it was actuallytrue that they
were "God's workmanshipcreatedin Christ Jesus." How are we to getat the
gospelwhich these words contain? Let us try. Mostof us, I suppose, who have
any moral earnestness, are at times very dissatisfiedwith ourselves;yes, with
ourselves. We think it hard that we should be what we are. We complain not
only of the conditions of our life, which may have made us worse than there
was any need that we should be, but of our native temperament, of tendencies
which seemto belong to the very substance of our moral nature. We have
ideals of moral excellence whichare out of our reach. We see othermen that
have a goodness thatwe envy, but which is not possible to ourselves. There is
something wrong in the quality of our blood. The fibre of our nature is coarse,
and there is nothing to he made of it. There is a wretched fault in the marble
which we are trying to shape into nobleness and beauty, and no skill or
strength of ours can remove it, And ours is not an exceptionalwretchedness.
The specialinfirmities of men vary. One man finds it hard to be just, another
to be generous;one man finds it hard to be quiet and patient under suffering,
another to be vigorous in work;one man has to struggle with vanity, another
with pride, another with covetousness, anotherwith the grosserpassionsofhis
physical nature; one man is suspicious by temperament, another envious,

another discontented;one man is so weak that he cannothate even the worst
kinds of wrong-doing, the fires of his indignation againstevil never burst into
flame; another is so stern that even where there is hearty sorrow for wrong-
doing he canhardly force himself to forgive it frankly. The fault of our nature
assumes a thousand forms, but no one is free from it. I look back to the
ancient moralists, to and to Seneca andto Marcus Antoninus, and I find that
they are my brethren in calamity. The circumstances ofman have changed,
but man remains the same. How are we to escape from the general, the
universal doom? We want to remain ourselves, to preserve our personal
identity, and yet to live a life which seems impossible unless we cancease to be
ourselves. It is a dreadful paradox, but some of us know that this is the exact
expressionof a dumb discontent which lies at the very heart of our moral
being. Is there any solution? Paul tells us what the solution is. Christian men
are "God's workmanshipcreatedin Christ Jesus."Yes, we were made for
this, for something higher than is within our reach, apart from the reception
of the life of God. There are vague instincts within us which are at warwith
the moral limitations which are born with us. Our aspirations are after a
perfect righteousness anda diviner order, but we cannotfulfil them. They will
die out through disappointment; they will be pronounced impossible unless we
discoverthat they come from the fountains of a Divine inspiration, unless we
have the faith and patience of the saints of old who waited, with an invincible
confidence in the goodness and powerof God, until the words of ancient
prophecy were fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, in Christ. The prophets of the
earlier centuries prophesied of the grace that was to come to later
generations;their prophecies were dark and indistinct, and even to themselves
almost unintelligible. They inquired and searcheddiligently concerning the
salvationwhich they knew was to come, though they could not tell the time or
the manner of its coming. And these aspirations of the individual soul are also
prophecies;by them the Spirit of Christ is signifying to us the hopes which are
our inheritance; they come from the Light which lighteth every man. But their
fulfilment is not reservedfor others; they may be fulfilled to ourselves. All
that we have vaguely desired is now offered us in the glorious gospelofthe
blessedGod; in Christ we become "His workmanship createdin Christ Jesus
unto goodworks." The Divine idea is moving towards its crowning perfection.
Neverlet us forgetthat the life which has come to us is an immortal life, At

best we are but seedlings onthis side of death. We are not yet planted out
under the open heavens and in the soilwhich is to be our eternal home. Here
in this world the life we have receivedin our new creationhas neither time
nor space to reveal the infinite wealthof its resources:you must wait for the
world to come to see the noble trees of righteousnessfling out their mighty
branches to the sky and clothe themselves in the glorious beauty of their
immortal foliage. And yet the history of Christendom contains the proof that
even here a new and alien life has begun to show itself among mankind; a life
not alien indeed, for it is the true life of our race, but it is unlike what had
been in the world before. The saints of every Church, divided by national
differences, divided by their creeds, divided by fierce ecclesiasticalrivalries,
are still strangely akin. Voice answers to voice across the centuries which
separate them; they tell in different tongues of the same wonderful discovery
of a Divine kingdom; they translate every man for himself into his own life the
same Divine law. We of obscurerrank and narrowerpowers read their lives,
and we know that we and they are akin; we listen to their words, and are
thrilled by the accentofhome. Their songs are on our lips; they seemto have
been written for us by men who knew the secretwe wantedto utter better
than we knew it ourselves. Theirconfessionsofsin are a fuller expressionof
our own sorrow and trouble than we ourselves had ever been able to make.
Their life is our life. We and they belong to a new race. A new type of
characterhas been created. Christ lives on in those whose life is rootedin
Him.
(R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
God's workmanship
R. J. McGhee, M. A.
We have in this verse three things.
I. THE POWER that acts on the sinner to bring him into obedience to his
God. The power of God alone. Man is dead; God is the quickener.

II. THE MODE in which that power acts upon him so as to produce this
effect. "In Christ Jesus."
III. THE CERTAIN SECURITYfor the operation of this power, and for the
effectit will produce. God has appointed it. He has ordained that His people
should walk in goodworks. You perceive, then, why throughout the
Scriptures the works of man are made the test of his salvation. He is not to he
justified by them, but he is to be judged by them, and this is a difficulty that
often occurs to the mind, How is man to be judged by his works if he is not to
be justified by them? The answeris — because they are takenas the testof his
faith, as the proof of his sincerity. A cup of cold water could not purchase
salvationfor the sinner; but a cup of cold water, given in the name of Jesus,
shall in no wise lose its reward, because it is the testthat the believer loves his
Master.
(R. J. McGhee, M. A.)
The heavenly Workman
T. Champness.
I. God works with skill and industry in elevating and refining human nature;
and let us not overlook the fact that there is A GREAT DIFFERENCEIN
THE MATERIAL. It is useless to say that all men are equal. We are not all
born alike. From the fault or misfortune of our progenitors, we may start on
the race with heavy burdens that we cannot shake off. Besides, we differ in
both physical and mental constitution. We use terms which are very
suggestive whenwe speak of a "hard" man, or when we say, "He is soft," "He
is coarse,"or"He is a fine man." Some we describe as Nature's gentle men,
while others are born mean. Let it be understood that the GreatWorkman
does not expectthe same results from every kind of material. There is one

thing He expects from all, and something He has a right to expect, and that is
what all can do: we must love God.
II. IT IS WELL FOR US TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE WORKMAN.
What a different fate awaits some of the blocks ofmarble which come into
London as compared with others. They will all be used, but how differently.
One is takento the studio of the sculptor, to be carvedinto some statue to be
admired for ages;another is sawninto slabs to make the counter of some gin
palace!If the former block could know and feelthe difference, how glad it
would be to find itself in the places where statues are made. Let those of us
who are lovers of God never forget that we are in the studio. It is not the
purpose of the heavenly Workman to put us to any of the baseruses we might
have been fit for but for His grace.
III. WE MUST NOT FORGET THAT THE WORKMAN HAS A PLAN. Life
in any of us is a very complicatedaffair. Things are always happening —
births, deaths, and marriages. Business relations alter. Circumstances differ:
there seems no order or arrangements. It is chaos to us. And yet God knows
all, and knows the precise bearing of eachevent on our lives. It does not seem
like it, and yet, if we look hack, we may often see that God has been working
all along in harmony with one idea. Some time ago, whenin Manchester, the
writer saw the men at work pulling down whole streets of houses to make
room for a new railwaystation. All appeared ruin and disorder. Here was a
party digging out foundations; in another place the bricklayers were building
walls;elsewhere some one was setting out for other walls; beyond them they
were still pulling down. It seemedlike chaos, and yet in the architect's office
could be seenthe elevationand picture of the complete whole. Every man was
working to a plan. And so God has His elevation, but He does not show it. "It
doth not yet appear." When Josephwas in jail, he was in the path of
Providence, and the fetters of iron were as much part of the plan as the chain
of gold he wore when brought to the summit of greatness. Whata variety of
tools!What are the so-calledmeans of grace but tools in the hand of the Great
Workman? What are preachers but God's chisels and hammers? Books, too,
are tools. How important is the work of those who write them! But the finest

work is often done by those sharp-edgedchisels calledPain and Bereavement.
How many of us are to be made perfect by suffering! It is not the dull tool that
can cut the fine lines. Will the work ever be completed? Not in this world
certainly. There is no room for self-complacence.
(T. Champness.)
The nature and necessityof goodworks
That those who are God's workmanship are createdin Christ Jesus to good
works;or, in plainer terms, all those who belong to God, and are createdanew
by His Spirit, are enabled by virtue of that new creationto perform good
works. In pursuance of this proposition, I will show —
1. What goodworks are.
2. What are the qualifications of them.
3. Why they must be done.
4. Apply all.
I. That we may understand WHAT IS MEANT BY GOOD WORKS, we must
know that there are habits of grace, andthere are acts and exertments of
grace;and these two are different from one another, because these acts flow
from those habits. These acts are two-fold, either inward or outward. The
inward are such as these — a fear and reverence ofthe Almighty, a love of
God and all goodness,and a love of our neighbours (which is called the work
and labour of love, Hebrews 6:10), which, though they be not outwardly acted,

