Created for good works

A reflection on John 3: 16-21 and Ephesians 2: 1-10

There are three kinds of people in this world: those who can count, and those who can’t.

Actually, there are two kinds of people in this world: those who are good, and those who are not; those who are saved, and those who are damned; those who know Christ in their lives, and those who have rejected Christ; those who are going to heaven, and those who are going to hell; those who are righteous, and those who are unrighteous; those whom God loves, and those whom God rejects; and I don’t believe a word of this stuff.

I used to. I used to firmly believe that we could divide the world neatly into two entirely separate, mutually exclusive groups; and I used to lie awake at night worrying about which group I belonged in: was I going to heaven, or was I going to hell?

It seems at first glance that the writer of Ephesians is a subscriber to the “two kinds of people” philosophy. One the one hand are those who are “by nature children of wrath” and, on the other hand, those who are “created in Christ Jesus for good works”. The world in which Paul lived was a world of dualisms: light and dark, flesh and spirit, powers for good and powers for evil. And, because this is the world Paul inhabited, it is also the language which the writer used.

However, it would be a mistake, I believe, to turn the language of duality into an anthropology where there are “two kinds of people”. The letter to the Ephesians goes far beyond such a simplistic understanding of what it means to be human. There is no neat separation between those whom God loves and those whom God rejects. When the writer speaks of those who are “by nature children of wrath”, they are speaking of themselves: “we were by nature children of wrath” followed by the immediate qualification, “like everyone else”. This is not a dualistic anthropology; rather, this is an identification of the writer and readers of the letter together in a common humanity.

The biblical scholar Bill Loader points out that this:

is a central theme in Ephesians. The 'we' is: we, Jews, and you, non-Jews. Together we have become something new.

The great risk of thinking there are “two kinds of people in the world” is this: those who know Christ becomes “us” and those who don’t are obviously “them”. Dividing the world into “us” and “them” is a very easy way of avoiding some truths about ourselves and of absolving ourselves of all sorts of responsibilities to others. In the world of “us” and “them”, we are tempted to congratulate ourselves simply because we are “us”; we are enticed to see this as being something we have accomplished for ourselves. It is easy to fool ourselves into believing that we have saved ourselves.

This is why there is in the reading so much emphasis placed upon what God has done:

God, who is rich in mercy… even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved… For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

Salvation is not something we have achieved for ourselves. Each time I baptise an infant I am visibly reminded that it is what God does, not what we do. Each child who comes to be baptised is utterly dependent upon the grace of God. And to ram the point home even further, the baptism service quite deliberately places the parents’ responses after the act of baptism. The water is poured and the words are spoken: “you have been baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” And then, and only then, do the parents make promises about what they will or will not do. Parents can not buy their children’s salvation, nor can we buy our own. It is by grace we have been saved.

And the letter to the Ephesians puts us all, everyone, into the same boat: “we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else”. We have very little cause for self-congratulation because we are just the same as everyone else. If we are in any way different from others, it is because of what God has done for us: “we are what God has made us”. We are what God has made us.

Interesting, isn’t it? When I look at my life, when I consider what I may have accomplished, what successes there might be, I need to pause and take a long hard look at myself: I am no different from anyone else; I am only what God has made me to be.

For each one of us that is true: we are what God has made us.

Does that make us uncomfortable? Do we really believe that? As a child of wrath, I am extremely reluctant to set aside what I have done.

And there is another dimension to this: note that the reading says, “we are what God has made us” (emphasis added). This is not just about us as individuals; this is also about us collectively, communally, as we make up the body of Christ in this place. And that is hard to take as well. So often, I have heard in churches around this state and this country about what “we” have done, how this is “our” church. We built it, we made it. Almost as if God had nothing whatsoever to do with anything.

But, whatever we have, it “is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast”.

Now, if we have to pause to identify that we as individuals are what God has made us to be, then we must also collectively, communally accept that we are what God has made us to be. If we don’t save ourselves individually, no more do we save ourselves corporately.

And there is one more thing that needs to be said about all of this: “we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” “For good works”. With great privilege comes great responsibility. Whoever God has made us to be, we have a purpose. And Ephesians is quite blunt about what our purpose is: good works.

To be a Christian is to be someone who is called to do good works. To be the church is to be a people called to do good works.

It is not enough to belong to a wider church that does good works; it is not enough to point somewhere else and say, “See, we are doing good works in the name of Christ.” Each of us, each and every one of us, was created “in Christ Jesus for good works”. Nor is it enough for us as a church to point to some individuals in our midst who are doing good and say, “See, we are doing good works.” As a community, we are created “in Christ Jesus for good works”.

We are not saved by good works. They have no power to earn us a place in heaven. Good works give us no reason to boast. But good works, if we are living the genuine Christian life, are the inevitable outcome of that Christian life.

This morning after worship we are going to spend some time together reflecting upon who we are. When we look at the profile of the congregation, regardless of the data we consider, the vision proclaimed on our planning day, irrespective of the size of our congregation or the sums of money in our coffers, the inescapable fact remains that, “we are what God has made us”.

Whatever we have, it “is the gift of God”. Amen.