A Sports Illustrated article dated July 5, 2010, tells the story of a one-time rising tennis star by the name of Jennifer Capriati. She won 14 singles titles, including the Australian and French Opens in 2001, and in the same year reached the WTA's No. 1 ranking. From a young age she was groomed for stardom but constantly struggled with her weight, personal problems and repeated injuries, which finally led to her retirement. As she struggled to maintain her place in tennis, she fell into the world of drugs and alcohol, unable to cope with failure. She was hospitalized, on one occasion, following a failed suicide attempt. After her release reporters questioned her about the incident. She said, “It all started to crumble when I quit playing tennis. After that I could not figure out: who am I? What am I?”
Now that tennis no longer defined her, she had no answer for one of the most important questions in life. It’s a question that resonates in the hearts of every person alive: Who am I, really?
Too often the answer comes back: I’m a minister. I’m a banker. I’m a student. I’m Bill’s wife or Jenny’s husband. I’m an activist. I’m a vegetarian. I’m a quadriplegic. I’m an alcoholic. I’m a single parent. I’m a Democrat. I’m a Republican. I’m a nobody. I’m somebody. I’m lost. I’m alone. I’m an athlete. I’m a computer geek.
People tend to define their identity according to their career. Their sense of self worth is too often driven by their perceived status or reputation. It is often grounded in some past success or failure.
A well-known football player was suspended for several games because he was arrested for domestic violence. Upon returning to the game, he stood before the microphones and said, “I am glad to be back. I know what I did was wrong, but the person who did that—that’s not me. It’s just not me.” Essentially what he was saying was, “That behavior was not indicative of my true identity. My true identity is something else. I am not what I did.”
So, how do you answer the question: “Who are you, really?”
For Christians, the answer is best found in their spiritual identity received from Christ. Our true identity is a matter of what God has made of us and what He’s done in us.
Consequently, we’ve discovered, thus far, that we are saints. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. We are born from above with a supernatural life within us. We are God’s sacred mobile home...His temple. And, we learn today that we are God’s special masterpiece.
Read: Ephesians 2:8-10
The Greek word (ποίημα) translated “workmanship” literally means, “something that has been made.” It’s from a root verb that means, “to make, cause, do, or perform.”
Different Bible translators render the word as, “handiwork,” “workmanship,” [NKJV, NASB, NIV], “creation” [BAGD], and “work of art” [NJB]. The noun form is also translated as a clause: “what he has made” [BAGD, NRSV, TEV].
The only other place where this specific word is used in the NT is in Romans 1:20, speaking of God’s work of creation in the beginning. It’s also used in the LXX in this same fashion (God’s work of creation). Listen to the verse:
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse...” (Romans 1:20)
We derive our English word “poem” from the Greek word ποίημα (“workmanship”). But, that translation alone can be misleading as the word refers to any work of art. It could be a statue, a song, a painting, a poem, architecture, or any other form of artistic expression.
Maybe the best translation for the word is the one that’s given by scholar F. F. Bruce. He translates the word as “his work of art, his masterpiece.”
Following that translation, I don’t believe there is any more exalted description of a follower of Christ than this one. We are God’s works of art — His masterpieces!
A couple of other things to note about this key phrase: "we...are His workmanship” means every born-again child of God. And, the possessive pronoun "His...workmanship” means it the Lord God Himself that makes the masterpiece. The pronoun is emphatic by its position at the beginning of the clause (“His handiwork are we.”). Just as we contributed nothing to our physical creation, so we contributed nothing to our spiritual creation; both are totally the works of God. Therefore, Christians are the subjects of His two most significant creative acts (physical-Gen. 1:27 & spiritual-Eph. 1:10). Consequently, our true spiritual identity is wrapped up in being His ultimate workmanship, His masterwork!
Further, this clause (“For we are His workmanship...”) gives us the reason why our salvation is “not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Because we are GOD’S “workmanship,” our salvation is due to Him...not to our works, “lest anyone should boast.”
Consider how Paul works out this great truth of our being God’s “workmanship” in Ephesians 2:1-10.
1. What we were before salvation. (2:4-6)
2. What we are in Christ right now. (2:4-6)
3. What we should be now and in the future. (2:7-10)
The truth is that none of us feels like “trophies of His grace,” let alone masterpieces of God. We know what we sometimes do and how we sometimes behave, which only serves to reinforce our feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness. But, consider how God goes about releasing our inner spiritual identity so that we and others can see it, as He intends.