yet are properly the works of the soul, for the not producing them into
outward action hinders not their being works. For the mind of man may as
properly be saidto work as the body; yea, if we considerthe true nature of
things, we may rightly assertthat the soul is the principal workerin man, and
that all the outward exertments of virtue in the body flow from the mind of
man, and take thence their denomination. These outward acts of grace which
are exertedby the members of the body, and are apparent in the practices of
holy men, are the goodworks generallyspokenofin the Scripture. They are
no other than visible exertments and actualdiscoveries ofthe inward graces
before mentioned. Thus our reverencing of God is discoveredby our solemn
worshipping Him, and that in the most decent and humble manner. Our faith
in Him, and love to Him, are showedby our readiness to do His will and obey
all His commands. It is true goodworks in generalcomprehend all works
morally good, whether they be adjusted to the law of nature or the revealed
law; but I shall chiefly and principally considergoodworks as they are
conformable to the revealedrule of the gospel. And so I proceedto the —
II. Thing I undertook, viz., to show WHAT ARE THE QUALIFICATIONS
OF THESE GOOD WORKS, that is, what is absolutely required in these
works to make them good. I shall speak only of those qualifications which are
requisite in evangelicalgoodworks, namely, such as are necessaryto eternal
salvation.
1. In a goodwork it is requisite that the person who doth it be good. By which
I mean not only that he be inwardly goodand righteous, according to that of
our Saviour, make the tree goodand his fruit good(Matthew 12:33);but I
understand this also, that the personwho performs goodworks be one that is
reconciledto God; for if the person be not accepted, the work cannot be good.
It is said, "The Lord had respectunto Abel and to his offering" (Genesis 4:4).
First unto Abel, and then to his offering. The sacrificermust be accepted
before the sacrifice.

2. As the works are goodbecause ofthe person, so both the personand works
are goodbecause ofthe righteousness ofChrist, in whom God is well pleased.
"He hath made us acceptable to the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). What we do is
favourably receivedas we are consideredin Christ. By virtue of our relation
to Him, who is our Righteousness,our performances are accountedrighteous.
This qualification of a goodwork the devout Mr. Herbert assigns, saying, "It
is a goodwork if it be sprinkled with the blood of Christ."
3. A goodwork in the gospelsense andmeaning is a work done by the grace of
God and the assistanceofthe Holy Spirit.
4. It must be done in faith, for the apostle tells us that "without faith it is
impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6), and, consequently, as he adds in
another place, "whatis not of faith is sin."
5. In all actions that are really goodthere must be lawful and right means
used. Acts of justice and honesty must be clone by ways that are lawful and
good. We must not be just among ourselves by being unjust to others. I must
not stealthat I may be charitable to the poor. I must not promote the best
cause either by persecutionor by rebellion. Thoughit be God's cause, it ought
not to be fought with the devil's weapons.
6. Goodworks must be adjusted to a right rule; they must be according to the
will and commandment of God. They must not be after our own inventions,
but according to this Divine command (Micah 6:8). That is goodwhich God
requires.
7. Every goodwork must proceedfrom a right principle; and by a right
principle I mean these following things —(1) That our works proceedfrom

sufficient knowledge. No actiondone ignorantly is good. He that acts without
knowledge cannotbe said to actmorally, much less Christianly. We must first
know that what we do is our real duty, and we must also understand why it is
so. Religionmust not be blind; reasonmust always go first, and carry the light
before all our actions, forthe heart and life cannotbe good if the head be not
enlightened. The understanding must make way for the will. Which brings me
to the next particular.(2) Goodworks must proceedfrom a free and voluntary
principle. As he that acts ignorantly, so he that acts unwillingly cannotbe said
to act well. To the will is to be imputed whatsoeveris ill or well done by us.
There is nothing goodor bad but what is matter of choice and consultation.(3)
With the understanding and will must be joined the affections. And this
includes in it these following things —(a) Integrity of heart. As servants are
bid to discharge their duty in singlenessofheart (Colossians 3:22).(b)An
entire love of God is required in every goodwork. All our actions must flew
from this principle, for if we love not God, we cannot do the works ofGod.(c)
There must be an entire love, not only of God, but of goodness itself, and the
intrinsic excellencyand perfection that is in it. There must be a delight and
pleasure in the ways of God, and in all those goodand virtuous actions which
we do, and that for their own sakes.(d)Notonly a love of God, but a fear of
Him, must be a principle from whence all our holy actions are to proceed, a
fear of acting contrary to the purity of God's nature, a fear of displeasing and
offending Him. Josephactedout of this excellent principle when he cried out,
"How shall I do this wickedness andsin againstGod?"(e)Humility is another
principle from whence we must act. Every goodand righteous man lays his
foundation low; he begins his works with a submissive and self-denying spirit;
he proceeds with lowliness of mind, and a mean opinion of himself, and of all
he can do.(f) Alacrity, joy, and cheerfulness, and so likewise a due warmth,
zeal, and ardency, are other principles from whence our goodworks should
spring. We must with gladness undertake and perform them, and we must
serve the Lord with a fervency of spirit (Romans 12:11).
8. This is another indispensable qualification of a goodwork, that it be done
for a goodend. As there are fountains or principles of actions, so there are
ends or designs belonging to them all. You must necessarilydistinguish

betweenprinciples and ends if you would speak properly and significantly.
Fountains and springs of actions are those from whence the actions flow; ends
and aims are those to which the actions tend. There is a vastdifference
betweenthese. I have told you what the former are;now I will setbefore you
the latter. The right ends which ought to be in all evangelicalactions (for of
such I intend chiefly to speak)are these three — our own salvation, the good
of others, and in pursuance of both God's glory. This was it which spoiledand
blasted the most solemn and religious duties of the Pharisees. Whenthey did
their alms, they sounded a trumpet before them, that they might have glory of
men (Matthew 6:2). Whey they prayed, they did it standing in the corners of
the streets, that they might be seen of men (Matthew 5:5). Likewise when they
fasted, they disfigured their faces, thatthey might appear unto men to fast
(Matthew 5:16). Yea, all their works they did to be seenof men (Matthew
23:5). All was to gain esteemand reputation, all was for applause and
vainglory. This wrong end and intention made all they did sinful. When I say
all our works are to be done for the ends above named, I do not by this wholly
exclude all other ends. As two of the greataims of our actions, namely, our
own happiness and that of others, are subordinate to the third, God's glory, so
there are other lesserand inferior ends which are subordinate to all these. He
evidences this by such ways as these — He never lets these temporal things
stand in competition with, much less in opposition to, those which are greater
and higher. He never so seeks his own as not to seek the things which are
Jesus Christ's. He doth not one with the neglectof the other.
9. To comprehend all, a good work is that which is done in a right manner.
Goodactions are such as have goodcircumstances andqualities, and evil
actions are such as have undue and evil ones.
III. Having instructed you in the nature of goodworks, I am to show you, in
the next place, HOW REASONABLE A THING IT IS THAT WE SHOULD
TAKE CARE TO DO THESE GOOD WORKS. I will present you with those
arguments and motives which I apprehend are most powerful to incite you to

this. First, I might mention the reasonin the text, where first we are said to be
createdunto goodworks, that we might walk in them. This is the very design
of the spiritual creationor new birth, that we should exert all these acts of
piety and religion which I have before mentioned. It is the purpose of heaven
in regenerating us that we should walk in the ways of holiness, and
conscientiouslyperform all the parts of our duty towards God, towards men,
and towards ourselves. Again, it is said, we are saidto be createdin Christ
Jesus to this. This is the end of Christ's undertakings. "He gave Himself for
us, that He might redeemus from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a
peculiar people zealous of goodworks" (Titus 2:14). Moreover, it is added
that God hath before ordained these works. This was the goodwill and
pleasure of the blessedTrinity in their eternalconsults before man was made.
Why then should we, as much as in us lieth, frustrate the purpose and decree
of heaven concerning us I Further, this (as the apostle saith of sanctification)
is the will of God (1 Thessalonians 4:3). This is that which is commended to us
by the example of the saints;they have all been zealous practisers ofgood
works. This is the grand evidence of the truth of our inward graces.This is
that whereby you show your thankfulness to God for your electionand
redemption. I add, this is that which is the greatornament and lustre of our
Christian profession;this will setforth and commend our religion to the
world. But there are these two arguments yet behind which I will more amply
insist upon — goodworks are necessaryto salvation; goodworks glorify God.
1. Though our goodworks are conditions of salvation, yet they are not
conditions as to God's election, for He decreedfrom eternity out of His free
will and mercy to save lost man, without any considerationof their good
works. Predestinationto life and glory is the result of free grace, andtherefore
the provision of works must be excluded. The decree runs not thus, I choose
thee to life and blessedness onsupposalor condition of thy believing and
repenting; but thus, I freely choose thee unto eternallife, and that thou
mayest attain to it, I decree that thou shalt believe and repent.

