The Hard Work of Grace

Recently in my time with the Lord I was reading in the Word and the following caught my eye:

"For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve 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 to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." 1 Corinthians 15:9-10

What struck me was Paul's comment recognizing God's grace in who he was. That even though he had persecuted the early church to the point of imprisonment and even death, God in his grace had made Paul an apostle. It is as though Paul looked back at his life and could see God's grace at work even through the ugly parts. I suspect that in Paul's comment there's a twinge of regret.

Paul goes on to say that this grace that made him what he was, was also responsible for making him work really hard. Did grace cause him to work really hard at ministry? Did grace empower him to work hard in changing himself? It's not clear, although the context of working harder than the other apostles makes it sound as though he is refering to ministry. But I wonder if he felt that since they had been with Christ since the beginning, that gave the others a significant head start in understanding, faith and character development. I guess that I lean towards the idea that it was both. That grace motivated Paul to grow and to minister.

The interesting thing here is how Paul puts grace and hard work together. This is something that I don't see very often today. Perhaps there are lots of reasons for this, but I wonder if one of those reasons is that evangelicals are so concerned that people understand salvation is by "grace through faith and not because of works" that we have a knee-jerk reaction to seeing grace and work in the same sentence? Yes, grace does opposes earning, but it is not opposed to work. God's love and forgiveness cannot be earned, but that same love and forgiveness is spoken of as "compelling us (2 Cor. 5:14)". In fact it would appear from Paul's comments that grace actually spurs people on to work, and to work hard.

This, I think, is important today because I often hear references to grace in ways that would indicate the person expects grace to make things easier. Yet grace may allow things to be difficult, to be hard.

A little later I read:

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

In the context the veil refers to an inability to see the Glory of God and it is removed when a person turns to the Lord. That is clear. As I read the passage the words "unveiled faces" stood out to me. Understanding that, in Christ, my sin is removed, it struck me that there is also an aspect of me unveiling my face to the Lord. We speak of becoming a Christian as stepping into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and relationship means openning ourselves up to him. Not only does he take the veil away to enable us to see, but there is also an element that indicates we take away a veil as well and say "Yes, Lord, I desire relationship with you." (see Revelation 3:20)

As I pondered this I had to admit that sometimes the most difficult part of following Jesus is taking away the veil (or veils) that I so often hide behind. Of openning myself up more deeply, more fully, to the Lord. Even though I know intellectually that he loves me, it can be a scary thing to reveal more of myself to him. Yet that is simply the nature of relationship and it is in doing this that I experience his love for me and grow more secure in him.

In fact this can be for me the hard work of grace. As I encounter his grace I realize he wants more of me and the hard work of relationship begins anew. Maybe that is why Flannery O'Connor once said,

"All human nature vigourously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful. Priests resist it as well as others."

Grace, grace. The hard work of grace. God's unconditional love meeting me where I am, but unwilling to leave me as I am, if only I will open myself up to him and to the hard work to come.