One day the famous artist, Michelangelo, was said to be chipping away at a shapeless piece of rock. When someone asked him what he was doing and he replied, “I’m liberating an angel from this stone.” That’s what God is doing in each of our lives, too. The Master sculptor is chipping away at the stone (un-Christlike ways) that hides our true identity. He uses tools like the Holy Spirit, His Word, preaching, difficulties/difficult people, great saints, His church, providential events, etc., to peel away the things that are hiding our true spiritual identity.
Realizing the fullness of your spiritual identity requires you operating in faith (to believe what He says about you) and cooperating with His divine shaping process. When your inner spiritual identity begins to emerge into view, you’ll know it and others will, too.
Author David D. Swanson writes about a young man named Joel whose life was transformed as he learned to see Himself through God’s eyes rather than through the eyes of others or himself. He discovered that his true identity was not found in how he looked, what he did, or how others treated him. His true identity was found in Jesus Christ and what Christ had done for him.
Listen as he tells this story of Joel.
“I was busy backstage when I saw him for the first time. I was leading a youth conference at Jekyll Island, Georgia, and was planning details for the evening program. One part was a testimony by a young man named Joel. Someone on the staff had heard his testimony months earlier and invited him to speak, but I had never met him.
“He wore a plaid button-down shirt, jeans, flip-flops, and a baseball hat. His eyes were deeply expressive, sharp, and clear. When he looked at you, it was as if he saw your heart. Honestly, it felt intimidating.
“While he looked at me, I found it hard to look at him. My difficulty was not because of his piercing eyes but because he had no hair, no eyelids, no ears, and no lips. His rebuilt nose breathed oxygen into his body—a body that had been burned over 90 percent of its surface... The details of the accident were of no consequence in light of their result: a body so badly burned, so grossly disfigured that he barely resembled a human being.
“It was hard not to stare, but he acted as if everything was perfectly normal. He did not seem the least bit self-conscious but instead was confident, poised, and calm. He had endured hundreds of hours of plastic surgeries and skin grafts, physical rehabilitation, painful bandaging, the formation of scar tissue, and constant infections that threatened his life, yet here he was, ready to speak to 1,500 high school students.
“Since I was going to introduce him, I asked questions about his story, trying to wrap my mind around what I should say. As we chatted, I discovered a young man who was warm, engaging, bright, funny, self-effacing, and articulate. And Joel loved Jesus. My goodness, did he ever love Jesus.
“He talked about the agony of his recovery, how he came to know the Lord, how the love of Jesus had filled his life, and how he had learned that his beauty was defined by how God saw him, not how the world saw him. That was his testimony. His words were often accompanied by a warm, wide smile as he thought about all that God had done in his life.
“I found it almost too much to believe. How does someone burned over 90 percent of his body ever smile about anything, much less act as if he is the most blessed man on the planet—all at the age of eighteen? Here’s what I found amazing: in a twenty-minute conversation, I went from feeling shocked by his physical appearance to feeling drawn to this young man’s heart and life. In a word, Joel was attractive.
“Here’s the other thing: when Joel spoke to those 1,500 students, they were absolutely mesmerized. They couldn’t understand it either. When he finished, they erupted in thunderous applause. But Joel was not done impacting our camp. He didn’t leave, and over the next two days he participated in camp activities. He went to the beach. He played volleyball and Ultimate Frisbee. As he did, he was a rock star. He had students following him all the time, and not just the male students. The female students surrounded him everywhere he went.
“By worldly standards, this young man was ugly and disfigured. He had none of the exterior look that defines cool for his generation, and yet there he was, acting like the Pied Piper. How was such a thing possible? It became quickly apparent to all of us... His identity had been transformed, presently and eternally, by one simple truth: God loves him. God’s love is so powerful that he no longer views himself through the eyes of the world but through the eyes of God. And because he sees himself that way, the beauty of God’s love pours out of him so that others see him exactly that way: he is beautiful. (Swanson, David D. [2012-09-01]. Learning to Be You: How Our True Identity in Christ Sets Us Free [Kindle Locations 2011-2014]. Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
Now that tennis no longer defined her, she had no answer for one of the most important questions in life. It’s a question that resonates in the hearts of every person alive: Who am I, really?
