Greater Grace

“For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 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.” (1Co 15:9-10 AV)

 

When I consider the men of God that impress me the most, it has to be David and Paul.  Although others reflect the trait of which we will consider this morning, no two reflect it more.  David, in his attempt to serve the LORD, made serious errors of judgment.  Yet, he never let his limitations and failures to become so overwhelming that he quit on God.  Above, Paul speaks of what he was prior to salvation.  He was the worst of the worst.  He was a persecutor of the early church.  He did great harm in his zeal and arrogance.  That is until the LORD put him flat on his back on the road to Damascus.  Had not Paul humbled himself and accepted Christ, I believe the LORD would have killed him right there and then.  Paul reflects all that of which he is guilty.  But he then counters that with God’s grace.  He assures the reader that God’s grace is far more sufficient to cover all that he had done to the profit of the LORD himself.  The grace God showed to Paul far outweighed all the wickedness which Paul had done.  On the face of it, we would agree.  God’s grace is greater than all our sin.  But to live in that reality is something else.  Of this, we wish to consider this morning.

I was never really any good at sports.  I took my failures way too personal and serious.  My younger brother and I played for a couple of years, but it was nerve-wracking, to say the least.  We had a wonderful coach.  I cannot remember his name, but he was awesome.  He would never let us stew over our mistakes.  We were rightly corrected for them.  If we failed to field a ground ball, we would be out in the grass fielding balls for an hour when the next practice rolled around.  If we failed to catch a fly ball, guess what we were doing the next time we met for practice.  An hour of nothing but fly balls.  One thing I’ll always remember was his disdain for sidearm throwing.  Always overhand.  Never sidearm!  If we were caught throwing sidearm, we had work ahead of us.  This may have sounded harsh, but there was a method to his madness.  He would never allow our failures at the plate to keep us from attempting it again.  Our coach was not out for the win.  He was out to make sure these young men grew in their confidence and ability to learn the game.  One such error came when I was on the sidelines and a ball was hit fair but went out of the field of play.  I picked it up and threw it back, not realizing the ball was still fair.  Did I ever get an ear full.  One would think Coach would be so upset that he would bench me for the rest of the game.  Not so.  The next inning, he put me in on the mound.  This is what God’s grace does.  He forgives and empowers.  Now, we need to get our backsides out on that mound and stop stewing over our failures.  There is still a game to be played.  There are still batters coming to the box.  There are still runs to score.  Get in the game and get over yourself.

It is hard to get over that which we have done.  Sometimes, our failures can imprison us into a life of ineffectiveness which God’s grace is intended to overcome.  When I read of Paul’s testimony above, what I see is a man who refused to live in the reality of his sin, but rather, lives in the reality of God’s grace.  I see a man who would not allow his pride to affect the work of grace bestowed upon him.  It was pride that caused him to do all those things.  It would not be pride that kept him from humbly living in the light of God’s grace.  If we are not careful, we can become the devil’s best advocate.  He loves to accuse the brethren.  He does so to appeal to our sense of pride.  We do not like to hear all that we have done wrong.  We sit, frozen in inactivity because we think there is something we need to do to fix it.  Or, because we failed to fix it, we are not worthy to do anything.  It is true.  We are unworthy.  This is why we need God’s grace.  It is the grace of God that enables.  It is the grace of God that forgives and empowers.  This is Paul’s reality.  He will not allow the adversary to accuse him to the point that God’s grace becomes ineffective.  In short, we need to live and serve in the light of God’s wondrous grace.  Grace overcomes everything!  Grace forgives it all!  Grace is what makes us usable to God.  It is nothing we bring, but everything He does!  Live, therefore, in the reality of God’s grace and you will accomplish more for His glory than humanly possible!