We have been Saved by Grace through Faith to be God’s Masterpiece, His New Creation

God’s purpose for the church is threefold: the church must have the full sonship through the process of sanctification, through the church God’s multifarious wisdom would be made known to the enemy, and all things would be headed up in Christ through the church.

Last week we enjoyed some great new light concerning what it means for us as the believers in Christ and part of the church to have the full sonship through the process of sanctification so that God would be expressed in a corporate way.

This week we come to the matter of God’s multifarious wisdom being made known to the enemy through the church, who is God’s masterpiece, God’s poem.

We need to open to the Lord and ask Him to unveil us in a fresh way to see what His purpose for the church is. If these things are “familiar” to us then we are still in the realm of doctrine and not in the realm of revelation.

We need to be like the little children coming to the Lord to receive a new thought and see new revelations from Him concerning the church as God’s masterpiece. The facts in the Bible need to be televised into our being to become the truth wrought into us and the vision governing us.

We need to be in the realm of the divine television where the divine light shines on the word of God and makes the facts in the Bible truth and vision in our being.

May the Lord carry us away in spirit onto a great and high mountain to see God’s masterpiece, the New Jerusalem, so that we may be beings of the New Jerusalem doing the work of the New Jerusalem.

God’s purpose is for the church to subdue the enemy by displaying His multifarious wisdom through the church, and the church is God’s masterpiece.

We may look at the church life today with the brothers and the sisters and we may think we’re “a mess”; but from the mess-terpiece God is working to produce a masterpiece, the church as an absolutely new item in the universe, God’s greatest workmanship expressing His infinite wisdom and divine design.

We have been Saved by Grace through Faith to be the Church, God’s Masterpiece

God created the heavens, the earth, and millions of creatures and plants; He also created man in His image and according to His likeness. But none of these is God’s masterpiece; only the church is God’s masterpiece (see Eph. 2:10).

We have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ to be the church, God’s masterpiece.

This word, “masterpiece” is “poiema” in Greek, meaning something which has been made, a handiwork, something written or composed as a poem. Many artists, composers, and writers wanted to produce a masterpiece, something they will be remembered by after they pass away, and not many achieved this goal.

God Himself as the greatest artist, composer, and writer made many things, but none of them is as dear, precious, valuable, and desirable as the church. The church is God’s masterpiece, the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

Nothing is greater, better, or more wonderful than this. It is through the church as God’s masterpiece that God’s multifarious wisdom is displayed to the enemy and God subdues the enemy through the church.

All believers in Christ have been saved by grace through faith to be God’s masterpiece, through which God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:10; 3:10).

In the church life we are now “in the kitchen” being “cooked” and prepared to be God’s masterpiece, and sometimes in this process we may think that the church is more a “mess-terpiece” than a masterpiece.

But God is working Himself in a very fine way into every part of our being to saturate and permeate us corporately to be the church, His masterpiece. The church as God’s masterpiece is a display to Satan, a shame to him, and a glory to God.

God is a divine and mystical writer inscribing Himself in Christ as the Spirit into our hearts to make us His poem, His masterpiece. As the masterpiece of God’s work, the church is a poem expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design.

As seen in Heb. 11:10, God is the architect and builder of the New Jerusalem, and He is building Himself into our being to make us the real and amazing organic architecture in the universe, the New Jerusalem, where the water of life flows like a river and the tree of life grows along the river of life.

Hallelujah for the church, God’s masterpiece! Praise You Lord for not only saving us but working Yourself into us and inscribing Yourself on us to make us Your masterpiece. Lord Jesus, uplift our view of the church; may we see the church as the masterpiece of God, the organic building of God into man and of man into God. We look away from any mess in the church life or family life to look at Your purpose for the church: the church is Your masterpiece making Your multifarious wisdom known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies! Praise the Lord for the church!

The Church is the Masterpiece of God’s Work, a New Invention of God, His New Creation

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We, the church, are the masterpiece of God’s work, an absolutely new item in the universe, a new invention of God (Eph. 2:15). Before the church came into being, man was the top creation of God, but God had the church deep in His heart.

We as believers in Christ were created by God in Christ through regeneration to be His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), and no matter how different we are outwardly, we are the one new man in Christ, the new invention of God.

We are a NEW invention of God, His masterpiece, because God Himself as the New One is being mingled with us all the time. The church as God’s masterpiece is the mingling of God and man.

The church is the working of God into man and the constituting of man into oneness with God to produce the church.

This masterpiece is a poem, an artistic work that expresses the wisdom, design, and beauty of the maker. The church is God’s poem that speaks forth His wisdom. According to Ephesians 3:10, God’s multifarious wisdom will be made known through the church. Hymns express the wisdom of the hymn writers. In the ages to come, in the millennium and in eternity, there will be a unique hymn, the church, which will express the wisdom and design of God. When we see the New Jerusalem, we may extol God for the beauty, wisdom, and design manifested in this marvelous production. The New Jerusalem will be God’s poem, His masterpiece. When we behold this masterpiece of God in the midst of the new heaven and new earth, we may say, “This is the best hymn ever written in the universe!” This was Paul’s concept in writing Ephesians 2. (Witness Lee, Life-Study of Ephesians, msg. 21)

Wow! God’s multifarious wisdom, His multi-faceted, multi-aspects, greatly varied wisdom which is Christ Himself, is being made known through the church, God’s poem, God’s masterpiece.

Just as the hymns express the wisdom of the writers, so in the ages to come and in eternity we will sing and even be a unique hymn: the church as the New Jerusalem, expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design.

The church will be to the praise of the glory of God’s grace: grace will be enjoyed so much by us that there will be glory, and there will be a universal praise for the expression of that grace! Hallelujah!

And today we are walking in the good works that God has ordained for us (see Eph. 2:10), which are not the good things according to our natural concept, but the doing of God’s will to live the church life and bear the testimony of Jesus (according to the book of Ephesians).

God saved us by grace through faith so that we may be God’s masterpiece and walk in the good works prepared beforehand by God for the building up of the church as God’s masterpiece. Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, mingle Yourself more with us and work Yourself more into us to make us Your new invention, the new man, Your masterpiece. Cause us to walk in the good works for which You created us, the pre-planned and previously ordained things for us to walk in. Lord, we want to do God’s will to live the church life and bear the testimony of Jesus, being daily mingled with God and inscribed by God to be produced as God’s masterpiece, the display of His infinite wisdom and divine design! Hallelujah!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-Study of Ephesians (msg. 21), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 2 / msg 2, God’s Purpose for the Church (2) – To Subdue God’s Enemy by Displaying His Multifarious Wisdom through the Church.
• Picture credit for Colossians 2:3 and more spiritual quotes via, Christian Pictures Blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God the Creator became a God-man, / His death redeemed us for His glorious plan. / Now in resurrection the Spirit’s released / Producing the church. / This is God’s masterpiece. (Song on God’s Masterpiece)
  # The Lord chose you to be a part / Of His great plan, His work of art. / What wonder! What a privilege! / To satisfy / His yearning to share all He is— / Divine, unsearchable riches! / What wisdom, multifarious expressed! (Song on Becoming God’s Masterpiece)
  # The grace which God bestows on us / Is just His Son in full; / The rich enjoyment of this Christ / Is plenteous, bountiful. / ’Tis far too great to comprehend, / Too wondrous to contain: / How we, once children of despair, / God’s masterpiece became. (Hymns #1321)