Created For Good Works

2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We are God’s handiwork. He made us perfect, but we spoilt it because of sin, and He took steps to restore us again.

• You can say He created us, and then re-creates us again, back into His own likeness. Jesus paid a heavy price for that.

• God has a vested interest in you because we are made in His image (Gen 1:27).

Previously we were DEAD in our transgression and sin. We lived to gratify the cravings of our sinful nature. We lived only for ourselves.

• But God turned that around when He saved us through Jesus Christ. He brought us back to the light and help us understand the real intent of life.

• He gave us a new life. This life has a purpose. We are created in Christ Jesus to do the good works which He has planned for us to do.

WE DO GOOD BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN MADE GOOD

We don’t do good works to gain God’s favour. We do good because we have been made good by our God.

• Good works flow from this new life that we have received through Jesus Christ.

• Any other reasons for doing good put us at the wrong starting point.

Almost all religions teach us to BE good and to DO good. That would be the way to gain favours with gods, the way to achieve a good life or even a better afterlife.

• But that’s putting the cart before the horse. That’s trying to be good by doing good.

• God says the truth is, we are sinners in need of salvation. We need God to renew our lives.

Take a look at the creation story in Genesis 1.

• Each time after God created the things, He stopped and reflected on the creation and said, “It was good.”

• Six times He did that, at each step of the creation. The works are good because the Creator is good. The painting is good because the artist is good.

It is not the other way around – His good works make Him good.

• God is inherently good. Nothing can makes Him good.

• He is by nature good, and therefore everything that comes from Him will be good.

The good works we do today are the fruits of the new life we have in Christ.

• God has given us a new life, and this life will show, through the good works that we do.

• The good works do not make us good. We are made good by God, and that goodness shows in our works.

The good works flow – not from ourselves, not from our own goodness and kindness – but from the love of God in our hearts, they flow out of the new life that we now have in Jesus Christ.

• We are created IN CHRIST JESUS to do good works.

• Everyone can do good works, from a good heart. So can we. But we go beyond just a good heart. Our works flow from God’s love, from the new life we have in Christ.

• We are called even to do good to our enemies – to love our enemies and do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27).

We do good because we have been made good by God through Jesus Christ.

• That is why Jesus says, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5:16)

• People will eventually recognise the source of these blessings. It’s God. It’s the Jesus that we trust in that resulted in all these.

• Therefore Jesus says, do not put it under a bowl. Don’t hide it. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Put it on a stand and let it gives light to everyone in the house (cf. Matt 5:14-16).

We can do simple acts of love and kindness. Believe that God can use you.

• We can bless someone by doing the “good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do.” We are made with this purpose in mind.

• We don’t exist for ourselves. We are not placed on earth to occupy space and simply watch the game of life pass by.

• We are made to serve God by serving others. This is God’s plan.

WE DO GOOD BECAUSE IT IS GOD’S PURPOSE FOR US

This perspective needs to be cultivated. We do not usually see it this way.

• We do not see the PURPOSE of life as doing good for others. Rather, we tend to think of the PURPOSE OF DOING GOOD.