The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Babylon (13)
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 NASB
Good works – Let’s employ some words from the famous poet: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place;” I am grateful, so grateful that You even consider me. You shower me with blessings, with loved ones and care. When I stray You do not let me go. You bring me life every day that I open my eyes. You hold me close in times of distress and rejoice with me in times of jubilation. I can’t thank You enough—and I don’t thank You often enough. I am because of You. Let me never forget Your compassion and Your benevolence. ḥesed, My Lord. What can I do to repay Your kindness?
Consider Stone’s insight:
“Gratitude for these gifts is an obligating realization; we are indebted before we are even conscious. This indebtedness is fundamental to Mussar in particular and to Judaic thought more generally, and the centrality of mitzvot derives from it. Contrary to the philosophic idea of free will, the Mussar concept of freedom is played out on a field of preexisting obligations. We are obviously free to choose between meeting our obligations or not, but this is neither an unlimited freedom nor a neutral one. In fact, it is even misleading to say that we are ‘free to choose’; whether we choose to meet our obligations or not is a consequence of the forces of yetzer ha-ra and yetzer ha-tov; yet we may be entirely unaware of these forces unless we have engaged in the difficult work of Mussar.”[1]
Born a debtor. Yes, it’s not merely the fact that I owe the Creator my physical being in the world. My consciousness is the result of my embodiment in community. I owe others for my very awareness of myself. My parents, my family, my tribe, my nation—all have contributed to my being me, and without them I would not even be aware of myself. Much more is happening in those two verses in Genesis: “It is not good for man to be alone” and “She shall be called woman.”
“Lord, Your mitzvot are my obligation—to You and to Yours. I know this. They are my reason for being and my pathway to being fully human. ḥesed, my Lord. I am obligated, but far too often I don’t recognize my obligations as gratitude. It’s not duty that calls me, Lord. It’s Your care, Your compassion, Your love for me. That is the irresistible attraction that I need to feel more of each day. Draw me to You, Lord, that I may be a servant pleasing in Your sight. Guide me in the way to become myself.”
“Created . . . for good works.” érgois agathóis. Not just labor. Not just dutiful fulfillment. érgon is creative, passionate zeal. Let me be zealous to serve so that I may be fully me.
Step 13: Demonstrate active gratitude—always.
Topical Index: ḥesed, érgois agathóis, good works, obligation, gratitude, Ephesians 2:10
[1] Ira F. Stone, in Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 97.
Indeed, man as creation “in the image of God” has acquired obligation to God—who is both Creator and Sovereign. Yet from the beginning, man’s obligation (a covenantal obligation) by which man—of necessity (in the reality of his existence)—is vitally connected (in the nature of his reality of existence) to covenantal conformity with God’s holiness. Indeed, man cannot live apart from God’s holiness, because God—who is the ultimate condition of the creature’s reality and life—is holy. Thus, in this vital covenant (established by God’s creation of man in His image) there is an equative nature between holiness and life; moreover, apart from holiness, man has no life. Thus, when the first humans transgressed their obligation of holiness, they were also alienated from the life of God, which was their own life in the reality of being… that is, being holy… and their relational standing with the Creator was forfeit, along with their life.
And here we have the most amazing display of the nature of God’s love in holiness… God assumes (through his own being) the relational standing of man’s death, and in so doing, death is rendered powerless by the holiness of God that is manifest in the mercy and grace of his own Divine (and self-sacrificial) love. It is this love, grounding man’s reality on the covenantal substratum of God’s own faithful (i.e., covenantal) holiness, that is conveyed and demonstrated in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross— so as to redeem mankind from his bondage to sin and death, and liberate him… for “good works”— in conformity with the nature and covenantal (i.e., faithful / loyal) holiness of God.