WONDERS OF GOD’S GRACE

“But by the GRACE of GOD I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain” – 1 Corinthians 15:10a

Allied to Mercy are the WONDERS of GOD’S GRACE: “But by the GRACE of GOD I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1Cor.15:10). God is rich in Mercy and Grace (Eph.2:4, 7). Mercy is not receiving what we do deserve. Grace is receiving what we do not deserve. We deserve to go to hell, but by Mercy were spared. We do not deserve to go to Heaven, but by Grace, it’ll be our eternal home. Mercy pardons; Grace justifies. Mercy saves us from hell. Grace admits us to heaven. God’s Mercy keeps us from what we couldn’t shield ourselves from. His Grace will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

God’s Mercy is immeasurable, inexhaustible, unfailing, and timeless. His Grace is unlimited and super-abundant, particularly towards His children. Paul knew the value of God’s Grace in His life and ministry. People who are ignorant of the Wonders of Grace often get confused and consequently respond to the beneficiary of grace with doubt, jealousy, or hatred. For instance, when God’s Grace found Saul and cleaned up his mess, forgave him, saved him and commissioned him as an Apostle to the gentles, people questioned and doubted his apostleship (Gal.1).

Here are few notable aspects of the Wonders of God’s Grace:

Grace overlooks and overrules our weaknesses. Several parts of scripture confirm that Paul was deficient in public speaking skills: “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible” (2Cor.10:10). He testified in 2 Corinthians 11:6a: “Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things.” Nonetheless, by the measure of the Grace of God on his life, he outperformed other Apostles including Peter who was the most vocal of the apostles. Grace compensated for his deficient speaking skill with prolific writing skill.

Grace turns a late starter into a front liner. Peter and the other eleven disciples were directly taught and mentored by Jesus. Paul had no teacher or mentor, but he had grace. The least of the apostles became the chief among them all: “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (v.9). When Peter was already promoting the gospel by winning thousands of souls to Christ; Paul was still persecuting the church. It is not when or how we started that matters, but the grace that we receive, carry, and respect.

Grace turns a nonentity to a celebrity. A nonentity is a person with no unique or special qualities, an insignificant person. Esther fit such description. She was described as: an orphan, trained by Mordecai, her uncle, a captive from Jerusalem, but a beautiful virgin. Despite all these, grace was at work for her, and she became a queen in a kingdom of 127 Provinces: “^“The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti” (Est. 2:17).

Grace compensates for our painful past. Ruth had a painful past, having lost her husband. However, grace connected her to Boaz, the wealthy relative to her late husband’s father (Ruth 2:2). She ultimately connected to the lineage of Jesus. For her, all the troubles, trials, temptation, and torments were all part of the works of grace, building up to position her for greatness.

Grace prevents us from ending the race of life in disgrace. It makes the journey, including any suffering on the way, to end in Praise. In one day, all Joseph’s losses were fully compensated for because of the Wonders of God’s Grace upon his life.