God’s workmanship
My identity has something to do with my brand name – what I am made of or who made me. Human beings have been intricately designed by God, our Maker. We are in a category of our own, which is matchless. To the simple mind, we may resemble a robot, being able to move from one point to another, but when we take time to reflect on what our minds and our will enable us to perform then we begin to see ourselves in a new light - as God, the Creator, sees us.
We are in tune with the cosmos, having been made in our own kind. Therefore, we need to praise God because “…I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14) That is how King David, the palmist, describes us. Paul sums it up in these words: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance to do.” (Ephesians 2:20)
God wanted prophet Jeremiah to understand what creating with one’s hands really meant; so He invited Him to go and see a potter at work at the wheel. “… the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:4) Every vessel, every pot of clay is moulded individually by the potter (God), giving us our own specific and special identity. You cannot, neither can I, be an accident of creation having been a product of the potter’s wheel.
The temple of God
Paul in his letter to the Corinthians uses this image of being God’s temples to further underline who we are in relation to God. He poses the question, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? …. for God’s temple is sacred and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16) Most of us would hardly believe our bodies could be a place of worship because we have been taught to think that our bodies belonged to us and we can do whatever we deem fit with them. No, we are not our own.
In another letter to the Christians living in Rome (Romans 12:1) Paul reiterates; “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.” Before Christ Jesus paid the ultimate price of sin on the cross, the chief high priest every year would enter the Holy of Holies (in the temple) where only he had access, in order to make a special offering to the Lord to atone for the sins of all.
As our Lord Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in that section of the temple was rent in two giving all believers access to God. We no longer have to go to the temple to worship because we are God’s temple ourselves. We are called to worship God in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24)
To the Thessalonians, Paul wrote: “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; …” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5) When God lives in us His power also comes to dwell in us fully. God does not live in a desecrated temple - the reason why our bodies are maimed by sickness. A vibrant temple where God is worshipped ‘in spirit and in truth’ becomes God’s dwelling place and everything will give way in the presence of God. No obstacle can withstand God’s presence.
It took the presence of God – represented by the Levites (priests) and the trumpets from God’s temple - for the walls of Jericho to collapse. Everywhere the Children of Israel carried the Ark of the Covenant all obstacles gave way; the River Jordan parted and the Children of Israel crossed over on dry land.
God is real. His Spirit can live in us and can transform our lives as soon as we accept Christ as our Saviour. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves. Jesus, God’s Son, has paid it all for us on the cross. His death gives us life, life everlasting – the quality type of life. Let us live up to our brand name!