Long before cable television and the Cartoon Network, I woke up on Saturday mornings, positioned myself in front of the family’s television set, and did what every normal kid did—watched cartoons. It was the highlight of my week, and whenever I was able to catch an episode of Popeye the Sailorman, it was a great day.

I could relate to Popeye, except for his love of spinach, which was his secret ingredient to become a hero. I found creative ways to keep from eating spinach whenever my mother served it.

One of the ways I identified with Popeye was his ongoing struggle for identity and purpose in life. Sometimes Popeye would forget who he was and what made him a hero, and Olive Oil would have to remind him. After that, he would proudly proclaim, “I yam what I yam.”

Sometimes I think Christians suffer Popeye moments and forget what makes us who we are in Christ. In Ephesians 2:1-10, the apostle Paul tells us what that secret ingredient is, and I am thankful to say, it’s not spinach, but God’s amazing grace.

Ephesians 2:10 states: “For we are God’s masterpiece” (New Living Translation*). In the Bible’s original language, the word translated “workmanship” by the New International Version or “masterpiece” in the NLT, talks about all the things God created. Genesis 1:31 makes it clear everything God created, including mankind, was alive and very good.

Before Grace
Yet at the beginning of this passage, Paul paints a different picture of mankind when he writes, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). That sentence is written in the past tense, a critical fact that sets up the rest of the passage. To borrow Popeye’s famous words to describe us at this point, we all could say, “I yam what I yam—spiritually dead.”

When we are spiritually dead, Paul points out: we follow the ruler of the kingdom of the air (v. 2), gratify the cravings of our sinful nature and are the object of God’s wrath (v. 3). Elsewhere Paul wrote about his personal struggle at this point in his life (Romans 7) and indicated examples of sinful cravings (Galatians 5:16, 17). Like him, virtually all of us can remember the unsatisfying lifestyle that characterized our lives when we were dead in sin.

Through Grace
But according to verse 4, God loved us so much he couldn’t leave us that way. He didn’t create us to be dead in sin. He created us to be alive in Christ and to do good works. What we need is a big dose of grace to transform us. It is God’s amazing, life-transforming grace given to us while we were still living the life of a dead person that enables us to do new works for him.

 It has been said, justice is getting what we deserve—anyone who deserved and received a speeding ticket understands this point. Grace, on the other hand, is getting the good things we don’t deserve, and that is oftentimes harder for us to understand in a world where we have to earn everything we receive.

Paul goes to great lengths to make sure we understand saving grace comes from God through Jesus Christ, and not through us. It is God who, through grace, made us alive with Christ (v. 5); raised us up with Christ; seated us with him (v. 6), and expressed his kindness to us in Christ Jesus (v. 7). Rick Warren had it right when he began The Purpose Driven Life with the phrase: “It’s not about you.” The only part of grace that is about us is we’re the ones who need it and to whom God gives it. It’s only through grace we regain the identity and purpose he planned for us in the beginning.

After Grace
We learn about our identity and purpose in verse 10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” That which is dead can do no good, but once we are in Christ we are capable of doing new works in grace. Doing good works before God’s grace is applied to our lives may result in personal glory. Doing good works after grace is an act of spiritual worship and brings glory to God.

Vincent (not his real name) visited our church a few months ago and shared with me that he had been living an alternative lifestyle his entire adult life and was also addicted to gambling. He felt God was trying to get his attention. We talked about grace and what Jesus had done for him, and a few months later I baptized him into Christ.

Since that time an amazing transformation has been taking place in him. While there are still struggles in his life, he is serving and doing all kinds of good works both inside and outside the church. It is great to see him become what God created him to be.

Vincent, like so many of us, can echo the words of Popeye and say, “Because of God’s grace, I yam what I yam—God’s masterpiece.” Thank God for the ability to do new works in grace.