Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:3)
What a powerful truth to encourage us today! The humble carpenter from Nazareth was also the Architect of the entire universe. Fully God and fully man, Jesus came into the world that He had created “by the word of the Lord” (Psalm 33:6) to destroy the works of the devil. In Jesus we have not only the Creator of all things, but He is also the Re-Creator of all things.
You see, after Jesus raises us from death to life, He begins the lifelong process of recreating us into His image and likeness. As I remind you so often here, man was made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27), but after Adam and Eve rebelled, that image was marred, stained, and broken. Our first parents had denied the very humanity that God created in them!
You and I still possess God’s image, but only a fraction of what it originally was. However, after Jesus saves us, He begins to sanctify us and conform us to His image; we are twice born of Jesus because our Creator God is also our Re-Creator God. Jesus is our Cosmic Carpenter, hammering away at us on the sanctifying anvil of the Almighty, and He will not stop until we have ultimately been perfected.
Here is something to consider as you go about your day. Jesus came to pay the penalty for your sins in full, but He also came to take away sin’s power and its pleasure as well. Jesus is working on your new nature with every tool in His toolbox to create new desires in you, new disciplines, new directions, and a new destiny. He who began this good work in you has promised to complete it (Philippians 1:6); and in the end, when you cross the Jordan, the image of God in you will have been recreated to perfection. The beloved apostle encourages us, “When [the Son] appears, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2).
The Cosmic Carpenter is at work in you right now. He is busily engaged in sanding away all your rough spots and chiseling away those hard edges. He is filling those areas that are a bit hollow and empty with His healing balm of Gilead. Jesus loves you more than you could ever know, and wants only the absolute best for you right now, which means that He refuses to leave you as you are. And so your Cosmic Carpenter will keep on hammering . . . keep on sanding . . . keep on chiseling . . . keep on filling . . . until you are recreated into what you were originally created for: to bear the image of your Creator, the One who is also your Re-Creator.
Let the apostle Paul bring this word of encouragement to its most appropriate close:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The Cosmic Carpenter is making everything new (Revelation 21:5). And that includes you and me!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 