The Happiness of Obedience

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

(Eph 2:10 NIV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  On the sixth day He created mankind, Adam and Eve, and looked back upon His creation and "God saw that is was very good."  The Lord also planted a garden, in the east, in Eden.  This garden was a paradise for man, beast and plant alike.  Everything in it was "very good."

It is hard to imagine a state of perfect bliss and happiness as existed in the land of Eden in those days.  Man had perfect fellowship with their Creator.  The very source of life itself was ever present and unrestricted.  Trees grew perfectly.  Flowers bloomed without blemish.  Animals were nourished to perfect health.  Mankind lived in perfect strength, health and peace.  Eden was a state of perfect bliss.  Perfect, in that the mind of man could not conceive of the pain and death of sin, for sin was yet unknown to him.

What is sin, but a willful departure from the will of God.  It is the rebellion of disobedience.  The reason for the state of ultimate bliss and happiness in Eden was that all things conformed to the will of God.  God is the Author of Life.  He created life and, as Creator, He designed man to operate within the laws of perfect happiness, for which they were created.  Man was to participate in creating and maintaining an environment of perfect happiness.  If man lives according to the precepts and will of God, man will have life.  These are the laws of creation (If I eat food, I will live.  If I don't eat food for too long, I will die).  But, if man decided to reject God's creative authority and will, to become "as God," choosing to do his own will and, thereby, enthroning himself as his own creative power, man would surely die.  Man was created to live in God's will.  A departure from the will of God is action and choice against the very nature of man, which cuts off the source of life and precipitates man's demise.  No wonder the destructive power of sin!

In this light, we were "created in Christ Jesus to do good works."  How important is it to grow in the understanding of and obedience to God's will?  It seems clear; it is a matter of life and death!  We were created to assist our Creator in creating and maintaining happiness, in this life, but, ultimately, in the life to come!  What confidence we can have that doing the will of God and serving our fellow man with good works will result in ultimate and eternal happiness, far beyond any short term satisfaction that comes from sin!  We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works!  Let's do those things for which we have been created, trusting the Lord that we are creating the ultimate happiness for all of creation, for all of eternity!  Through Christ Jesus, we have been re-created in Him.  When God completes the re-creation of men, He will look and see that it is "very good!"