What the Bible says about Workmanship, God's
(From Forerunner Commentary)
This verse is often quoted when speaking of doing the work of God, and doing so follows a correct spiritual principle. When God does something, it is not done through physical strength. It is interesting that might literally means "arms," and power refers to physical activity. The work of God is not going to be done through feats of arms, military victories, or anything that requires physical fighting or contention. Nor can it be accomplished by any amount of physical activity.
As much work and effort as men put into it, they are not what will get God's work done properly. They will be helpful, certainly, because God works though men, and men must exert themselves in order to do God's will. Nevertheless, He says clearly here that all the credit goes to His Spirit. God Himself is at work! Our job is to submit, to do the things that must be done. We must do what the Spirit directs us to do, but God will receive the credit, not us. We could do none of these works by our own means.
God gives the ability. He gives the inspiration, the strength, and the endurance. He opens the doors. He supplies the manpower, the money, and the other resources to go through those doors. He supplies favor so that the doors can be opened. We merely walk through them.
We could say that God's work is an act of grace. It is a kind of oxymoron to say that work is done by grace, since we think of work and grace as two extremes, but they are not! What comes first? The grace comes first: God grants favor and gives gifts, then the work is done. So where is the glory? It appears in the grace. The effort comes afterward and accomplishes God's will.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Two Witnesses (Part Four)Related Topics: Gift of the Holy Spirit | Gifts of God | God's Holy Spirit | God's Will | God's Will, Harmony with | God's Work | God's Working through Men | God's Workmanship | Grace and Work Complementary | Holy Spirit | Holy Spirit as God's Creative Power | Holy Spirit as Power | Spiritual Gifts | Submission | Submission to God | Submission to God's Will | Work and Grace Complementary | Work Of God | Workmanship, God's | Yielding to God | Yielding to God's Will
We are assured in Matthew 24:14 that the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached. God will see it done. He will preach it through whatever means, by whatever agency, and in whatever time He has already ordained. The question for us, then, is whether we will be in alignment with Him and usable by Him so that we can be directed by Him as He completes His work. However, this will be successful only if we let Him lead, rather than assume we already know what He is doing.
Because God is the One who preaches the gospel, and because He sanctifies and prepares His servants to perform His will, He also determines the results of His various works. For 1,900 years, it was not His priority to preach the gospel in a major way. We know this because it was not done. During the last century, a major witness was made because God had ordained it be so. He controls the results and the effects of His preaching. His word does not return to Him void, but it will accomplish what He pleases (Isaiah 55:11). Thus, when we look out today at the various efforts to preach the gospel—and we do not see the same results—it is because something else is God's priority, not that we are not trying hard enough.
Is it possible that the church is not yet "spiritually worthy" to be involved in making a witness to the world? In its present spiritual condition, could the church end up making a witness against God rather than for Him? If a witness is being made against God, does it even matter if the true gospel is spoken?
The bottom line is that we cannot insert ourselves into God's plans. God already knows what will be done, how it will be done, when it will be done, and whom He will use to do it. Our task is to be close enough to God that we recognize His guidance of our lives and to be practiced in submitting to it. When the time comes for Matthew 24:14 to be fulfilled, it will be, according to what God has ordained.
However, whether or not we play a part in the fulfillment of that prophecy, our focus is to be the sanctification that God has already given us. It is through that process of becoming holy and going on to perfection that we become "spiritually worthy" and able to be used by God in whatever capacity He ordains—large or small.
Our goal should not be to fulfill Matthew 24:14. Our goal is to get to the place where we, like Jesus Christ, "always do the will of [our] Father" (John 8:29)—no matter what His will may entail. God is doing far more than just making announcements. He is creating us in His image (Genesis 1:27), and that requires a lifetime of submission and a level of focus and energy far beyond simply preaching to the unconverted world. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).
David C. Grabbe
'This Gospel of the Kingdom Shall Be Preached'
What work is the Father doing? He is "working salvation in the midst of the earth" (Psalm 74:12). God is always working toward the completion of His purpose - the salvation of mankind. Jesus works within the same process and pointedly makes an issue of this on the Sabbath days. God's work is creating sons in His image. Thus, healing, forgiving sin, and doing good are part of Christ's work as Savior and High Priest that He might be "firstborn among many brethren."
