WE ARE GOD'S MASTERPIECE

Ron Gray, Bearspaw Interim Lead Site Pastor

"God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift of God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Ephesians 2:8-10

If you are a regular reader of To the Pointe, you may have noticed that this edition has the same title and passage as last week. No, this is not a mistake, and no I’m not trying to cut corners or avoid my responsibilities. The fact of the matter is that for the sake of the reader I try to limit these little messages to about five hundred words. Last week I found I could only get half way through what God put on my heart. So, in the words of Paul Harvey, “Now for the rest of the story”.

Last week we focused on the individual. We emphasized that each one of us has been saved by God through grace, not because of any works we have done. We saw that we would have remained helpless in our sins were it not for God’s grace. We are powerless recipients. Yet God does not leave us in that state. By the same act of grace with which he saves us, he creates us anew as his masterpieces. We also saw that we are not static masterpieces, display items as it were. We are working masterpieces. We are created and empowered to accomplish the good works he has designed for us to do.

That is all true, and it appeals to our desire to be remarkable individuals who have an impact on the world. There is another way to read this passage however, one that is faithful to the text and is capable of existing alongside the individualistic emphasis I provided last week. This understanding of the passage grasps the plural emphasis of the word, we.

Could I ask you to read the passage again? This time ponder the collective meaning of the word, we. When read and understood in this way, a whole new vista of what it means to have God’s grace at work in our lives is seen. To read it this way leads us to the understanding that the outworking of God’s grace in our lives is very much an experience of the group. We together are God’s masterpiece. It is the compendium of all of God’s people who are saved by grace that is the true masterpiece. It is all of us together who truly accomplish the good things he has planned for us long ago. We are all parts of God’s masterpiece in this world, a masterpiece that is a fine piece of art that displays the infinite skill and wisdom of the Holy Artist. (At this point you may want to read Paul’s lead up to today’s verses in Ephesians 2:4-7.)

What does this mean for you as an individual? Does this diminish your place as a masterpiece of God? Does this somehow make you less valuable? No, far from it! This reminds us all the more that we are valuable to God’s enterprise. You are an essential part of the whole because it is what we do together, how we worship together, and how we live together that displays the beauty of the church and the glory of the Master whose Masterpiece we are.

So, next time you gather with our RockPointe family remember, We are God’s masterpiece. May we ever seek to live into that truth.