Grace doesn’t just save us — it shapes us, sends us, and stays with us.
“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:10
The Apostle Paul was quick to testify of the grace of God in his life. He knew he was saved by grace. He served by grace. He was sustained by grace. Paul never forgot what he was — and he never forgot why he was no longer that man.
The short-statement biography of every child of God can be summed up in five simple words: “by the grace of God.”Everything we are, and anything God ever does through us, is traced back to grace.
PAUL WAS FORMED BY GRACE
v.10 — “But by the grace of God I am what I am…”
Paul understood that who he was had nothing to do with who he used to be. His life had undergone a complete revolution — a regeneration. He went from hateful to loving, cruel to kind, self-serving to a servant of the Saviour. A persecutor became a preacher. A destroyer became a church planter.
How did that happen? Grace formed him.
Grace didn’t just forgive Paul — it remade him.
As Billy Sunday once said, “The law tells me how crooked I am. Grace comes along and straightens me out.”
PAUL FUNCTIONED BY GRACE
v.10 — “…his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain…”
The same grace that changed Paul compelled Paul. Grace never produces laziness — it produces labor. Paul gave himself tirelessly to the work of God, not to earn grace, but because he had received it.
What motivated him?
What sustained him?
What pushed him forward when the journey was hard?
Grace did.
Grace doesn’t sit idle — grace functions.
PAUL WAS FORTIFIED BY GRACE
v.10 — “…yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
Paul prayed in grace.
He preached in grace.
He suffered in grace.
In victory and sorrow, ease and pain, joy and defeat, the grace of God was with him. Grace was not just something Paul looked back on — it was something he leaned on every step of the way. Grace fortifies the believer for the journey God assigns.
ILLUSTRATION
Legendary artist Pablo Picasso once gave a portrait he painted of Gertrude Stein as a gift. Years later, art collector Dr. Albert Barnes asked how much she had paid for it. “Nothing,” she replied. “He just gave it to me.”
The collector was stunned that something so valuable could be freely given.
How much more have we received — not by payment, not by merit, but by grace.
