“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain…” (1 Cor. 15:10).
Through the mitre which the high priest wore we have a message of grace. “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 cor. 15:10). We may wonder why human beings like us so frail, so weak and so foolish, should be filled with His fullness. Why does God want to fill us with His fullness? The answer is not because of what we are, nor because of our cleverness or our gifts or our talents, but because of His grace. Perhaps you may think, a man like Paul can attain that standard of fullness, but I cannot because I am so weak. But Paul Himself declares that he is what he is only by the grace of God. It has to be the same with you and with me. Do not think that you can receive God’s fullness because of your Bible knowledge, or intelligence or other qualifications. It must be only by God’s grace. Therefore we should never take pride in our family or in our education or in anything else. The Lord shows us that if we want to be a partaker of His glory and beauty, we must learn how to claim His grace for everything. We are saved by His grace alone and after that, day by day, we have to claim the same grace for every need.
Sometimes, though very painful experiences the Lord teaches us that His grace is sufficient in every situation (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul, the apostle, had gone through many hardships without a murmur or complaint (2 Cor. 11:23). We read that God permitted him to suffer from a painful “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:17-9a). We do know what this thorn was. Evidently, it was something exceeding painful, because Paul says, “I be sought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.” This proves that the thorn must have been an extraordinarily painful one. At such a time, God’s answer was, “My grace is sufficient for thee”. God allowed the thorn to remain with Paul for a definite purpose. First of all, it was meant to keep him humble, lest Paul should be exalted above measure through the divine revelations given to him. Secondly, it was meant to teach him a little more of God’s grace. This cannot be understood easily. Even though Paul had received many revelations and wonderful experience, he still had to suffer this very painful thorn in the flesh in order to learn more of the grace of God. Thus we see that God permits all kinds of painful experiences in the lives of His children in order to teach them more of His grace.