1 Corinthians 15:9-10
We sing “Your grace and mercy brought me through. I’m living this moment because of You”.
Grace is what we identify as unmerited favor — favor we don’t deserve and can’t earn.
When Paul highlights the grace of God being the reason he is what he is, he not only recognizes how good God is, but he is also recognizing just how undeserving and unworthy he was. Paul took a survey of the magnitude of how God was using him and he surveyed how he persecuted the Church of God at one point in time.
Paul says that he is the least of the apostles but he also says that he worked more than them all. Paul’s assessment is quite different than what we hear today; perhaps even different than how we world assess what we deserve for all of our hard work. Paul says “I’ve done the most, but I deserve the least”. Nowadays, we say “I’ve done the most and I deserve the most”. We qualify ourselves by our efforts and by our works.
Paul is letting us know that when he thinks about all the wrong he’s done against God and His people, the fact that he labors so hard in the Kingdom of God is an honor and a privilege. It’s not that he has to labor so hard. It’s that he gets to labor so hard for the Lord.
What humility! Just think what the body of Christ would be like if we all had this type of humility to serve in the Kingdom of God. We wouldn’t have church politics, church celebrities or superstars. And we probably wouldn’t have so much dissension and drama because everyone would be too grateful and too busy serving and glorifying God because we were all just so honored to do so.
Paul says ,”But by the grace of God I am what I am”. Paul isn’t attaching grace to what he has. It’s not about the job, the house, the car, the promotion, the degree or the money. It’s about who he is and who God has allowed him to become.
Can we do the same? Can we say, “By the grace of God I am what I am?” We often hear “I am who I am.” or “This is just the way I am.” So what exactly are we that we are giving God credit for? What about us, are we attaching to the grace of God? Does it bring us glory or does it bring God glory? I know He’s done some great things for you, but what are you allowing Him to do through and in you?
Paul reflected on how God was using him in spite of him. I said before that Paul surveyed how bad and undeserving he was and he surveyed how good and gracious God was to him in spite of his badness. Paul felt that he was the least of the apostles because he didn’t work with Jesus during His early ministry and he opposed the church. In Acts 22:7, Jesus asked Paul “Why are you persecuting Me?”
Now may not be able to identify with Paul as persecutors of the church. But at one point in time, we were ALL the enemies of God and lived outside of His will and call for our lives. Ephesians 2:1-3 says “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formally walked according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too ALL formally lived in the lust of our flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.
So Paul recognizes that not only was he a son of disobedience, but he persecuted those that chose to obey and live for jesus. Paul understood Philippians 2:13. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do what pleases Him. By God’s grace, Paul could say he was who he was.
If it weren’t for God sparing my life, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
If it weren’t for God showing me the way, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
If it weren’t for God transforming my mind and my way of thinking, I would have never committed myself to preaching and teaching the gospel of Christ to save many.
If it weren’t for the grace of God, I would have never transitioned from being a persecutor of the church to being a promoter of Christ.
If it weren’t for the grace of God, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
And His grace toward me won’t be in vain.
I won’t abuse this grace by straddling the fence between holiness and carnality.
I won’t abuse this grace by picking and choosing when I want to represent Jesus as His ambassador.
I won’t abuse this grace by bringing shame on Christ or His church by unrighteous living and unholy talk.
I won’t be a persecutor of the church in hypocrisy.
Therefore, as you reflect on who you are today versus who you were before, are you humble enough to give God credit and glory for your progress? Or are you still talking about that job, that degree, that promotion, that whatever you feel like you deserved because of all of your hard work?
Paul said I work hard but I still don’t deserve this grace or favor God has on my life. Keep in mind that the enemy will play on us whenever we experience increase in our lives. He’ll provoke us in pride, arrogance, self-glorification, self-righteousness and entitlement. He’ll have us really believing that we pulled our own selves up by the bootstraps with our knowledge, our skills, our determination, our education, our money, our status, our notoriety, our strength.
That degree of pride and self-sufficiency will set us up for disappointment because the money, status, degree or whatever it is we credit our success to might satisfy us, but it doesn’t have the ability to sustain us nor save us.
Paul said that he was the least of the apostles. You know it’s not really a good thing to compare yourselves to others. But in this case, Paul comparing himself didn’t lift him up and it didn’t pull him down. He expressed this from a place of humility.
When we get caught up in comparing ourselves to others, it either pulls us up or it pulls us down because it’s rooted in pride and self-sufficiency. It’s not God-centered. This is why it didn’t pull Paul in either direction. Both his good and bad made him even more grateful for the grace of God, because God was using him in spite of him.
Do you realize that God is using you in spite of you? He’s using you in spite of having once been a son or a daughter of disobedience.
–In spite of your gossiping tongue.
–In spite of the fact that you are a complainer.
–In spite of the fact that you’re still using profanity.
–In spite of your judgmental ways.
–In spite of your selfishness and laziness
……. In spite of……
So whether you are working hard like Paul or hardly working in the Kingdom of God, you are a benefactor of God’s grace. And even on your best Holy Ghost filled day, you absolutely do not deserve anything good from God — not His grace, mercy, blessings or His love. But thank God that He gives it to us anyway. And it is by His grace, I am what I am!
*Tressa Jo
BeyondSeeLevel 