God’s Workmanship

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_00] Welcome to Gospel in Life. Everyone builds their life around something, whether it's success, family, or the pursuit of happiness. These are good things, but can they really support the full weight of our lives? This summer, we're going through an extended series of teachings from Tim Keller that explore the central claims of Christianity, showing us how the Gospel speaks to our deepest questions about meaning, identity, and hope.

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_01] We're looking really at Ephesians 2, 1-10. It's a whole. And tonight, we're going to look at the end of it. Let me read Ephesians 2, verses 8, 9, and 10. This is God's Word. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves. It's the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_01] For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. You know, like most passages in Paul's teaching, this passage we've been looking at, chapter 2, verses 1-10, is so full of profound theology, and yet, it's really basically got a very simple objective. It's here to tell you, it's here to define what a Christian is.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_01] And we saw in the first seven verses, Paul is saying a Christian is someone who's gone through a momentous, cataclysmic change. Verses 1-3 is before the meeting with Christ, and verses 4, 5, 6, and 7 is what happens afterwards. We saw we've gone from death, spiritual death, to life. We've gone from bondage, slavery. The things that we desired had us by the throat, to a place of freedom,

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_01] where the things that we desire can be used by us, but they don't use us anymore. We've gone from death to life, from slavery to freedom, from condemnation, being children of wrath, to being accepted, seated in the heavenly places. But then when we looked at verses 8, 9, and 10, we saw that Paul is telling us in these three verses how you get from there to here. How you actually become a Christian. How you actually move from death to life. How you move from slavery to freedom.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_01] And we saw that basically, Paul says, there's three parts to the mechanism, you might say, or the organic process by which a person moves from death to life and becomes a Christian. And those three parts are, grace leads to faith, leads to works, or what we're going to call a new lifestyle of compassion and greatness. Grace leads to faith, leads to works, a lifestyle of greatness. The order is critical, we said last week.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_01] Grace is always the start. Grace is the thing that moves us across the line. Grace is the thing that changes us. Grace is favor given to someone who deserves the opposite. And we said in our discussions of this, we're trying to wrap up today, tonight. Grace is favored given to someone who deserves the opposite. And therefore, real grace, whenever it's offered, is threatening.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_01] And whenever it's received, it's transforming. Whenever it's offered, it's threatening. Whenever it's received, it's transforming. If you've never been threatened, you haven't experienced grace. Remember how it works? We said, you know, the example that we used was in Les Mis. Jean Valjean. He was a person who had been misused. He'd been oppressed. He'd been abused. And I was a criminal.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_01] And like so many oppressed people, he had a self-righteousness about him. And he went about stealing from people and robbing from people because of that self-righteousness. He hated everybody. But you can't hate without a feeling of superiority. And remember we said what happened? He got caught stealing from the bishop.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_01] But the bishop, instead of blowing the whistle on him, offers him grace. Remember the police bring him back with the stolen goods in his hands. And remember what the bishop says in front of the police? No, says the bishop. He didn't steal these things. These were gifts to him from me. And here, take the candlesticks too.

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_01] And at that moment, Valjean knew, according to the author of the novel, Valjean realized that he could receive the grace and he would lose control of his life. Or, in pride, he could hold on and refuse the grace and stay self-righteous. And he thought about it. He said, I don't, in his heart, he said, maybe I shouldn't take this. I can pay my own way. I don't need anybody's grace.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01] And of course, when you say that, you can go on feeling superior and hating everybody and staying in control of your life. Or he could receive the grace and be accepted and be forgiven and be freed. And he would know, he knew then he would not have any right to go on hating. And he would lose control. He would no longer be his own. And that's why he, you know, in the musical he says, my soul now belongs to God. I know. I made that bargain long ago.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_01] Real grace, when it's received, is transforming. Real grace, when it's offered, is threatening. To really receive grace always is a cataclysmic change. If you've not seen this change in your life, you've never really received grace. Oh, lots of people think they're Christians because they say, yes, I understand the offer of Christ. Be good. Do well. Follow Christ and he'll bless you. That's not grace. That's not the offer. And that won't change you.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01] In fact, it'll just encourage you in your self-righteousness. And you'll continue to have that air superiority. And you'll keep in control of your life. And there won't be any changes. Real grace. When it's offered, it's threatening. When it's received, it's transforming. To really know that you're accepted strictly because of grace.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_01] To really know that in spite of everything you ever have done and ever will do, God accepts you because of what Jesus did. At this great cost. To admit that you're a sinner. To realize that the only way that you can be received is through grace. It's terribly threatening. Once you receive it, it changes you. And the second step, grace leads to faith. Grace then faith. Not faith then grace. Put it this way.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01] Grace is the kiss of a soul in a death sleep. Have you ever been, have you ever had this experience where you kiss somebody you love who's asleep? And she or he wakes up and is so startled to see your face so close. And she or he immediately gets radiant and grabs you around the neck. The sleeping beauty myth is a beautiful myth.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_01] But in a very profound way, it describes the relationship between grace and faith. The Bible says that every human soul is in a death sleep. You know what a death sleep is? You are incapable of bringing yourself to consciousness. But the prince comes and kisses you, you see. And suddenly that death sleep is broken.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01] And grace awakens faith, which immediately grabs the grace around the neck. What is faith? What does the Bible say faith is? Faith essentially is a consciousness. It's an awakening, a consciousness of the one who's just kissed you. The Bible puts it this way in the great parable of the prodigal son.

