WildB
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Member # 2917
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posted
by Russell S. Miller
"How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities" (IICor.12:4,5).
When the world was ripe for the judgment of God to fall upon it, the Lord Jesus Christ in mercy and grace reached down to save "the chief of sinners," and in so doing God "shewed forth all longsuffering" to a lost and dying world.
"And [Saul] trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6).
It is most touching, after being caught up to the third heaven (IICor.12:1-7), that this once proud Pharisee should speak most humbly of the Christ who had saved him from such an eternal loss, making him "the Apostle of grace." In a number of passages Paul speaks with such gratitude of the matchless grace of God and his own unworthiness:
"For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:
"And profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers" (Gal.1:13,14).
"For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet 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 which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (ICor.15:9,10).
In Ephesians 3:7, the Apostle tells us that he is "made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God, given unto me by the effectual working of His power.
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph.3:8).
And Paul's apostleship is further confirmed in I Timothy 2:7:
"Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity."
The theme of Paul's epistles is "Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph.1:2). This is why Paul is "the Apostle of grace."
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That is all.....
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