Understanding Grace 5
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There are different types of grace such as:
Saving
Sanctifying - grace didn’t cover sin it destroyed it.
Strengthening
Sharing
Serving
Paul did not labor in order to receive grace, but he received grace so that he might labor.
Serving Grace is a divine deposit in our lives from Heaven that enables us to serve God in a way that pleases Him and benefits everyone in our lives.
Serving Grace:
keeps us from being unproductive
is a impartation of God’s ability
is God’s power and ability to serve Him and others
Paul did more than teach grace. His life was radically transformed by God’s saving, sanctifying, and strengthening grace, and his life was governed by sharing and serving Grace.
God’s grace:
saved him
made him more Christ like
gave him the ability to endure the hardships of ministry
made him a giver
caused him to know and fulfill his calling
Through grace Paul claimed that:
received grace and apostleship
made him a wise master builder
declared the dispensation of the grace of God
became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God
claiming to be the least he said “to me this grace was given, that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ”
Paul clearly credits anything that happened to him or through him to God’s grace.
Serving grace imparts calling and purpose, then empowers and enables us to accomplish them.
10 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.
By the grace of God I am what I am. The previous verse says that he was unworthy to be an apostle because he persecuted the Church.
Modern definition would say that he was a terrorist.
3 But Saul shamefully treated and laid waste the church continuously [with cruelty and violence]; and entering house after house, he dragged out men and women and committed them to prison.
13 Though I formerly blasphemed and persecuted and was shamefully and outrageously and aggressively insulting [to Him], nevertheless, I obtained mercy because I had acted out of ignorance in unbelief. 14 And the grace (unmerited favor and blessing) of our Lord [actually] flowed out superabundantly and beyond measure for me, accompanied by faith and love that are [to be realized] in Christ Jesus.
Other translations describe him as
arrogant man
violent aggressor
insolent overbearing man
destructive person
injurious
We are talking about a guy who wrote 14 out of the 27 books in the New Testament. Text wise he covered %28 percent.
When he met Jesus the grace of God did an amazing and revolutionary work in his life. He was transformed:
from being Saul a hater of Christ to Paul a lover of Christ
from being Sual the destroyer to Paul the builder
from being an apostle of terror to an apostle of grace
This change wasn’t cosmetic or superficial. He was transformed to the core of his being.
The context of “I am what I am by the grace of God” concerns his ministerial assignment.
15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
Grace not only determined Paul’s personal identity in Christ, but also his ministerial assignment.
2. His grace toward me was not in vain.
10 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.
God’s grace must be expressed! Its not:
Empty
wasted
fruitless
worthless
without purpose
3. I labored more abundantly than they all.
He worked harder than all the apostles. Ministry is rooted in grace but it is still work.
Grace doesn't mean that we do not work. However:
grace influences why we work
how we work
our attitude toward work
Paul was always mindful that it was His grace that enabled and empowered him to work.
4. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Paul said he worked really hard but it wasn’t really him but the it was the grace of God within him.
Kind of sounds like:
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
in 407 Ad John Chrysostom wrote
“A man’s readiness and commitment are not enough if he does not enjoy help from above as well: equally , help from above is no benefit to us unless there is also commitment and readiness on our part”
Part 2
We are co-labor’s in God’s grace.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
Paul's assignment was to the gentiles and Peters was to the Jews. They both had a different grace for their assignments.
You have gifts that God has given you to be used. It’s my job to recognize the grace that is upon you and help you get to were you need to be.
Recognize the grace and character