You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
10 For[gar] we are[esmen] his[autos] workmanship,[poiema] created[ktizo] in[en] Christ[Christos] Jesus[Iesous] unto[epi] good[agathos] works,[ergon] which[hos] God[theos] hath before
ordained[proetoimazo] that[hina] we should walk[peripateo]
in[en] them.[autos]KJV-Interlinear
10 For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them. NASB
And why can't man have any say or participation in his own salvation? Because salvation is the work of God, but more than that, it is accompanied by a creation, a new creation of a new type of person, namely you as a saved person. And you cannot create yourself, certainly, just like you have no part in any form of creation of anything new as to any other part of your life or anyone else's life.
Man cannot create life. You cannot create life. The closest that you can come to that is in procreation of our own species, but even then people simply go through the motions and do not even create their own seed within them. The biology is not a part of any conscious effort, plan, or design on your part, just as you cannot make your own hair grow, or not grow, or your heart to beat or to not beat, and so forth.
Man is the workmanship of Christ, created in Christ. Christ originally created man in a state of innocence and perfection. Man chose to leave that state through sin, and thereafter, man is born into the sin nature in every generation since Adam.
In salvation, Christ again created man for perfection, but in order to gain that state, man has to believe in Christ. Many do not.
Unto good works, means Gods works, or divine works. These are not the works of the sin nature, which is sin or evil or human works, all of which are evil.
Good works are the works of the spiritual life, the life that is lived from within the spiritual sphere, which we call fellowship. Fellowship is obtained through the confession process.
God had before ordained, 'proetoimazo,' is a phrase that means prepared beforehand, predestined, or predetermined. God in eternity past set out a plan, whereby he designed for you, a life in eternity. That life had to be one which was compatible with His essence, namely one without sin.
But along came sin and thus human history had to be completed in order to raise up every person who would be born, in order that every person would have a chance to believe or not, and in order that the angelic conflict which began with Satan, could be resolved.
Once all of that has been accomplished, then eternity, as originally designed and intended by God, will come into existence and continue on forever.
That we should walk in them, is a reference to Gods good works, not mans. Not your good intentions, not your sincerity, not your own good deeds, not your opinions, nothing that originates from you or your pretense, or your imagination.
You have nothing that you can offer or do to improve Gods plan. Gods plan is perfect and complete and doable. Your plans are not. Mans plans are not.
Gods objective for eternity is not for man to rule or even travel the galaxies or the universe, but to live in heaven with God in a state of perfection, without sin, without evil, and most certainly without mans help.
