Only By Grace!

1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

This has to be one of my most favorite verses in the scripture; it is certainly one I love to quote a lot. So many times I reference this to the type of person Saul of Tarsus was before God blessed him with salvation; however God’s grace with Paul was much deeper than that, Paul’s entire Christian life was by the grace of God even the pain he endured in his death. Paul was indeed one whom had a constant reminder of his past life and could not ever thank God enough for the grace He showered on him the last few years of his life. We also beloved need to constantly remind ourselves of what we were before God’s grace was showered upon us at the time we were saved. While the deeds of Saul of Tarsus were great against the church at Jerusalem they were not any greater than ours before we were saved. We also were an enmity of the Lord before we were saved and had great sins against God. However, now that grace has come let us all put that behind us, but not so far behind us we forget that they existed. Beloved we need to also like Paul remind ourselves of what we were so that the grace of God becomes more and more sweet everyday. It is when we forget what we were that we forget what grace truly means to us. Everyday we need to pray the prayer of the publican in the story of the Pharisee and the publican in Luke 18:13 “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” Why would the publican not lift his head to heaven? It was because he knew himself to be unworthy and ashamed to do so. You see so many today that are so much like the Pharisee who was arrogant in his prayer. Beloved what we need today is more humbled hearts among Christians just like the publican. Even though we have received the grace of God and He has given us the most glorious gift of salvation we have nothing to be proud of except the grace that God has given. The Lord reminds us in Psalms 34:18 “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” The word “contrite” means crushed which means we should have a crushed spirit in that we are all unworthy to lift our head to the Lord. Even in our justified state we still remain in sin and will until the day we are with the Lord. We still live in a state where there is nothing good in us except the grace of God and Jesus Christ. Beloved we have no right to be proud in our own right but rather continually thank God for His blessed Grace. We should never have the glorious honor of belonging to the family of God, we to as Paul proclaimed; are the chief of all sinners.

Paul also said “his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain”. Even though I may be the chief sinner I still am by the grace of God an Apostle and I will do every within the power God graciously gives me to advance His word and the gospel. Beloved I pray that the grace that God has given me also was not in vain. I pray that I pursue evil in this world with the word of God. I pray that the labor I do for the Lord is enough to show the Lord (as little as it maybe) that I am thankful for His grace, and that it was not in vain. Paul went on to say “but I laboured more abundantly than they all” not in an arrogant way but recognizing the short time he had to accomplish the task that God had given him to do. The rest of the Apostles had spent time with Jesus and learned from Him and labored with Him, but Paul had to learn quickly and that he did, but only as Paul put it “but the grace of God which was with me.” Everything about Paul’s Christian life was by the grace of God and so is it with us. Beloved we are only what we are by God’s amazing grace.