2. Though faith and obedience be conditions of happiness, yet the
performance of them is by the specialhelp and assistanceofa Divine and
supernatural power. God, who decrees persons to goodworks, enables them
to exert them.
3. Norare they conditions in this sense that they succeedin the place of
perfect obedience to the law which the covenantof works required. I am
convinced that no such conditions as these are consistentwith the new
covenant, the covenant of grace. Works,if they be consideredas a wayleading
to eternal life, are indeed necessaryto salvation;they are necessaryby way of
qualification, for no unclean thing shall enter into heaven. Graces and good
works fit us for that place and state; they dispose us for glory. We are not
capable of happiness without holiness. It may be some will not approve of
saying, We are saved by goodworks, but this they must needs acknowledge
that we cannot be saved without them; yea, we cannotbe saved but with them.
Some are convertedand savedat the last hour, at their going out of the world;
but even then goodworks are not wanting, for hearty confessionofsin, and an
entire hatred of it, sincere and earnestprayers, hope and trust in God, desire
of grace, unfeigned love, and zealous purposes and resolves, allthese are good
works, and none can be savedwithout them. In the next place, goodworks are
for God's glory, therefore they must be done by us. As I have showedbefore
that it is a necessaryqualification of goodworks that they be done out of an
intention to glorify God, so now it will appearthat this is one greatreason
why we are obliged to perform them, viz., because therebyGod is glorified.
"Let your light so shine before men," saith our Saviour, "that others seeing
your works may glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). The
light of our works came from God, and it must be reflected to him again.(1)
Becauseofthe wicked, that you may stoptheir mouths, and take awayall
occasionofspeaking evil againstyou. Again, for the sake ofgoodmen, we are
obliged to be very careful how we walk; we are concernedto do all the good
we can, that they may not be scandalizedand hurt by our evil examples, and
consequentlythat God's name may not be dishonoured thereby. By our holy
and exemplary lives, we may be serviceable to stir up the hearts of the godly
to praise God on our behalf. "Theyglorified God in me," saith the apostle, of

those Christian Jews who took notice of his miraculous conversion, and of his
extraordinary zealin preaching the faith (Galatians 1:24).
IV. By wayof inference, from what hath been said of goodworks, we may
correctthe error of the Antinomians, we may confute the falsehoodof the
Roman Church, we may make a discoveryof other false apprehensions of men
concerning goodworks;we are hence also obliged to examine whether our
works be good;and lastly, if we find them to be such, we must continue in the
practice of them.
1. What I have delivered on this subject is a sufficient check to the
Antinomian error, viz., that because Christhath satisfiedfor us, therefore
there is no need of goodworks;Christ's obedience serves forours. What need
we do anything since He hath done all? And all this is conformable to the
doctrine of our blessedLord and Saviour, who tells us that He came not to
destroy the law, but to fulfil it, and make it more complete and perfect. By His
doctrine and practice He taught the world that the moral law obligeth the
faithful under the evangelicaldispensation, andthat obedience to the former
is not opposite to the grace ofthe latter. He constantly promoted goodworks
and holy living, and bid His disciples show their love to Him by keeping His
commandments (John 14:15). You see then how fondly they discourse who say
that, because Christhath done and suffered all things for man's redemption,
therefore there is nothing left for us to do. Indeed, we have nothing to do that
can further our salvationby way of merit, but we have something to do
whereby we may show our thankfulness for Christ's undertakings; we have a
greatdeal to do whereby we may discoverour obedience to the Divine
commands and injunctions. Though goodworks and obedience are not
conditions of justification, yet they are of salvation;they are requisite in the
person who is justified, although they are wholly excluded from justification
itself. Or we may say, though they do not justify meritoriously, yet they do it
declaratively, they show that we are really of the number of those who God
accountethjust and righteous.

2. The falsehoodof the Romanists is hence confuted. They cry out againstus,
as those who utterly dislike, both in doctrine and practice, all goodworks.
They brand us with the name of Solifidians, as if faith monopolized all our
religion. Indeed, all that profess the reformed religion affirm that faith is the
root of all graces, thatDivine virtue is the basis and foundation of all good
works;this they maintain, and have goodreasonto do so; but still they hold
that goodand holy works are indispensably requisite in Christianity, and that
no man can be excusedfrom performing them, and that those whose lives are
utterly devoid of them have no right faith and no true religion. This is our
unanimous belief, profession, and doctrine, and the Papists are maliciously
reproachful when they accuse us Of the contrary.
3. From what hath been said, we may discoverthe wrong notions and
apprehensions which most men have of good works. I will instance more
particularly in charity, which is eminently calleda goodwork, but there is a
greatand common mistake about it. And so as to other goodworks, all
understanding men agree that they ought to be done, but they greatly mistake
what goodworks are. They think if they do the outward acts of religion they
do very well; if they fast and pray, and hear God's Word, and receive the
eucharist; if they perform the external acts of justice and charity, their doings
cannot but be goodand acceptable, and they need look afterno more. They
never considerwhether their fasting and praying and other exercisesof
devotion and piety proceedfrom God's grace and Holy Spirit in them,
whether they be accompaniedwith faith, and be the result of goodand holy
principles, and be done for goodends, and in a goodmanner. Alas! these and
the like things are not thought of. This discovers the gross mistakesin the
world.
4. Then you are really concernedto examine your lives and actions, and to see
whether you be not of the number of the mistaken persons.

5. When you have examined the true nature of good works, then urge upon
yourselves that you are indispensably obliged to do them. Being thoroughly
persuaded of the necessityof them, press the practice of them on yourselves
and on others.Thatyou may successfullydo so, observe these four plain and
brief directions —
1. Beg the assistanceofthe Spirit. These are no mean and common works
which I have set before you as that duty. They require greatstrength and
powerto exert them.
2. Study the Scriptures. There, and there only, you will find instructions for
the performing of works acceptable to God.
3. Setbefore you the example of the saints, for by viewing of them you will not
only learn what to do, but you will be taught not to be wearyin well doing.
4. Redeemand improve the time. Fix it on your thoughts that you have a good
deal of work to do, but your time to do it in is short and soonexpiring.
(J. Edwards, D. D.)
The singular origin of a Christian man
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. THE SINGULAR ORIGIN OF A CHRISTIAN MAN. As many as are truly
saved, and brought into union with Christ, are the workmanship of God. No
Christian in the world is a chance production of nature, or the outcome of

evolution, or the result of specialcircumstances. Ofregenerationwe must say
once for all, "This is the finger of God." The spiritual life cannotcome to us
by development from our old nature.
1. We are God's workmanship from the very first. The first stroke that helps
to fashion us into Christians comes from the Lord's own hand. He marks the
stone while yet in the quarry, cuts it from its natural bed, and performs the
first hewing and squaring, even as it is He who afterwards exercisesthe
sculptor's skill upon it.
2. We shall remain the Lord's workmanship to the very last. The picture must
be finished by that same Master-handwhich first sketchedit. If any other
hand should lay so much as a tint or colour thereupon, it would certainly mar
it all.
3. This is very beautiful to remember, and it should stir up all that is within us
to magnify the Lord. I was surprised when I was told, the other day, by a
friend, who was a makerof steel-plate engravings, how much of labour had to
be put into a finely executedengraving. Think of the powerthat has cut lines
of beauty in such steelas we are! Think of the patience that lent its arm, and
its eye, and its heart, and its infinite mind, to the carrying on of the supreme
work of producing the image of Christ in those who were born in sin!
4. If we are God's workmanship, never let us be ashamedto let men see God's
workmanship in us. Let us be very much ashamed, though, to let them see the
remains of the devil's workmanship in us; hide it behind a veil of repentant
grief. Christ has come to destroy it; let it be destroyed.
II. Secondly, here in the text we see THE PECULIAR MANNER OF THIS
ORIGIN. "We are His workmanship, createdin Christ Jesus." "Createdin
Christ Jesus."Our new life is a creation. This goes further than the former

expression;for workmanship is less than creation. Man may produce a
picture, and say, "This is my workmanship": a piece of mosaic, or a vessel
fresh from the wheel, may be a man's workmanship, but it is not his creation.
The artist must procure his canvas and his colours, the maker of a mosaic
must find his marbles or his wood, the potter must dig his clay, for without
these materials he cando nothing; for he is not the Creator. To One only does
that augustname strictly belong. In this world of grace, whereverwe live, we
are a creation.
1. Our new life is as truly createdout of nothing as were the first heavens, and
the first earth. This ought to be particularly noticed, for there are some who
think that the grace ofGod improves the old nature into the new. That which
is of God within us is a new birth, a Divine principle, a living seed, a
quickening spirit; in fact, it is a creation:we are new creatures in Christ
Jesus.
2. Creationwas effectedby a word. "By the word of the Lord were the
heavens made." "He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood
fast." "Godsaid, Let there be light: and there was light." Is not that again an
accurate descriptionof our entrance into spiritual light and life? Do we not
confess, "Thyword hath quickenedme"? "Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever." "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God."
3. In creationthe Lord was alone and unaided. The prophet asks, "Who hath
directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counsellorhath taught Him?"
Creationis the prerogative of Jehovah, and none canshare it with Him. So it
is in the regenerationofa soul; instrumentality appears, but the realwork is
immediately of the Spirit of God.

