Daily Good News – I Am What I Am

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Jun 19, 2015 1084

“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” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Paul could have said, I am what I am because of my family’s money, or because of my great education, or my position of power in society. But he simply said, “I am what I am by the grace of God.”

In Philippians 3:7 and 8, after making a great list of all the things that are normally considered assets in society, he says, “These things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ. But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ.” Paul is a man who refuses to be identified by the apparent advantages in his life. But he equally refuses to be identified by the misfortunes and sufferings in his life.

Paul tells us that the most important thing about him is that he is what he is only by the grace of God. It is because of the Cross that Paul understands that he needs grace. There, he found grace and became a servant of grace. So Paul, the Pharisee of the Pharisees, the man of learning, the man of privilege and power, bent his knee in awe at the foot of the cross. And you and I must do the same, saying, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”