August 7 - Ephesians 2:6-10

 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Do you notice how everything not only points to heaven, but comes out of heaven?

God did everything for us so that he can continue to pour out the “incomparable riches of his grace” in the coming ages … in heaven.

We have been saved, not because of anything we can do or have done, but because God has chosen to show humanity grace, even in the face of our sin and rebellion.  Grace is an incredible gift from God and Paul continues to emphasize that it is a gift given so that we can be in heaven with him.

While we are here, God has a few things for us to do and he prepared them for us long before we thought to do them.  But, these aren't things that benefit us – they aren't our careers or our hobbies, our education or our families. These things which show the world God’s handiwork in our lives are the good works that he prepared for us to accomplish.

One thing which I find to be so extraordinary about these good works is that they are individualized for each of us. God didn't prepare the same good works for our spouse or our parents or our siblings or our children as he did for us. What works for one person may not be what God has prepared for another.

But, we are created by God, we are his handiwork, created to do good works.

And when we are finished, God raises us up with Christ and seats us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. The incomparable riches of God’s grace are ours. They flow from heaven in order to point us back to heaven.