The ‘Sixth-Day’ Workmanship of God

When we look at ourselves, what do we see? Do we see mere men or mighty men? Do we see natural men or spiritual men? Do we see fleshly men inclined to sin or sanctified men who triumph over sin in their lives? Do we see men after the likeness of the fallen ‘first Adam’ or men after the likeness of the perfected ‘second Adam’?

Job 7:17-18
“What is man that You magnify him, and that You are concerned about him, that You examine him every morning and try him every moment?”

When God examines men every morning and tries them every moment, the goal is to transform them from mere men to mighty men, from natural men to spiritual men, from fleshly men to sanctified men, and from the likeness of fallen men to the likeness of perfected sons.

Hebrews 12:4-11
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

God tries and disciplines men because He wants men who were once fathered by the devil (c.f. John 8:44) to become true sons of God who share His holiness and who bear the fruit of righteousness – like His firstborn Son in the days of His flesh – without any trace of sin or darkness in their flesh, just like the pre-Fall Adam in his flesh.

In other words, God tries and disciplines men because He wants men to strive against sin and its manifestation in their flesh, so that men can gain complete victory over sin in their flesh, and over the power of sin, that is, death, through the same resurrection power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

Hebrews 5:7-9
In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

Since sin is disobedience towards God, and disobedience is the behaviour of those fathered by the devil, God tries men to draw out obedience to Him, for obedience is the hallmark of His true sons.

In other words, God tries and disciplines His sons so that they will learn obedience from the things which they suffer, because total obedience to the Holy God means total rejection of sin, and perfect obedience to the Father means perfect sons of the Father.

So, just as Jesus in His flesh was made perfect by the Father’s perfect workmanship, God tries and disciplines His sons in their flesh so that they can learn perfect obedience, and become the Father’s perfect workmanship as well.

Job 2:3
The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”

Let us consider a mighty ship. When a ship is perfectly built, it is impervious to the elements of the seas, that is, it is watertight and impenetrable. Once the ship has been thoroughly tried and tested during sea trials, and it holds fast to its integrity, then the ship is certified seaworthy as designed and built.

Similarly, when sons are tried and tested through trials and sufferings of the flesh, and they remain impervious to sin and darkness, they become the perfect workmanship of God in the image and likeness of Jesus in the days of His flesh.

So, God examines men every morning and tries them every moment because God wants men to become the perfect representation of the Perfecter of their faith, Jesus Christ; for it is only when men are substantially made perfect, like Jesus, can they subject all things under their feet as the body of the perfect Son of God and perfected Son of Man.

Hebrews 2:6-8
But one has testified somewhere, saying, “WHAT IS MAN, THAT YOU REMEMBER Him? OR THE SON OF MAN, THAT YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT Him? YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; YOU HAVE CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND Honor, AND HAVE APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

Today, we have yet to see all things being subjected to us because we have yet to become the perfect workmanship of God on earth just like His Incarnate Son was on earth. Thus, there remains a ‘sixth’ day when God will make men perfect in His sight, so that He can once again declare “it is finished” and “it was very good”; and then rest from His works on the ‘seventh’ day.

If we are men of faith, then we must believe that we can and will be the perfect workmanship of God in these last days, so that God can see and say that it is very good, and we can enter into His rest.

God’s ‘sixth day’ work will always precede His ‘seventh day’ rest. It will surely be very good when He ceases from His work.

2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Thus, prophetically and eschatologically in the ‘sixth day’ – six thousand years from the original creation (c.f. 2 Peter 3:8) – “God will re-create man in His own image, in the image of God He will re-create him; male and female He will re-create them” (paraphrasing Genesis 1:27), so that we can be transformed from glory to glory into the same image of the “one of Us” (Genesis 3:22), the Incarnate Jesus, by the Spirit of God.

Indeed, it is only when we are in the image and likeness of the ‘second Adam’ can we complete the purpose and mandate of the pre-Fall ‘first Adam’ on earth.

So, what will you see when you look into the mirror on the ‘sixth day’ before God rests from His works? What will your church look like on the ‘sixth day’ before Jesus rests from His building works? Will works of sin and gates of hell be subdued under your feet on the ‘sixth day’? Will God behold everything and say “it was very good” on the ‘sixth day’ before He sends Jesus to receive His promised inheritance?

Hebrews 4:11
Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

As we can see, God is still at work. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter into the work of God in these last days, so that we can enter into His rest with Him, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

P.S. A detailed study of the ‘sixth day’ workmanship of God is available in the book Poiēma, God’s Workmanship.

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