Read: Ephesians 2:8-10
We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things
he planned for us long ago (Ephesians 2:10).
While watching top athletes compete in a global event, my family and I marveled at their incredible feats. But as a relatively sedentary person, I was equally awestruck by their training regimens. In interview after interview, athletes would share how they woke up early every morning and did nothing but work out for hours on end. Every calorie would be counted, every movement analyzed for maximum efficiency. But they didn’t talk about their training as if it were a hardship—something negative. No, they described it with pride and passion because they recognized the privilege of being one of the few athletes in the world capable of competing at the very highest level.
Believers in Jesus are certainly called to the privilege of serving God with passion. Ephesians 2 states that we’re created to do good works by His power and provision (Ephesians 2:10). And as clearly presented elsewhere in the New Testament, the work we’re called to do isn’t easy. Jesus Himself embraced a cross and called us to carry our own (Matthew 16:24). But when Paul talks about doing good works, he frames it as a privilege, not a burden. In Ephesians 2:10, he says that we’re God’s “masterpiece.” In this, he gives us the sense that we’ve been created and crafted by God to do good works. We were made in His image and are now new creations designed to reflect His ways (2 Corinthians 5:17).
I have to admit that far too often I view all that I’m called to do as a believer in Jesus as more of a burden than a privilege. That’s why Paul’s words in Ephesians are so important to keep in mind. When it comes to my calling to follow Christ, it’s not that I have to do it. By God’s provision, it’s pure privilege!
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