III. We come, thirdly, to dwell upon THE SPECIALOBJECT OF THIS
CREATION:"Unto goodworks, which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in them." When Adam was created, the Lord made him for His
own glory. When the Lord creates us the secondtime, in the secondAdam, He
does not make us that we may be merely comfortable and happy. We may
enjoy all that God has given us, for of every tree of this garden you may freely
eat, since in the paradise into which Christ has introduced you there is no
forbidden fruit. Around you is the gardenof the Lord, and your callis that
you may dress it, and keepit. Cultivate it within; guard it from foes without.
Holy labours awaityou, goodworks are expectedof you, and you were
createdin Christ Jesus onpurpose that you might be zealous for them.
1. Works of obedience.
2. Works of love.
3. Goodworks include the necessaryacts ofcommon life, when they are
rightly performed. All our works should be "goodworks";and we may make
them so by sanctifying them with the Word of God and prayer.
4. God has not createdus that we may talk about our goodworks, but that we
may walk in them. Practicaldoing is better than loud boasting.
5. And they are not to be occasionalmerely, but habitual. God has not created
us that we may execute goodworks as a grand performance, but that we may
walk in them.

IV. Fourthly, THE REMARKABLE PREPARATION MADE FOR THAT
OBJECT,for so the text may be rendered, "which God hath prepared that we
should walk in them."
1. The Lord has decreedeverything, and He has as much decreedthe holy
lives of His people as He has decreedtheir ultimate glorificationwith Him in
heaven. Concerning goodworks, "He hath before ordained that we should
walk in them." The purpose is one and indivisible: there is no ordination to
salvationapart from sanctification.
2. But, next, God has personally prepared every Christian for goodworks.
"Oh," say some, "I sometimes feelas if I was so unfit for God's service." You
are not unfit, so far as you are His workmanship, createdin Christ Jesus unto
goodworks. When God createsa bird to fly, it is the best flying machine that
can be manufactured; indeed, none can equal it. If God creates worms to
plough the soil, and bring up the more useful ingredients to the surface, they
are the best fertilizers under heaven. God's purpose is subservedby that
which He makes, else were He an unwise worker. We are in a specialdegree
God's workmanship, createdto this end, that we may produce goodworks;
and we are fitted to that end as much as a bird is fitted to fly, or a worm is
fitted for its purpose in the earth.
3. Everything around you is arranged for the production of goodworks in
you. On the whole, you are placedin the best position for your producing
goodworks to the glory of God. "I do not think it," says one. Very well. Then
you will worry to quit your position, and attain another footing; mind that
you do not plunge into a worse. It is not the box that makes the jewel, nor the
place that makes the man. A barren tree is none the better for being
transplanted. A blind man may stand at many windows before he will
improve his view. If it is difficult to produce goodworks where you are, you
will find it still difficult where you wish to be. Oh, sirs, the real difficulty lies

not without you, but within you. If you get more grace, and are more fully
God's workmanship, you can glorify him in Babylon as well as in Jerusalem.
Moreover, the Lord has prepared the whole systemof His grace to this end —
that you should abound in goodworks. Every part and portion of the
economyof grace tends toward this result, that thou mayest be perfect even as
thy Fatherwhich is in heaven is perfect.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Christian is the noblest work of God
Men can admire a statue; it is breathing with life, and the fire of genius has
succeededin imparting almost animation to the figure. You remember that
once it was but an unmeaning block of marble, but the sculptor's imagination
has succeededin portraying a man, and the human face divine meets your
enraptured eyes. You are filled with rapture and astonishmentat the powerof
genius to callforth such a beautiful creationof art. And have you no eyes to
see, nor heart to appreciate, the noble work of God in the new creationof a
soul that was dead in trespasses andsins? That man was once a blank in the
creationof God; he was spiritually dead, but now he has a soul instinct with
the breath of heaven, which lives for its Maker, which hears and obeys His
voice, and beats high with the generous sentiments of redeeming love. It is a
soul that is restoredto its original place in the creation, fulfilling the high
purposes of its God, and glowing with ardour to live for His honour and glory.
It has not, like the statue, the mock appearance oflife; it is not a beautiful
illusion of your fancy which vanishes at one effort of your soberreason. It has
not its useless andinanimate form to reign and hold its empire only in your
imagination. No! look on it, it is the living work of God; it has His own
resemblance imparted to it; it is immortal, and destined to run an endless race
of glory, to the everlasting praise of the infinite Jehovah — behold it — angels
are enamoured with it, and yet you, who canbreak forth in rapture at that
lifeless statue, cansee no beauty here; no loveliness to draw forth your love;
no admiration of this soul "born of God"!

Professors without goodworks
C. H. Spurgeon.
Many Christians are of a retiring disposition, and their retiring disposition is
exemplified somewhatin the same way as that of the soldier who felt himself
unworthy to stand in the front ranks. He felt that it would not be too
presumptuous a thing for him to be in front, where the cannon balls were
mowing down men on the right hand and on the left, and therefore he would
rather not be in the vanguard. I always look upon those very retiring and
modest people as arrant cowards, and I shall venture to callthem so. I ask not
every man and woman to rush into the front ranks of service, but I do ask
every converted man and woman to take some place in the ranks, and to be
prepared to make some sacrifice in that position they choose orthink
themselves fit to occupy.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
A Christian Christ's workmanship
It is told of MichaelAngelo, the famous Italian sculptor and painter, that he
invariably selectedthe marble block on which he was to operate from the
quarry himself. He would allow no other hand to touch it, not even in its
rudest state, lestit should be marred. After such a fashiondoes the Master-
Sculptor of souls proceed. He performs the entire work of refashioning the
human soul from beginning to end. In this work, it is true, He employs various
tools — His Word, His Spirit, His Providential arrangements;but no hand
save His touches them.
We are His workmanship.
Man's creationunto good works
Thomas Jones.
Human boasting is excluded, because human merit there is none. We are
God's workmanship, not our own.

I. THE DIVINE WORKMANSHIP.
1. Characterizedby truth, reality, thoroughness, Noton the surface — not
merely intellectualor mental; but a deep, subterraneous powerheaving from
the depth of the spiritual nature, and working from the centre to the
circumference. Born again. Createdanew.
2. When complete it will be perfect in beauty. He who made these bodies of
ours so beautiful, so kingly, so majestic, so unutterably wonderful; He who
bent with such majestic grace the arch of the firmament; He who clothed the
earth with its infinite variety of beautiful objects;will make His spiritual
creationin harmony with the material; so that, when finished, it shall be said,
"He hath made this also beautiful in his season." Godwill look upon it, and
say, "Yes, it is My workmanship, and I am pleasedwith it." That is the
highest thing that canbe said. His heart will rest in it.
II. THE COMPASS OF THIS WORKMANSHIP. "Createdin Christ Jesus
unto goodworks." Goodworks here, and goodworks hereafter. We are to
serve God in the best way we can here, and we shall serve Him in another
world in the distant future more perfectly than now.
1. Goodworks have their origin in love. Nothing noble is done from any other
motive.
2. Goodworks are always inspired by the Holy Ghost. He inspires the love,
and the love gives existence to the goodworks.

3. The good works we are to do are ordained by God. God thought of you
before you were;He resolvedthat you should be — that you should be to do
goodworks — to do good works whichbelong to you alone, just as in nature
the tree is createdto bear a particular fruit. How shall we know what we
ought to do?(1)By the predispositions of our own minds, which are
themselves the creationof God.(2)From our abilities. All we can do we are
bound to do. Not much is expectedfrom a mere mountain brook. Let it flow
through its narrow channel; let it make a little greenon its banks; let it
murmur as it goes — and that is all you canever expect of it. It is only a
mountain brook. But, of a vast river starting at one end of a continent, and
flowing through the heart of it, gathering to itself volumes of water, much is
expected, for is it not a greatriver? And so, you who have education and
genius, you whom God has richly endowed, you who have noble opportunities
and fine talents — God expects greatthings of you; you must waterthe
continent, as it were; and the question for eachone is, to what work does my
heart gravitate, and what work can I do? It is a greatmistake — a mistake
often committed — to try to do what we cannot, and to leave undone the thing
which God has ordained for us to do, and which we could do with perfect
ease.(3)We are bound to pray, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Life
oftentimes seems a pathless region, and it is evening with us, and the clouds
are lowering, and the dark, black forestis before us, and there is no pathway,
and a kind of bewilderment comes overa man at times; he does not know
what to do, or which way to go — a conscientious man, especially. If God has
placed him in a position in which others are dependent upon him for all
blessing whatsoever, it becomes a greatquestion, and a bewilderment
sometimes, whathe is to do. Rut we are not alone in this pathless place. There
is always the invisible presence, the Eternal Friend at hand, and to Him we
must go in solemnprayer. This if we do, we shall not go astray, but when life
ends shall find that accomplishedwhich He desired.
(Thomas Jones.)

