May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed,
to bring you to full knowledge of Him.
May He enlighten the eyes of your mind
so that you can see what hope His call holds for you,
what rich glories He has promised the saints will inherit
and how infinitely great is the power
that He has exercised for us believers.
This you can tell from the strength of His power at work in Christ,
when He used it to raise Him from the dead
and to make Him sit at His right hand, in heaven,
far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination,
or any other name that can be named,
not only in this age but also in the age to come.
He has put all things under His feet,
and made Him, as the Ruler of everything,
the Head of the Church, which is His Body,
the fullness of Him who fills the whole creation.
And you were dead,
through the crimes and sins in which you used to live
when you were following the way of this world,
obeying the ruler who governs the air,
the spirit who is at work in the rebellious.
We all were among them too in the past,
living sensual lives, ruled entirely by our own physical desires
and our own ideas, so that by nature
we were as much under God's anger as the rest of the world.
But God loved us with so much love
that He was generous with His mercy:
When we were dead through our sins,
He brought us to life with Christ—
it is through grace that you have been saved—
and raised us up with Him and gave us a place with Him
in heaven, in Christ Jesus.
This was to show for all ages to come,
through His goodness to us in Christ Jesus,
how infinitely rich He is in grace.
Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith;
not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God;
not by anything that you have done,
so that nobody can claim the credit.
We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus
to live the good life as from the beginning
He had meant us to live it.
Ephesians 1:17 - 2:10 Jerusalem Bible
2 comments:
"We are God's work of art..." is a fascinating viewpoint in terms of creation. I like taking creation out of the scientific realm and putting it the artistic realm. Who can argue with art? Or with an artist? An artist can do whatever he wants and in whatever medium he chooses. There is nothing to prove or disprove--you either appreciate the creation and the artist (Artist) or you don't.
By the way, I titled this post Ποιητής ουρανού καί γής, quoting from the Symbol of Nicaea which normally is translated into English, speaking of God the Father, as ‘Creator of heaven and earth,’ but which I have always preferred to translate as ‘Poet of heaven and earth, because later in the Symbol we say of Jesus the Word of God, ‘by whom all things were made,’ affirming the mysterious, almost esoteric doctrine that, though the Father is the source of all, He leaves it to the Son, who is His personal Word, to organize everything into the universes that we experience, therefore ‘writing’ a poem with His Word.
The Greek word ποιητης, pyee-TEES, is the source of both words, to make and to poesize. Hence, I always push it to the limits: that the Father is a Poet seems to me to be more man-friendly than to just call Him ‘Creator,’ and that of course ties into the scripture which calls us, ‘God's work of art.’
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