BEING WHAT WE ARE

Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been 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. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

— 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (NRSV)

 

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and [God’s] grace toward me has not been in vain.” (v. 15)

It is very easy to read right past this little sentence, buried in the middle of Paul’s proclamation of the resurrection. It is easy to get caught up in his passionate defence and his historical synopsis of the events which he relates as proof of the gospel promise.

In the spiritual life, there is always the temptation to allow the easy intellectualization of doctrine to take the place of the harder work which leads to a personal experience of the living Christ. Eloquence and rhetoric too often serve as substitutes for the intimate love which is found in relationship with the Redeeming One.

That’s why this little sentence is so enormously important. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and [God’s] grace toward me has not been in vain.”

That statement is really the point of everything Paul is proclaiming about the resurrection. This sentence explains why the promise of God in Jesus Christ is so powerful—why the promise of life beyond the temporal and material is so earth-shattering.

It is a promise of infinitely-recurring abundant renewal. It is a statement about the transformative power of God’s grace—and a profound affirmation that such grace is never in vain.

We can test its importance by asking the simple question, “Could I make the same claim?”

I suspect that many of us would have a hard time saying with any conviction that “by the grace of God I am what I am.” We are more likely to attribute our intelligence, physical attributes, or good health to our genes. We are more likely to attribute our gifts and strengths to personal attention and to wise decisions about schooling or training. And likely, when it comes to our achievements, we give the credit to our own hard work.

Not very often do we thank God or praise God for the complexity and wholeness of our very being.

However, even those of us who do see our lives as an outpouring of God’s love and abundance—as a statement about who God is, rather than an opportunity to feel self-satisfied—might have trouble with the second part of the sentence: and [God’s] grace toward me has not been in vain.”

We are only too well aware of the compromises that mark our decisions and choices. I suspect that few of us truly live—with any consistency—the values which we know to be the highest.

I suspect few of us own the radically subversive message of the gospel as the pole star by which we navigate our spiritual journey.

Yet the promise of the resurrection is all about being changed so that what we are is a reflection of God’s desire for us. Changed so that what we do manifests that holy desire in ways that co-create, that redeem, and that sustain wholeness and holiness within creation.

The resurrection is not merely about how God responded to Jesus. It is not merely about Jesus’ commitment to embody God’s desire upon the earth. No.

The resurrection must be about us, or else it has no meaning for us. If Jesus—and Jesus alone—is to be raised into oneness with God, then our whole “faith” is about a historical event that is over and done with.

The resurrection is the promise that the power of God will always be stronger than the brokenness of the world. It is the promise that the power of God will always be broader than human possibilities.

It was God’s power working in Jesus that raised him from death. It is the profound identity that Jesus was willing to claim with God that could not stay dead, even when the body had been slain.

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and [God’s] grace toward me has not been in vain.”

Paul’s statement tells us where we are to ground ourselves if we are to be faithful people of God. It tells us who we are to be as a people professing God’s incarnation and the resurrection God offers.

In our daily routine, we are called to be who we are in God’s eyes. We are called to be people who are liberated from slavery to any destructive force, whether it is:

• Love of money;
• Lust for power;
• Addictions—whether to substances, or gaming, or persons, or control;
• Eating disorders;
• Pornography; or a myriad of other things, including the most destructive of them all …
• Self-righteousness.

We are called to be people who are set free from imprisonment in prejudice or hatred; in anger, greed, lust, or violence; in apathy or self-serving.

God calls us to be people who are strong in generosity and compassion, in purity and love, in holiness and mercy—reflecting the One in whose image we are created.

We are to be people who act on behalf of justice and equity and respect, on behalf of human dignity, on behalf of gentle inter-dependence with the other species who share this world—and with the earth itself.

We are called to reflect God’s own tenderness toward all creation—for we are God’s hope for its health and abundance.

Who we are by God’s grace are people whose lives enable God’s being to be revealed in the moments and the movements of time.

And we are to be people who can claim that God’s grace toward us has not been in vain.

Of course we will make mistakes—just as Paul did—but we are to be people who, again and again, reach beyond those mistakes to the vision of who God sees us to be.

We are not perfect, but we are people who seek over and over to act in such ways that God’s perfection can be glimpsed through us.

When we are willing to live so that God’s grace in us has not been in vain, then we are living in a deep and abiding relationship with God. And that is the building material from which God’s realm will be crafted.

Then—and only then—will the power of God be so intense within the boundaries of the universe, that time will stop. Time will stop because nothing can die any longer. Then our belief in the resurrection will become abundant reality—for all that was, and is, and is to be. Amen.