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_01] In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus talks about us as the young man who's fallen away and run off and been rebellious. And he's on his way back. He doesn't know what he's going to say. Maybe he won't say anything. What does the scripture say? It says, the father saw the son afar off and he runs and kissed him. Before there was a word of faith that came out of that young man's mouth, he kissed him.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_01] With what boldness Jesus Christ shows you, the father. Look at that. What is Jesus showing you? Jesus shows you that the father comes and he plants a kiss on you before any words of faith have come out of your mouth. Imagine that young man coming back saying, well, I have the guts to admit what I've done wrong. Will I be able to do it? Will I be able to get the words out? And the father comes and throws his arm around and kisses. Think of how empowering that must be. That's exactly the relationship between grace and faith. Your soul is in a death sleep.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_01] God comes and plants his kiss on you. Behold the love of the father. Father. And you awake. And though grace leads to faith, faith grabs the grace. Now, you know, there's a couple of ways of looking at this. Last week, I touched on this. And afterwards, two different people at different points came up to me and said, well, you know, if faith is a gift, I'm in trouble. I want to believe.

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_01] I'm so distressed that I don't believe. I want to know him. I want to reach out for him. I want to have these things you've been talking about. But now you tell me that I'm not capable of faith. So what do I do? And what did I say? I say, you didn't quite get it. Don't you see? What is this dissatisfaction you're experiencing? What is this distress? What is this yearning for faith? It's the beginning of faith.

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_01] It's a consciousness of God. Don't you see? If you're distressed that you don't have faith, the kiss of God is already upon you. You're not capable of being distressed and wanting faith. And listen, when by his grace he's kissed your soul and your faith starts to awaken, you have to go to him and commit yourself. And if you can't commit yourself tonight to him as Lord and Savior, what should you do?

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_01] Then commit yourself that you'll read about him, that you'll study, that you'll seek him. Here is the principle. To even want him means grace has awakened faith in you. And then if you exercise that faith, more grace comes. Grace enables faith, but faith is the channel of grace. Faith awakens. Grace awakens faith, but then faith grabs grace around the neck. Do you want him? It's because the kiss of God is already on your soul. Be of good cheer. Don't be in despair.

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_01] Go and say, I'm going to give you my attention. You know, at the very least, there's people who sense that they're waking up here. There's people who sense that they are understanding more. But they're afraid of born-again speak. And they're afraid of being put in a category. And they're afraid of what they're getting into.

[00:11:37] [SPEAKER_01] But don't you see, already yearning and already stretching and already moving in that direction means the kiss of God is already on you. Take the faith you've got, which is always a gift of grace, and exercise it and more grace will come. The grace awakens faith. The faith grabs grace around the neck. Commit yourself to him to the degree that you can. And I tell you, he'll come. Him who cometh to me, he says, I will in no wise cast out.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_01] And the other thing we have to remember is that faith is never just in a principle. It's never in principles in general. The faith that saves you, of course, it's a consciousness in Jesus himself. Now, having said all that, grace leads to faith. But then the Bible here tells us faith leads to what's called good works.

