For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
(Eph 2:10)
Being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Cor 3:3)
(Eph. 2:10, The Passion Translation) We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destinyg and the good works we would do to fulfill it!
I’ve been really struck by this verse in Ephesians 2 for the last couple of days as I’ve contemplated this season that prepares us for the celebration of incarnation. Human beings were created for the most magnificent kind of nobility and destiny, for we were created to bear his very image and to reveal his likeness. The story of the fall of man is not nearly so much what entered into man as a result of the fall, but what was removed from man as the result of the fall. What was removed was the very life of God Himself, whose presence gives man basic identity, and holy destiny. So the fact that in the birth of Christ the word became flesh was the beginning of the restoration of mankind to his original nobility, glory, and destiny. The fact that God would take up residence in human flesh restored the vision of mankind’s purpose which is to carry, fellowship with, and manifest the very presence of God himself. When you look at verse 10 in Ephesians chapter 2 a simpe but remarkable statement is made. We are told that we are God’s workmanship. The word workmanship is the word that we get “poem” from. As Christians we are God’s poem, and because we are His poem, that makes us his great masterpiece. The most amazing thing to me as you look at verse 10 is that it says that we were created “in Christ Jesus,” which means that the way he made us into his masterpiece is by simply painting us into the very portrait of Christ himself. Think of a canvas that has a glorious portrait of Christ, and that somehow you were blended in to that portrait; that is, you became alive by being brought into union with the image of Jesus on the canvas. You remain you, but you have become one with his very image, which makes you part of this great poem, which is Christ himself. Using the thought of “poem,” think of the great poem of God that reveals the likeness of God being Jesus, and you and I were just placed into that poem as part of His story. We are the letter, poem, of Christ, revealing the likeness and heart of God, to be read by the whole world. Please hear what I’m saying; you are the letter about Jesus. You are in union with Him, who is the great masterpiece of the Father. That is your identity, and the world reading the poem about Jesus, by looking at your life, is your destiny. When you became a Christian, and therefore a new creation, is wasn’t because the Holy Spirit touched you with some magic wand; it was by placing you into Christ, blending you with his very life, which formed your new identity as God’s great poem to be read to the world. This is incarnation. This is what Advent prepares us for in repentance and celebration; knowing that once again the wonders of God himself re-creating humanity by clothing himself with human flesh is played out before us in the Christmas creche.