Ephesians

Ephesians 2:10 reads “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” But doesn't that contradict what comes two verses earlier: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

Which is it—the “grace” of verse eight, or the “works” of verse ten?

Let's take a closer look.

Ephesians 2:10 starts with the phrase “For we are God’s handiwork.” The word “for” connects verse 10 with what precedes it, especially the fact that we have been saved by grace. Salvation is not only deliverance from death into life. It also involves being newly created in Christ.

The word “handiwork” comes from the same Greek word that’s related etymologically to our word poem. It means “made by someone,” a “work” of someone’s hands. The ESV goes with “workmanship.” The NRSV has “we are what he has made us.”

The next phrase—“Created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”—raises some questions. Why do good works show up so positively in this verse?

The preceding statement in Ephesians 2:8–9 is clear that salvation does not come by works. But we miss the full implications of salvation if we stop reading in verse 9. No, our works do not earn our salvation. But our salvation should indeed lead us to a life of good works, works God has prepared “for us to do.” Yes, we are saved by God’s grace. But receiving this gift means living with and for God in a new way. The Greek reads, “in order that we might walk in them,” thus ending 2:1–10 as it began, with a description of how we walk or live. When we receive this grace, we aren’t merely delivered from a bad way of living into some kind of neutral existence. Rather, we are created anew in Christ for a new way of living, a way embodied in good works.

The truth that God has good works for us to do is fully consistent with the rest of Ephesians. God chose us to be holy so that we might belong to him and be devoted to his purposes (1:3). God determined that we should exist “for the praise of his glory” (1:12, 14). In the latter chapters of Ephesians, we’ll learn much more about the nature of these good works that glorify God.

Our good works are an expression of a Christian community. We can easily miss this through an individualistic reading of Ephesians 2:10. Yes, you are individually God’s handiwork. And, yes, God has good works for you yourself to do. But that’s not the whole story.

As becomes clear in the next part of Ephesians 2, God has good works for the community of the faithful to do together. In fact, you and I cannot walk in the good works God has for us apart from intentional fellowship with other members of Christ’s body, as Ephesians 4:16 tells us:

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.


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