The new creationof believers
T. Manton, D. D.
The doctrine of the text is, That those who are renewedand recoveredout of
the apostasyofmankind, are, as it were, createdanew through the powerof
God and grace ofthe Redeemer.
I. EXPLAIN THE TEXT.
1. Our relationto God. "We are His workmanship."(1)Bynatural creation,
which gives us some kind of interest in Him, and hope of grace from Him.(2)
By regeneration, or renovation, which is calleda secondor new creation(2
Corinthians 5:17).(a) A change wrought in us, so that we are other persons
than we were before, as if another kind of soul came to dwell in our bodies.(b)
This change is such as must amount to a new creation. Nor merely a moral
change, from profaneness and gross sins to a more sobercourse of life; nor a
temporary change, whichsoonwears off; nor a change of outward form,
which does not affectthe heart; nor a partial change. The renewedare "holy
in all manner of conversation."Theydrive a new trade for another world, and
setupon another work to which they were strangers before;must have new
solaces, new comforts, new motives. The new creature is entire, not half new
half old; but with many the heart is like "a cake not turned."(c) When thus
new framed and fashioned, it belongethto God; it hath specialrelationto Him
(James 1:18). It must needs be so; they have God's nature and life.(d) This
workmanship on us as new creatures farsurpasses that which makes us
creatures only.
2. God's way of concurrence to establishthis relation. It is a "creation."(1)
This shows the greatness ofthe disease;in that so great a remedy is needed.(2)
It teaches us to magnify this renewing work. if you think the cure is no great
matter, it will necessarilyfollow that it deserves no greatpraise, and so God
will be robbed of the honour of our recovery.

3. How far the mediation of Christ is concernedin this effect. We are renewed
by God's creating power, but through the intervening mediation of Christ.(1)
This creating poweris setforth with respectto His merit. The life of grace is
purchased by His death, "Godsent His only-begotten Son into the world that
we might live by Him" (1 John 4:9); here spiritually, hereaftereternally; life
opposite to the death incurred by sin. And how by Him? By His being a
propitiation.(2) In regard of efficacy. Christ is a quickening Head, or a life-
making Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45). Whatevergrace we have comes from
God, through Christ as Mediator; and from Him we have it by virtue of our
union with Him (2 Corinthians 5:17).(3)With respectto Christ: "We are His
workmanship, createdin Christ Jesus,"who is the Head of the new world, or
renewedestate.(4)With respectto the use for which this new creationserveth.
One is mentioned in the text: "Createdunto goodworks";but other things
must be taken in.(a) In order to our present communion with God. Till we are
createdanew, we are not fit to converse with a holy and invisible God
earnestly, frequently, reverently, and delightfully, which is our daily work and
business.(b) In order to our service and obedience to God. Man is unfit for
God's use till he be new moulded and framed again.(c)In order to our future
enjoyment of God, and that glory and blessednesswhichwe expectin His
heavenly kingdom; none but new creatures canenter into the new Jerusalem.
Application: Use.
1. Of information.(1) That there is such a thing as the new nature,
regeneration, orthe new birth, and the new creature. It is one thing to make
us men, another to make us saints or Christians.(2)That by this new nature a
man is distinguished from himself as carnal;he hath somewhatwhich he had
not before, something that may be called a new life and nature; a new heart
that is created(Psalm51:10), and may be increased(2 Peter3:18). In the first
conversionwe are mere objects of grace, but afterwards instruments of grace.
First God workethupon us, then by us.(3)How little they can make out their
recoveryto God, and interest in Christ, who are not sensible of any change
wrought in them. This is a change indeed, but in many that profess Christ,

and pretend to an interest in Him, there is no such change to be sensibly seen;
their old sins, and their old lusts, and the old things of ungodliness are not yet
castoff. Surely so much old rubbish and rotten building should not be left
standing with the new. Old leaves in autumn fall off in the spring, if they
continue so long; so old things should pass away, and all become new.(4) It
informeth us in what manner we should check sin, by remembering it is an old
thing to be done away, and ill becoming our new estate by Christ (2 Peter1:9).
2. To put us upon self-reflection;are we the workmanshipof God, createdin
Christ Jesus?that is, are we made new creatures? It will be knownby these
things — a new mind, a new heart, and a new life.
3. To exhort you to look after this, that you be the workmanship of God,
createdin Christ Jesus. Youwill say, "What can we do? This is God's work in
which we are merely passive." I answer — It is certainly an abuse of this
doctrine if it lull us asleepin the lap of idleness;and we think that because
God doth all in framing us for the new life, we must do nothing. The Spirit of
God reasonethotherwise, "Work outyour own salvationwith fear and
trembling; for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His
goodpleasure" (Philippians 2:12, 13). This principle canneither be a ground
of loosenessnorlaziness. You are under an obligation both to return to God
and to use the means whereby you may return. Your impotency doth not
dissolve your obligation. A drunken servantis a servant, and bound to do his
work;his master losethnot his right by his default. An insolvent debtor is a
debtor, and if he cannot pay all, he is bound to pay as much as he can. Besides,
you are creatures in misery; if you be sensible of it, your interest will teach
you to do what you can to come out of it; and God's doing all is an
engagementto wait upon Him in the use of means, that we may meet with
God in His way, and He may meet with us in our way.

II. THE END why we are brought into this estate. Notto live idly or walk
loosely, but holily and according to the will of God.
1. The object: goodworks;that is, works becoming the new creature;in short,
we should live Christianly.
2. God's act about it.
(1)God has prepared these works for us.
(2)God has prepared us for them.
3. Our duty: that we should walk in them. Walking denotes both a way and an
action.(1)Goodworks are the way to obtain salvation, purchased and granted
to us by Jesus Christ. Unless we walk in the path of good works we cannot
come to eternal life.(2) An action. Walking denotes —
(a)Spontaneity in the principle; not drawn or driven, but walk — setourselves
a-going.
(b)Progress m the motion.
(T. Manton, D. D.)
New creatures prepared for goodworks

T. Manton, D. D.
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY GOOD WORKS.
1. The kinds. All acts of obedience.(1)Acts of God's immediate worship, both
internal and external.(2)Every man must labour in the work to which he is
called.(3)Works of righteousness andjustice; to hurt none, to give every one
his due, to use fidelity in our relations (Acts 24:15).(4)Works ofcharity and
mercy; as to relieve the poor, to be goodto all, to help others by our counselor
admonition.(5) I think there is another sort of goodworks which concern
ourselves, and that is sobriety, watchfulness, mortification, self-denial. A man
owethduty to himself (Titus 2:12).
2. The requisites.(1)That the person be in a goodstate (Matthew 7:17).(2)The
principles of operationmust be faith, love, and obedience.(3)A due regard of
circumstances, thatit may be not only good, but done well(Luke 8:15).(4)The
end — that it be for God's glory (Philippians 1:11).
II. HOW NEW CREATURES ARE OBLIGED TO THESE GOOD WORKS.
1. With respectto God, He hath ordained that we should walk in them. If you
refer to His decree, He will have His electpeople distinguished from others by
the goodthey do in the world, that they may be knownto be followers ofa
goodGod, as the children of the devil are by their mischief (2 Peter1:10). If
you take it for His precept and command, surely we should make conscience
of what our Father giveth us in charge.
2. With respectto Christ, who died to restore us to a capacityand ability to
perform these goodworks (Titus 2:14).

3. With respectto the Spirit, who renewethus for this end; we are new made,
that we may look upon doing goodas our calling and only business. All other
things are valuable according to the use for which they serve; the sun was
made to give light and heat to inferior creatures, and we are enlightened by
grace, and inclined by grace, that our light may shine before men (Matthew
5:16).
4. With respectto heavenand eternal happiness, they are the way to heaven.
We discontinue or break off our walk when we cease to do good;but the more
we mind goodworks the more we proceedin our way (Philippians 3:14).
III. HOW ARE THEY FITTED AND PREPAREDby this new nature that is
put into them for goodworks? There is a remote preparation, and a near
preparation.
1. The remote preparation is an inclination and propensity to all the acts of
the holy and heavenly life. All creatures have an inclination to their proper
operations, so the new creature. As the sparks fly up and the stones downward
by an inclination of nature, so are their hearts bent to please and serve God.
The inclination is natural, the acts are voluntary, because it is an inclination of
a free agent.
2. The near preparation is calledpromptitude and readiness for every good
work, or "a ready obedience to every goodwork." (See Titus 3:1; 1 Timothy
6:18; Hebrews 13:1). This is beyond inclination. The fire hath an inclination to
ascendupwards, yet something may violently keepit down; so a Christian
may have a will to good, a strong, not a remiss will, but yet there are some
impediments (Romans 7:18).

(T. Manton, D. D.)
A bird's-eye view of life
James Stalker, M. A.
I. THE AIM OF LIFE. "Goodworks." Is it Paul who speaksthus? Is not he
the enemy of goodworks? Is not this the doctrine of the Old Testament?
Answer: Paul was the enemy of a certain doctrine of goodworks, and of a
party who took goodworks as its motto. But it is quite possible to object to a
thing in the wrong place, and appreciate it in the right place. The voice of
consciencetells a man he shall be justified or condemnedby his works. Are
the words of our Lord, in Matthew 25:35, mock thunder? If not, then it is
plain that what we shall be askedfor at the judgment seatwill be our good
works.
II. THE LINE BY WHICH THIS AIM IS LIMITED.
1. The line of talent. One has ten talents, another has only one. No man can do
the work of an angel. A common man cannot do the work of a genius. All have
some talent. One has socialcharm; another, the gift of song;another, moral
attractiveness.
2. The line of circumstances. The circumstances andplaces of our lives are
arrangedby God, as wellas the persons we influence and who influence us.
We must see to it that our own plot is well caredfor. The invalid cannotdo as
much as the man of goodhealth, nor the mother of a family as much as she
who has no such care.
3. The line of time. How different would our life have been, had we lived in the
last century. Now, or never, is our time to work. God has appointed the length
of time we are to work.

