For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them

 Good morning.  Continuing where we left off last time. Now the phrase “have been saved“ is in the perfect tense in Greek. That means an action that has been completed in the past (I.e. the saving is not still going on), and has an effect on the present (our saving affects who we are and what we do). The aorist tense just simply means that an action happened without commenting on its effect. The author, Paul in this case, chooses which tense to use to convey his/her meaning. Paul seldom uses the perfect tense, while John uses it profusely. Therefore, to Paul it was important to convey the meaning with the perfect tense. So why did God do all of this for us? For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. The word translated “workmanship“ comes from a Greek word from which we get the English word poem. We are God’s poem, just like the creation is, as noted in Romans chapter 1. While we did not do works to get saved, we were not created to just sit around and admire ourselves. We were created for good works. These good works do not just happen by themselves – God prepared them beforehand for us to walk in. Father help us to be open to the good works that You have for us to walk in.

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