Ephesians 2:10(NLT) tells us, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” This verse points to the work in us that God completed through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His Son left the throne of God to come to earth to carry forth God’s redemption plan. We desperately needed to be redeemed, because we were lost in sin, and sin is a vicious cycle that keeps people in bondage and in darkness. Troubles and tribulations are heaped upon us by the devil, and because satan tries to keep people blinded by his darkness, some individuals remain blinded from seeing a way forward. God rescued us from this terrible fate through Jesus Christ, who is the bright and morning star. He is light. If we will open our eyes to Christ, we will see that he is the way to the Father’s heart where love, light, life, and liberty abide.
Male or female, in Christ Jesus, we are all God’s masterpieces, but He created Adam before Eve was made, and this gives us a clue about God’s purpose and the order He has structured within it.1Corinthians 14:33 tells us that God is not the author of confusion, He is a God of peace. This verse also makes it blatantly clear that order is very important to our Heavenly Father. His brilliance is unfathomable, and everything He does is perfect. God never has to do a do-over or a take-back. He does things orderly and perfectly from the beginning, and He’s given us His divine Word so that we can witness His glory, perfection, love, and power. Because we are His children of light, He wants us to know about His light; He wants us to know how and why He does things.
God’s order is to be respected and honored preeminently. We can’t confuse it or co-mingle it with the world’s or society’s standards regarding order. God is divine, and when He sets something in motion, it includes His enduring love, strength, and power. This means that the only way we can live with power is to do so by following His Word, because His Word is perfection and truth.
As men, sometimes we think our way is best. We don’t follow God’s Word, and we ignore His standards. Then, when things in life go horribly wrong, we fail to connect the dots. Again, it’s the order that God has set that must be respected and honored. He has called us with a holy calling, and it is not to be taken lightly. 1Thessalonians 5:23(NLT) says, “Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.” God Himself makes us holy, we could never do this for ourselves, and it is impossible for us to get to the place in our lives that God has destined us to be without His leadership and guidance.
To be holy is to be set apart for God’s purpose. Again, we couldn’t do this for ourselves. Jesus Christ is our holiness. God has made us holy through him, and he is our sanctification. It is because of what Christ accomplished through his sacrifice and resurrection that we are redeemed, we are set apart for God, and we are empowered to do the things within the earth that God requires.
Jesus said in John 5:30(NLT), “I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.” He also said in John 4:34(KJV), “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” And in John 8:29(NLT), Jesus said, “And the one who sent me is with me—he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him.” If there was ever even the remotest possibility that a person could ever get away with doing their own thing, that person would have been Jesus Christ, but he never did his own thing. He knows that God’s way is perfect and that following God’s Will is life to us.
The difference between us and Jesus Christ is that he always did what pleased God. He set the example for us because Jesus never did anything outside of the Father’s Will. In John 10:10, he said he came to the earth to make a more than abundant life available, and the only way that we can live this more than abundant life is to follow the path he laid. It’s the path that places us squarely in the Will of God, and we should never want to be any place else.
Every man must understand that the empowerment and anointing of God follows the man’s obedience to live God’s Word, and it will follow the man’s commitment to carry forth God’s purpose for his life. God’s plan for the woman began in the man, and this is a truth and responsibility he must never forget. A man in whom the Spirit of God does not live cannot live a successful life. When he forfeits or ignores his anointing to lead in the way of Christ, his relationships with women are nowhere near what they could and should be. When he refuses the honor and integrity of God’s purpose and plan, nothing for the man is truly fruitful. This is what Jesus Christ meant when he said in John 15:5(NLT), “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”
A man may have material possessions, be popular, and have lots of money in the bank, but if his heart is not pliable to God, he has a stony heart. It’s a heart that isn’t fertile soil, because he will not allow the seeds of God’s goodness and love to take root. Instead, he is motivated by self-gain and his own personal agenda. He has no interest or concept of making his life a landing strip for God’s blessings to land.
Jesus Christ prayed to God for the disciples in John 17:17(NKJV) and asked Heavenly Father to “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.” We can’t be set apart for God’s purpose by any other means than by God’s Word, which is the truth. Brothers will look in a million places, and some of those places are terrifically horrible, but we will go there anyway, trying to find a fix for the emptiness within us. Only God can fill our cups. Only He can fill up our empty places. Some of us will chase material things and unGodly pursuits because we think they will make us who we were always destined to be. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can do this for us. Our destiny lies in the hands of our Maker.
Questions about the long game can cause our heads to spin. God’s expectation is that men will be the providers, protectors, and producers that He has created them to be, but many of us don’t know where to begin. Life can be very messy, especially when it comes to relationships, and in general things can become tangled and confusing. In Deuteronomy 31:8(NLT), God promised His people living during Old Testament times, “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” He has not changed, and He will do the same for us when seeking Him and walking in His purpose is our top priority. He planned good things for us to do and achieve long ago, and if we humble ourselves in Christ, our lives will be the masterpieces He ordained them to be. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“God’s Plan for Man” written for Springfield Fellowship © 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.