“Written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
Romans 9:20, ESV
“Christianity is a world that is a great sculptor’s shop. We are the statues and there a rumor going around the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.”
Scripture describes the process of becoming like Jesus in different ways. But one is a potter fashioning something beautifully useful. He works to bring out something good from that which is formless. Both the potter, and the sculptor, fully intend to create something out of improbable clay or hard marble.
What sculpture is to a block of marble, so is a person who is being shaped into the image of God.
“For we are his workmanship.” Ephesians 2:10
The word used for workmanship is ποίημα, poíēma, and this word strongly suggests something that a creator does, and it’s also used in Genesis 1 to describe God making the earth. I suppose that it’s His “work” that goes into the reality of all we see. He designs it all.
God is also a sculptor, but not one limited to granite or marble.
Instead, He sculpts our characters. He can take a sinful human being and mold and chisel and hammer away until that person reflects something of heaven’s glory.
The Sculptor must do with us as the sculptor did with the stone. He must bring to bear upon us the sharp chisel of circumstances, of disappointment, of trial. These are tough, and sometimes painful. It seems that these things will destroy us.
The marble is chosen by the artist to meet the need. He becomes aware of the stone–you might say that he looks for the image hidden in the marble.
God is a sculptor, but not one limited to granite or marble. Instead, He sculpts our character. He can take a sinful human being and mold and chisel and hammer away until that person reflects something of heaven’s glory.
I beseech you to accept the chisel.
Let Him do the work of the Spirit in you. As He chips away it may seem like destruction. But the sculptor is a master, he has studied the marble and knows exactly what it takes to shape out what He wants.
Trust in His wisdom and love. He knows what He is doing. Of that I have no doubt.
Can you accept God’s tools? Do you trust Him?
Alaska Bible Teacher 