1 Corinthians 15:10

This is the perfect and consummate glory in God: not to exult in one's own righteousness, but recognizing oneself as lacking true righteousness, to be justified by faith in Christ alone. Paul gloried in despising his own righteousness. In seeking after the righteousness by faith which is of God through Christ, he sought only to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death, so as to attain to the resurrection from the dead.… It is God who grants efficacy to our labors.

You are familiar with Paul, who labored so much and erected so many trophies in combat with the devil. He physically marched throughout the known world. He orbited the earth, ocean, air—he circled the world as if he had wings. He was stoned, beaten and murdered. He suffered everything for the name of God, called from above by a heavenly voice.… We know, we understand, he said, the grace we have received, and it did not find me inattentive.

Did you see how he reaped the benefit of God's liberality and then how abundantly he contributed his own share, by his zeal, his fervor, his faith, his courage, his patience, his lofty mind and his undaunted will? This is why he deserved a larger measure of help from above.

"But by the grace of God I am what I am." Seest thou again another excess of humility? in that the defects he imputes to himself, but of the good deeds nothing; rather he refers all to God. Next, lest he might hereby render his hearer supine, he saith, "And His grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain." And this again with reserve: in that he said not, "I have displayed a diligence worthy of His grace," but, "it was not found vain." "But I labored more abundantly than they all." He said not, "I was honored," but, "I labored;" and when he had perils and deaths to speak of, by the name of labor he again abates his expression. Then again practicing his wonted humility, this also he speedily passes by and refers the whole to God, saying, "Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." What can be more admirable than such a soul? who having in so many ways depressed himself and uttered but one lofty word, not even this doth he call his own; on every side finding ways, both from the former things and from them that follow after, to contract this lofty expression, and that because it was of necessity that he came to it.

Shortcomings he ascribes to himself, while perfections he attributes to the grace of God. And he said this with humility, for he did not say: I did something worthy of grace, but: the grace of God, which is in me, proved not to be in …

The Apostle, when he said: "By the grace of God I am what I am," adds: "I have labored more abundantly than all of them." Do you then praise yourself, O Apostle? No; whence he adds: "Not I, but the grace of God with me." …

908. – Therefore he says first: of myself I am nothing, but what I am, I am by the grace of God, i.e., from God, not from me: "Of this gospel I was made a minister" (Eph 3:7). And he says, what I am, because …

Nay, though he was conscious of his own diligence, and zeal, and service, so that he could say of himself, the grace of God was not given him in vain, but he laboured more abundantly than they all: he thought himself so much more the debtor to divine grace. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

I laboured more than they all - That is, more than any of them, from a deep sense of the peculiar love God had shown me. Yet, to speak more properly, it is not I, but the grace of God that is with me - This it is which at first qualified me for the work, and still excites me to zeal and diligence in it.

But by the grace of God I am what I am,....

THIS confession, suitable on the lips of Paul, is equally appropriate in the mouth of each one of us who have known and proved the Grace of God. We must consider Paul, according to his own account of himself, as being "not meet to be called an Apostle"—though "not a whit behind the very chief Apostles"—because he had persecuted the Church of God.

Though "not meet to be called an apostle," grace has given him, in Christ, the meetness needed for the office. Translate as the Greek, "His grace which was (showed) towards me." what I am--occupying the honorable office of an apostle.

