| Christian Life and Doctrine | April 1962 |
God’s Workmanship
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them.” —Ephesians 2:10, margin
IN THE 5th chapter of Second Corinthians, verse 17, the Apostle Paul informs us that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” This is in keeping with the statement in our text that we are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” The expression, “unto good works,” indicates that there is a divine purpose to be accomplished through God’s new creation, and the Scriptures reveal that purpose as a participation in the “ministry of reconciliation” whereby all the families of the earth are, in God’s due time, to be blessed.—II Cor. 5:18,10
This great privilege of being co-workers with God and with Jesus is ours only because we have been made acceptable through the merit of the Redeemer’s shed blood. To receive and to retain justification to life through the blood calls for the complete dedication of all that we have and are to the doing of God’s will, and the faithful carrying out of our consecration even unto death. Otherwise we would be receiving the grace of God in vain, and the Apostle Paul admonishes us not to do this.—II Cor. 6:1
We are workers “together” with the Lord now, and will continue in this blessed partnership until the work of reconciliation is completed. At the present time, while we are being developed as new creatures, our work is largely preparatory, and even in this we are co-laborers with the Lord. Paul wrote, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”—Phil. 2:12,13
God works in us by his Holy Spirit as it makes contact with our hearts through his Word and providences. We work with him by yielding ourselves in obedience to the impulses of his will; and this obedience includes faithfulness in declaring the word of reconciliation. Faithfulness in proclaiming the Gospel does not depend on the degree of interest which may be manifested on the part of those to whom we minister. We are to continue letting our light shine regardless of the present visible results with which the Lord may reward us.
Proclaiming the Gospel is likened in the Scriptures to the sowing and reaping of grain. Solomon wrote, “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.” (Eccles. 11:4) The thought here symbolized is that those who are looking for excuses not to sow and reap are likely to find them, and perhaps the uncertainty of results is the most prevalent excuse used among the Lord’s people.
But this is really not a valid excuse at all for not co-laboring with the Lord in connection with the bringing forth of his new creation, and Solomon explains why. In the next verse he says, “As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”—vs. 5
Since we do not know “the way of the Spirit,” then, as Solomon admonishes in the next verse, we should sow the seeds of truth both in the morning and in the evening, for we do not know which will prosper, or whether both shall be alike good. (vs. 6) Our responsibility as co-laborers with the Lord is simply to be faithful in sowing the seeds of truth, or making known the glad tidings of the kingdom. Just how the seeds of truth reach the hearts of those whom the Lord desires to call is his responsibility. It is God that giveth the increase.—I Cor. 3:7
His Workmanship
HOW reassuring it is to realize that as new creatures in Christ Jesus we are God’s workmanship, his creation. Just as God’s beloved Son, the Logos, co-operated with the Father in the original work of creation, so it is now with respect to the new creation. We are being created “in” or through “Christ Jesus.”
Through divine power there has been given unto us all things which pertain to life and godliness. (II Pet. 1:2,3) This complete endowment of the Spirit is through the knowledge of Christ Jesus, and through the knowledge of him who has called us to glory and virtue. As we have seen, our part in this wonderful arrangement is simply the yielding of ourselves in submission to the divine will, that the power of the truth might be operative in our hearts and lives. And an important aspect of God’s will is that we be channels of the Word of truth through which it flows out for the blessing of others.
From the time we make a full consecration of ourselves to do God’s will and receive the Holy Spirit of sonship, we are taken completely into the care and under the protection of our loving Heavenly Father. Concerning this comprehensive care of his people, we read, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose hearts are perfect toward him.”—II Chron. 16:9
God’s power has the same complete command over all the affairs of his new creation as it did over his original work of creation. Paul makes this comparison. He wrote, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”—II Cor. 4:6,7
Just as we cannot understand precisely how God’s command, “Let there be light,” so operated that “there was light,” so we cannot comprehend how his power functioned to shine into our hearts with the Gospel. We know simply that it could not be done except as God willed and accomplished it. Jesus explained that no one could come to him unless drawn by the Father, and God uses the truth to do the drawing.—John 6:44
But then, the truth is proclaimed publicly. Countless thousands hear the message. Many of these receive a certain amount of comfort from it. But only those whose hearts are touched by the Lord, or into whose hearts he causes the light to shine, are really begotten by the Spirit to sonship. This treasure of the truth, by which such are begotten again to a living hope through Christ Jesus, is possessed as a treasure in an earthen vessel. It gives us a new mind, and a new and glorious hope.
