Alive in Christ!
Six Studies in Paul's Letter to the Ephesians by Peter J. Blackburn
for Home Bible Study Groups
The chips were flying. I watched, fascinated.
He was there by arrangement. A number of other people were there to demonstrate their own creative art. And a crowd of onlookers watched. It was the local church's annual Spring Fair.
I browsed around the other displays, but kept coming back to the man with the block of wood. Anyone can chisel chips off a piece of wood. But this was different. As time went on, the form of a boy was beginning to appear.
"How do you do it?" I asked, with admiring fascination.
"Quite simple, really," he explained. "I look at the wood and see the shape I desire. Then all I have to do is chip away the wood I don't need!"
"Simple?" 1 thought. "Perhaps my trouble is the way I look at a block of wood! Or is it my lack of skill and practice?"
In his letter to the Christians at Ephesus, Paul describes us as being "his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of good works in which God planned long ago for us to live " (2.10).
But we are not static artworks! By our faith we receive and cooperate with God's saving grace. We are made alive in Christ! Made alive "for the purpose of good works"
And we need to cooperate with the creative Lord in "putting away" the old life and "putting on" the new.
These studies in Paul's letter to the Ephesians were written for small group study. They focus on the text of Scripture in my own translation and on issues relating to our own lives. We need Scripture and life to come together so that we can express the creative purpose of the God who has made us alive in Christ!
Alive in Christ! © Peter J. Blackburn 1990. Permission is given for this study to be copied in its entirety for group use. Courtesy advice of the use of these studies would be appreciated. Any other proposed use must have the written permission of the author. Email Peter Blackburn.
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