John Calvin Commentary Ephesians 2:10

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them." — Ephesians 2:10 (ASV)

For we are his work. By setting aside the contrary assumption, he proves his statement that by grace we are saved — that we have no remaining works by which we can merit salvation, for all the good works we possess are the fruit of regeneration. Hence it follows that works themselves are a part of grace.

When he says that we are the work of God, this does not refer to ordinary creation, by which we are made men. We are declared to be new creatures because, not by our own power but by the Spirit of Christ, we have been formed to righteousness. This applies to none but believers. As the descendants of Adam, they were wicked and depraved; but by the grace of Christ, they are spiritually renewed and become new men. Everything in us, therefore, that is good is the supernatural gift of God. The context explains his meaning: We are his work, because we have been created — not in Adam, but in Christ Jesus — not to every kind of life, but to good works.

What remains now for free will, if all the good works that proceed from us are acknowledged to have been the gifts of the Spirit of God? Let godly readers weigh carefully the apostle’s words. He does not say that we are assisted by God. He does not say that the will is prepared and is then left to run by its own strength.

He does not say that the power of choosing rightly is bestowed on us, and that we are afterward left to make our own choice. Such is the idle talk in which those people who do their utmost to undervalue the grace of God are accustomed to indulge. But the apostle affirms that we are God’s work, and that everything good in us is His creation, by which he means that the whole man is formed by His hand to be good.

It is not the mere power of choosing rightly, or some indescribable kind of preparation, or even assistance, but the right will itself, that is His workmanship; otherwise Paul’s argument would have no force. He means to prove that man does not in any way procure salvation for himself, but obtains it as a free gift from God. The proof is that man is nothing but by divine grace. Whoever, then, makes the very smallest claim for man, apart from the grace of God, allows him, to that extent, ability to procure salvation.

Created to good works. Those who torture this passage to undermine the righteousness of faith err widely from Paul’s intention. Ashamed to affirm in plain terms — and aware that they could gain nothing by affirming — that we are not justified by faith, they shelter themselves under this kind of subterfuge.

“We are justified by faith, because faith, by which we receive the grace of God, is the beginning of righteousness; but we are made righteous by regeneration, because, being renewed by the Spirit of God, we walk in good works.” In this manner they make faith the door by which we enter into righteousness, but imagine that we obtain it by our works; or, at least, they define righteousness as that uprightness by which a man is formed anew to a holy life. I do not care how old this error may be, but those who endeavor to support it with this passage err egregiously.

We must look to Paul’s design. He intends to show that we have brought nothing to God by which He might be laid under obligation to us, and he shows that even the good works we perform have come from God. Hence it follows that we are nothing, except through the pure exercise of His kindness.

Those people, on the other hand, infer that half of our justification arises from works. But what does this have to do with Paul’s intention, or with the subject he is handling?

It is one thing to inquire what righteousness consists of, and another thing to reinforce the doctrine that it is not from ourselves with the argument that we have no right to claim good works as our own, since we have been formed by the Spirit of God, through the grace of Christ, to all that is good.

When Paul lays down the cause of justification, he dwells chiefly on this point: that our consciences will never enjoy peace until they rely on the propitiation for sins. Nothing of this sort is even alluded to in the present instance. His whole object is to prove that,

by the grace of God, we are all that we are.
(1 Corinthians 15:10)

Which God hath prepared. Beware of applying this, as the Pelagians do, to the instruction of the law, as if Paul’s meaning were that God commands what is just and lays down a proper rule of life. Instead of this, he follows up the doctrine he had begun to illustrate: that salvation does not proceed from ourselves.

He says that before we were born, the good works were prepared by God, meaning that in our own strength we are not able to lead a holy life, but only insofar as we are formed and adapted by the hand of God. Now, if the grace of God came before our performances, all ground of boasting has been taken away.

Let us carefully observe the word prepared. On the simple ground of the order of events, Paul rests the proof that — with respect to good works — God owes us nothing. How so? Because they were drawn out of His treasures, in which they had long before been laid up; for whom He called, them He justifies and regenerates.