“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)
At the end of Paul’s great passage extolling salvation by grace alone, he makes this remarkable statement. He explains that the Christian is not only saved by grace but is also created for good works. God has prepared these good works beforehand for the Christian to walk in them.
It is an amazing truth that God has prepared beforehand a life of good works for each individual Christian. God has a story laid out for each Christian, he has planned out what our lives have been and what they will be.
The LORD has a purpose for our life (Prov 19:21), his purpose for our life will be accomplished (Ps 115:3), and his purpose for our life is good (Rom 28).
These are glorious truths. There is, however, another dimension that makes these truths more amazing.
The great weight of God’s infiniteness is behind these plans. God’s infiniteness is not separated from his plans; it is united to all his plans.
God’s infinite wisdom has been brought to bear upon his plan for your life—the same wisdom that so masterfully defeated sin and death through Christ's being sinned against and put to death. His infinite wisdom has strategized and arranged your life with perfect, boundless skill and knowledge.
God’s infinite sovereignty, the unrestrainable authority and control of God, is at work in your life. Every detail is planned and executed. Nothing frustrates his plans, nothing frustrates the storyline he wrote for your life before time began.
God’s infinite creativity has painted and is painting the brush strokes of your life—the same creativity that made the heavens and the earth, the same creativity that beautifully arranged the stars in the sky, the same creativity that harmoniously brought together things so divergent and arranged them beautifully in the creative order.
God’s infinite love is intertwined and present with every detail, every aspect, everything you wouldn’t have chosen, every high and every low of your life. The same love that sent Christ to live and die for you, to purchase you, to adopt you, is at work in every aspect of your life. All the minutiae of your life are intermixed with divine, infinite love.
God’s infinite grace highlights every page, every word of your life. The grace that purchased a rebellious sinner like you at the expense of Christ. The grace that made the treacherous his sons, the grace that gave you, the one who sought to steal God’s glory, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. The force of that type of infinite grace flows like an unstoppable torrent throughout your life. The storyline of your life is overflowing with tokens of his infinite grace.
Christian, take refuge and comfort in these truths, revel in these truths, and praise God for the wonderful reality that the infinite weight of his glorious perfections is behind his plans and purpose for your life.
Stephen Duarte (ME, National University; MTS, Reformed Baptist Seminary) is a pastor at Parkside Bible Fellowship in Fallon, NV. He is husband to Debbie and father of three.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of other contributors on this site.
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