THE CHURCH – GOD’S WORKMANSHIP
Lesson 9
1. We have established the church as an assembly is primarily governmental, then the church as
the body of Christ which is primarily relational. According to Ephesian 2:10 what is the next
picture of the church? ___________________________________________________________
Ephesians 2:10 (AMP) 10 For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in
Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned
beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in
them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].
2. The Greek word for workmanship is poiema. This word in Latin is poema from which we get
the word poem. The Jerusalem Bible translates this word as “work of art”. From these nuances
of meanings what sort of workmanship is God creating? ________________________________
3. Personal
How does it make you feel that God is using you as His material for creating His
masterpiece?
4. A) Consider a beautiful sculpture. What was needed to produce such a work of art? _______
B) Consider a beautiful painting. What is needed to produce this work of art? ____________
C) Would you say, the artist brought forth the creation He envisioned within him/herself?
Y ___ N ___
D) Would the finished product be the expression of the artist’s inner vision? Y ___ N ___
E) What vision do you suppose God envisions of us? _________________________________
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F) Does God work on us, blending and shaping and positioning us? Y ___ N ___
G) Would something that God fashions surpass Michelangelo and Rembrandt? Y ___ N ___
H) What does it mean that WE are GOD’S poem? ___________________________________
I) His poem to whom, according to Ephesians 3:10? ________________________________
Ephesians 3:10 (AMP) 10 [The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided
wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to
the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.
J) Why do you think God would want to demonstrate through His redeemed people His
manifold wisdom to the entire universe – in time and eternity – and to the unseen realm?
[manifold means “many sided”] ___________________________________________________
5. Each of us demonstrates a unique refraction of the overall multifaceted wisdom of God.
Considering our topic – The Church, explain this. ______________________________________
6. A) Where does God go for the material for His greatest creative masterpiece? ____________
B) Us??? Could we say the salvaged ones from the scrapheap? Y ___ N ___
C) Does He make use of the most broken vessels? Y ___ N ___
D) He takes us from the pile of broken families, sick bodies, and corrupted minds? Y _ N _
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7. A) According to Ephesians 2:10 for what purpose does God work us? ____________________
Ephesians 2:10 (AMP) 10 For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in
Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned
beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in
them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].
B) Does this mean we go beyond the ornamental to being useful? Y ___ N ___
C) Are we to fulfill a function or to stand around being interesting and looking spiritual? ___
D) The Bible teaches that God has a good work for us to do. How are we to know what this
is to be according to our lessons so far? _____________________________________________
E) Would you say it is our job to find those good works and to walk in them? Y ___ N ___
8. A) If God is the Master Workman over this, is there any room for our improvisation? _______
B) Should we copy what is being done down the street to draw in the crowds? Y ___ N ___
C) Why do you think so many of the churches are painting their walls brown, has God
sounded the decree, or are each aping the other? Twenty years ago, how many churches had
their own coffee shop? Why do trends like “Purpose Driven”, “Emergent”, “Hyper Grace”, “The
Shack”, “Another Jesus Calling”. “Seed Faith”. Where are these things in the Bible? _________
D) If God is the Master Workman should we keep our eye on Him and off others? Y _ N _
E) Does God generally tell you in advance where He is taking you or does He show you step
by step? ______________________________________________________________________
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9. A) What do you think is the basic requirement as members of God’s poem? ______________
B) Was yieldedness at the top of your list? Y ___ N___
C) You being a single word in the poem, who controls where you are set? ________________
D) Would you flow and harmonize and meter with the words set about you? Y ___ N ___
E) We think of the potter. Who controls the Potter’s hand? __________________________
F) Who determines to what use we will be put? ____________________________________
G) If we are a part of a block of marble, do we argue with the sculpture or just let Him chip
away? ________________________________________________________________________
H) Do we argue with Him or tell Him how to go about His business? Y ___ N ___
I) Do you tell Him that is not the way it is done at 221 Elm St.
J) Do you ask Him if He really knows what He is doing?
Y ___ N ___
Y ___ N ___
K) Would you say the key to all of this is yieldedness? Y ___ N ___
L) Personal
Are you? Yielded that is.
10. A) Once we put ourselves in God’s hands what is required of us to fulfill God’s picture?
Would such words as merge, blending, cohesiveness come to mind?
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Y ___ N ___
B) Would you say that what we are individually is not as important as what we are when we
come together? Y____ N ___
11. A) When God wants to shape us, change us, and mold us – do we have any say in the
matter? Y ___ N ___
B) What are we told in Romans 9:20? ____________________________________________
Romans 9:20 (AMP) 20 But who are you, a mere man, to criticize and contradict and answer
back to God? Will what is formed say to him that formed it, why have you made me thus?
C) Personal
Have you ever questioned God why He made you the way you are?
Have you ever questioned God why He gave you the parents He did?
Have you ever questioned God why He allowed the experiences you have
passed through?
12. But YOU are God’s workmanship – His Masterpiece. Do you think that God could fully use
you until you accept yourself as God has made you? Y ___ N ___ I don’t know ___
13. Do you think you will ever “fit in” until you yield to God’s placement of you in His Glorious
Work of Art?
Y ___ N ___ yes, LORD – help me find my place ___
A Divine Creation
Syllabus 9
“We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.”
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The term rendered “workmanship” signifies “a poem,” and the idea is, that as a poem owes
its conception to the singer’s intellect and fancy, so a believer in Christ owes his character and
standing to God. We are indebted to the Greeks for the word, and for its beautiful meaning. A
poem with them was, first, anything made; but as beauty and harmony are elements in all truly
original or created works, the word “poem” came to be applied more and more exclusively to
the expression of truth and beauty in rhythmical form.
Only in one other place does the word occur in the New Testament. That place is Romans,
chapter 1 Ephesians 2:20; and there the Apostle uses it with reference to the wonders of
creation. This bright and beautiful world in which we live is full of God’s poetical works. “The
heavens are telling the glory of God;” the starry sky, with the sun and moon, is not only a Divine
poem, but also an oratorio, full of celestial harmonies. The little islands are the poetry of the
sea. Gems and precious stones, such as the diamond and the emerald, are the poetry of the
mineral kingdom. Flowers are the poetry of the vegetable kingdom. The young ones of living
creatures are the poetry of the animal kingdom. Children are God’s poetical works in the world
of mankind.
“We are God’s poem!” Each Christian age has been a canto of it; each Christian life and death
a word. Its strains have been pealing down the centuries, and “though set to a tune which
admits of such endless variations that it is often difficult to detect the original melody amid the
clash of the chords that conceal it, it will eventually be resolved, through many a swift
modulation and startling cadence, back to the perfect key.”
The poem depends entirely upon the poet for its creation. It is the unveiling of the deepest
and most intimate secrecies of his heart. His own image is projected over every page, and it is
the poignant personal element in poetry that makes it so beautiful, and gives it its enduring
charm. Men, then, are God’s poems. The intimacies of God’s heart are expressed in man—
God’s highest thoughts, God’s deepest emotions. The prayer of Moses was that the beauty of
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God might rest upon him. When a man is finished at last in the likeness of Christ, God’s sense of
beauty is satisfied in him, God’s art has found its finest expression and the beauty of God does
rest upon him. The true Christian is God’s poem in a world of prose, God’s beauty in a world of
gloom, God’s fine and finished art in a world where men forget beauty, and are careless of
moral symmetry and spiritual grace.
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