Soaked in grace, ready for work

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

I mentioned before that ‘We will not do what we are made to do until we know what has been done for us to make us who we are.’ Once we have soaked in the grace of God then we are ready to do the work of God.

What is the work of God? Rather than choose the standard list from the gospels—heal the sick, set the captives free, preach the kingdom, disciple nations—let’s look at some of the items that follow in Ephesians.

• Remembering. You were separated, and what that separation meant, “without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus…” Our problem is that we forget, so we take things for granted, and we get into ruts. Remembering keeps us on the trajectory of freedom and keeps us from the dullness of fake familiarity. Remember the miracles
• Living at peace with the rest of the Body of Christ. “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace…” We don’t make ourselves greater by comparison, but by unity.
• Being sons and daughters, “members of God’s household” – we do our best work when we feel part of the family.
• Staying grounded. “…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself the chief cornerstone…as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.” The gifts to the Church—apostles and prophets—extend beyond one household to cities and nations at large. Local churches, congregations, small groups, house churches etc. will do better when connected to the foundation.
• Hosting the Holy Spirit. “to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” This is an awesome “work” – to individually and collectively be the new place where the Almighty God dwells.
• Displaying the billboard. “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realm.” God wants us to be a boldfaced declaration, a neon-lights announcement of his wisdom and mysteries.
• Approaching God with freedom and confidence. “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”
• Being rooted and established in love. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love…grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

These things may not sound like work to you. There is, to be sure, lots of other instruction in Scripture about what we are to do for work. If we start with this list we will work with God rather than for God. Our view of God will be as Father, not a hard task master. And the result will be exponential output.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”

There is exponential output when we work form a place of secure identity.