Steven A. Bush - October 9, 2016
The Effect of God's Grace
In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul writes: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." (ESV) The Amplified Version puts it this way: "But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I, but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God which was with me." (AMP) What would've Paul looked like if he had received God's grace in vain? For one, he'd still be Saul. We can also suppose he would have remained a religious zealot, a Jewish terrorist, and thousands of Christians would have been driven from their homes, imprisoned or killed. Further, someone else would have written the epistles that became the great doctrines of our faith. But this question must be turned around to you--has His grace toward you proven to be fruitless or vain or without effect? Is there Holy Spirit activity stirring deep inside? Are your actions giving evidence of spiritual transformation? What are the outcomes of God's grace? After all, isn't that why we call such Grace, Amazing?