the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Grace for Today
1 Corinthians 15:10
‘By the grace of God I am what I am’
Read Isaiah 51:1-23
This is my testimony. This is my confession of faith. This is my hope. ‘ By the grace of God I am what I am.’ It is certain that I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I desire to be. And I am not what I hope to be. But blessed be God, I am not what I once was. God has mercifully brought me up out of the deep miry clay and set my feet upon the Rock, Christ Jesus. He has saved my soul. And now it is my desire to extol and honor his matchless, free, sovereign and distinguishing grace, because ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ It is my heart’s great joy to ascribe my salvation entirely to the grace of God.
This is my doctrinal confession. Do you want to know what is the sum and substance of my doctrine? Do you want to know the essence of all that I believe? It is just this: ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ Let me put it in such it way that you cannot mistake my meaning. Salvation is altogether the work of God’s grace. Salvation is not in any degree whatsoever the work of man. Salvation is not by man’s will, but by God’s will. Salvation is not man’s work, but God’s work. Salvation is not accomplished by man’s decision, but by the grace of God. Like Jonah, all of God’s people have learned that ‘salvation is of the Lord!’ (Jonah 2:9.) ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast’ Ephesians 2:8-9). ‘[God] hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began’ (2 Timothy 1:9). Grace elected me. Grace redeemed me. Grace sought me. Grace give me life. Grace revealed Christ in me. Grace gave me faith. Grace taught me to pray. Grace preserves me. From beginning to end, salvation is by the grace of God. With the apostle Paul, I freely and gladly renounce all human merit. I am not what I am as the result of any thing good which God foresaw would be in me. Like all other men, there is nothing good in me by nature. I am not what I am as the result of anything I have done. Like all men, I was without strength. But ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’
