God's Work, Our Hands
What does this phrase mean?
God. The most important message we have is not about ourselves, but about what God is doing. God is at
work, and Jesus embodies what God is working on—the new creation. The Holy Spirit, who moved over the waters at creation’s beginning, now uses the stuff of creation—water, bread, wine, words—to call, gather, enlighten and sanctify a people who live in Jesus Christ. “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ”
(Philippians 1:6).
God’s work. God is at work. In a time when some see God as a distant and detached observer or master planner, we witness the God who was, is and will be actively working “for us and our
salvation.” The heart of this witness is the cross of Jesus, where God’s work of reconciliation for the life of the world is most truly known.
Our hands. In a culture that has reduced matters of faith to a private consumer choice that leaves people isolated in self-serving lives, we have a liberating message that is incarnational and vocational. God joins you in Jesus to a community, the body of Christ. In the life of that body God is working both in us and through us and our hands. In us God’s Holy Spirit is accomplishing what nothing else, not even God’s law, could accomplish—a life freed from serving sin and death, a life where our hands are generous and loving. Living in us, God entrusts to us the ministry of reconciliation, to be done through us. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the
ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).
God’s work. Our hands. We do God’s work, not because God needs us to do so, but because our neighbor does. We do God’s work in Christ’s name for the life of the world.
work, and Jesus embodies what God is working on—the new creation. The Holy Spirit, who moved over the waters at creation’s beginning, now uses the stuff of creation—water, bread, wine, words—to call, gather, enlighten and sanctify a people who live in Jesus Christ. “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ”
(Philippians 1:6).
God’s work. God is at work. In a time when some see God as a distant and detached observer or master planner, we witness the God who was, is and will be actively working “for us and our
salvation.” The heart of this witness is the cross of Jesus, where God’s work of reconciliation for the life of the world is most truly known.
Our hands. In a culture that has reduced matters of faith to a private consumer choice that leaves people isolated in self-serving lives, we have a liberating message that is incarnational and vocational. God joins you in Jesus to a community, the body of Christ. In the life of that body God is working both in us and through us and our hands. In us God’s Holy Spirit is accomplishing what nothing else, not even God’s law, could accomplish—a life freed from serving sin and death, a life where our hands are generous and loving. Living in us, God entrusts to us the ministry of reconciliation, to be done through us. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the
ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18).
God’s work. Our hands. We do God’s work, not because God needs us to do so, but because our neighbor does. We do God’s work in Christ’s name for the life of the world.