“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 MSG – A verse of the day from the Bible presented in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary version called The Message. Accompanied by a personal reflection below.
Having established who is responsible for the work of salvation in us — it is God incarnate in Jesus Christ — Paul is exhorting his reader to “join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” The salvation of our souls is an essential part of accepting Christ, but beyond that we are to live out our lives in a way that reflects God’s love to our fellowmen. That is our purpose in life. Because in the afterlife, there is no need to tell anyone of God’s love; there is no need to minister to anyone in any way; there is no need to comfort and care for another.
