“By the Grace of God I Am What I Am . . . .”

This is what the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:10. Then he adds that this grace toward him had not been in vain. Everyone can say this last part if something has truly been created in his life. However, when he writes further that “I labored more abundantly than they all,” most people cannot say much about what they have become or what they have done in God’s kingdom by God’s grace.

Everything goes according to the laws of the Spirit of life with perfect precision and without any exception whatsoever!

What God has been able to do in us consists of two things: 1) How much we have partaken of divine nature, of the virtues of Christ, and 2) How much we have done with our lives and through our ministry.

What God was able to do in Paul’s life and through him was simply phenomenal!

Now the main thing or the essence of the matter is—and this pertains to everyone—“God . . . gives grace to the humble.” God resists the proud, the haughty, and the arrogant. Jas. 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5.

This means that the more humble I am, the more grace I receive; the less humble I am, the less grace I receive. This decides the whole matter.

People usually have all kinds of other explanations for why it is not different with them than it is. All these explanations are nothing but excuses.

The truth of the matter is simply this: If I had been more humble, God could have done more in me, and then also through me.

By God’s grace we all are what we are. However, people have received this grace in widely varying degrees.

God’s grace can also be received in vain. 1 Cor. 15:2, 10; 2 Cor. 6:1; Jas. 1:26.