Focus: Made By Grace

Text: 1Cor.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."

Paul is greatly humbled by grace. When grace honors you, you are humbled. Paul is appreciating and extolling the grace of Christ.

Paul is saying, 'I am grace-made, not man-made, nor self-made. I am made and destined by grace. Whatever I am, whatever I have achieved, whatever I am becoming, and whatever good I am capable of, the grace of Christ is behind it. I am nothing without grace. I am empty without grace.'

Grace met Paul as a sinner and changed him into a saint. Grace met Paul as a destroyer of the church and changed him into a builder of the church. Grace turned him from a persecutor to a preacher and from a believer to an apostle.

From our text, God bestowed grace UPON him, and grace was also WITH him. God changed and advanced him by grace. God put on him the royal attire of grace. He labored, wearing the apron of grace. Grace touched and transformed Paul.

Paul talks with grace-emboldened braggadocio. He says with pomp and pageantry, "By the grace of God I am what I am." Paul is what he is by the grace of God. He is a product of grace. Everything he achieved was due to the grace of God. He attained greatness through grace. Grace gave Paul divine status that is unattainable by human endeavor.

Paul is a witness of what the grace of Christ can do in a person's life if or when it is wholeheartedly embraced and fully employed. Paul found no room in his life for pride or self-praise.

Child of God, you are made by grace. You are saved by grace. You are set apart by grace. You are enriched by grace. You are endowed by grace. You are empowered by grace. Grace is taking you from earth to heaven and from time to eternity. Grace saves and secures. Grace enables you to labor productively. I pray that the grace of God upon your life will not be in vain.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter