Good Work

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

GOOD WORK

Eph 2:1-10

2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

NIV

So we are still camped out on the same portion of this letter. Having dealt with being dead in sin and alive in Christ, which took up most of this portion, we still need to consider being saved by grace and this good work which God prepared in advance for us to do. There is no question that we cannot do any work good enough to attain salvation. We are saved merely by the grace of God. Again this word grace can be used as his act of graciousness or as his divine influence upon our heart and how that is reflected in our lives. Is this not the good work he has prepared in advance for us? To walk under his divine influence which in that sense would be living a holy life. This is not a work that we have to labor at, such as what most people might think the term “good works” to mean. It is not how much we physically do in the church, or some form of ministry, for again then we might be tempted to boast in our “works”. We also have to compare what God says here with what he says elsewhere and he did declare exactly what the work of God is.

John 6:28-29

28 Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

29 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." 

NIV

This is the work, and we should note the Greek word translated works in verse eight, is singular, work, not plural as works, he prepared in advance for us to do, believe in Jesus in order to return to the proper relationship with him, to attain eternal life, to be called his children, to have the inheritance he ordained for us from before the beginning of time. Believing in Jesus restores us to how he intended Adam to live, forever in relationship with him in his presence in the paradise he created for Adam. So Jesus has gone to prepare a new paradise that where he is we may be too. Some of our scholars suggest the work is to live a holy life, but then that would require effort on our part, or at least suggest some effort to restrain ourselves from “bad works” and apply ourselves to “good works”. This again might give us an opportunity to boast in our ability to be holy. But it is not by any effort can we be holy, for it is only God who can declare us holy and blameless in his sight. We have already seen this concept in this letter and we will again see it later that it is the work of Christ who washes us and cleanses us and presents us to himself holy and blameless without spot or wrinkle. If we think for one moment that we, though our efforts are spotless, holy and blameless, we deceive ourselves immensely and we have no clue of the truth. We are saved by grace, and by grace, we live. We are saved by his divine act of graciousness, and we live by his divine influence in our lives. It is him who we reflect through the power of the Spirit who is at work in us. We cannot even reflect God on our own, it is the work of the Spirit. The only “good work” we can actually do is to believe in Jesus. This was God’s plan before the beginning of time. He prepared in advance, he predetermined we should do the work of believing in Jesus.