Acts chapter 9 tells us the story of Saul, a murderer of Christians, and of his personal experience with Jesus Christ. This is the revelation that Paul was speaking about in Galatians 1.
"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing murderous threats against the
Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters
to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who
belonged to the Way, whether man or woman, he might
take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey,
suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground
and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'
'Who are you, Lord?' Saul asked.
'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' He replied.
'Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do..."
But the Lord said to Ananias, 'Go! This man is My chosen instrument to
carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people
of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for My name,"
Acts 9:1-6, 15-16.
These scriptures illustrate to me two amazing truths. First, that God uses broken individuals such as Saul/Paul and such as myself! to bring to fruition His great purposes in this world! We are His vessels; He works in and through us, despite our shortcomings. Perfection is not required to be a disciple of His. In fact, He tell us in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in your weakness." Hallelujah! "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power might rest on me!" (Also from 2 Corinthians 12:9).
Acts 9 also reminds me that I've done nothing to merit God's grace and mercy and yet He willingly and freely bestows it upon me! This is the message that Paul preaches because he lived it, on the road to Damascus! He was on his way to murder followers of Jesus when Jesus Himself found him and chose him to carry His name to all the nations!! Paul wouldn't have chosen Jesus; indeed, Saul was on the warpath and determined to imprison anyone who claimed to know and love Jesus. But Jesus still chose him! Even, as my pastor Jean Larroux said, when Paul had the blood of other Christians under his fingernails! Even when he was on his way to round up believers and destroy the church, Jesus chose him! G.R.A.C.E is the only explanation for such a scandalous decision on God's part!
Paul preaches a gospel of faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone as the only way to salvation because he lived that message! The only thing that we have is Jesus. We have nothing else to boast in. Again, it is through faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone that we are considered children of God. "There but for the grace of God go I" is another fabulous quote (again, author unknown). If it weren't for Jesus' gracious intervention, Saul would have continued to persecute Christians and would never have come to know how great and wide and amazing was the love of God for him. Paul recognized this and so harps on the gospel of grace in much of his writing; hence his statement in Galatians 2:21 - "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" My pastor from back home, Jean, preached in a sermon on Galatians one Sunday that "your experience with grace defines your understanding of grace." Paul's experience with grace was radical; it so changed his heart that he became perhaps the most devoted disciple God has ever had. (Side note: most of these notes in this post are gathered from that same sermon that I heard Jean preach a few weeks ago. To listen to the sermon, go to www.southwood.org; the sermon is entitled "Paulwinianism: Origin of the Theses".)
"Your experience with grace defines your understanding of grace." How else could we even begin to comprehend how amazing grace is if we do not first recognize how grievous our sin is? I do not like to think about my sin. I am a "people pleaser" and that includes being a "God pleaser" as well. I do not like to do things that cause others to be disappointed in me. I do not like to "screw up." I am of the "older brother type" from the parable of the prodigal son. I try very hard to avoid circumstances and situations in which I'd need grace. I do not want to screw up so badly that I'd need grace to cover me! Please don't misunderstand me. I know that I am a sinner and that even my best efforts at measuring up fall miserably short. I know that I need grace every moment of every day. I recognize that I am broken and even recognize that that is good for me in that my brokenness pushes me to the foot of the cross daily. But I still do not like to disappoint. My theology is solid, but my heart is still unwilling to accept that I cannot be perfect in some things. I still want to believe that I can be a "good" person. Thus, I spend much time trying to avoid situations in which I would need grace. I don't like to be a charity case, as Jean puts it; I don't want the free grace that is being handed out!!
What Paul preaches in Galatians is God's message that it's not about trying harder to be "good." It's about resting in what Jesus has done for me on the cross. I am loved and rejoiced over and adopted into the Kingdom of God, not because I am a "good" person or because I work hard to please Him. I am adopted because I claim Jesus as my own. Sinful, messy, lustful, promiscuous, selfish, self-righteous...et cetera, et cetera... Britni Marie - she is rejoiced over by the God of the universe! And I do need His grace, and so do you - and thank Him that it is free and plentiful!! I have nothing other than Jesus to fall back on. I myself am not righteous. "There is no one righteous, not even one," Romans 3:10. Not even me, though my sinful heart would sometimes like to think that I am... I am spiritually blind to many of the sins in my heart. I am self-deceived, and Paul reminds me in Galatians that I need grace, every moment of every day.
Michael Horton in Christless Christianity wrote that "the bad news is far worse than making mistakes or failing to live up to the legalistic standards of fundamentalism. It is that the best efforts of the best Christians, on the best days, in the best frame of heart and mind, with the best motives fall short of that true righteousness and holiness that God requires. Our best efforts cannot satisfy God's justice. Yet the good news is that God has satisfied His own justice and reconciled us to Himself through the life, death and resurrection of His Son. God's holy law can no longer condemn us because we are in Christ." "When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God...For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified," Hebrews 10:12-14. It's not about me; it's about Jesus. It's always been about Jesus and will always continue to be about Jesus. I will never be able to measure up. It's just not who I am. I am a sinner, utterly incapable of choosing Jesus myself.
As Josiah Conder wrote in his song "My Lord, I Did Not Choose You:"
"My Lord I did not choose You, for that could never be.
My heart would still refuse You, had You not chosen me....
Unless Your grace had called me and taught my opening mind,
the world would have enthralled me to heavenly glories blind....
My heart knows none above You; for Your rich grace I thirst,
I know that if I love You, You must have loved me first."
G.R.A.C.E.
"God's Riches At Christ's Expense."
(Author unknown).
G.R.A.C.E.
"God's Riches At Christ's Expense."
(Author unknown).
you are an encouragement to me!
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