III. THE POWER BY WHICH IT IS ACCOMPLISHED. We are "createdin
Christ Jesus unto goodworks." Ourdestination to do our goodworks dates
from our new birth. If we have not been born again, we have not begun to do
our goodworks. This change is a creation. It is comparedto the change that
took place when God said, "Let there be light." "In Christ Jesus," united to
Him, so that we can say, "It is no more I that do it, but Christ who dwelleth in
me." No man is fit to do the work of life till he is createdin Christ Jesus. His
life is a failure unless he is a new creature. Let those who are in Christ Jesus
remember why they have been so created, and that it is entirely in the power
derived from Christ they can do their good works.
IV. THE DIVINE ARTIST BEHIND THE HUMAN WORKMAN. Life is our
task, but it is also Another's. We are "His workmanship." The Greek is,
"God's poem." Every Christian's life is a poem of God. In opening a book of
poems we find an elegy, a lyric, an ode of battle, or a love song. There are lives
of Christians like all these. This is God's book of poems. Its name is, "The
book of free grace, and undying love," Will your life be in it?
(James Stalker, M. A.)
The Divine workmanship
Thomas Jones.
I. ITS CHARACTERISTICS.
1. Truth.
2. Reality.

3. Thoroughness.
4. When complete, perfection in beauty.We, beatenand tossedby the stormy
waves of circumstance, shallbe so perfect as to please GodHimself.
II. ITS PURPOSE.There are goodworks here and hereafter. When we lay
down our weariedheads and die, we are not done with service. We shall serve
God in another world more perfectly than now.
1. Goodworks have their origin in love, i.e., they are inspired by the Holy
Ghost.
2. Goodworks are ordained of God.
3. How shall we know what we ought to do amongstthe multiplicity of good
works?(1)We must be guided to a certainextent by our own predispositions.
Some are disposedto self-culture; let them, then, go on and cultivate their
natures. Some love to teach. Some delight in practicalbenevolence. Forall
there is a work.(2)We must look at our abilities — what we can do.(3) We
must seek God's direction.
(Thomas Jones.)
Goodworks are God-inspired
Thomas Jones.

Goodworks are always inspired by the Holy Ghost, or, to speak more
correctlyperhaps, He inspires the love, and the love gives existence to the
goodworks. "There is none good, save God." Thus the Saviour taught.
Goodness in Him is like light in the sun. You meet with rivers, and streamlets,
and fountains, and lakes among the mountains, and in the valleys of the earth;
but the origin of them all is in the sea, they all begin there. So all goodnessin
individuals, in the Church, in the world, in the whole universe, is inspired of
God, and I wish I could make you feel it as seriously as I do. This gives
unspeakable grandeur to our practicalreligion, to goodworks. Theyare
inspirations of God, they are beams from the centrallight, they are streams
from the uncreatedfountain. Flippantly have men sometimes spokenofgood
works, contrasting faith with works. Theyhave twisted laurel wreaths of glory
round the brows of faith; they have kept goodworks in the distance. Another
day has dawned upon England; we begin to think that the grandest thing of
all is to be good. To do goodworks inspired by love and inspired by God's
Holy Spirit — this is the grand thing.
(Thomas Jones.)
Goodworks prepared
Paul Bayne.
Six ways in which God prepares good works forus to do.
1. In predestinating them (Romans 1:1; Jeremiah1:5; Isaiah 54:16).
2. In His commandments He reveals them to us. The law of God rules them
out before our eyes.
3. God has set us samples, both His own, and His children's.

4. God supplies us with the grace, which enables us to do this or that work.
5. He excites the will; for such is our dulness, that we must have our will
raisedby Him to will.
6. He preserves us; so that now willing we may work.
(Paul Bayne.)
Preparedworks
J. Vaughan, M. A.
It would be impossible to conceive words which could better express at once
the dignity and the nothingness of all human "works."Theirdignity, seeing
that for their sake we are both made of God and re-made of Christ. Their
nothingness — because both the "works"we do — and we ourselves who do
them — are nothing but a piece of "workmanship" which God has formed
and created. If any man think much of his "works,"I say, "You are only a bit
of mechanism, that God has trained to carry out His mind; to evolve those
preplanned works." If any man think little of "works,"I say, "It is for works
that you were createdand redeemed; and God has thought so much of those
'works'of yours, that He designed them before you were born; and you were
brought into existence that you might do them." Look at that body of yours —
so curiously framed together, and knit, and fitted for action. Look at that
mind, so capable and so furnished. Look at that heart, with all its powers of
sympathy and affection. Look at that soul, with all that has been done for it,
and done in it. And then ask yourself — I do not say— "Is not all this
'prepared' for something, and something very great?" — but, "Must not there
be something 'prepared' for it? Must not the 'preparation' be reciprocal?
Must not that which is 'prepared' for this complicatedand wonderful being of

mine, be something worthy Of its structure and its composition? Godmakes
nothing for waste. Surely, every evidence that I am 'prepared' for a work, is a
proof that a work is 'prepared' for me." It would, of course, be a great
question — concerning every particular work as it comes before you whether
it is the work which God has" prepared" for you. To guide you into a decision
in this matter, there should always be at leasttwo vocations to every work:the
inward vocationof your own conscience, andthe outward vocationof
Providence. And if to these two vocations there can be added the vocationof
the Church, or of Christian friends, it would be more conclusive still. The
three vocations very seldom mislead. Sanctifiedcommon sense is the true rule
of life. And this brings me to one characteristic ofall "prepared work." It
never goes before God. He must open a door. He must soften a heart. He must
give an impulse. For every "preparedwork" has its limitations; and here is
the line of the limitation — that God's footsteps must be there. But once
receive anything you have to do — or equally, anything you have to suffer —
as a "work" long ago "prepared" for you; and then see what a comfort, what
an energy, what a powerthat one single thought will give!
1. In itself it is a token for good. It is a proof of love. Not only that Goduses
you at all, but that He has been at the pains to arrange long beforehand the
exactthing which you are to do for Him.
2. You may be quite sure that any "work" which God hath "prepared" for
you, will have a particular adaptation to your character, to your position, and
to your strength. God never gives His work indiscriminately. To eachhis own.
His "works"are not suited to everybody alike. You could not do mine; and I
cannot do yours.
3. In the factthat the "work" — whateverit be — is God's ownappointment
for you, there is a sure warrant of success. He planned and constructedit
before you touched it. What God begins, He always ends. I cannot tell you, in
detail, eachof you, what your "preparedwork" is. This I know, "the
prepared work" of every one is to believe; and then to live the faith he

professes;to be happy, and then to make others happy; to glorify God. But I
should sadly narrow my subject if I confined the "goodworks" whichGod
has "prepared" for us to do, to this world. We are "createdin Christ Jesus to
goodworks" in heaven. For assuredly we shall "work" there. And a part of
the work is this, that your work is rest. And the more we grow towards
heaven, the more we approachto that — work is restbecause we do it
restfully. But, be sure of this, there will be "work" in heaven. More
"prepared" than even the "work" whichwe are doing here. And for this
reason, that all the "work" we are doing here is in itself "preparatory" to that
"work." We are practising now that we may do it well by and by!
(J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Goodworks
C. J. Goodhart, M. A.
1. Goodworks cannotbe judged by appearances. To the eye of man goodand
bad may appearprecisely the same. The eye of Godalone candiscern, and His
judgment alone determine, their character.
2. Hence we must go to His Word to enable us in any measure to judge of
them rightly. And that Word teaches us that whatsoeveris not of faith is sin;
without faith it is impossible to please God.
3. What, then, are goodworks, as the fruit of faith? Any work done believing
with the heart, and done, therefore, to the glory of God, is a goodwork. Faith
purifies the heart; works by love; overcomes the world.
4. We should speciallymark that works in no way justify us before God, for
we are accountedrighteous:only for the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ
through faith. But works, as the fruit of a lively faith, justify us before men;

and a faith which produces no works is dead. A tree is the same goodtree in
winter without leaf or fruit, as it is in the autumn when laden with fruit; and
the fruit does not make the tree good, but the tree makes the fruit good, and
goodfruit shows that the tree is good.
5. We should be very zealous in bringing forth the fruit of goodworks, for we
are apt to be slothful and weary in well-doing, and much hindered through
world, flesh, devil.
(C. J. Goodhart, M. A.)
Goodworks for believers
H. Foster, M. A.
The words being opened, enlarge upon —
I. GOOD WORKS AS THE THINGS IN WHICH GOD'S PEOPLE ARE TO
WALK. Illustrate this in a young convert passing through various connections
in life to old age.
II. GOD AS THE AUTHOR OF THESE GOOD WORKS IN THEM. Shew
how the Scripture speaks ofthis. "Then will I sprinkle cleanwater upon you,
and ye shall be clean," etc. (Ezekiel36:25, etc.). "Hath not the potter power
over the clay," etc. (Romans 9:21). "Being confident of this very thing, that He
which hath begun a goodwork in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ" (Philippians 1:6). "Forit is God which workethin you both to will
and to do of His goodpleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
III. GOOD WORKS WROUGHT IN US AS CONSEQUENCES OF UNION
WITH CHRIST. "I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman,"

