By the Grace of God, I Am What I Am
If you do a search for who was the greatest missionary of all time, you will likely get multiple sources that point to the apostle Paul. By the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, he was a seasoned missionary and church planter and was likely on his third missionary tour when he wrote his letter to the Corinthians.
It is hard to truly calculate what we could credit to the apostle Paul in terms of churches planted. Several scholars suggest the number is 14 and base that on details given in Acts, along with supporting evidence from various epistles. However, as I have mentioned before, the Bible doesn’t give us every detail of what Jesus did, just as it doesn’t for the apostles or other characters in scripture. We do know that Paul was passionate about sharing the gospel where ever he traveled. And we also don’t know how many other house churches may have been established in the 14 locations we do know about.
When we read 1 Corinthians 15:9, then it is hard to wrap our minds around Paul’s claim:
“For I am the least of the apostles.” How can this be? After all, we have the church plants, the numerous letters to churches in the New Testament that represent nearly half of its books, and we haven’t even mentioned that your faith and mine are significantly tied to Paul’s work nearly 2,000 years ago.
We often think in terms of most and least, having to do with how many or how few. But I doubt Paul kept an Excel spreadsheet on how many people he shared the gospel with or how many conversions happened at the end of a sermon. Paul was focused on Jesus and his mission, and he conducted his missionary work on what he had already shared in chapter three:
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”
Paul went on to say in chapter 15 that he was unworthy to be called an apostle. What?! From our perspective, he was one of, if not, the greatest apostle. What Paul was trying to teach his readers was that the things that we do are not what make us great in God’s kingdom. And the things we do certainly do not make us worthy of salvation. Our salvation is all because of God’s grace.
Here in Corinthians, and elsewhere in Paul’s writings, he reminds the reader that he was the exact opposite of a Christian, being one who was versed in the Old Testament law and totally against the teachings of Jesus, so much so that he was persecuting and presiding over the murder of Christians. Until that day when Saul/Paul was blinded by the light on the road to Damascus and had an encounter with Jesus.
Therefore Paul said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.” After Paul’s conversion and the spiritual formation that came through the Holy Spirit and the guidance of other Christians, Paul was focused on just one thing: Preaching Christ and him crucified.
Paul’s testimony is a wonderful reminder to us that it doesn’t matter where we come from or what we have done in the past. What matters is that God loves us, and when we acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and surrender our lives to him, then everything changes.
And just like Paul, our testimony is, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.”
Father, thank you that it is not what we do that establishes our relationship with you. Thank you for loving us before we knew you and for dying for us even when we were sinners. Today, we renew our faith in Jesus as Lord and ask that you use us for your purposes so that others might one day experience your marvelous grace and love. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
1 Corinthians 15:9-11, 3:6-7 ESV
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