Too often the answer comes back: I’m a minister. I’m a banker. I’m a student. I’m Bill’s wife or Jenny’s husband. I’m an activist. I’m a vegetarian. I’m a quadriplegic. I’m an alcoholic. I’m a single parent. I’m a Democrat. I’m a Republican. I’m a nobody. I’m somebody. I’m lost. I’m alone. I’m an athlete. I’m a computer geek.
People tend to define their identity according to their career. Their sense of self worth is too often driven by their perceived status or reputation. It is often grounded in some past success or failure.
A well-known football player was suspended for several games because he was arrested for domestic violence. Upon returning to the game, he stood before the microphones and said, “I am glad to be back. I know what I did was wrong, but the person who did that—that’s not me. It’s just not me.” Essentially what he was saying was, “That behavior was not indicative of my true identity. My true identity is something else. I am not what I did.”
So, how do you answer the question: “Who are you, really?”
For Christians, the answer is best found in their spiritual identity received from Christ. Our true identity is a matter of what God has made of us and what He’s done in us.
Consequently, we’ve discovered, thus far, that we are saints. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. We are born from above with a supernatural life within us. We are God’s sacred mobile home...His temple. And, we learn today that we are God’s special masterpiece.
Read: Ephesians 2:8-10
The Greek word (ποίημα) translated “workmanship” literally means, “something that has been made.” It’s from a root verb that means, “to make, cause, do, or perform.”
Different Bible translators render the word as, “handiwork,” “workmanship,” [NKJV, NASB, NIV], “creation” [BAGD], and “work of art” [NJB]. The noun form is also translated as a clause: “what he has made” [BAGD, NRSV, TEV].
The only other place where this specific word is used in the NT is in Romans 1:20, speaking of God’s work of creation in the beginning. It’s also used in the LXX in this same fashion (God’s work of creation). Listen to the verse:
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse...” (Romans 1:20)
We derive our English word “poem” from the Greek word ποίημα (“workmanship”). But, that translation alone can be misleading as the word refers to any work of art. It could be a statue, a song, a painting, a poem, architecture, or any other form of artistic expression.
Maybe the best translation for the word is the one that’s given by scholar F. F. Bruce. He translates the word as “his work of art, his masterpiece.”
Following that translation, I don’t believe there is any more exalted description of a follower of Christ than this one. We are God’s works of art — His masterpieces!
A couple of other things to note about this key phrase: "we...are His workmanship” means every born-again child of God. And, the possessive pronoun "His...workmanship” means it the Lord God Himself that makes the masterpiece. The pronoun is emphatic by its position at the beginning of the clause (“His handiwork are we.”). Just as we contributed nothing to our physical creation, so we contributed nothing to our spiritual creation; both are totally the works of God. Therefore, Christians are the subjects of His two most significant creative acts (physical-Gen. 1:27 & spiritual-Eph. 1:10). Consequently, our true spiritual identity is wrapped up in being His ultimate workmanship, His masterwork!
Further, this clause (“For we are His workmanship...”) gives us the reason why our salvation is “not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Because we are GOD’S “workmanship,” our salvation is due to Him...not to our works, “lest anyone should boast.”
Consider how Paul works out this great truth of our being God’s “workmanship” in Ephesians 2:1-10.
1. What we were before salvation. (2:4-6)
A. We were dead in trespasses and sins. (v.1)
B. We once walked according to the prince/power of the air. (v.2)
C. We conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh. (3a)
D. We were by nature children of wrath. (3b)
Not necessarily the types of raw materials you would think of using for making a masterpiece. However, the entire pericope turns on the first two words in 2:4...”But God.” He can make something beautiful out of nothing! Or, He can take a mess and make it into a beautiful work of art...which is what He does with our lives!
2. What we are in Christ right now. (2:4-6)
A. He made us alive. (2:5)
B. He raised us up. (2:6a)
C. He made us sit in the heavenlies. (2:6b)
D. He secured us in Christ (‘together” -- three times “with/in Christ”). (2:5-6)
3. What we should be now and in the future. (2:7-10)
A. We are to be testimonies of His grace (“created...for good works”).
B. We shall be trophies of His grace (“in the ages to come...”).
The truth is that none of us feels like “trophies of His grace,” let alone masterpieces of God. We know what we sometimes do and how we sometimes behave, which only serves to reinforce our feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness. But, consider how God goes about releasing our inner spiritual identity so that we and others can see it, as He intends.
