5.2 God at Work
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
This session is on the Pro-Thesis of God, His purpose for creating all things first, but more than that, His purpose for Himself inside His creation. The primary verse of God’s Pro-Thesis, Romans 8:28, we will expand on in the next lesson, “Working with God.”
But the view of eternal reality that has opened up for us in the last lesson has taken hold of our amazement. Let’s try to re-capture that view.
God wants to enter into His creation as part of His creation so that He can participate with His creation in all the things that God enjoys doing and being. This Pro-Thesis has not yet been proven, not in full.
Work. What an extraordinary thing to consider. I’ve never thought of God’s purpose in that way before. What an extraordinary God!
Here is our main text for this lesson. My Father has been working until now, and I have been working (John 5:17).
Ergazomai: I work, trade, perform, do, practice, commit, acquire by labor.
Ergon: work, task, employment; a deed, action; that which is wrought or made, a work.
At the same time, energeia is typically translated as “work,” and energeo as “working.” It seems to me that these two sets of terms are related as energeia, the internal work, and ergon, the outward, visible work.
Things We Like to Do. Let’s put work into its place. To do that, let’s look further at the four non-work things that humans and God like to live by.
| Adventure | Fellowship | Outward & Social |
| Comfort | Contemplation | Inward & Personal |
| Doing | Talking and Thinking |
Everyone balances between adventure and comfort, though at differing proportions. Everyone balances between fellowship and contemplation, though at differing proportions. Adventure is usually together with others, that is, fellowship. Contemplation is usually in solitude, in the security of Comfort.
Made for Work. The differences among humans in the application and balance of these four things are as varied as fingerprints and snowflakes. No two humans are the same, yet I think this layout fits all.
However, setting aside the time we spend sleeping, our engagement with these four things we enjoy takes up less than half of our time. The largest thing we do in our lives is work.
Humans are made for work. And all productive work in which we humans engage is, in one form or another, artistic and useful creation.
Made to Create. Humans are made to create. And then we see our Creator and we see that creating is His obsession. God gets carried away with Himself when He gets into creating. In short, God is excessive. God is always creating; God is always working.
Now, some might imagine that God “resting on the seventh day” from all His works means that God is no longer working. When you work for six days, do you imagine you will work no more? That is, that you will never again do anything of creative value? What a dull life that would be. God took a break! And Jesus said that God has been working ever since.
Defining Work. Let me define work. Work is the doing of anything that creates value, the production of something that benefits or serves either self or others.
Cleaning a toilet is valuable and creative work, for the one who cleans the toilet has created a safe and comfortable environment of great benefit to the next person who uses the toilet. When I walk into a restroom used by the public, a clean and well-constructed environment speaks great value and comfort to me, whereas a filthy and chintzy restroom is disrespect to me. A cleaned toilet is a work of art, an expression of love.
Now, just as we know God only out from our own hearts, so I can know God at work only by referring to my own experience with work.
Ordered by His Pro-Thesis. I once thought that my life was haphazard and chaotic, filled with ever so many mistakes and confusions, though sprinkled randomly with many good things. I no longer know that way of thinking. I now see every part of my life entirely inside of Jesus and perfectly ordered in ways that I will be discovering forever.
Yet as I look across my years of work, I think, “Wow, Father, You ordered my life so that I would know this precious reality that is Your pro-thesis, that I might write it for others.” I have excelled (measuring myself only by my own hope to do well) in three arenas of work over three periods of my life, first construction, second teaching, and third writing.
Three Stages of Working. Now, I bring my own life and experience into the picture only because God is always personal. In doing so, I want you to “copy” this same connecting of your own personal life experiences with a God who orders all things by His perfect pro-thesis. God is personal in you and has always been so, Father always working together with you.
As we consider our best work, we see that the development of work passes through three stages, already in our vocabulary. The apprentice learns the work from others; the journeyman practices his own approaches to the work, but under the supervision of a master; and the master designs and creates his finest specimen of the work, his magnum opus.
Magnum Opus in Construction. As any apprentice passes through the journeyman stage, each one tends in the direction of greatest interest to themselves.
I apprenticed as a builder from 1975 to 1979. Then, from 1979 on I practiced as a journeyman, yet through those years, intermittently, I also learned as well as worked as a master. I would say that by 1988, I operated fully as a master because now I was teaching and leading other journeymen. But the specialty towards which I gravitated over the years was that of leading crews of men in the construction of buildings of my own design.
And my magnum opus was the design and construction of the Graham River Tabernacle, the first half in 1993 and the second half in 1996.
Magnus Opus in Teaching. I apprenticed as a teacher from 1984 to 1990. I practiced as a teacher intermittently from 1990 to 2009. During all those years, I taught many differing subjects, though typically English language arts. By 2009, I had determined that the subject I liked to teach above all is writing. Thus, as a master teacher, my magnum opus in teaching is my college writing course, a course that is finely tuned, purposeful, and quite effective in the classroom.
My writing career also began in 1984, though it apprenticed so very slowly, not turning into a journeyman level until 2008, even after the The Jesus Secret. Then, I practiced as a journeyman from 2008 until 2014.
Magnum Opus in Writing. During these years of apprenticeship and journeyman practice, I determined that my one specialty in writing is this topic of God in us and we in God. Thus, the magnum opus of my writing work is this series on Symmorphy cast in an educational format. And again, I am defining “magnum opus” (great work) against the standard of my own desire to create and to do well and not by comparing my work with that of anyone else.
Now, God has placed me thus far in these three arenas of creative work; He does differently with each one. More than that, even as we create a master magnum opus, we are still learning and still practicing to become even better.
