The verse begins “for we are his artifact.” The Greek noun (from the verb “to do, make”) occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Romans 1.20. Revised Standard Version “workmanship” and Twentieth Century New Testament, New English Bible “handiwork” are perhaps a bit unwieldy; Jerusalem Bible “work of art” seems a bit affected. Good News Translation God has made us what we are (similarly Moffatt and others) seems better than “he has made us” (Goodspeed), since the thought is not the original act of creation but God’s saving work, the new creation in Christ Jesus. In order to emphasize that what we are refers to this new relationship to God in view of salvation, it may be important to translate this clause as “what we now are.”
The participle that follows in Greek, “having been created,” translates the verb “to create” (see Mark 13.19; Rom 1.25; Col 1.16 where it is used of the creation of the world); the participle defines “what God has made”: “we were created in Christ Jesus” (see also the verb in 2.15; 4.24). The prepositional phrase “in Christ Jesus” can be taken to indicate the instrument, the means (so, presumably, the translations that have simply “in”: Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, and others; more definitely “through,” Barclay); but it may also indicate, as Good News Translation has it, in our union with Christ Jesus (also Twentieth Century New Testament, Goodspeed, and others).
In a number of languages it is important to relate the phrase in our union with Christ Jesus somewhat more specifically to the main part of the clause. It may be possible to do this by using some such introductory or transitional phrase as “by our being” or “since we are,” for example, “by our being joined with Christ Jesus, God has created us….”
Since the emphasis upon has created us is in relation to the new life that the believers are supposed to live, it may be useful to say “he has now made us over for a life of good deeds.”
For a life of good deeds translates the Greek “for good deeds”: these are the actions which Christians are to perform. These works are the consequence of salvation, not the basis for it. The expression may be rendered by “in order to do good to people throughout our life.”
He has already prepared: the Greek verb “to prepare ahead of time” (elsewhere only Rom 9.23) cannot be weakened to mean “he intended, designed,” as some want to do, who argue that not even God can “prepare” good works ahead of time, since they do not exist until they are performed, and the performance is a human action, not God’s action. Following such logic, some (for example, Abbott) take the unexpressed object of the verb “he prepared ahead of time” to be “us”; so New English Bible “the good deeds for which God has designed us.” This seems most unlikely, however, and it is better to take “the good works” as the object of “he prepared ahead of time.” The writer’s exaggerated style of expression cannot always be made to fit the bounds of human logic.
Which he has already prepared may be expressed as “for which he has already prepared things” or “he has already made things ready for us to do these good deeds.” An emphatic statement may be used: “He has created us to do those good deeds which he had already prepared for us to do.”
For us to do translates “for us to walk in them” (for the verb “to walk” see 2.2). This is the new way of life, opposed to the old way of life described in verse 2.
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .