Grace facilitates one’s progressive development into the fullness of his personal calling, mandate and assignment in God, and above all causes the persons to efficiently and successfully fulfill the purposes of God attendant with his life and that of others.

The passage of Scripture below indicates that grace configures one’s identity, mandate and function.

1 Cor. 15:9,10

9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but

I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Grace, the divine enablement and empowerment given by God, is what causes you to become all that God has destined for you to be and do all that God has assigned for you to do. One should grow in grace constantly. Grace will cause you to function at a level beyond your natural capacity. In verse 9, viewing things naturally and based on his prior persecution of the church, Paul feels that he is the least of all apostles and also feels disqualified from apostolic function. But then he shifts gear and perspective, and calls to mind that the GRACE of God in his life corrects both issues.

Paul is essentially saying two things in verse 10 :

1.“I AM what I am by grace”

2. “I laboured – yet not me, but God’s grace with me’

The grace of God qualified him where his personal history disqualified him! Where human failure, weakness and even sin disqualifies us from becoming the men or women that God intended for us to be and thus fulfill a specific assignment in which we are called to ‘labour’, then GRACE removes all natural, disqualifying elements and validates our identity (who we are as sons of God), our mandate (the specific call to ministry function we have) and the degree of our function (the effectiveness with which we work).

Focus on these two statements: ‘I am – by grace’ ; ‘I work – by grace’.

I AM by Grace - Identity and Specific Ministry Role

I LABOUR by Grace - Work and Function

Paul both Lived and Laboured by Grace

1 Cor. 3:10,11

10 ACCORDING TO THE GRACE OF GOD which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation,

and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

The words ‘according to’ suggest ‘in keeping with’. Paul laid the foundation of Jesus Christ in the Corinthian Church. He did this according to the grace of God given to him. He was not the foundation. He laid THE foundation, viz. Jesus Christ. The Grace of God given to him allowed him and empowered him to do this. His work was a direct reflection of his ‘grace content’. Had he worked outside of his grace configuration, he would have worked in vain (see 1 Cor. 15:10; Psalm 127:1).

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