AMAZING GRACE
WE "LABOR" BY GRACE
A. BY THE GRACE OF GOD I AM WHAT I AM
"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," I Cor 15:10.
Paul was evidently the greatest of the apostles. He
made more missionary trips, witnessed more people saved,
more churches established, more men ordained to preach
under his ministry, wrote more inspired letters, labored
more, suffered more. Yet he said, "By the GRACE of God
I am what I am."
Observe that he said, "I
labored". Again, observe that he said, "I LABORED."
He LABORED more abundantly than all the apostles, yet he
said, "yet not I. but it was the GRACE of God that was
with me." The word "labor" (kopiao) means "to feel
fatigue," "to work hard."
Now just what kind of "works" were these "labors?"
If they were the works of man (our works, works of the
Law, works of the flesh), then they could NOT be by grace
and God would NOT accept them. But since they were the
works of grace, and were therefore the works of God
through the Holy Spirit as the Spirit administers the New
Covenant in and through us, then God will accept them. The
works of God through the Holy Spirit are grace works.
These works do indeed go together with grace.
It makes a difference what kind of works our works
are. We must understand there are two opposite kinds of
works. We can easily brand someone as being "cultic" and
of the "Galatian heresy" if we do not understand that
man's works and God's works are two different kinds of
works, that God's works are "grace works, and that God's
works and grace works do go together because they are one
and the same.
B. GRACE IS "GIVEN" TO US
"According to the GRACE of God which was GIVEN to
me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation,
and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how
he builds on it," I Cor 3:10.
"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," I Cor 15:10.
"But He GIVES more GRACE. Therefore He says: "God
resists the proud, but GIVES grace to the humble," James
4:6.
"We then, as workers together with Him also plead
with you NOT to receive the GRACE of God in vain," II Cor
6:1.
"Moreover the law entered that the offense might
abound. But where sin abounded, GRACE abounded much more,"
Rom 5:20.
"And He said to me, 'My GRACE is sufficient for
you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'
Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,
in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's
sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong," II Cor
12:9-10.
"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of
GRACE, that we may obtain mercy and find GRACE to help in
time of need," Heb 4:16.
"And with great power the apostles gave witness to
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great GRACE was
UPON them all," Acts 4:33.
"GRACE TO YOU and peace from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you
for the GRACE of God which was GIVEN to you by Christ
Jesus," I Cor 1:3-4. See again: Rom 1:5; 5:15; 12:3,6; I
Cor 1:4; II Cor 9:8; Gal 2:9; Eph 3:2,7,8; 4:7-8 (I Cor
1:4-7); Heb 12:28; I Pet 4:10; 5:5.
"GRACE be to you and peace...." This
invocation of GRACE and very similar expressions are used
over thirty additional times from Rom 1 to Rev 22. The
grace and peace invocation is very appropriate because the
New Covenant is a covenant of grace and a covenant of
peace with no condemnation and no charging of sin against
the covenant people as under the Law Covenant.
We stand in GRACE in the New Covenant (New GRACE
Covenant) so we have grace all the time, and there are
many, many times when we need more grace (more
help).
We have grace all the time if we are truly serving
God, but there are times we have greater needs and
therefore need more grace. During those times of greater
need we humble ourselves all the more and keep on going to
the throne of grace by fasting and prayer to obtain mercy
and find more grace to help.
C. PAUL AGREES WITH JAMES
"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says
he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?"
James 2:14.
"Thus also FAITH by itself, if it does not have
WORKS, is dead," James 2:17.
"But do you want to know, O foolish man, that FAITH
without WORKS is dead? Was not Abraham our father
justified by WORKS when he offered Isaac his son on the
altar? Do you see that FAITH was WORKING together with his
works, and by WORKS FAITH was made perfect?" James
2:20-22.
"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision avails anything, but FAITH WORKING through
love," Gal 5:6.
"Remembering without ceasing your WORK of FAITH,
labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus
Christ in the sight of our God and Father," I Thess
1:3.
"Therefore we also pray always for you that our God
would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all
the good pleasure of His goodness and the WORK of FAITH
with power," II Thess 1:11.
Faith without works will accomplish nothing as far
as the christian "life" is concerned. It must have works,
and faith that pleases God always has works. But what kind
of works are they? Of course, they are NOT human works.
They are faith works, grace works, God's works, the works
of the Holy Spirit.
Initial faith in God that brings salvation from
hell has no HUMAN works, but it has the works of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit before and after:
instruction, conviction, faith in facts, contrition with
godly sorrow, repentance with trusting faith, and then
salvation as the result, all by the working of the Holy
Spirit.
Now from this point on is where so many people
become confused and brand God's works as human works. We
must learn to see and make the proper distinction between
God's works and human works.
Do not get "human works" mixed up with "God's
works:" human works are works of the human mind and body
apart from faith, trusting in self-works rather than
trusting in God as we see in Rom 10:1-3; while God's works
are the works of the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit uses
and works through the human mind and body.
Faith must work, but its the working of the Holy
Spirit using our minds and bodies both "to will and to
do" the will and pleasure of God in and through us.
The decisions that we make with our minds by faith and the
performance of those decisions, including the modifying of
those decisions as we perform them by faith, is the
working of God in and through us by the Holy Spirit.
From our vantage point of observation, these are
our works; however, if they are according to the Word of
God and by true Bible faith, they are not our works but
God's works in and through us by the Holy Spirit. They are
therefore by grace through faith.
D. JESUS AGREES WITH PAUL AND JAMES
"Then they said to Him, 'What shall we do, that we
may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to
them, 'This is the WORK of God, that you BELIEVE in Him
whom He sent," John 6:28-29.
True Bible faith is not a human work, but a work of
God. This is impossible for the human mind to understand,
but since spiritual things are spiritually taught (II Cor
2:10-16) and therefore a work of God, we can understand
it.
We can see how Jesus, Paul, and James are all
agreed that faith works, and that faith and God's works go
together and are both God's grace.
E. PAUL, PETER, JAMES, AND LUKE ALL AGREE
"If indeed you have heard of the dispensation
(stewardship) of the grace of God which was given to me
for you," Eph 3:2.
"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," I Cor 15:10.
"As each one has received a gift, minister it to
one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of
God," I Pet 4:10.
"But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: 'God
resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble," James
4:6.
"And with great power the apostles gave witness to
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was
upon them all," Acts 4:33.
Paul and Peter testify that we have grace as a
stewardship, and Paul states explicitly that all his hard
labors were by grace and were always sufficient for him.
James wrote that God gives "more grace," evidently
to those who are more humble and more faithful, as Luke
states that Steven and Barnabas were "full of faith" (Acts
6:5,8; 11:24), and Paul said grace is given to us
according to the measure of faith given to each of us, Rom
12:3,6.
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