One day the famous artist, Michelangelo, was said to be chipping away at a shapeless piece of rock. When someone asked him what he was doing and he replied, “I’m liberating an angel from this stone.” That’s what God is doing in each of our lives, too. The Master sculptor is chipping away at the stone (un-Christlike ways) that hides our true identity. He uses tools like the Holy Spirit, His Word, preaching, difficulties/difficult people, great saints, His church, providential events, etc., to peel away the things that are hiding our true spiritual identity.
Realizing the fullness of your spiritual identity requires you operating in faith (to believe what He says about you) and cooperating with His divine shaping process. When your inner spiritual identity begins to emerge into view, you’ll know it and others will, too.
Author David D. Swanson writes about a young man named Joel whose life was transformed as he learned to see Himself through God’s eyes rather than through the eyes of others or himself. He discovered that his true identity was not found in how he looked, what he did, or how others treated him. His true identity was found in Jesus Christ and what Christ had done for him.
Listen as he tells this story of Joel.
“I was busy backstage when I saw him for the first time. I was leading a youth conference at Jekyll Island, Georgia, and was planning details for the evening program. One part was a testimony by a young man named Joel. Someone on the staff had heard his testimony months earlier and invited him to speak, but I had never met him.
“He wore a plaid button-down shirt, jeans, flip-flops, and a baseball hat. His eyes were deeply expressive, sharp, and clear. When he looked at you, it was as if he saw your heart. Honestly, it felt intimidating.
“While he looked at me, I found it hard to look at him. My difficulty was not because of his piercing eyes but because he had no hair, no eyelids, no ears, and no lips. His rebuilt nose breathed oxygen into his body—a body that had been burned over 90 percent of its surface... The details of the accident were of no consequence in light of their result: a body so badly burned, so grossly disfigured that he barely resembled a human being.
“It was hard not to stare, but he acted as if everything was perfectly normal. He did not seem the least bit self-conscious but instead was confident, poised, and calm. He had endured hundreds of hours of plastic surgeries and skin grafts, physical rehabilitation, painful bandaging, the formation of scar tissue, and constant infections that threatened his life, yet here he was, ready to speak to 1,500 high school students.
“Since I was going to introduce him, I asked questions about his story, trying to wrap my mind around what I should say. As we chatted, I discovered a young man who was warm, engaging, bright, funny, self-effacing, and articulate. And Joel loved Jesus. My goodness, did he ever love Jesus.
“He talked about the agony of his recovery, how he came to know the Lord, how the love of Jesus had filled his life, and how he had learned that his beauty was defined by how God saw him, not how the world saw him. That was his testimony. His words were often accompanied by a warm, wide smile as he thought about all that God had done in his life.
“I found it almost too much to believe. How does someone burned over 90 percent of his body ever smile about anything, much less act as if he is the most blessed man on the planet—all at the age of eighteen? Here’s what I found amazing: in a twenty-minute conversation, I went from feeling shocked by his physical appearance to feeling drawn to this young man’s heart and life. In a word, Joel was attractive.
“Here’s the other thing: when Joel spoke to those 1,500 students, they were absolutely mesmerized. They couldn’t understand it either. When he finished, they erupted in thunderous applause. But Joel was not done impacting our camp. He didn’t leave, and over the next two days he participated in camp activities. He went to the beach. He played volleyball and Ultimate Frisbee. As he did, he was a rock star. He had students following him all the time, and not just the male students. The female students surrounded him everywhere he went.
“By worldly standards, this young man was ugly and disfigured. He had none of the exterior look that defines cool for his generation, and yet there he was, acting like the Pied Piper. How was such a thing possible? It became quickly apparent to all of us... His identity had been transformed, presently and eternally, by one simple truth: God loves him. God’s love is so powerful that he no longer views himself through the eyes of the world but through the eyes of God. And because he sees himself that way, the beauty of God’s love pours out of him so that others see him exactly that way: he is beautiful. (Swanson, David D. [2012-09-01]. Learning to Be You: How Our True Identity in Christ Sets Us Free [Kindle Locations 2011-2014]. Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)
Following is Joel’s story in his own words:
