Ephesians 2:10

αὐτοῦ γάρ ἐσμεν ποίημα : for we are His workmanship (or, handiwork). The αὐτοῦ is emphatic “ His handiwork are we”. The word ποίημα occurs only once again in the NT (Romans 1:20, with reference to the works of nature). Here, as the following clause shows, it expresses not appointment to something, but an actual making. The clause gives the reason for the statement that our salvation is not of works. We ourselves are a work, the handiwork of God, made anew by Him, and our salvation, therefore, is due to Him, not to ourselves. κτισθέντες ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ ἐπὶ ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς : created in Christ Jesus for good works. Further definition of the ποίημα αὐτοῦ. We are God's spiritual handiwork, in the sense that we were created by Him, made a new spiritual creature by Him when His grace made us Christians. This new creation was in Christ, so that except by union between Him and us it could not have taken place (Ephesians 2:15; Ephesians 4:24; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Colossians 3:10). Also it was with a view to good works, ἐπί being used here (much as in Galatians 5:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:7; 2 Timothy 2:14) to express object; cf. Win.-Moult., p. 492. We ourselves then having been created anew by God, and good works being the object to which that new creation looked, not the cause that led to it, all must be of grace not of deeds (ἔργων), and there can be no room for boasting. οἶς προητοίμασεν ὁ Θεὸς : which God afore prepared. The οἶς cannot with any propriety be construed as a masc., “for whom He before appointed” (Erasm.); nor can it well be taken as the dat. of destination, “unto which God prepared us” (Luth., Schenkel, etc.); for that would require the insertion of a ἡμᾶς. Nor, again, can it be taken in the intrans. sense, so as to give the idea “for which God made previous preparation” (Stier); for while ἑτοιμάζειν may be used intransitively (Luke 9:52), the compound verb does not appear to be so used. It is best taken (with the Syr., Goth. and Vulg. Versions and the best exegetes) as a case of attraction οἵς for ἅ. The προετοιμάζειν is not quite the same as προορίζειν. It means to prepare or place in readiness before, not specifically to foreordain (Aug., Harl.). The προ - describes the preparation as prior to the creation (κτισθέντες). The subjects of the preparation also are the good works themselves, not the ways in which they are to be done. In relation to the question of human merit or glorying, therefore, good works are viewed in two distinct aspects. They are the goal to which God's new creation of us looked; they are also in God's eternal plan. Before He created us in Christ by our conversion He had destined these good works and made them ready for us in His purpose and decree. There is the unseen source from which they spring, and there is their final explanation. ἵνα ἐν αὐτοῖς περιπατήσωμεν : that we should walk in them. God's purpose in the place which He gave to good works in His decree was that they should actually and habitually be done by us. His final object was to make good works the very element of our life, the domain in which our action should move. That this should be the nature of our walk is implied in our being His handiwork, made anew by Him in Christ; that the good works which form the Divine aim of our life shall be realised is implied in their being designed and made ready for us in God's decree; and that they are of God's originating, and not of our own action and merit, is implied in the fact that we had ourselves to be made a new creation in Christ with a view to them.