From Useless to Useful by the Hand of God

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

The great Apostle Paul declared that before he was saved he was a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious. He did what he could against Christ and His followers. He gave his approval for Stephen to be stoned to death. Stephen became the first Christian martyr. Paul called himself the chiefest of sinners. When the Lord saved him on the Damascus road He changed him.

When we are saved we are the “workmanship” of Christ Jesus. The idea is that of a skilled craftsman who has taken a pile of junk and made a thing of beauty and usefulness from it.

The late, John Philips, in his Commentary Series on Ephesians and Philippians said, “Good works are part of God’s plan. They are not the price of salvation, but the proof of salvation. The believer is not saved as a result of good works; good works are the result of salvation. They are the result of God’s working in the believer’s heart. They are the evidence that he is alive from the dead.”

If you have not done so, will you allow the Master Craftsman to make you over into a useful servant of Christ?