THIS confession, suitable on the lips of Paul, is equally appropriate in the mouth of each one of us who have known and proved the Grace of God. We must consider Paul, according to his own account of himself, as being "not meet to be called an Apostle"—though "not a whit behind the very chief Apostles"—because he had persecuted the Church of God. In respect of personal merit, he knew that he did not deserve to be accounted of at all, yet, when the sole ground of approbation was not the service he had rendered to his Sovereign, but the favor which his Sovereign had bestowed upon him, he could say, "By the Grace of God I am what I am." Take the meanest lamb in Jesus' fold, the feeblest heir of Grace, the most timid and fearing—the most hopeless and helpless of all disciples, the man most devoid of talent, the man who stands the very lowest on the list of the saints of God—surely he may and must say that "by the Grace of God" he is what he is, so far as he is in Christ—a Believer, with all the privileges that Believers have a gracious right to claim! Let this be your comfort, you little ones, that the same Grace that made an Apostle of Paul has made a Christian of you. The same power that has quickened the mightiest man in the army of the Lord of Hosts has also quickened you. The Grace that saves the greatest saves the least. If the largest and brightest gem in the crown of Christ reflects His Grace and glorifies His love, even so shall you, though you are as the smallest pearl that shall be set in His glorious diadem of honor! Then, next, take the Apostle Paul in the other way he describes himself in our text.

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon on the same passage is #2833, Volume 49—LESSONS ON DIVINE GRACE] IF you will read the context of this passage, you will find that these words occur in one of Paul's digressions, or parenthesis. He was a writer who very frequently went off at a tangent—he often left the subject on which he was writing, turned his thoughts in quite another direction—and then came back and went on with the subject which he had left for a while. In this respect, I have often, in my own mind, likened the Apostle Paul to Samson.

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon on the same passage is #2833, Volume 49—LESSONS ON DIVINE GRACE] IF you will read the context of this passage, you will find that these words occur in one of Paul's digressions, or parenthesis. He was a writer who very frequently went off at a tangent—he often left the subject on which he was writing, turned his thoughts in quite another direction—and then came back and went on with the subject which he had left for a while. In this respect, I have often, in my own mind, likened the Apostle Paul to Samson. When he was on the road to Timnah with his father and mother, he turned aside to slay the lion and afterwards to find the honey in the carcass. And each time he came back to his parents, just as if nothing had happened. So the Apostle Paul often turns aside from some grand argument upon which he is engaged and says something very valuable and important upon quite another topic—and then comes back again and calmly and deliberately goes on with his argument! There are some kinds of parenthesis which we can always excuse and, indeed, commend. For instance, the parenthesis of prayer. When we are engaged in any duty, it will not delay us—really we shall make all the better speed—if we pause for a while to pray.

But, by the grace of God I am what I am - God, by his mere grace and good will, has called me to be an apostle, and has denominated me such. And his grace, etc. - Nor have I been unfaithful to the Divine call; I used the grace which he gave me; and when my labors, travels, and sufferings are considered, it will be evident that I have labored more abundantly than the whole twelve. This was most literally true.

But by the grace of God I am what I am - By the “favor” or mercy of God. What I have is to be traced to him, and not to any native tendency to goodness, or any native inclination to his service, or to any merit of my own. All my hopes of heaven; all my zeal; all my success; all my piety; all my apostolic endowments, are to be traced to him. Nothing is more common in the writings of Paul, than a disposition to trace all that he had to the mere mercy and grace of God. And nothing is a more certain indication of true piety than such a disposition. The reason why Paul here introduces the subject seems to be this. He had incidentally, and undesignedly, introduced a comparison in one respect between himself and the other apostles. He had not had the advantages which they had. Most of all, he was overwhelmed with the recollection that he had been a persecutor. He felt, therefore, that there was a special obligation resting on him to make up by diligence for the lack of their advantages of an early personal conversation with the Lord Jesus, and to express his gratitude that so great a sinner had been made an apostle. He, therefore, says, that he had not been idle. He had been enabled by the grace of God, to labor more than all the rest, and he had thus shown that he had not been insensible of his obligations. But I laboured more abundantly ... - I was more diligent in preaching; I encountered more perils; I have exerted myself more. The records of his life, compared with the records of the other apostles, fully show this. Yet not I - I do not attribute it to myself. I would not boast of it. The fact is plain, and undeniable, that I have so labored. But I would not attribute it to myself. I would not be proud or vain. […]