of salvation in Romans 3, the apostle says `where is boasting then?' and answers

his own question with the word `excluded' (Rom. 3:27).  Summing up the way of

salvation in 1 Corinthians 1, he says, `that no flesh should glory in His

presence' (1 Cor. 1:29).  Boasting or glorying in Christ Jesus, is the

antithesis of confidence in the flesh, according to Philippians 3:3.  Whatever

changes may have been made after Acts 28, one feature remains constant;

salvation is of grace, and Ephesians 2:8-10 is not revealing this truth for the

first time; it is stressing and enriching it as the basis of the exceeding grace

made manifest in the present dispensation of the Mystery.  Instead of our works

coming into the picture, our attention is drawn to the Great Worker Himself `For

we are His workmanship'.

Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth and others, translate the word poiema

`workmanship' by `handiwork', and the usage of the word in the Old Testament

favours this more intimate idea.  For example, Isaiah 29:16 uses the word poiema

in the LXX for the work of a potter.  In spite of the busy activity of man,

there is only one reference in the thirteen occurrences of the word `maker'

(asah) in the Old Testament that refers to man, namely in Isaiah 22:11; all the

references in Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Jeremiah, Hosea and the rest of Isaiah,

speak of God as `The Maker'.  Job found assurance in the fact that God had a

desire unto the work of His hands (Job 14:15), and man's dominion consisted in

his suzerainty over the works of His own hands (Psa. 8:6).

Psalm 102:25, which speaks of the heavens as the work of God's hands, is

quoted in Hebrews 1:10 as of Christ.  The word creation brings with it something

of the majesty of the Divine fiat `He spake and it was done', `Let there be

light, and there was light', but when the apostle said `we are His workmanship',

His handiwork, there is something homely, something lovely about that shaping,

moulding, handling of material, as the great Potter forms out of bare clay a

thing of extraordinary beauty.  Because of this, the Greeks used the words

poiema and poietes of a `poem' and a `poet', for a poem, even though the child

of inspiration, is nevertheless something upon which much love and labour must

be spent.

It is reported that Tennyson revised his poem Maud a thousand times, and

the reader will remember the comment of one lover of Shakespeare, when told that

Shakespeare never blotted a line, `Would God he had blotted a thousand'!  It is

a wonderful thought that the Church of the One Body can be looked upon as God's

Poem.  Poiema is used in one other passage, namely that of Romans 1:20 `things

that are made' where the apostle says:

`The invisible things of Him from (since) the creation of the world are

clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made'.

What the works of His hands in creation are to the world, making manifest

His eternal power and Godhead, so the work of His hands, is the Church, and it

manifests the invisible characteristics of the God of all grace.  We are a new

creation, and indeed, creation immediately follows the making of Ephesians 2:10:

`Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained

that we should walk in them'.

Ktizo `to create' occurs seven times in the Prison Epistles, thus:

Eph. 2:10

Created in Christ Jesus unto good works.