What does Ephesians 2:10 mean?

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10, King James Version

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The verse in its chapter

Ephesians 2:8-12

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Study note

Tyndale Open Study Notes (CC BY-SA 4.0).

2:10 He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us: Good works are the result, not the cause, of salvation. God’s Spirit, working through a transformed heart, produces a good life (Gal 5:22-23).

Cross references

Other Bible passages linked to this one, most cited first.

Philippians 2:13
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Colossians 1:10
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Hebrews 13:21
Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
Ephesians 4:24
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

About the book of Ephesians

Author: Paul (some scholars debate this) (Ephesians 1:1)
When: c. AD 60 to 62, from prison
Period: Igreja primitiva, c. 30 a 70 d.C. (in Portuguese)

Authorship: the book itself or Christian tradition. Approximate dates, as in Carson and Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament, and Longman and Dillard, An Introduction to the Old Testament.

In the Mercy Bible Atlas (in Portuguese)

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