Can grace be in vain?

CALL TO PRAYER

Date: 29/01/2022

By: Owusu Clifford S.

Title – Can grace be in vain?

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. – 1st Corinthians 15:10 

The question, “can God’s grace in the life of a Christian be in vain?”, is one of the salient questions for all believers. We believe that God’s grace is abundant and often we boast in the fact that God’s grace is sufficient for us. Undoubtedly, these are true and some time back we established that God’s grace is complete and all-encompassing. First, it is good to establish here that grace in the context of today’s message is not the grace for salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), but the grace for daily living after salvation.

In our verse for today, Apostle Paul emphasises that the grace of God towards him was not in vain. Thus, it stands to reason that God’s grace towards others can be in vain. So, what made God’s grace towards Apostle Paul not to be in vain? He continues that he worked harder than them all. Hence, grace has been given to produce works, good works for that matter, and without the manifestation of the works, grace seems to have been in vain.

Now let us take a classic example of how grace can be in vain. In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), the master gave talents/gifts to the servants according to their abilities. It is worth noticing that the servants were under the same grace. However, two of the servants worked to increase their talents 100% each. On the other hand, the servant with one talent hid it and it never became useful. Grace was available to all the servants because they were under the same conditions, the same environment, and in the same situation. The grace seemed to have been in vain for the servant with one talent because he refused to work with what was given to him. Therefore, without works grace seems to have been in vain.

It was no coincidence that Apostle James said that he would prove his faith (let’s not forget grace is a by-product of faith) by his works (James 2:17-18). Often, we focus too much on grace, which is not bad, to the neglect of work. Most believers are poor, not seeing any progress in their spiritual lives because they have refused to work with what God has given them. In 1st Peter 1:5, Apostle Peter admonishes us to make every effort to add to our faith some vital things. The effort is the work we put in. If those things will be gained automatically there would not be the need for effort.

I believe there was no one who understood God’s grace better than Apostle Paul. But the numerous churches he planted did not just come by sitting down under the grace of God, he worked tirelessly to bring them into being. Beloved, without effort, even with the grace of God, we will not see the manifestation of anything in our lives. Effort requires discipline. We all have an obligation to ask ourselves this question: does it seem like God’s grace has been in vain in my life? if the answer is yes, then there is the need to start working now because time is limited. Grace is what we need, and God has made it available. Let’s put in the work and God will glorify Himself. God bless you!

Prayer:

Let us thank God for His word today and the answers to all our prayers. Let us pray for greater desire to do more work in the kingdom so that it will not seem as though God’s grace has been in vain in our lives.

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