God Don’t Make Junk!

[This article is taken from Hal’s NEW FREE booklet called “God Don’t Make Junk!” Download the free pdf. Read it. Smile. It’s awesome. I love it! -Joel Hayes]

We are New Creatures.

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

In his epistle to the church at Corinth we encounter one of the most fantastic statements made by the Apostle Paul in all his writings regarding believers in Christ. In considering the imagery of a new creature here we can sense a truth about ourselves that often gets lost while living in this present evil world. In the clutter of our daily circumstances and relationships, we can easily become confused about our identity in Christ and even after much introspection, we can fail to discover a true sense of self. It is certain that each of us shares a common ancestry in our progenitor Adam. It is this Adamic heritage that weighs us down and corrupts our feelings and thinking concerning who we really are.

Most people hide their true self behind a mask of their own making. A mask that projects the self that they wish others to see. This mask represents an image of wishful thinking; one they convince themself truly represents who they really are, or who they want to be. However, deep inside they perceive the fictional nature of this self-portrait despite their great attempt to convince themselves that this mask represents their own true self.

Many Christians suffer from a sense of inadequacy if they will honestly admit it. And furthermore, they continually beat themselves up for feeling this way because they know they shouldn’t. The resolution of all this negative thinking about ourselves is discovered in the realization of what happened to us when we believed the Gospel and became a child of God by faith. In that moment we ceased to be fully identified with Adam and joined the household of God.

God Don’t Make Junk!

Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

This new creature that we have become is a work of God. As significant as the creation of heaven and earth this new man is a witness to the greatness of God and the glory that He reserves to Himself. It is essential to right thinking as a believer to understand who we have been made to be ‘In Christ” and how important is this knowledge in bringing glory to God.

We are Accepted.

Eph 1:12-14 – “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

When we trusted the Gospel and placed our faith in our savior Jesus Christ, we took the significant step that brings us into a position of acceptance with God the Father. The Father Himself tells us that this was His purpose to be accomplished through His beloved Son Jesus Christ and in our identification with Him.

In the first chapter of Ephesians, He declared that “the good pleasure of His will” is that we should be “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph 1:6). Our identification with Christ is a creative work of the God of all grace and is the seal and testament of the greatness of His glory. It is this divine work that makes us acceptable to God and is not something that we could ever achieve on our own. This is the knowledge revealed by Paul, the apostle of grace. It is a truth this apostle was especially committed to. In the revelation of this truth, we discover the core reality that enables us to please God. That God is pleased when our walk, our testimony in word and deed, is in alignment with who He has made us to be, and declared us to be, in Christ.

Colossians 1:9-12 – “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:”

We are Complete.

By realizing our new identity in Christ – and understanding it’s source and nature we are brought to a point that we can rest in the sufficiency of this knowledge. We can trust that God has accomplished everything necessary for our fruitful and pleasing walk before Him.

As important as it is to trust by faith the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life, equally we are to trust in the same manner, that God has equipped us to “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11-12). This is stated without ambiguity in Colossians 2:6-10 – “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:”

We are to live on the same basis that we are saved. The means of our justification is also the impetus to a pleasing walk before God and this is “by grace through faith.” This truth is realized as we are “rooted and built up” in Christ. As our faith is “established” in the fact of our identification with Christ and we should be grateful that God has accomplished something for us that we could never do on our own. Philosophically and religiously the world system we live in will seek to deprive us of this truth. The world advances self-promotion and a performance-based acceptance paradigm where each person can take pride in their own accomplishment. The established believer in Christ finds ability and validation in God’s work “in Christ” where we are to live according to the fulness of everything that God has made us to be.

“He’s Still Working on Me”, a popular Christian song in the seventies advanced the idea that as believers we are an imperfect and ongoing project. We are encouraged to view ourselves as incomplete and lacking.

“He’s still working on me
To make me what I need to be
It took him just a week to make the moon and stars
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars
How loving and patient He must be
‘Cause He’s still workin’ on me

There really ought to be a sign upon my heart
Don’t judge him yet, there’s an unfinished part
But I’ll be better just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master’s loving hands.”

The Hemphills

Nothing could be further from the truth concerning who God has made us to be “in Christ.” Colossians 2 is definitive in the declaration that “we are complete in Him.” This is true because of the “faith of the operation of God.” It is a completed creative act by God Himself. Who are we to argue with God by suggesting that His work is incomplete or lacking quality? God don’t make junk!

We are Equipped.

Everything that God requires of us He has provided. The crux of the matter concerning our lives as Christians is not about acquisition but about appropriation. What is required of us is faith and trust. Faith in God’s work and trust in His provision.

The believer is to rely on the sufficiency of God’s Word.

2Ti 3:16 – “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

The believer is “throughly” (sufficiently and completely) furnished unto all the good works that “God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Either this is true, or it is false. We must choose – do we believe this truth or do we call God a liar and doubt the quality of His work.

This is why we are exhorted by the apostle Paul to study the scriptures. In them we discover who we are in Christ and comprehend that the approval bequeathed to us positionally in Christ should be demonstrated in our testimony and life. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). As we read, study, and make God’s Holy Word resident in our heart and mind, we will experience a transformation that truly reflects the glory of God and His work of grace in our life. We can then truly express gratitude as Paul did as we see it working in our circumstances and in others. “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

The believer is to rely upon the sufficiency of God’s grace.

“Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).

We are to acknowledge our own inability and weakness and elect to be the person God has enabled us to be. Surely, we must agree with Paul’s conclusion – “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Corinthians 3:5). Surely, we should rejoice as our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed to our apostle – “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Christ is the secret.

Much of the apostle Paul’s contribution to the New Testament canon concerns a body of truth he called “the mystery” meaning literally “the secret.” It is multifaceted and addresses vital elements of positional and practical truths relevant to we who live in this Age that God has called the dispensation of the grace of God. This mystery concerns secrets that had never been revealed to man before the apostle Paul was ordained by God to proclaim a message concerning His Son Jesus Christ. It is called “the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest…” Romans 16:25-26a. This secret of Jesus Christ stands in sharp contrast to all prophesy and revelation in the scriptures. NOTE the message concerning Christ preached by Peter and the Twelve – Acts 3:20-21 – “And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”

Our apostle said he in this message he “laboured” and that this revelation was the focus of his preaching and teaching. Why? Because in proclaiming this Mystery about Christ he might “present every man perfect in Jesus Christ.” Perfect in the sense of having a Christian walk that aligns with our identity in Christ and one that reflects the new creature that God has made us to be in Him.

Paul declared it was he “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: 25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:24-28).

It is in “the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery” that we are established as believers in all things necessary unto our justification and sanctification. We are saved by grace through faith, and we have an eternal hope. We are delivered from the power of this “present evil world” as we walk “by grace through faith” and rejoice in the fact that God don’t make junk.

Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”