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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Eph 2:10

By God’s grace, we are now his workmanship, a new creation both as men and as saint, given new birth. This is all done by Grace alone, and by what Christ did on the cross alone, for there is no part we can play in our redepemtion.

Yet this does not mean that works is now excluded. Yes, good works will bring us no closer to our redemption, for God in his creation, has designed and purposed us for good works. We are prepared for such a task by the new knowledge of his will, and the change that is produced in us when we are given the new birth.

For by our works, we shall glorify God, in our perseverance in holiness.

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

2 Tim 2:20-21

Are we a worker approved by God?
Before these verses, Paul was talking about “irreverent babble”, and it’s effects. In 2 Tim 2:19 Paul talks about how nothing can shake the truths of Christ. He also talks about how this foundation has two writings on it.

One of it offers comfort, where nobody can overthrow those that God has chosen as his children. The second speaks of our duty as God’s children : to depart from iniquity.

Thereafter, Paul continues to talk about how the Church of Christ is like a dwelling. There are some who profess of faith, who would be cast aside and discarded. And there are those who will be of value.

So there is a need for each of us to see that we are holy vessels for Christ. We must all be somebody whom God approves, who is devoted to God’s service, and thus fitted for his use.

Thus we need to be:

1. Depart from iniquity
2. Purge ourselves from those that dishonour the church
3. Be fit for God’s use
4. Be devoted for God’s use
5. Be sanctified in our hearts

Looking at both passages, things we can reflect upon are:

1. How willing am I to be at the Master expense?
2. Pray for willing heart and mind.
   

This vale of tears is but the pathway to the better country: this world of woe is but the stepping-stone to a world of bliss
~Charles Spurgeon

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