Chapel notes, 2/12/09.

[Read the official chapel live-blog at Towers Online. Hear spring semester chapel sermons of Southern Seminary HERE.]

Gene Mims, senior pastor, Judson Baptist Church, Nashville, TN. “You as God’s Workmanship.”

Ephesians 2:8-10:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (NASB)

We are God’s workmanship:

I. Grace
A. In spite of our sinful condition
B. From before the foundation of the world
II. Saved
A. In the state of having been saved
B. In spite of the fact that we still struggle with sin
III. Faith
A. Salvation comes through faith throughout redemption history
B. Like grace and salvation, this faith is a work of God

Our theology and how our theology works out in our lives should be changed by the above and by the extension of these truths in verse 10. That we are God’s workmanship should transform our self-understanding, so that we are not satisfied with a mediocre existence. That we are God’s workmanship speaks to the corporate nature of God’s work in this world, and guards us against a self-centered existence.

We are not to focus on our ministries on merely “helping people through the tough times,” on addressing the economy, or environmental issues, but we are to focus on the truths of God’s amazing grace.