Defying the Craftsman . . .and Missing the Glory!

Ephesians Series Ephesians 2:8-10

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Embracing the glory the Master Craftsman bestows on us

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10

The room felt hot and stuffy and various splotches of debris littered the floor. The craftsmen deftly worked with melted silica, intense flames, and large, unwieldy tools to shape breathtakingly beautiful masterpiece glass items. I watched in awe they skillfully wrought each step in the formation of the glorious vase or ornament.

How could such an ordinary, or even unsightly, blob become something so spectacular! I marveled at the precision and creativity of the glassblowers. They added new globs to the basic structure, cut off excesses, reshaped the edges and contours (numerous times!). Between steps, they thrust the objects into a blazing furnace or directly applied a torch to add an embellishment. Often the artist breathed into the blowpipe to expand and round the item, and used heavy-duty implements to shape, trim, or beautify the design.

Pondering this process, I recall Scriptures about God being the potter and we are the clay. Glass blowing has some similarities with a LOT MORE heat and variety of steps. Each involves a master craftsman with a plan and vision for the finished product. Both skills represent time the creator must invest manually and in close personal contact to bring an ordinary shapeless mass into a wonderful and useful finished product.

Let’s examine how these crafts can relate to Ephesians 2:10 where Paul describes God’s people as His workmanship.

First, consider the words used in this verse. We see in verses 8 and 9 that God alone is doing the work of salvation in us. This means our initial coming to Jesus as well as the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to maturity in Christ. The work of salvation is an accomplished fact as well as His promise to daily refine our hearts and minds to conform to Jesus.

We are works created for a purpose

Next, in verse 10 we are told we are, currently and moving into the future, God’s workmanship, the Greek word poiema. This reminds me of our word poem, and gives the picture of an artisan carefully and diligently bringing something new into existence.

The word for created is used 14 times in the New Testament and always refers to things brought about by God.

When I hear created in Christ Jesus, I envision making a cake. I combine the dry ingredients and make an impression in the middle where I add the mixed liquid ingredients. These are all stirred together and baked so both wet and dry parts become inseparable. We are created in Christ and Christ is in us, resulting in an integrated whole.

God created this artwork, each of us, before the foundation of the world. He crafted and sculpted us for a specific purpose and with a unique design. We are built so that the outflow of Christ’s life in us becomes our way of life and Christ is the power for us to live fully according to our design.

What about the heat?

In crafting of glassware and pottery, the objet d’art receives a lot of pressure, heat, and reshaping. Without those elements, the original materials will remain shapeless, weak, “unbeautified”, and “unuseful”. They will not display the creator’s intent nor his glory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isIKVPnfryg

How often do I hear the lie that “because I have been through hard and ugly times (heat, pressure, reshaping), I am not fit for God’s love and grace gifts. He saves those for people who have it easy and look good.”

Saying those words makes me shudder. Who am I to argue with the potter or the glassblower? If His glorious plan for my design involves numerous trips to the furnace (which strengthen, shape, and beautify my being), do I have the audacity to refuse His purpose? To declare that I know better than He does what I should become and how? To say that I don’t want to be strong in Jesus and I am satisfied to be a “half-baked” ornament? Or even to defy Him when He wants to bless me with good things because I think I don’t deserve them?

During a hard, fiery season in my marriage, I often told the Lord how much the circumstances hurt and were unfair. I wanted something to quickly fix our dynamics and bring us to our ideal selves which would glorify Him because of our goodness.

Lord, forgive my arrogance! I give you permission to complete your purposes in me and I put myself in your hands. After all, you are God and I am only your workmanship. Teach me how to submit to your master plan, especially when I don’t want any more heat. Let my life fully reflect your glory and purposes.

The breath of the Creator

A final thought: The glassblower differs from the potter in the way he shapes the vessel with his breath in addition to manual sculpting. In both Greek and Hebrew, the same word designates both breath and spirit. When God breathes into us, He imparts to us His breath, Spirit, and life.

Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Genesis 2:7

Even in the midst of numerous intense, fiery trials, God continues to breathe His life into us, filling us with His Spirit, and expanding our capacity. If His breath is in us, then He puts Himself into the fire with us and He experiences everything we endure. It was surely His breath that sustained and changed me when my relationship seemed humanly impossible to fix. Looking back, I believe His breath transformed my husband bit by bit over the years.

What if we ask God to open our eyes to His life-giving and life-sustaining breath that is within us when life turns up the heat for us? Does our response change when realizing that our Creator immerses Himself into our pain and He is committed to using the suffering to craft us for glory–His and ours?

Consider this after watching the video. Glass is much more malleable in the heat.

Bur now, O LORD, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand.
Isaiah 64:8

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13

How have you experienced God’s shaping and refining during the times of heat and suffering? I want to stand with you in your trials and victories!

Ephesians Series