The same divine power which caused the light of the Gospel to shine into our hearts is able to care for us as new creatures under all the circumstances of life. David, writing more particularly for our benefit, said, “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? [which is working in me] or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell [sheol] behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”—Ps. 139:1-10
As it was with David, so with us as new creatures in Christ Jesus, the knowledge and keeping power of our Heavenly Father is “too wonderful” to comprehend. We cannot attain to it. All we can do is to appreciate and depend upon it, for it is only as he works in us to will and do of his good pleasure that we can hope to attain that heavenly inheritance which will be the happy portion of all who qualify to be permanent members of his new creation.
Wonderfully Made
DAVID wrote that he was “fearfully and wonderfully made.” While this poetic statement is surely true of all humans, which becomes more and more apparent as we consider the marvelous functions of the body, it is even more true of the new creation class, God’s workmanship of this Gospel Age. David adds, “My substance [margin, strength, or body] was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.”—Ps. 139:14,15
David, as a human embryo, was not literally “wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.” But if we think of the earth as symbolic of human society, we can see how David’s words would he prophetic of the body members of The Christ. These are chosen by the Lord mostly from the lower strata of society—not many noble are called. These, for the most part, also receive their experience by which they are developed as new creatures in Christ Jesus, not in association with kings and the otherwise so-called elite of this world, but largely as they live among the class from which they were called.
God’s Agencies
AS WE have seen, God’s work in us is accomplished by the power of his Word of truth. The agencies by which the Word reaches into our hearts and transforms our lives are identified by the Apostle Paul. We read that the Lord “gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”—Eph. 4:11-13
The apostles and prophets are the inspired channels of the truth, whose testimony, combined with the teachings of Jesus, constitute the Word of God. But the other servants, or channels of the truth, are also essential, that we may properly understand and apply the life-giving truths and principles of the written Word. These also are among the all things pertaining to life and godliness which our Heavenly Father, through his Son, has so graciously given to those of the new creation class, that his workmanship may become more and more manifested in them.
In David’s symbolic description of new creatures he refers to being “made in secret.” The work of God in bringing forth a new creation has been a complete secret to the uninitiated, the unbelieving world. It was hidden in advance even from the professed people of God—hidden “from ages and dispensations,” but with the beginning of the Gospel Age was revealed to the true followers of the Master.—Col. 1:26,27
The Apostle Paul also wrote, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, … the things which God hath in reservation for them that Love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” (I Cor. 2:9) Yes, the work of God in the hearts of new creatures, which is carried on through the power of the truth, is a complete secret to the world. God’s promises, by which we are made partakers of the divine nature, while revealed to us that their inspiration may mold our lives as new creatures in Christ Jesus, are completely unknown to outsiders. How true it is indeed that we are being “made in secret”!
God’s Foreknowledge
DAVID, speaking for Jesus, the Head of the new creation class, wrote, “Thine eyes did see my substance, being yet unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned [margin, what days they should be fashioned], when as yet there was none of them.” (Ps. 139:16) God foreknew, indeed in his plan he predestinated the new creation class. The Apostle Peter wrote that those who would make up this class are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”—I Pet. 1:2
This election in connection with God’s workmanship is not arbitrary, for he predestinated that all who would be of this elect class would have to qualify by being conformed to the image of his beloved Son. (Rom. 8:29) This transformation can be accomplished only by yielding ourselves fully to the molding influences of the Holy Spirit as God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.
