THEARTOFCHRIST — Issue 03: Self-Improvement The Clay Cannot Fire Itself How Christ brings about life, and how He supplies it more abundantly. The world sells self-improvement. Set goals. Build habits. Learn skills. Stay positive. Rest well. Find support. Have fun. Unlock your personal potential. The promise is always the same: the self can fix the self, if the self tries hard enough. The herald announces a harder truth. The clay cannot fire itself. The pot cannot throw itself on the wheel. The self is not the instrument of its own improvement. God improves what God owns. Anchor: The Workmanship We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand (Eph 2:10, paraphrase). He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6, paraphrase). Hear what Scripture says: workmanship — God's, not yours. The improvement is done by other hands. God begins the work, continues it, completes it, and prepared the good works in advance — the very targets of your improvement were drawn by God before you took aim. Apart from Christ, man cannot improve himself, because the self he is trying to improve is alienated from the life of God (Eph 4:18). The heart is deceitful above all things (Jer 17:9). Apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5). Nothing means nothing — including the improvement project. Watch what happens when the alienated self tries to better itself. It sets goals with a deceitful heart, so the goals serve the heart's deceit. It builds habits on a nature hostile to God, so the habits train the hostility (Rom 8:7, paraphrase). It rests its body but not its soul. It gathers supporters who cheer the self on toward the grave. A man can become disciplined, productive, skilled, rested, and celebrated — and remain cracked through, alienated from the life of God. He improved his circumstances. He never improved his nature. The contrast that governs this workshop is not "improved versus unimproved." It is in Christ versus apart from Christ. Apart from Christ, self-improvement is the self polishing the self. In Christ, God improves His workmanship. One is man's project on man. The other is God's work in the man. God Improves His Own Work In Christ, God began the work in the new birth: new creation (2 Cor 5:17, paraphrase), the new heart with His Spirit within (Ezek 36:26-27). No man begins this work on himself. In Christ, God continues the work: God works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). The desire and the strength both come from God's working. Your part is not the engine. Your part is the clay, yielding to the hands. In Christ, God completes the work. He who began it will complete it (Phil 1:6). The finish is guaranteed because the Finisher is God. No clay pot of His ever comes off the wheel half-thrown and abandoned. The apostle knew this. He said he had not yet arrived, had not yet been perfected — but he pressed on, because Christ Jesus had taken hold of him (Phil 3:12, paraphrase). Pressing on is not the clay throwing itself. Pressing on is the clay chasing the hands that took hold of it. God also gives the goals. The good works were prepared beforehand (Eph 2:10). So the man in Christ does not invent his aims from a deceitful heart. He walks into the works God already laid out. His improvement has a destination — and God drew the map. And God gives the growth: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth (1 Cor 3:6, paraphrase). Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord (2 Pet 3:18, paraphrase). The man is told to grow, and God performs the growing: God commands, and God causes. Improvement Is Physical Every topic in this workshop relates to physical life, and improvement is no exception. God improves His workmanship in the body, in the ordinary days. Take the world's list and watch God do each item. Goals: God prepared the good works beforehand (Eph 2:10). You do not manufacture purpose. You walk in what He prepared. Habits: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22-23, paraphrase). Fruit is not manufactured by the branch. The branch abides, and the vine produces (John 15:4-5). Learning: God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning (Dan 1:17, paraphrase). Knowledge and skill are gifts. In Christ, study is receiving, not seizing. Rest: He gives His beloved sleep (Ps 127:2, paraphrase). Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28). The body that sleeps in Christ trusts that God never sleeps (Ps 121:4, paraphrase). Support: Two are better than one (Eccl 4:9, paraphrase). God joined the members into one body (1 Cor 12:18, paraphrase). In Christ, support is the body God placed together, each member supplied by the Head (Eph 4:16, paraphrase). Joy: The joy of the Lord is your strength (Neh 8:10, paraphrase). In Christ, joy is strength for God's work, given by God's presence. Christ came that they may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). That abundant life includes all of this — purpose, habits, learning, rest, fellowship, joy. But it comes as gift from the Workman, not as wages from the clay. Stop Trying to Fire Yourself The world's program says: improve yourself, and God will help those who help themselves. Scripture never says that. Scripture says: apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5), and God works in you both to will and to work (Phil 2:13). So stop asking the cracked pot to repair itself. Present yourself to God instead. Give thanks that the work began before you knew you needed it. Walk in the good works He prepared. When the old impulse rises — to fix yourself — answer it with this: I am His workmanship. He began it. He continues it. He will complete it. Warning and Invitation Apart from Christ, the improvement project ends at the grave. Whoever does not believe stands condemned already (John 3:18). No self-betterment moves a man from condemnation to life. The polished pot and the cracked pot go to the same fire. Yet in Christ, God takes hold of the clay. Repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15). Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28). He who believes HAS eternal life (John 6:47). Come, and God will begin in you the good work He will not leave unfinished. This Week Read Ephesians 2, Philippians 1 and 3, and Jeremiah 18. Watch the potter at the wheel. Watch who does the work. When you catch yourself planning your own improvement, stop and give thanks. Thank God that the workmanship is His. Then walk in the good works He prepared for today. The hands are His. The growth is His. The life is Christ's, more abundantly. This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son (1 John 5:11).