[AI translation] The great Christian feasts have the disadvantage and the danger that the great fact of salvation, such as the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, is limited to one or two days. At such times, large congregations flock to church, celebrate, but then the feast is over and with it Christmas, Easter, and the next Easter celebration, which will not be for another year, are over. Sunday was their weekly Easter, when they were reaffirmed in their faith in the resurrection, in the Easter victory of Christ the Redeemer. We too need to be people of the power of the Easter victory after Easter! This constant, unceasing, ongoing Easter witness and joy is expressed by the apostle Paul in this word: "For we are his workmanship, created through him in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph 2,10). He says of them that they are the creation of God, made by him.We would not understand this expression without the gospel of Easter. For here we are not simply His creation, made by Him, as the whole world is: the stars, the blades of grass, everything in the visible and invisible world is His creation. It is not, then, a question of God's work of creating all things, but of His second creation, His act of re-creation. The new creation, of which Jesus Christ is the first example, risen from the dead. Christ is not only the first genius of the new creation, but also its foundation, its beginning. So let us not think of his resurrection as a past event! With his resurrection, something is not finished - say, the great divine work of redemption - but has just begun! Something new, something different, something great, divine, glorious has begun: a new world-creation has begun. At Easter a process began, a process of re-creation from sin and death, in one real human person: Jesus Christ. A new process of creation has begun, the final consummation of which the Scriptures call the new heaven and the new earth, in which dwells righteousness. The process of the redemption, the re-creation of the whole created world, which has been immersed in sin. In the person of the risen, living Jesus, God has already anticipated for this old world, the world judged in Christ's death, the new world to come, for which we are accustomed to pray: 'Thy kingdom come'. (Mt 6,10a) Christ is indeed the hope of the world, for in Him and through Him the creation of that new world and new man has already begun, the greatness and the utter newness of which can only be expressed by the apostle in this way: "God be all in all." (1 Cor 15,28)
Now the apostle is saying that we who believe in Jesus Christ are God's creation, made by him. That is, the same process that began in the resurrection of Christ continues in those who believe in Him. All believers in Christ are partakers of the new creation begun in Christ, the life made new from death. So much so, that Paul expresses this mystery: "We who were dead in trespasses have been made alive together with Christ (saved by grace!) and have been raised together and seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:5-6) Three times it says together. He was quickened together with Christ, and was raised together, and is seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This "together" with Christ shows how God has involved us in the new creation that has begun in Christ. Through faith in Christ, the life of the person born again from sin is opened up. Faith does not mean that I do something - that is, I believe - but that God does something to me: that is, He creates me anew. By his creative work, God creates in me a new man, the man who will make up the human society of the new heaven and the new earth. We are God's creation in Christ Jesus: we have a type of life in us that is no longer a slave to sin - because it died for us in Jesus; it is no longer at the mercy of death - because it is part of Jesus' victory in the flesh; it is not something we produce ourselves by piety practices, by prayer, by gnashing our teeth - but something God has created for us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in his person!
Just in the last few weeks I have witnessed such a new man-making work of God. Someone who had not known Jesus before came to me wanting to know Him. We talked about Jesus for weeks. I told him about the miracle of salvation, its power and benefits, and tried to introduce him to Christ the Saviour. He had come to accept everything with reason and understanding, but it was still a matter of making the fact of salvation a reality for him and in him. I knew that this was the point at which neither he could go further with his will, nor I with my help through him. Life can only be given by God. But we can beg for it. We prayed together, and in the prayer, all at once life, the life of a man reborn, moved in him! The new man that God has created in Christ through His Word and His Holy Spirit. The new man was undeniably there before us! I had not created him, he had not forced himself out of himself: we were both amazed witnesses of God's work of creation.