We are to be conformed to the image of Christ in our obedience and devotion to the Father’s will. Jesus, through David, said, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Ps. 40:7,8; Luke 24:44; Heb. 10:6-9) An outward profession of devotion is not enough. To be like Jesus our obedience must be of the heart, deep-seated and abiding, regardless of the cost. Jesus, facing ignominy, suffering, and death, was still able to say from the heart, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”—Matt. 26:39
Jesus was thoroughly loyal to his Father’s Word, regardless of his own inclinations. Without doubt his great heart of Love reached out to the people of all nations, irrespective of nationality, and he knew that ultimately all would be blessed through him in keeping with his Father’s plan. But for the time being blessings were to be offered only to the people of Israel, so he instructed his disciples not to go into the way of the Gentiles and not to work among the Samaritans. (Matt. 10:5,6) He was willing to wait his Father’s time for the Gospel to go to the whole world. Are we learning the lesson of obedience to the Father’s plan, even when it might run contrary to our natural preferences?
Jesus met temptation through the power of the Word. His rejoinder to Satan was, “It is written.” To be like Jesus it is essential for us also to realize, when presented with a temptation to go contrary to the divine will, that we can be fortified by recalling specific statements of the written Word to guide and encourage us in the right way. If thus we resist the Devil, the promise is that he will flee from us.—James 4:7
Jesus was humble. He freely acknowledged that by himself he could do nothing; that the works he did, and the words he spoke, were all from the Father. (John 5:19; 8:28,29; 14:10,11) Do we properly recognize our own nothingness in the sight of God? Actually, Jesus was perfect, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. (Heb. 7:26) But we are fallen and imperfect. In us by nature dwelleth no good thing, thus there is all the more reason for our acknowledging our dependence upon the fountain of all wisdom and strength.
Jesus was compassionate; he was zealous; he was loving and kind. In the face of danger he was brave. He was uncompromising in presenting the truth of his Father’s plan. He is our ideal in all these traits of his perfect character, and God is working in us by his Spirit that we may become more and more like him. It is not a momentary undertaking, but requires, on our part, a lifetime of daily and hourly yielding to the outworking of the Father’s will in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
God’s Thoughts
THE Word of God contains his thoughts toward his consecrated people. Concerning these David wrote: “How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them all!” (Ps. 139:17) David also wrote, “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.”—Ps. 40:5
The “sum” of God’s thoughts include all the exceeding great and precious promises whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature. (II Pet. 1:4) What a power these promises should be, and are, in the lives of God’s consecrated people! “Be thou faithful unto death,” Jesus said, “and I will give thee a crown of life.” Those who are faithful unto death, Jesus promised, will be exalted to sit with him in his throne.—Rev. 2:10; 3:21
God’s thoughts to “us-ward” pertain also to his love as manifested in the chastening experiences which he vouchsafes to us to keep our paths directed in the narrow way of sacrifice. They also assure us of his forgiving mercy toward our waywardness and imperfections. Through his revealed thoughts to “us-ward” we know that by faith we live in his presence, while we lay down our lives in acceptable service.
God’s recorded thoughts also include his intentions, through the “Seed,” to bless all the families of the earth. While these promises are related to the world, they are recorded in his Word particularly for our benefit. God wants us to know of his love for all mankind, that our own hearts may be enlarged by the inspirational power of this vision of his greatness and love. We are being “created” by God unto the “good works” of sharing with Jesus in dispensing the blessing of life provided by the Redeemer for all mankind; and how important it is that we become filled with the same spirit of divine love which prompted our Heavenly Father to give his own Son to carry out this merciful and loving plan!
Honored we are that the great Creator should be working in us, that we are his “workmanship”! While we are partners with him in this creative project, let us ever remember that our greatest contribution to the final result is the continued yielding of our minds and hearts to the workings of divine grace. May our every thought, word, and deed become more and more subject to the will of him who is working in us to bring forth a new creation that we may, by being faithful unto death, become a part of this crowning feature of all his works!