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_01] Now, unfortunately for all of us, the Bible, the Christianity is a tremendously concrete thing. I say unfortunately. You cannot, the Bible tells you, walk around for five years, for ten years saying, I have received the grace of God. And I have true faith. And kid yourself if something isn't actually happening in your concrete character and your behavior. The Bible tells us you can't kid yourself. Grace, if it's really there, leads to faith.

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_01] But faith, if it's really there, leads to what? How do you know you've got grace? How do you know you've got faith? Unfortunately, in the long run, you can't fool yourself and you can't fool other people. It tells us right here. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared beforehand for us to do. Now, this is what I'm going to tell you, what that means. Two things always result from grace and faith.

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_01] The two things that always result is that you become God's workmanship. And as a result of that, you walk in good works. Just before we go to the table here tonight, I just want to show you what that means. And this wraps up this section. But it's a beautiful, beautiful denouement. We are God's workmanship, created to do good works. The first thing we learn here is that being comes before doing. If you're going to do good works, you've got to become God's workmanship.

[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_01] God's got to do something in you. He's got to give you a new nature. If you're going to walk in greatness, he's got to give you greatness. This is one of the Christian principles that really goes against the spirit of the age. The Bible says being comes before doing. Now, that's not at all what you're going to hear here. For the last 50 years, the opposite has been taught in the spirit of the age. It used to be called existentialism. Now it's called deconstruction.

[00:14:24] [SPEAKER_01] You know, when existentialism was a big thing, John Paul Sartre said existence precedes essence. That's what existentialism is. What does that mean? It means what I do determines what I am. I can be anything I want to be. My actions determine my being. And deconstruction, which is just another form of it really, essentially says that all identity is incoherent and unstable.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_01] All identity is constructed. No one has an essential nature. No one has a being that you've got to discover or that you've got to be true to. You can be anything you want to be because nothing means anything.

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_00] Why does God allow suffering in the world? How can one religion be right and the other's wrong? Hasn't science basically disproved Christianity? Timothy Keller addresses these questions and many more in his book, The Reason for God. Drawing on literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, this book will challenge you to gain a deeper understanding of the Christian faith, whether you're a believer seeking to understand your faith better, whether you're exploring Christianity yourself,

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_00] or whether you're reading it with a friend who's searching for answers. When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of August, we'll send you two copies of The Reason for God, one for you and one to give to a friend. It's our hope that through reading the book with a friend, you can have conversations about the claims of the Christian faith. To receive your two copies of The Reason for God as our thanks for your support, simply make a gift at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give.

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_00] Thank you for partnering with us. Your gift helps the message of Christ's love go out all over the world because the gospel truly changes everything.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_01] Now, you know, like all false philosophies, there's a part of the truth there which has become the whole truth and therefore becomes an untruth. Of course, Christianity is always taught that what you do affects what you are. But Christianity essentially says what you are has to be honored. You cannot escape what God made you to be. You know, Isaac Dennison says in that great quote that I always quote to you, and I'll quote one more time, pride is faith in the idea God had when he made you.

[00:16:47] [SPEAKER_01] Either you're an accident, and so you've got no essential nature, you've got no essential design, you've got no essential nature that you've got to honor. Or else, God had an idea when he made you, and it's your job to find out what that idea is. And when you find it, and as you honor it, you'll find your true self. Life's an accident. You can be anything you want to be, but you realize the ramifications of that.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_01] It means no one can appeal to anyone to live in any old way. Somebody wants to kill you, you have no basis to appeal to him or her not to do it. Maybe that's the way they authenticate themselves. There is no right or wrong. To be a murderer, to be a philanthropist, who cares? What's the difference? There is no difference. No one can appeal to anything that's right or wrong. No one can live that way. The Bible says there is a being that is more important than doing. If you're going to do good works, there's got to be a change in your nature.

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_01] If you're going to be a person of compassion, God's got to give you a nature of compassion. If you're going to be a person like Christ, God's going to give you a nature like Christ. And he does. It says we are God's workmanship. And here, listen. Listen. Here, it says, Through grace and faith, God comes into your life, and you become his workmanship. That is an absolutely gorgeous word. I want you to think about it all the rest of this service.

