Between these two beautiful pictures of God’s original good creation and God’s new and glorious creation lies a world that has been devastated by sin, suffering, and death. Thinking about this shifts our attention from the heavenly to the earthly, from the grand masterplan to its fulfillment through redemption.
When our first parents fell into sin, they plunged the world into a catastrophe that has plagued us ever since. But despite this, God’s purposes continued to move toward fulfillment, initially through Abraham and the people of Israel, then finally and supremely through Jesus, God’s own Son. Jesus proclaimed the in-breaking of God’s kingdom and gave Himself up as a propitiating sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. His death appeared to have halted the kingdom dead in its tracks. But after His glorious resurrection, He commissioned His followers to go into all the world and make disciples of all people everywhere.
Supercharged by the Holy Spirit, God’s kingdom spread across the Roman world in one generation. The kingdom continued to advance, as disciples of Jesus went out into the world and brought people of all nations to faith in the Messiah. Today more and more people are being brought into His family each day, people who will one day inhabit the new heavens and new earth and live in the very presence of God Himself and of Jesus Christ.
Though we are caught and spoiled by sin when we enter His family, God puts each of His children into a lifelong process of transformation designed to conform them to the likeness of Jesus and make them fit to live in His presence. As Augustine noted, “None can become fit for the future life, who hath not practiced himself for it now.” As they are transformed daily “from one degree of glory to another,” their lives increasingly display His grace and glory in this present world and will do so perfectly in the world to come. Paul gives a brief but comprehensive description of the process: And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.0 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:1–10)
Paul emphasizes here that people are brought into God’s kingdom not by any good works they have done, but by God’s grace alone—His completely unwarranted, undeserved mercy and love toward them. Even more shocking, God intends that in the world to come, they shall be examples of His amazing grace, living
trophies, as it were, of His great love.
Paul describes God’s people as His “workmanship,” or works of art, created in Christ to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for them to do. In the previous verse, Paul strongly emphasized that they were not saved by good works; here he emphasized that they were saved for good works. Elsewhere Paul urged believers to be “zealous for good works” and to “devote themselves to good works,” (Titus 2:14; 3:8). But for Paul, good works are never the cause of salvation, only the fruit and evidence of it! This is a crucial distinction we need to keep in mind throughout our lives, for we are prone to drift imperceptibly into thinking that our works earn points with God.
What are these good works to which we are called? Their primary manifestation is the change of heart and character that comes from the new birth—the process of becoming holy in daily life through grateful, Spirit-empowered obedience. Paul spoke of this a few verses earlier: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.(Eph. 1:3–6)
Being “holy” has two aspects: the position of being set apart as God’s child, which is conferred upon us through new birth, justification and adoption into God’s family, and the process of change (sanctification) that makes that position a progressively experienced reality. The goal of this process is to “be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29), and it happens as you “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” and seek to “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:1–2). This metamorphosis unfolds as we seek to follow the teaching and example of Jesus, drawn forward by a grateful love. It is guided by Holy Scripture, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and manifested in the fruit of the Spirit, as we fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
God’s grand purpose for the world to come, then, is in the process of coming into being in the present through the redeeming and restoring work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Christ, and by the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, God is at work preparing a people to populate His new world. His purpose is to conform them to the image of Christ. This means that God’s purpose for each one of us is to be transformed in our character, such that we more fully reflect the character of our God and increasingly live a life of love and good works.
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