Cessna Aircraft Company placed an ad in Popular Mechanics magazine (many years ago):
“Cessna will make you a pilot for $2990. Guaranteed.”
A group of seven Kansas women responded with a letter to Cessna: “We would like to order a pilot.” They asked for these specifications: “male – quick learner; height 6’2” to 6’5″; weight 190 pounds; shoe size 11 – optional; muscular; dark blue eyes; wavy brown hair. We see by your ad that this pilot is guaranteed but we would prefer to take him on approval. We have several other people interested. Could we get a discount on case lots?”
I kind of doubt that Cessna was able to meet their request. In his letter to Christians in Ephesus, the apostle Paul claimed that God would make each person a masterpiece. He wrote: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Previously (The making of a masterpiece) I wrote about the basic process of God changing us, explained in Ephesians 2:1-10. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Now we are alive in Christ. There are real differences. In Christ we are a different kind of person. We are God’s work of art. Now I want to dig deeper into this – see what God’s masterpiece really looks like and how we become his finished work.
It doesn’t have anything to do with how we look, how talented we are, how religious we are, how big we dream, how hard we work, how successful we become. “We are…created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.” Being God’s masterpiece is about how we live. It’s a unique quality of life that he enables us to live. When you dig down to its essence, it’s simply the kind of person we are.
There are a lot of details to it, found throughout the New Testament. A good summary is in this letter – Ephesians 4:13 – “we all attain…to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” It’s becoming like Jesus, as explained in Romans 8:29, that God’s goal is for us to “be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” God is working – like a painter on canvas, like a hot rod builder on car – with the end product in mind for us to be like Jesus Christ. See, Jesus is the one person who fulfilled God’s design for all humans – made in God’s image. When we become like Christ, we will be what God created us to be – his images. The ultimate characteristic of that is love. 1 John 4:16-17 (NIV) explains – “Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.” We are like God, we’re the images of God, in this world when we live in love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 kind of love: “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” The primary quality of being like Jesus is essentially this: your good works are actions of love coming from a heart of love.
Every artist has their own style which shows in almost every work of art they create. Frederic Remington (1861-1909) was an American artist best known for his paintings and bronze sculptures of cowboys, US Cavalry, and Native Americans in the American West.
You can see the common subjects, shapes, and colors in his art – Remington’s style.
God’s “style” for every person he is making like Christ is love.
Can you imagine this for yourself? Can you imagine being like Christ? You would really love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. You would be devoted to God in every area of your humanity – will, emotions, thinking, motives, desires, body – everything functioning with passion for God. And with that, you would love your neighbor (including enemies) as you love yourself. You would be able to relate to everyone with compassion, care, honesty and trust. Imagine loving your spouse the way Jesus does – loving your children and grandchildren the way Jesus does – loving your parents, sisters and brothers, cousins the way Jesus does – loving your friends and colleagues and customers the way Jesus does. Imagine being part of a church that is everyone loving God and each other and all people outside the church like Jesus does. How about living in a whole community loving like Christ?
God has designed, prepared, this quality of life for you. No matter who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done, God has you in mind for a masterpiece.
God has a definite procedure for finishing his project. We are “created in Christ Jesus.” God makes us his masterpieces through our connection with Jesus. His work works us into the likeness of himself.
The heart of Christ’s work is his death on the cross and his resurrection. This is the means by which we become masterpieces. This is not just getting forgiveness and starting over. Do you see yourself in this cycle? You do something wrong, ask God’s forgiveness, start over, try not to do wrong but you do – so you ask forgiveness, start over, try not to do wrong but you do… That’s not really being a masterpiece, is it?
There is more than that in the death and resurrection of Jesus for us. The procedure God uses to make masterpieces is changing us from the inside out by us being crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) and raised with Christ (Ephesians 2:6).
To be the kind of people we know God wants, we usually resort to some form of willpower and legalism. We try to obey certain rules of behavior and follow particular rules of service. That’s not the way God wants us to live. It’s a substitute for his way. Rules of service is a substitute for loving God. Rules of behavior is a substitute for loving people. So you don’t become like Christ that way.
The way you become a masterpiece is God creating you in Christ. It’s a process of crucifixion and resurrection. Death and life. Destruction and construction.
Here’s an analogy that may help. It’s the way my wife’s grandfather built his house. The time came when he was ready to own a place for his family home. He bought property with a small house. Then he saved his money until he could afford to start the reconstruction of the house. He and his family lived in half of the house, and he tore down the other half and built a new half house. He started saving money again. When he had enough, they lived in the new half while he destroyed the old half and built a new section. Now he had a whole new house, where he lived until died.
That’s kind of the way God makes masterpieces by a process of destruction and construction. Crucifixion and resurrection.
Jesus taught that if anyone wants to come after him, wants to be his disciple, wants to learn how to be like him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily, and follow (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23 and 14:27). This is our part in the process.
Deny myself. I must reject my self-centeredness and selfishness in all its forms. Say no to my sinful nature while receiving God’s grace and knowing that he does not reject me. He accepts me, loves me, wants me, and so I can reject my self-centeredness.
Take up my cross daily. The self-centered sinful nature can’t be allowed to continue and it can’t be managed or controlled with rules and devotional thoughts and verses-of-the-day. It has to die. By faith I must bring it to the cross and give it up to be killed, asking God to execute it in the death of Jesus. This is a daily, life-long process – crucifixion is not instantaneous. God does it by grace – he doesn’t condemn me, doesn’t punish me, doesn’t destroy me – while gradually putting my sinful nature to death.
Follow Jesus. When Jesus called Simon, Andrew, Thomas, and the rest of the 12 to follow him, he was inviting them to be with him. To go where he went, to watch him, hear him, talk to him about everything, to learn from him. By the Holy Spirit present and active now, I must follow Jesus in the same kind of relationship, living with him daily. I frequently stumble and close my eyes and listen to other voices and ignore him and choose my own ways, but God by grace keeps bringing me back and moving me forward until eventually I will be his masterpiece, I will be like Christ.
God works on us with this procedure – creating us in Christ Jesus, making us over by death and resurrection in Christ. It’s up to each one to accept this and cooperate with him in the way we live.
God wants you to be his masterpiece, to be like Christ.
In 2002, Pat Tillman gave up his pro football career to join the army. He turned down a $3.6 million contract with the Arizona Cardinals to become an Army Ranger. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2004. Many people – players, coaches, politicians, entertainers – praised him for his sacrificial actions and called him a hero and a role model. One TV reporter said, “Pat Tillman showed us how to live.” But I did not see any of those admirers do what he did (including myself). They called him a role model but didn’t give up their careers and salaries and join the army. None chose to live like he did. None chose to be like him.
Maybe we (including myself) are too much like that with Christ. He shows how to live. For some reason – fear or disbelief or misunderstanding or stubbornness or insecurity – we don’t choose to be like him. Yet it’s God’s will for us. It’s the quality of life we can have. God has the way to make it happen. All God wants to do is make you the most beautiful person you can be, his workmanship, his work of art. He doesn’t expect or ask you to do it. He does ask you to reach out your heart to him and work with him as he deconstructs and constructs you into the likeness of Jesus.
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