We're back from an adventurous weekend with some of our extended family at the funeral of Mary Lou, wife of 58 years of Edgar Oetting of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  We had an adventurous wild ride in a rental car on Chicago freeways that slowed to a crawl that Saturday noon.  It was somewhat adventurous to be late to a funeral for the first time in my career.  And it was especially adventurous going through Chicago's Midway airport during Spring Break weekend, a place that's hard enough to navigate on regular days with its narrow halls and short runways.

          On Sunday the adventure continued with the boys and I returning home.  But Carol departed from O'Hare airport for another family funeral in Iowa.  None of our flights were on time.  Brian and I got home at 11 PM instead of 8 PM and Chuck got to his home in Florida at 3 AM instead of 10 PM, and still got up and taught school that day.

          We stayed overnight at the home of a pastor friend and his wife who celebrated their 30th anniversary by purchasing a new dining set with huge oak table, eight chairs and large oak hutch, exquisitely handmade by Amish craftsmen from Ft. Wayne.  One rarely sees such fine quality workmanship, but the people there have come to expect it from Amish carpenters.  Their workmanship is renowned for quality materials, near-perfect construction, and simple design.  Having worked with wood all my life, I can't say enough about the quality I saw in their anniversary set.  Nothing I've made or seen before even comes close.

          Except, perhaps, the workmanship in some of God's people.  In today's text St. Paul says, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  If Amish carpenters are renowned for their quality and detail, what is God's workmanship like?  Is He a God of quality and detail, or does He merely start the creating and we do the rest ourselves?  Are we made of lasting quality materials or are we haphazardly nailed together from cheap stuff made to look good?  Are we made from solid oak or are we a thin veneer glued over pressed sawdust?

          One thing is sure, "God doesn't make junk."  Though that saying is not as popular as years ago, it's still true.  He is a God of quality, His workmanship is lasting, and this is especially true of His people.  He loves us and He has created us for eternity.  That oaken dining set looks beautiful today, but what will it be like after 50 years of meals?  And will it even exist a hundred fifty years from now?  But God's people will live forever.  Those who place their trust in the everlasting Son of the Father will not wear out.  We may get chipped and worn, but we will not decay.  By faith, God says we will live in His heavenly presence.  We are His workmanship that lasts forever.

          "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,..."  We are not a showpiece.  Some items belong in museums, but not Christians.  We are created for service, to be useful, to do good works that show the faith God has placed within us.  Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matt. 5:16)   We don't rust out, we wear out.  We're created to do good works for God and for people.

          But what is a "good work"?  Is it something good, anything good, that anyone does?  And what place do good works have in our relationship with God?  Do they gain us a better standing with Him?  If I do them, will God be kinder to me?  Just how important are "good works"?

          A good work is anything a Christian does in response to God's love.  He loves us, so we love Him back through loving others.  He is kind to us, so we are kind to others.  He builds us up, so we build others up.  But only Christians can do good works.  Unbelievers can do good things, but their motive is not the same, and it's the motive that makes a work good.

          A good work does not gain us favor with God, but it does give a snapshot of our relationship with Him.  In Matthew 25, the chapter on the final judgment, God doesn't tell the righteous people how great their faith is, but how wonderful their deeds are.  "When I was hungry you fed Me, when I was thirsty you gave Me drink, when I was sick and imprisoned and you visited Me....  And the righteous will say, 'Lord, when did we ever do that for you?'  And the Lord will say, 'Whenever you did it for these others, you did it for Me'." (Matt. 25:24-40)   Faith shows itself in good works.

          Our good works are necessary.  They show we have faith already, and our faith in God is what saves, not our works.  Yet unless that faith shows itself in works, it's useless.  James, brother of Jesus, said, "What good is it if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save him?...  Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2:14, 17)   Faith comes first, but the works of faith follow, hand-in-hand.  You can't have one without the other.

          God does His good work on us, creating us, giving us our life, our talents, abilities, time and our treasures.  He gives each of us a unique body with a special personality. We're created good, and for good deeds.  We may treat ourselves as disposable, but He considers us eternal.  We may treat others as junk, but God treats them as precious gems.  God's workmanship is not wasted on idle things.  He carefully crafts us and molds us into the people He wants us to be.

          So if we're God's workmanship, why do so many people look like works of the Devil?  If He has created us for good works, why do we spend so much time in bad deeds?  And why are people so different?  Part of the answer to this is sin.  Sin makes us imperfect.  Sin separates us from God and people.  We cannot deny our sinfulness.  God's workmanship is stained by our sin.  Yet He forgives.  God removes our sin in Jesus Christ.  Sin ruins some of God's workmanship.

          But people are also just different.  Some of you know I made the altar cross and candle holders.  Those pieces all started out as a dried log, rather ugly and useful mostly as firewood.  But with the right tools, the logs were made into useful shapes for the altar of God.  They had potential within them, but it took a craftsman and sharp tools to bring out their shape.  Some stuff had to be removed.

          You and I also need some "sin stuff" removed, and God is the craftsman who does it.  He takes us gnarled people and shapes us by the events of our lives.  He uses sharp tools of pain and trouble to chop off the dead bark.  He uses the dizzying speed of His love to cut away the ugliness of sin, and with the sandpaper of experience He brings out the beauty He's placed within us.  We all have beauty within us.  But please know this is not the empty talk of self-esteem.  This is not a humanistic lecture for us to find our own beauty deep within us.  We can't do that, only God can.  We are the log, He is the craftsman;  we are the clay, He is the potter;  we are His workmanship, He is God.

          "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  The beauty of the Christian faith is that God has already given us a plan;  we need only read it.  He's already prepared works for us to do;  we need only to do them.  He has a blueprint for life we can follow.

          That blueprint is the Bible that shows us God's love and His plan of salvation.  God loved the world so much that He gave up the life of His only Son to save it.  The Master Builder cut off His right arm to save the building.  And whoever trusts His Son Jesus Christ, whoever believes He is One who has done enough to save us, that person will be granted heaven.  The verses just before this text make it clear:  "For by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

          God's blueprint points the way to life with Christ in heaven, but it also shows us life with Christ on earth.  The Ten Commandments are what we can follow, and they are clear:  Love God above all, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Trust God, use His name rightly, and worship Him regularly.  Honor all authorities, don't commit murder, and don't lust after others;  don't steal, respect people's reputations and confidences, and don't sinfully seek to get what's not yours.

          Some think the Ten Commandments belong on the walls of our classrooms.  I think they belong on the walls of every room.  We don't need laws to post the Commandments, we need people with courage to display them by their deeds, their lives, and their good works.  Posting them or living them, our children need to see them.  That six-year old boy in Michigan who shot his classmate dead had no good example to follow.  He, too, can be God's workmanship.  It all depends on whether he will have a good example to follow in life.

          "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Two little boys were brought to God this morning in baptism, and they have a life of good works ahead of them.  Will they see God in what we do?  Will they have an example to follow?  God has created us all for good works.  Now let's do them.  Amen

Copyright © 2000 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.