15.19 WALK – Walk in good works

The next verse exhorts us to walk in good works.

(Ephesians 2:10)
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD WORKS, which God prepared beforehand that we should WALK in them.

Yes, God wants us to walk in good works. Good works is a fruit of being in Christ. It is through our testimony that the world will see Jesus. Bearing fruit is a normal part of the Christian life.

But let us be clear on the cause and effect. Under law, one tries to do good works to be saved, to be righteous, and to be accepted by God. When we try to do that, we will always feel an inadequacy because we can never fulfill the law in our self-effort.

But we are not under that system. We live in the New Covenant. We do good works because Jesus has saved us and made us righteous. Good works is the fruit of our righteousness in Christ. We do good works because God has affirmed us as His children. We do good works because we are a New Creation and Jesus lives in us.

Let us study the verse above. It says that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Notice that the emphasis is on what He has done. This New Creation is Jesus workmanship (not ours). It is what He has done, not what we have done.

When someone puts his confidence in his good works instead of what Christ has done, he is not experiencing Ephesians 2:10. That is walking under the law in self-effort. Good works is always a fruit of God’s work in us.

In order to bear fruit and to walk in good works, one needs to learn how to sit. How do we sit? We need to rest in the fact that we are His workmanship, and good works will come naturally. We need to depend on His life in us.