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Fourth Commandment (Part Two): Christ's Attitude Toward the SabbathRelated Topics: Doing Good | First of the Firstfruits | Firstborn of Many Brethren | Firstfruits | God's Work | Healing | Jesus Christ as High Priest | Sabbath | Sabbath as Spiritual Creation | Sabbath as Work of Salvation | Sabbath Work | Salvation | Salvation Process | Work | Work Of God | Workmanship, God's
The implication is, "My Father has been working from the beginning, and He's continuing to work." What is Their work? It is creating, creation. God is the Potter, we are the clay. He is the One doing the shaping, the molding, the creating. "It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves." He is the One who is continuing the creation that He began and revealed in Genesis 1. He is still working on us! Continuing the pottery metaphor, the Holy Spirit, then, can be compared to the water that the potter uses to bring the clay to the right consistency to enable him to shape it.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Pentecost and the Holy SpiritRelated Topics: Clay | God's Work | God's Workmanship | Holy Spirit | Potter and Clay Analogy | Water | Water as Analogy | Water as Metaphor | Water as Symbol of God's Holy Spirit | Water Imagery | Water Symbolism | Work | Work Of God | Workmanship, God's
We do not use "hitherto" much anymore. It means that the Father began working at some unexpressed time in the past, and He is working still. He began working and has never stopped. His audience understood this because they say that God was working on the Sabbath.
If God has never stopped working, He works seven days a week, 365 day a year, decade after decade, century after century. He is working and has never stopped for the Sabbath. Then Jesus adds, ". . . and I work." The Jews did not like this at all because Jesus associated Himself with God, and He was declaring, "I work on the Sabbath too," basically throwing their accusation right back at them. But the very fact He said it incensed them because they knew immediately that, in order for this to be true, He had to be equated with God.
The Father and the Son began working on a project in the indefinite past. Once that project began, They worked without stopping - "hitherto" - even now. Remember, God is our model, and He works on the Sabbath. But the key is the type of work that He and His Son do.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Sabbathkeeping (Part 1)Related Topics: God's Work | God's Workmanship | Sabbath | Sabbath as Spiritual Creation | Sabbath as Work of Salvation | Sabbath Keeping | Sabbath Work | Work | Work Of God | Workmanship, God's
Not a single person can come to God for salvation unless God draws him through Jesus Christ. Saving faith is a very special faith, existing in an individual only because of a miraculous gift from God. It is not generated internally by logical human reason, common sense, or human experience. If faith were not a graciously and freely given gift of God, but rather our own internally generated response to hearing the gospel, God would be indebted to us. In other words, He would owe us because we, on our own, provided the faith to begin and continue in His way.
Notice the conversation Jesus had just moments before what is recorded in John 6:44:
"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you. . . ." Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?" (John 6:27-30)
Jesus clearly says that believing in the One God sent—Jesus Christ—is God's work! He clarifies this in verse 44, declaring that God is that specific belief's Originator and Source; otherwise, we would not have the faith of which He speaks. As usual, the Jews did not completely understand.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Christian Fight (Part Four)Related Topics: Belief in Christ | Believing in Christ | Calling | Calling, Uniqueness of | Faith | Faith as Belief | Faith as Gift of God | Faith of Christ | Faith that Saves | Faith, Saving | God's Work | God's Workmanship | Work Of God | Workmanship, God's
What Paul writes here agrees perfectly with Isaiah 64:8 and Job 14:14-15. God has a desire for the work of His hands. He is a Master Potter, and we are the clay. Here, the apostle puts it in New Testament terminology: "We are His workmanship." God is creating us in Christ Jesus. The Creator is still creating. He is molding, fashioning, changing us, transforming us to possess His own noble, righteous, holy, spiritual character. Salvation, then, is actually a process of creating character.
We have been resurrected to life, as it were, so that there will be a change in the kind of life we live due to God being at work in us. The Creator is at work; in fact, interestingly, workmanship can be translated "work of art." God is not merely giving a command and transforming us, but He is artistically molding and shaping us.
He takes into consideration all the nuances of our personalities, all of the differences of all those with whom He is working: Americans, Canadians, Australians, British, French, Dutch, Filippino, Mexican, Asians, Jews, and everybody else. He is working with us, not just to stamp us out as with a die, making the same impression on every piece, but He is instead approaching His work artistically. In art, infinite expressions are possible. The greatest Artist of all is at work within us.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Truth (Part 4)Related Topics: God's Work | God's Workmanship | Transformation | Transformed into His Likeness | Work Of God | Workmanship, God's
He begins to describe two different kinds of workmen in their relationships to the gospel. Although the instruction specifically applies to a minister, in principle it applies to everyone as sons of God, having His Spirit. Whether minister or laymember, all work toward the Kingdom of God.
The phrase "rightly dividing the word of truth" is not inaccurate, but somewhat misleading. The word picture is of a work party cutting a road through an area that has no roads. A geometric law, "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line," gives a similar thought. Paul instructs Timothy, "Cut a straight line with your teaching. Avoid convoluted twists and turns that people cannot understand. Go right to the heart of a matter." Today, we would say, "Make it plain and true."
He illustrates this by saying, "But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some" (verses 16-18).
John W. Ritenbaugh
Guard the Truth!Related Topics: Approved by God | Diligence | Earnestness | God's Workmanship | Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth | Study | Studying | Workmanship, God's