[00:18:15] [SPEAKER_01] I want you to think about it when you're picking up the bread and you're picking up the cup. I want you to think about it going home. The word workmanship is a little Greek word poema from which we get our word poem. It means you are a work of art. Have you ever seen a masterpiece slashed, defaced? It's a tragedy. In some ways,

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER_01] the original beauty of the thing makes it a far greater tragedy to see it slashed. I mean, if I go down and just slash a pillar in the subway, that looks bad. But if I go up and slash the Mona Lisa, that looks worse. Why? It's the same slash. But you see, the greatness of the thing slashed determines the degree of tragedy and in some ways, ugliness and horror with which you gaze upon it.

[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_01] Everybody in this room, the Bible says, is a masterpiece, a work of art that's been defaced. There are some people in this world who are master craftsmen who know how to take a masterpiece and restore it to perfect beauty. It takes so much skill. It takes so much talent. It takes so much knowledge. It takes so much time. It takes so much labor. It takes such intensity. And that's what God is doing to anyone who through grace

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_01] and faith believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Do you know what it means? For the Bible here to tell you that you are God's workmanship, you're a piece of art. What is art? Now, I'm not going to define it. I'm just going to describe it. Defining things is very hard. Describing isn't. Art is beautiful. Art is valuable. And art is an expression of the inner being of the maker, of the artist. Imagine what that means. You're beautiful.

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_01] You're valuable. And you are an expression of the very inner being of the artist, the divine artist, God himself. Some of you know I was thinking about this yesterday. God's love for us is not a general love. You know, in Ephesians 5, what does it say? In Ephesians 5, it says, you know, Paul says, he gave himself for us. Now, why? Why? That he might sanctify her, the church. That he might cleanse her to present her to himself

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_01] in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish. You see, when Jesus gave himself on the cross, he didn't do it in a general way. He didn't say, I'm going to die just so you know that I love you. He says, I'm going to die. I'm going to bleed for your splendor. I'm out to turn you into something beautiful. I'm out to turn you into something splendid, magnificent. I'm the artist. You're the art.

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_01] I'm the painter. You're the canvas. I'm the sculptor. You're the marble. You don't look like much there in the quarry, but I can see. Oh, I can see. He's an artist. Unfortunately, that means, now let's think of the ramifications for this before we go to the table. Unfortunately, that means several things. First of all, and this is a wonderful thing, that means the love of God has to be rethought. You know that place where C.S. Lewis says,

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_01] you wanted a loving God? Well, you have one, but not a senile old benevolence that drowsily wishes you all to be happy in your own way, but rather we have a love which is a consuming fire. You know what? The love that created the world as persistent, as venerable, as exacting as an artist's love for his work. You hear that? Persistent, venerable, exact. How does an artist look?

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_01] How does God, the artist, how does an artist look at her or his work? Persistent, exacting. You sweat over it. You bleed over it. You honor it. You cherish it. You know, you give your life to it. That is how God regards you if you're a Christian tonight. Now, you see the ramifications? Number one, this tells us something about what it means

[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_01] to be a friend. Not just a lover, not just married, but just a Christian friend. You know what it means to be a Christian friend? It means to know that your friend is something that God is turning into a beautiful, magnificent masterpiece. Something of breathtaking beauty. What it means to be a Christian friend, it means to say, I partner with God in the realization of the greatness that God is putting in you. I don't just see what I like about you now. I see great things that God wants to do in you. I'm a miner.

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_01] If you're a Christian friend, you're like a miner. When you look at the mountain, you don't just see a pile of slag. You see precious jewels underneath, and it's your job to bring them out. What it means to be a Christian friend and what it means to be a Christian spouse, it means to co-partner with God in the development of the splendor of this new masterpiece, this Christian. Because every Christian is being brought by God into that position of being a glorious work of art, of his art.

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_01] Something else, though. It means that if you're a Christian, you're changing, you're growing. You're not staying as irritable as you used to be. You're not staying as anxious as you used to be. You're not staying as bitter as you used to be. You're changing. You cannot get out from under this. Real grace in your life, you say? Real faith in your life? Then there is character change. There is growth. There's progress. And if there's not progress, then you must be somewhere, if you're a Christian,

[00:24:12] [SPEAKER_01] resisting the thing that God died for. He didn't just die to make you feel lovely. He bled for your splendor. He bled for your holiness. He bled so you can't you would be without blemish. And you have to say, there's nothing that God wants more than for me to be holy tonight. I'll tell you something else. One more ramification of this. If God's a sculptor and you're the marble, that means he may be coming at you right now with a very big chisel. And it means that