God’s Magnum Opus. Now this presents a fascinating thought. God has not yet lived in full Symmorphic Covenant Union with a group of human beings. He lived in that state with the Lord Jesus for a brief 33½ years.
Is there a sense by which God has to “learn” to live in Symmorphy with humans? We are speaking of real experience, not static “knowing.” Is this as much a “new” experience for God as it is for us? Let’s just put that thought out there and get back to our topic.
It is clear to me that God’s magnum opus is a fully successful Christian Church walking this earth as the fullness of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
God’s Proposal. Let’s pull this thought back into what we learned about pro-thesis in Symmorphy I: Purpose, that it is a set forth declaration of intention, intention that must be proven out through argument before being established in the end.
In the beginning, God’s proposal is the Lord Jesus Christ. In the end, God’s finished work is the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in and through His Church inside this heaven/earth, a family of people walking together in love. And through the middle of this process, God’s original proposal, the Lord Jesus Christ, must be proven faithful and true in the midst of all opposition.
The pro-thesis is the original proposal.
Working Together With. Yet, as we have looked closely at God’s proposal, we have seen that inside this proposal, God wants to work, not just in and through, but TOGETHER WITH humans working together. God proposed from the beginning to create together with us.
And that brings us into the real reason why I have presented the three parts of my work life. I am no good working by myself. When I work by myself, I work intermittently and half-heartedly, making all kinds of foolish mistakes. This problem is especially true in construction.
And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18).
My Sources of Strength. In complete contrast, when I had a large crew of men (65 at Graham River) looking to me for design and direction, I was piercingly focused and anointed. This is not the whole picture, however. At the first Graham River Tabernacle raising, a man with whom I had worked closely for several years, Don Howat, walked with me in close companionship. In the work time, he looked to me for direction. But in the hours in-between, I looked to him for strength and courage. At the second Graham River time, Don was not there. It was so hard for me, even with some 45 men looking to me for direction. At a certain point, an apostle of Christ, a brother whom I greatly respected, spoke Christ into me, even eye to eye. By that strength alone was I able to do the task.
I Could Not Write Alone. Teaching school, on the other hand, is, by nature, always together with others, that is with your students. Not all teach in that way, sadly. Some teach only at their students. I always connected my teaching together with the learning of my students, however. Thus the fine-tuning of my writing course came entirely out from the responses and learning of group after group of students.
But what about writing? And here is the wondrous thing. I could not write much of anything beyond school assignments until the fall of 2008. I could not write, because until that moment in my life, I would have been writing alone.
A Companion Suitable for Me. I can write all that I write now for one reason only. I am not alone. Another is always with me; as I write, I hear His voice singing in my heart. And I could start writing in the fall of 2008 only because it was then that Jesus had fully proven to me His union with me.
Jesus is a Companion suitable for me, and by equal measure, I (and you as well) am a companion suitable for Him.
And when I look at the writing of others on Bible topics, I look for the same thing. When I see Jesus with you and you with Jesus, then I rejoice. But when I see only intellectual knowledge, even “right” knowledge of Bible things, then I weep as I quietly delete.
Two Working as One. Yet there is something far deeper God has granted to me inside my work experience. That deeper thing is two working together as one.
I have experienced such joy of creative expression three times in my life. The first time was with the man who taught me construction, Jim Barkley, in Oregon, from 1975 to 1979. Within a few months of my learning from him, we were working together almost as partners, he the senior, and I the junior. Yet we came to know one another in our work. We knew the task and simply tackled it together without anyone “in charge.” It was an expression of harmony.
Tackling the Job Together. The second time was my working with Amos Stoltzfus, also in Oregon, for one year in 1994-1995. We installed quality custom kitchen and bathroom cabinets together.
What a wonderful work experience that was for me. Amos was the senior, and I relied on his stability and strength. Yet he had no need to be “in charge,” and fully respected my own ability. When we entered a job, we tackled it together, often switching what tasks we each took on. If I took the lead, he helped me. If he took the lead, I helped him. We knew what we each were doing and how to assist. I would say that around 40% of the time, I took the lead, and around 40% of the time, he took the lead. In specific difficult situations, however, about 20% of the time, I deferred entirely to him as the one in charge.
Such Joy of Fulfillment. Amos and I knew one another in the work, and working together was a joy. We created great works of beauty and usefulness together. Working with Amos, I excelled. Then Amos took a week’s vacation. I was left to do the same tasks by myself. I managed, but poorly, making all kinds of foolish mistakes. What a relief it was when Amos returned.
My brother Glenn shared with me that he enjoys such a level of working together in construction with his son, Benjamin, the quiet back and forth, no one needing to be “in charge,” each deferring to and assisting the other. I tell you what; it is for this that we humans were made.
Jesus and I Together. Because I know that I love God, because I know that God has called me forth in all the specific details of His pro-thesis, I know that God and I are working together in perfect synergy, penetrating all, everything that happens and every person and circumstance in our lives, with utter goodness, turning everything towards the end result of life and blessing (Romans 8:28 paraphrased and expanded).
My third experience of working together with someone else is writing these Symmorphy courses, Jesus and I together. Sometimes it’s entirely my angle; sometimes it’s entirely His; but mostly it’s the two of us working together, knowing one another, knowing the job, perfect synergy.
Ooour Greatest Magnum Opus. This lesson is on God at work, always together with us. My Father has been working until now, and I have been working. Jesus means entirely what I have just described.
But we are just in our apprentice stage, Father and us. We will have, I am convinced, a thousand years in which to practice our trade of working together as one – as journeymen. And then, Father and us, Wwe together will create our magnum opus, our great work together – an entire creation set free and living only inside of the Lord Jesus Christ, the New Creation.
Working together with Father is the greatest conceivable joy.