etc. (John 15:1, etc.). "Forif thou wert cut out of the olive, tree which is wild
by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a goodolive tree," etc.
(Romans 11:24). "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all
things," etc. (Ephesians 4:15, etc.).
IV. THE COMMANDS OF GOD IN HIS WORD, AND THE WORK OF HIS
GRACE IN US, AS CORRESPONDING;LIKE THE SEAL AND THE
WAX. "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin," etc. (Romans
6:17). Exemplified in Zaccheus — Paul — Prodigal. Address to the careless —
the Antinomian — the self-righteous — the regenerate.
(H. Foster, M. A.)
Perseverance in goodworks
G. Swinnock.
It is not one or two goodactions, but a goodconversation, whichwill speak a
man to be a right Christian. A true believer, like the heavenly orbs, is constant
and unweariedin his motion and actings. Enoch"walkedwith God";it is not
taking a stepor two in a waywhich denominates a man a walker, but a
continued motion. No man is judged healthy by a flushing colour in his face,
but by a goodcomplexion. God esteems none holy for a particular carriage,
but for a generalcourse. A sinner in some few acts may be very good:Judas
repents, Cain sacrifices, the scribes pray and fast;and yet all were very false.
In the most deadly diseases,there may be some intermissions, and some good
prognostics. A saint in some few acts may be very bad: Noahis drunk, David
defiles his neighbour's wife, and Peter denies his bestfriend; yet these persons
were heaven's favourites. The best gold must have some grains of allowance.
Sheepmay fall into the mire, but swine love day and night to wallow in it. A
Christian may stumble, nay, he may fall, but he gets up and walks on in the

way of God's commandments; the bent of his heart is right, and the scope of
his life is straight, and thence he is deemedsincere.
(G. Swinnock.)
The use of goodworks
"God," saida minister to a boy who stoodwatching a caterpillarspinning a
very beautiful cocoon, "Godsets thatlittle creature a task to do: and
diligently and very skilfully he does it; and so God gives us goodworks to
perform in His name and for His sake. But, were the insectto remain satisfied
forever in the silkenball which he is weaving, it would become, not his home,
but his tomb. No; by not resting in it, but forcing a way through it, will the
winged creature reachsunshine and air. He must leave his own works behind,
if he would shine in freedom and joy. And so it is with the Christian."
Conversion, the soul, and God
JosephCook.
There is produced in a soul an image of God. When does the image of the star
start up in the chamber of the telescope?Only when the lenses are clearand
rightly adjusted, and when the axis of vision in the tube is brought into exact
coincidence with the line of the rays of light from the star. When does the
image of God, or the inner sense of peace and pardon spring up in the human
soul? Only when the faculties of the soul are rightly adjusted in relation to
eachother, and the will brought into coincidence with God's will. How much
is man's work, and how much is the work of the light? Man adjusts the lenses
and the tube; the light does all the rest. Man may, in the exercise ofhis
freedom, as upheld by Divine power, adjust his faculties to spiritual light, and
when adjusted in a certainway God flashes through them.
(JosephCook.)

COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(10) We are his workmanship.—This verse, onthe contrary, is unique and
remarkable, characteristic ofthe idea with which this Epistle starts—the
electionand predestinationof God, making us what we are—andapplying it
very strikingly, not only to the first regeneration, but even to the goodworks
which follow it. The word rendered “workmanship” is only used elsewhere in
Romans 1:20, where it is applied to the “works”ofGod in creation. Probably
here also it does not exclude our first creation. We are His wholly and
absolutely. But the next clause shows that St. Paul refers especiallyto the
“new creation” in Christ Jesus.
Createdin Christ Jesus.—This creation, whenspokenofdistinctively, is the
“new creation” (2Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15); as, indeed, is the case
below (Ephesians 2:15), “to create in Himself . . . one new man.” In this
passage, however, St. Pauldwells, not on distinction from the old creation, but
rather on analogyto it; in both we are simply God’s creatures.
Unto goodworks.—Properly, on the basis (or, condition) of goodworks (as in
Galatians 5:13; 1Thessalonians 4:17;2Timothy 2:14). The goodworks, in
themselves future, being (as the next clause shows)contemplatedas already
existent in God’s foreknowledge,and as an inseparable characteristicofthe
regenerate life.
Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.—There is,
perhaps, in all Scripture, no strongerexpressionof the greatmystery of God’s
predestination; for it is here declaredin reference, not only to the original call
and justification and regenerationofthe soul, but also to the actualgood
works, in which the free-will and energy of man are most plainly exercised;
and in which even here we are said not to be moved, but “to walk” by our own

act. In much the same sense St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Philippians
(Ephesians 3:12-13), uses the well-knownparadox, “Work out your own
salvation. . . , for it is God that workethin you, both to will and to do of His
goodpleasure.” Bothtruths—God’s preordination and man’s responsible
freedom—are emphasised. Forthe reconcilementofthe two we must wait till
we “know even as we are known.”
(2 a.) Ephesians 2:11-13, resuming the thread of argument from Ephesians
2:7, dwell on the drawing of the Gentiles into a personalunity with God in
Christ-not, however(as before), out of the deadness ofsin and bondage of
Satan, but rather out of the condition of alienation from God, from His
covenantand His promise, in which they stoodcontrastedwith His chosen
people.
MacLaren's Expositions
EPHESIANS
GOD’S WORKMANSHIP AND OUR WORKS
Ephesians 2:10The metal is molten as it runs out of the blast furnace, but it
sooncools and hardens. Paul’s teaching about salvation by grace and by faith
came in a hot stream from his heart, but to this generationhis words are apt
to sound coldly, and hardly theological. Butthey only need to be reflected
upon in connectionwith our own experience, to become vivid and vital again.
The belief that a man may work towards salvationis a universal heresy. And
the Apostle, in the context, summons all his force to destroy that error, and to
substitute the greattruth that we have to begin with an actof God’s, and only
after that can think about our acts. To work up towards salvation is, in the
strict sense of the words, preposterous;it is inverting the order of things. It is
beginning at the wrong end. It is saying X Y Z before you have learnt to say A

B C. We are to work downwards from salvationbecause we have it, not that
we may get it. And whatever‘goodworks’may mean, they are the
consequences, notthe causes, of‘salvation,’whateverthat may mean. But
they are consequences, andthey are the very purpose of it. So says Paul in the
archaic language ofmy text-which only wants a little steadfastlooking atto be
turned into up-to-date gospel-’We are His workmanship, createdunto good
works’;and the fact that we are is one greatreasonfor the assertionwhich he
brings it in to buttress, that we are savedby grace, not by works. Now, I wish,
in the simplest possible way, to dealwith these great words, and take them as
they lie before us.
I. We have, first, then, this as the rootof everything, the divine creation.
Now, you will find that in this profound letter of the Apostle there are two
ideas cropping up over and overagain, both of them representing the facts of
the Christian life and of the transition from the unchristian to the Christian;
and the one is Resurrectionand the other is Creation. They have this in
common, that they suggestthe idea that the greatgift which Christianity
brings to men-no, do not let me use the abstractword ‘Christianity’-the great
gift which Christ brings to men-is a new life. The low popular notion that
salvationmeans mainly and primarily immunity from the ultimate, most
lasting future consequencesoftransgression, a change of place or of condition,
infects us all, and is far too dominant in our popular notions of Christianity
and of salvation. And it is because people have such an unworthy, narrow,
selfishidea of what ‘salvation’is that they fall into the bog of misconceptionas
to how it is to be attained. The ordinary man’s way of looking at the whole
matter is summed up in a sentence whichI heard not long since about a
recently deceasedfriend of the speaker’s, andthe like of which you have no
doubt often heard and perhaps said, ‘He is sure to be saved because he has
lived so straight.’ And at the foundation of that confident epitaph lay a
tragical, profound misapprehension of what salvationwas.

For it is something done in you; it is not something that you get, but it is
something that you become. The teaching of this letter, and of the whole New
Testament, is that the profoundest and most precious of all the gifts which
come to us in Jesus Christ, and which in their totality are summed up in the
one word that has so little powerover us, because we understand it so little,
and know it so well-’salvation’-is a change in a man’s nature so deep, radical,
vital, as that it may fairly be paralleled with a resurrectionfrom the dead.
Now, I venture to believe that it is something more than a strong rhetorical
figure when that change is described as being the creationof a new man
within us. The resurrection symbol for the same fact may be treated as but a
symbol. You cannot treat the teaching of a new life in Christ as being a mere
figure. It is something a greatdeal more than that, and when once a man’s eye
is opened to look for it in the New Testamentit is wonderful how it flashes out
from every page and underlies the whole teaching. The Gospelof John, for
example, is but one long symphony which has for its dominant theme ‘I am
come that they might have life.’ And that great teaching-whichhas been so
vulgarised, narrowed, and mishandled by sacerdotalpretensions and
sacramentariansuperstitions-thatgreatteaching of Regeneration, orthe new
birth, rests upon this as its very basis, that what takes place when a man turns
to Jesus Christ, and is savedby Him, is that there is communicated to him not
in symbol but in spiritual fact {and spiritual facts are far more true than
external ones which are calledreal} a spark of Christ’s own life, something of
‘that spirit of life which was in Christ Jesus,’and by which, and by which
alone, being transfused into us, we become ‘free from the law of sin and
death.’ I beseechyou, brethren, see that, in your perspective of Christian
truth, the thought of a new life imparted to us has as prominent and as
dominant a place as it obviously has in the teaching of the New Testament. It
is not so dominant in the current notions of Christianity that prevail amongst
average people, but it is so in all men who let themselves be guided by the
plain teaching of Christ Himself and of all His servants. Salvation? Yes!And
the very essence ofthe salvationis the breathing into me of a divine life, so
that I become partakerof ‘the divine nature.’