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_01] every single thing that God is bringing into your life, even though it looks like he's knocking it off of you, you don't need it for you to become what God wants you to be. You insist, I've got to have that. I've got to have that. No, says the artist. I'm sorry. If I don't knock that off, you'll never see the shoulder there. I mean, you know, I've got to get, that corner has to go. No! You see, the word of God and the spirit of God, but listen, the providence of God, the troubles in your life

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_01] is his chisel. It's his buffer. You know, a good sculptor usually says, not that I've made, that I've put beauty into the piece of marble. A good sculptor almost always says, I've just brought the beauty out. And what God is doing is he's turning you into something beautiful. But in the process, a work of art can look pretty ugly. Don't be afraid.

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_01] This text tells us, and here's how we're going to have to end, that because you're God's workmanship, there are particular good works that you and only you can do. He's prepared them for you beforehand. You know, when I was in school, they were always battling back and forth. Is it nature or nurture? Is it nature or nurture? What makes some people the way they are? Is it because of the genetics, the chromosomes, the physiological, or is it because of the environment? And the answer is, they both are brushes of God, chisels

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_01] and hammers of God. But you don't have to be afraid of your environment, you don't have to be afraid of your chromosomes. Everything that's gone into your life so far, not only the good things, but listen, even the bad things, God the great artist, if you're a Christian, has brought them in there to turn you into a unique masterpiece, a unique flower in his garden, a unique diamond in his crown. There are people that only you can help. There are good deeds that only you can do. There are deeds of compassion that only you can perform. There are people whose lives only you can change. Why? Because of everything,

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_01] everything that's gone into your life. Every hammer of the chisel, even your troubles, even the terrible things that have happened to you, even the tragedies, but even the things that you've learned, the things that the word has brought, the things that the spirit has brought, everything. You don't have to be afraid of your environment. You don't have to be afraid of your past because you are his workmanship and you are a unique snowflake now because the gifts that you have and the graces that you have

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_01] and even the hurts that you have have turned you into a unique person to do things in the kingdom work that only you can do. You know, you didn't have a whole lot to say about much. You didn't choose your parents. You didn't choose the people you grew up with. You didn't choose your height. You didn't choose your gender. You didn't choose much of your IQ. You didn't choose your troubles. You didn't choose your race, your ethnicity. You didn't choose to become a Christian. But the artist is behind it all.

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_01] You don't have to be afraid. You're not a cog in a machine. You don't have to be scared anymore. Who cares if it's nature or nurture? They are just his brushes. They're just his chisels. If you, don't you see, if you have grace and faith, you are his workmanship. You know, that means the challenge is you've got to change. You've got to grow. But the comfort is he's in charge and he's turning you into something gorgeous, something valuable and the inner expression of his inner being of the artist himself.

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_01] Please. Don't you see why, you know, sin is a form of insanity? What is insanity? Being out of touch with reality. Are you a Christian tonight? Are all these things true of you tonight? Then why are you so hopeless? Why are you so discouraged? Why are you so bored? You're out of touch with reality. The noetic effects of sin. Sin hurts us even as Christians in our thinking. If you believe this, what's wrong? What are you afraid of facing? By grace, you've been saved through faith

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_01] and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. He's kissed your soul and you grab him around the neck and then he begins to do a work in you and he turns you into a masterpiece and he makes you a person unique in your beauty, unique in your glory, ready to do things that only you will ever be able to do. Think of the glory of that. Be exhilarated with that. Think of the joy of that. Put yourself in the artist's hand. Stop resisting his chisel.

[00:29:12] [SPEAKER_01] Give yourself to him now as we go to his table. Let's pray. Father, I ask that tonight some people here might see that as they give themselves to you completely, they won't have anything to fear. Some people are afraid. Help them to see that you're the artist and you're turning them into a masterpiece. Father, there's some people who still don't know what it means to be a Christian, what it means to even believe, but awaken in them

[00:29:41] [SPEAKER_01] the knowledge that you are seeking them. Awaken in them the knowledge that you're there. Lead them to give themselves to you and then open their eyes and enable them to understand, be conscious of you standing there, smiling at them. Give them your kiss, oh Father, and enable them like the prodigal son to receive your ring, your robe, and be admitted to your table. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_00] Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, you can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel-centered content by Timothy Keller anytime, visit gospelinlife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 1992. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.