“Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8). It is hard for humanity to accept the fact that we are natural born sinners, and except for the grace of God, we would end up in the lake of fire with Satan and his demons (Revelation 21:8). It is also hard for humanity to recognize how inherently evil we are. If you doubt that, then just think about what you sometimes think about and the evil words you sometimes speak against other people and the evil actions that you sometimes do against other people. James wrote, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless…But no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison” (James 1:26, 3:8). The Bible says, “There is no one righteous, not even one…there is no one who does good, not even one… For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:10,12). Our thoughts, words and actions condemn us all.
Paul saw himself as less than the least of all of the saints and not fit to be called an apostle because he had persecuted the church of God (2 Corinthians 15:9). In contrast to Paul’s attitude, is the attitude in people who believe they deserve God’s blessings. This type of person goes around telling people how great they are or how much better they are than other people because of their looks, their wealth, their knowledge or their human heritage and the list goes on and on. This type of person goes around telling of all the reasons that God has chosen to use them and bless them. The problem with this is that when we can understand why God chose to use us or why God chooses to bless us, spiritual pride has taken over our life and we are in deep spiritual trouble. There is a lot of pride in our life that we need to deal with. That is the total opposite of what Paul saw in himself as less than the least of all the saints.
I believe that Paul had regrets about seeking to destroy those who called upon the name of Jesus. I think that Paul always kept in mind the memory of Stephen who ministered so powerfully through the Spirit of God when Paul was there with the Sanhedrin as they stoned Stephen to death, and seeing Stephen’s face shine like an angel and hearing Stephen say, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). This made such a lasting impression on Paul that he never forgot that he had been a part of the religious crowd that had murdered Stephen. I’m sure that it troubled Paul that he could have been so blinded by religious traditions that he had missed the truth. And we need to be careful that we are not so blinded by the traditions of this world and the traditions of the church that we miss the truth of God.
Paul wrote to Timothy, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:12-15). Most professing Christians are willing to admit that they are sinners, but not the worst; but if you can’t say, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am one of the worst, then pride has gotten hold of your life—and pride is the worst sin.
Paul wrote, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10). Paul had been of the strictest sect of Pharisees; he wouldn’t even allow a Gentile to touch him, but now God had given him the ministry of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles—what a dramatic change God had done in his life—Paul never ceased to be amazed at God’s wonderful grace toward him. That the Lord would use him in the ministry Paul saw that as a manifestation of the grace of God toward him. But isn’t that true of all of us! Everything we have in this life, our skills, our knowledge, our physical abilities, our families and all the other blessings that God gives us are totally of God’s grace. And if you can’t say that it is by the grace of God I am what I am, then your pride is totally out of control. And the Bible tells us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).
All of us have lived sinful lifestyles at one time or another, and all of us commit sins every day of our life in thought, word or action. We need to get rid of that self-righteous attitude that too often plagues our lives and realize that we need the grace of God every day, hour and second of our life. And the only way we can have God’s grace in our lives is to admit how sinful we are and come to the throne of grace to receive forgiveness for our sins through faith in Jesus Christ. We are all natural born sinners, we have no righteousness of our own, but we can have God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthian 5:21).