This new man of ours does not mean that our old man is no longer alive, but that we can now recognise in ourselves the futility of our old man and begin the great struggle against our old self, our sinful nature, throughout our lives, so that the new man, born again in Christ, may be strengthened in us. That is why the apostle immediately adds, "being created through Christ Jesus unto good works." (Eph 2,10) So this new man was not created to please himself, but for a very practical purpose: to do good works. This new life will be manifested precisely in finally freeing ourselves from ourselves and from our own problems - that is, from the greatest obstacle, the greatest hindrance. It is terrible when one cannot get over one's own problems! He is always wondering: but how am I doing? I'm incapable of good, I'm unworthy, I'm a sinner, I have to get right with myself first! This constant preoccupation with themselves paralyses them in what they were created to do: good deeds, helping others. They cannot get rid of themselves!
Stanley Johnes tells in one of his books that he once had to make a long journey on a very bad road and in an even worse car. The car had only gone a few kilometres when it faltered and stopped. They gave it a little twist and it started moving again. But it happened again. By evening they were exhausted. On his way back, he was keen to see the countryside, as he had never been there before. But he was unable to do so: he was completely distracted by the malfunctioning machine. Many people's energy and attention are tied up by their own malfunctioning inner life. Their hearts cannot get rid of themselves, so they cannot enjoy the world of God, the joy of good works. They cannot have compassion for others, they cannot lighten the burdens of others. By the end of the day, they have exhausted themselves. When life throws an opportunity for good deeds in front of them, they cannot take advantage of the occasion.
When David Livingston returned from Africa, after years of devotion to his beloved African people, someone inquired about his state of mind. "My soul..., my soul: I almost forgot I had a soul!" replied Livingston. He was so interested in the other man's soul that he almost forgot about his own. Better and healthier than always looking inward! The latter makes me ill. Of course we must examine ourselves from time to time. We must have an introspection which leads to a complete self-abandonment, a complete conformity to the will of God. But then we must turn away from the focus of self-examination and get on with the work we were created to do. This is precisely one of the greatest lessons for the Church of Christ today: to learn not to see as a prey the possibility of living a separate and sacral life in a closed circle in church on Sundays or in a Bible study on weekdays, but to shift the focus of its ecclesial, congregational life into the world, into the work of everyday life. There is room for the good works that we are created to do by God in Christ. There, in the workflow of everyday life, is the occasion prepared for our being made new in Christ.
Yesterday, the country celebrated the feast of work. For us, the appreciation of work is not foreign. Work is in God's plan. He has commanded us to earn our bread by work. The apostle speaks of this work as a thing of honour, to lead a quiet life, to mind our own business and to work with our own hands. We also know from the Word that "if a man will not work, let him not eat." (2Thess 3:10) And that "a worker is worthy of his food." (Mt 10,10) For us, work is the general opportunity and occasion prepared by God for the good works of our new man. Let only our eyes be open enough and our spiritual ears alert enough to notice how many opportunities God gives in our daily work itself for good works. The ordinary work of the new man is itself not only an opportunity for earning bread, but a good work, because he can do it in the faith that he is benefiting the world, serving men. For the world and for the humanity which belongs to Jesus Christ, and from which Christ is recreating the kingdom of God to come! To work, then, is to have much work to do: it is not an obstacle, but rather an opportunity, to grasp the good works God has prepared in advance.
Then there are also special occasions for good works, where there is a need, a handicap, a deficiency in human life - such as sickness, poverty, sadness, perplexity, weakness - where again there is always an opportunity for us to do good works prepared in advance. The whole of life is a great opportunity to testify in word and deed that Christ is truly Lord in this world, and that in His resurrection the recreation of the whole world is truly wrought. To seize such opportunities is the true good deed!
Easter was for this reason, Jesus Christ was raised so that after Easter there might be people in the world who are still walking in the power of the Easter victory. For if we believe in Christ, with whom God raised us from the dead, we are also "his workmanship, being created through him in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Give me strength from your Spirit to understand and love
My appointed way and all thy commandments.
Leave me one desire: that I may hear and follow
Your holy justice, your holy truth.
(Canticle 512, verse 2)
Amen
Date: 2 May 1954.
Lesson
Ef 2,1-10