Sijo Chemmannur
Member
'we are His workmanship' Ephesians 2:10
We are in the festive season. A season to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ into this world. The reminder of humbleness and love exhibited by God to initiate a mission to save all human who are suffering from the clutches of sins. The embodiment of the promise God has prepared for us before the creation of the earth. The message of Love, peace and compassion poured down to earth from the heavens breaking the barrier of separation. The good news to all of us is the presence of God in human flesh. The Son of Man, the anointed Christ is a human now.
Matthew 7:21-23 gives different perspective of salvation through Christ. It talks about people who prophesied and even cast out devils in the name of Jesus Christ. To the at most surprise, they were rejected from the Kingdom of heaven during judgement by Christ saying "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). Surely, these people were doing something by using the name of the Jesus and they were claiming to be successful in it. They must have been successful in making the world believe that they are doing the work of God and Christ. They were the modern Christian Pharisees who might have been thinking that they are the people who follow the work of Christ. Their ritualistic practices must have given the satisfaction to their conscious that they are doing good. But, Christ says to them "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23).
This is the real danger for all of us to understand the true will of the Father in heaven and to do it. For doing the will of God, we need a complete submission of our life as a sacrifice. St. Paul says that 'our reasonable service is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God' (Romans 12:1). We should have the knowledge that 'we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them' (Ephesians 2:10). We should not be downgraded to the people who just say Lord Lord and not doing the will of God.
During this Christmas season, let us prepare our heart to welcome Jesus Christ to be born and formed in us. Our inner urge should be to let our heart so that Christ be formed in us (Galatians 4:19). This realization will make us forth to do will of Christ in this world. The realization that we are no longer living for ourselves, but for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:15). To take up the cross of Christ and follow His foot steps (Matthew 16:24). The workmanship of Christ to serve other people (Mark 10:45) and consider others greater than themselves (Philippians 2:3). This is the need for today to lead a life obedient to God and follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We are not called to revenge on others or do evil for evil (1 Peter 3:9), but to forgive our enemies and even to love them (Matthew 5:44).
The world will know our master through the work we are doing for Him. Do our works bears a good testimony of our Master and savior Jesus Christ is the retrospective question we all should ask to ourselves.
We are all send out into this world as the beacon of Christ's love. When evil soars over and engulf the earth, the duty of a good steward is to be steady and be a workman for God. We are ought not to follow the streams of the world, but to stand for the values of Christ. We are living in an age when the character of Christ is devalued to mere symbolization of God and people proclaim the non-pragmatic predisposition of Christ's character in a Christian life. Let us uphold the true spirit of Christ's workmanship.
We are in the festive season. A season to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ into this world. The reminder of humbleness and love exhibited by God to initiate a mission to save all human who are suffering from the clutches of sins. The embodiment of the promise God has prepared for us before the creation of the earth. The message of Love, peace and compassion poured down to earth from the heavens breaking the barrier of separation. The good news to all of us is the presence of God in human flesh. The Son of Man, the anointed Christ is a human now.
Matthew 7:21-23 gives different perspective of salvation through Christ. It talks about people who prophesied and even cast out devils in the name of Jesus Christ. To the at most surprise, they were rejected from the Kingdom of heaven during judgement by Christ saying "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). Surely, these people were doing something by using the name of the Jesus and they were claiming to be successful in it. They must have been successful in making the world believe that they are doing the work of God and Christ. They were the modern Christian Pharisees who might have been thinking that they are the people who follow the work of Christ. Their ritualistic practices must have given the satisfaction to their conscious that they are doing good. But, Christ says to them "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23).
This is the real danger for all of us to understand the true will of the Father in heaven and to do it. For doing the will of God, we need a complete submission of our life as a sacrifice. St. Paul says that 'our reasonable service is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God' (Romans 12:1). We should have the knowledge that 'we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them' (Ephesians 2:10). We should not be downgraded to the people who just say Lord Lord and not doing the will of God.
During this Christmas season, let us prepare our heart to welcome Jesus Christ to be born and formed in us. Our inner urge should be to let our heart so that Christ be formed in us (Galatians 4:19). This realization will make us forth to do will of Christ in this world. The realization that we are no longer living for ourselves, but for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:15). To take up the cross of Christ and follow His foot steps (Matthew 16:24). The workmanship of Christ to serve other people (Mark 10:45) and consider others greater than themselves (Philippians 2:3). This is the need for today to lead a life obedient to God and follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We are not called to revenge on others or do evil for evil (1 Peter 3:9), but to forgive our enemies and even to love them (Matthew 5:44).
The world will know our master through the work we are doing for Him. Do our works bears a good testimony of our Master and savior Jesus Christ is the retrospective question we all should ask to ourselves.
We are all send out into this world as the beacon of Christ's love. When evil soars over and engulf the earth, the duty of a good steward is to be steady and be a workman for God. We are ought not to follow the streams of the world, but to stand for the values of Christ. We are living in an age when the character of Christ is devalued to mere symbolization of God and people proclaim the non-pragmatic predisposition of Christ's character in a Christian life. Let us uphold the true spirit of Christ's workmanship.
