Day 140 · Year 1 · The Story of Scripture
His workmanship
You are not the project — you are the work of art.
Today's passage
Ephesians 2:8-10
8For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9not by works, so that no one can boast.
10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
Berean Standard Bible · public domain
Reflection
Three small words change everything: 'by grace… through faith… not of works.' Salvation is a gift. But Paul does not stop there. Verse 10 says you are God's workmanship — the Greek word is poiema, where we get 'poem.' You are not a problem he is grudgingly fixing. You are something he is making. The good works prepared for you to do are not the price of admission; they are the life he is shaping in you, on purpose.
From the great tradition · paraphrased
Augustine of Hippo · Latin & Eastern Doctors · 4th–5th c. · North Africa
Augustine never stopped marveling that the same grace that saved a divided man was the grace that began to remake him — that we contribute nothing to our rescue but everything of ourselves to the One who rescues.
Paraphrase only. Scripture, not any teacher, is the authority.
Think it through
- What three sources of salvation does Paul rule out in verses 8–9?
- What does it mean to be God's 'workmanship'?
- What good work prepared for you might today actually be?
A prayer to pray
Receive again that you are saved by grace and shaped by grace. Ask God to walk you into the works he prepared.