Christians Are God's Workmanship
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles, uncategorizedThe Metropolitan Museum of Art website contains nearly 6,000 works of art, consisting of various prints, drawings, photographs, paintings and sculptures. An individual can search by time period, geographical region, and thematic category.
Looking at the vast array of art in this magnificent museum, brings to my mind the fact that each Christian is a part of God’s museum, the church (Ephesians 2:13-22; Ephesians 5:23-25).
Throughout the Scriptures, God is portrayed as an artist — the universe unspeakably magnificent in design (Psalm 19:1-6). But it is not His greatest work. God’s greatest work is His redemption of mankind through Christ Jesus (1 Peter 1:18-20; cf. Luke 1:68) . When we were still dead in our sins, He made us alive in His Son, Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5; cf. Romans 5:6-8).
Paul reminds the Ephesian brethren that they were God’s “workmanship” or “poiema” (Ephesians 2:10), a Greek term meaning “poem” or “work of art.” God’s art museum is the church, filled with millions of marvelous works — those works being His people (Acts 20:28).
As God’s works of art, Christians are not supposed to sit silently in His museum just to gather dust — rather, we are to demonstrate God’s love in practical ways through our good works — those works that glorify our heavenly Father (Matthew 5:16; cf. 1 Timothy 4:12-16).
God redeemed us so that our good works would showcase the brilliant colors of His redemption and grace — drawing a world in sin’s darkness into the light of the gospel (1 Peter 2:9; cf. Acts 26:15-18; 2 Corinthians 4:1-7; Colossians 1:13-14).