Grace of God

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

GRACE OF GOD

1 Cor 15:9-11

9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

NIV

Whoever we are is by the grace of God. Paul makes that clear in this letter. He was a nasty man, as far as the new church was concerned. He was a Pharisee, a zealot who traveled in order to try to arrest any of the Jews who believed in Jesus. Therefore, let us consider just how a nasty person we were once and how we even refused to hear anything about God or did not want God in our life, so that we could do that which we pleased to do, without any restraints or standards set by some unknown, invisible, maybe even a figment of men’s making, god. But then He intervened and sent a messenger to tell us of His grace. Oh, the grace of God was pouring all over us and we became born again by His grace. It was His grace that brought us through so many times and has been transforming us over the years to who we are today and still, His grace continues the transformation until we reach heaven. It is the grace of God that is within us, that does the work. How thankful we are for what He has done for us and what He is doing in us and how he works through us to accomplish His plan for our lives. However, there is still this need for us to work as well. That is just as Paul said that he worked harder than all of them, which might well mean the other apostles, as he refers to himself as the least of the apostles. This could give us a clue as well as to how we should work for the kingdom of God. Yes, the grace of God works in us, the Spirit dwells within and He manifests His gifts as He sees fit, but we still need to get up in the morning and head out to do that which we have been called to do. We are not supposed to be lazy believers, just lounging around waiting for the grace of God to do something through us, as if it was some kind of magic trick or supernatural happening. Paul worked as being an apostle, a messenger of the Lord, bringing the grace of God to as many as he could. This is God’s grace effect, yet it is not us, but the grace of God that is in us. It sounds a little confusing. We are to work, yet it is not us, but the grace of God in us. What we do is the effect, or is caused by the grace of God in us. If we worked without the grace of God then all we do would be like any man, working in the flesh, meaningless, unfruitful work, that does not benefit the kingdom of God, but rather the kingdom of this world. So, we must hear the voice of the Spirit within and labor on for the kingdom of God under the influence of the grace of God.