Now, there is another step to be taken, and that is that this new life is realised
in Christ Jesus. Now, this letter of the Apostle is distinguished even amongst
his letters by the extraordinary frequency and emphasis with which he uses
that expression‘in Christ Jesus.’If you will take up the epistle, and run your
eye over it at your leisure, I think you will be surprised to find how, in all
connections, andlinked with every sort of blessing and goodas its condition,
there recurs that phrase. It is ‘in Christ’ that we obtain the inheritance; it is
‘in Christ’ that we receive ‘redemption, even the forgiveness ofsins’; it is in
Him that we are ‘builded togetherfor a habitation of God’; it is in Him that
all fulness of divine gifts, and all blessedness ofspiritual capacities,is
communicated to us; and unless, in our perspective of the Christian life, that
expressionhas the same prominence as it has in this letter, we have yet to
learn the sweetestsweetness, and have yet to receive the most mighty power,
of the Gospelthat we profess. ‘In Christ’-a union which leaves the
individuality of the Saviour and of the saint unimpaired, because without such
individuality sweetlove were slain, and there were no communion possible,
but which is so close, so real, so vital, as that only the separating wall of
personality and individual consciousnesscomes in between-thatis the New
Testamentteaching of the relationof the Christian to Christ. Is it your
experience, dearbrother? Do not be frightened by talking about mysticism. If
a Christianity has no mysticism it has no life. There is a wholesome mysticism
and there is a morbid one, and the wholesome one is the very nerve of the
Gospelas it is presented by Jesus Himself: ‘I am the Vine, ye are the
branches. Abide in Me, and I in you.’ If our nineteenth century busy
Christianity could only get hold of that truth as firmly as it grasps the
representative and sacrificialcharacterof Christ’s work, I believe it would
come like a breath of spring over ‘the winter of our discontent,’ and would
change profoundly and blessedly the whole contexture of modern
Christianity.
And now there is another step to take, and that is that this union with Christ,
which results in the communication of a new life, or, as my text puts it, a new

creation, depends upon our faith. We are not passive in the matter. There is
the condition on which the entrance of the life into our spirits is made
possible. You must open the door, you must fling wide the casement, and the
blessedwarm morning air of the sun of righteousness, with healing in its
beams, will rush in, scatterthe darkness and raise the temperature. ‘Faith’ by
which we simply mean the act of the mind in accepting and of the will and
heart in casting one’s self upon Christ as the Saviour-that actis the condition
of this new life. And so eachChristian is ‘God’s workmanship, createdin
Christ Jesus.’
And now, says Paul-and here some of us will hesitate to follow him-that new
creationhas to go before what you call‘good works.’Now, do not let us
exaggerate. There has seldombeen a more disastrous and untrue thing said
than what one of the Fathers dared to say, that the virtues of godless men
were ‘splendid vices.’That is not so, and that is not the New Testament
teaching. Goodis good, whoeverdoes it. But, then, no man will saythat
actions, howeverthey may meet the human conceptionof excellence, however
bright, pure, lofty in motive and in aim they may be, reach their highest
possible radiance and are as goodas they ought to be, if they are done without
any reference to God and His love. Dearbrethren, we surely do not need to
have the alphabet of morality repeatedto us, that the worth of an action
depends upon its motive, that no motive is correspondentto our capacitiesand
our relation to God and our consequentresponsibilities, exceptthe motive of
loving obedience to Him. Unless that be present, the brightest of human acts
must be convicted of having dark shadows in it, and all the darkerbecause of
the brightness that may stream from it. And so I venture to assertthat since
the noblestsystems of morality, apart from religion, will all coincide in saying
that to be is more than to do, and that the worth of an action depends upon its
motive, we are brought straight up to the ‘narrow, bigoted’ teaching of the
New Testament, that unless a man is swayedby the love of God in what he
does, you cannot, in the most searching analysis, saythat his deed is as goodas
it ought to be, and as it might be. To be goodis the first thing, to do goodis the
second. Make the tree goodand its fruit good. And since, as we have made

ourselves we are evil, there must come a re-creationbefore we cando the good
deeds which our relation to Godrequires at our hands.
II. I ask you to look at the purpose of this new creationbrought out in our
text.
‘Createdin Christ Jesus unto goodworks.’That is what life is given to you
for. That is why you are saved, says Paul. Instead of working upwards from
works to salvation, take your stand at the receivedsalvation, and understand
what it is for, and work downwards from it.
Now, do not let us take that phrase, ‘good works,’whichI have already said
came hot from the Apostle’s heart, and is now cold as a bar of iron, in the
limited sense whichit has come to bear in modern religious phraseology. It
means something a greatdeal more than that. It covers the whole ground of
what the Apostle, in another of his letters, speaks ofwhen he says,
‘Whatsoeverthings are lovely and of goodreport, if there be any virtue’-to
use for a moment the world’s word, which has such power to conjure in Greek
ethics-’orif there be any praise’-to use for a moment the world’s low motive,
which has such power to swaymen-’think of these things,’ and these things
do. That is the width of the conceptionof ‘goodworks’;everything that is
‘lovely and of goodreport.’ That is what you receive the new life for.
Contrastthat with other notions of the purpose of revelation and redemption.
Contrastit with what I have already referred to, and so need not enlarge upon
now, the miserably inadequate and low notions of the essentialsofsalvation
which one hears perpetually, and which many of us cherish. It is no mere
immunity from a future hell. It is no mere entrance into a vague heaven. It is
not escaping the penalty of the inexorable law, ‘Whatsoevera man soweth
that shall he also reap,’ that is meant by ‘salvation,’any more than it is

putting awaythe rod, which the child would be all the better for having
administered to him, that is meant by ‘forgiveness.’But just as forgiveness, in
its essence, means not suspensionnor abolition of penalty, but the
uninterrupted flow of the Father’s love, so salvation in its essencemeans, not
the deliverance from any external evil or the alterationof anything in the
external position, but the revolution and the re-creationof the man’s nature.
And the purpose of it is that the saved man may live in conformity with the
will of God, and that on his characterthere may be embroidered all the fair
things which God desires to see on His child’s vesture.
Contrastit with the notion that an orthodox belief is the purpose of revelation.
I remember hearing once of a man that ‘he was a very shady character, but
sound on the Atonement.’ What is the use of being ‘sound on the Atonement’
if the Atonement does not make you live the Christ life? And what is the good
of all your orthodoxy unless the orthodoxy of creedissues in orthopraxy of
conduct? There are far too many of us who half-consciouslydo still hold by
the notion that if a man believes rightly then that makes him a Christian. My
text shatters to pieces any such conception. You are savedthat you may be
good, and do goodcontinually; and unless you are so doing you may be
steepedto the eyebrows in the correctestofcreeds, and it will only drown you.
Contrastthis conceptionof the purpose of Christianity with the far too
common notion that we are saved, mainly in order that we may indulge in
devout emotions, and in the outgoing of affectionand confidence to Jesus
Christ. Emotional Christianity is necessary, but Christianity, which is mainly
or exclusively emotional, lives next door to hypocrisy, and there is a door of
communication betweenthem. For there is nothing more certain and more
often illustrated in experience than that there is a strange underground
connectionbetweena Christianity which is mainly fervid and a very shady
life. One sees it over and over again. And the cure of that is to apprehend the
greattruth of my text, that we are saved, not in order that we may know
aright, nor in order that we may feel aright, but in order that we may be good

and do ‘goodworks.’In the order of things, right thought touches the springs
of right feeling, and right feeling sets going the wheels ofright action. Do not
let the steamall go roaring out of the waste-pipe in howeversacredand
blessedemotions. See that it is guided so as to drive the spindles and the
shuttles and make the web.
III. And now, lastly, and only a word-here we have the field provided for the
exercise ofthe ‘goodworks.’
‘Createdunto goodworks which God has before prepared’-before the re-
creation-’that we should walk in them.’ That is to say, the true way to look at
the life is to regard it as the exercising-groundwhich God has prepared for
the development of the life that, through Christ, is implanted in us. He cuts
the channels that the stream may flow. That is the way to look at tasks, at
difficulties. Difficulty is the parent of power, and God arranges our
circumstances in order that, by wrestling with obstacles, we may gain the
‘thews that throw the world,’ and in order that in sorrows and in joys, in the
rough places and the smooth, we may find occasions forthe exercise ofthe
goodness whichis lodgedpotentially in us, when He creates us in Christ Jesus.
So be sure that the path and the power will always correspond. Goddoes not
lead us on roads that are too steepfor our weakness, andtoo long for our
strength. What He bids us do He fits us for; what He fits us for He thereby
bids us do.
And so, dear brother, take heed that you are fulfilling the purpose for which
you receive this new life. And let us all remember the order in which being
and doing come. We must be goodfirst, and then, and only then, shall we do
good. We must have Christ for us first, our sacrifice and our means of
receiving that new life, and then, Christ in us, the soul of our souls, the Life of
our lives, the source of all our goodness.

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