The word masterpiece has taken on a new
meaning to me over the last several months. I want to share this thought
with you and I hope reading these words will give you the same a-ha moment that I
had.
This is the definition of
"masterpiece" found in the dictionary: [1]
"a
work of outstanding artistry, skill, or workmanship. an artist's or craftsman's
best piece of work."
I would now like to draw your attention to a
verse in the Bible and we are going to look at the verse in a few different
translations. I believe that the different translations of the Bible are there
to help us understand what God is trying to say to us. First we are going to
look at the verse in the New King James Version:
“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 NKJV
In this version of the Bible we see the word
workmanship - which is in the dictionary definition of the word
"masterpiece". Now I want to look at a translation of the Bible that
I use every once and a while called the Amplified Version. This version of
the Bible takes some words and expounds on them. The same verse reads as
follows:
“For we
are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ
Jesus [reborn from above--spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used]
for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He
set], - EPHESIANS 2:10 AMP
I love how that spells out the word
"workmanship". The phrase "work of art" jumps out at me
because that is what we are. Even if we don't feel like it - we are a master
work of art. We can find this out in the first pages of Scripture. In Genesis,
we see God creating the world - everything we see and don't see - but God isn't
creating the world in the way we think He might have. If we read carefully the
words of Genesis 1, we see that God is speaking planet Earth into existence. We
see the words "And God said..." and those words were usually followed
by what He was creating. [2] But then toward the end of Genesis 1, we see the
creation story take a different form. We see God go from speaking creation to
forming creation.
“Then
God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may
rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and
all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them." - “Then the Lord God formed a man from
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and
the man became a living being." - Genesis 1:26-27 + 2:7 NIV
After God finished, He saw that "it was
very good." [3] He said that after creating us! We are His work of art. We
are His best work! We are His masterpiece!
“For 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 NLT
I don't know about you, but reading that gets
me all sorts of excited!
[1] Google Dictionary
[2] Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, NIV
[3] Genesis 1:31, NIV
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