We enjoy when people write and say that for the first time in their life they're enjoying and understanding their Bible. We trust in that light the Lord is using us. Now, in I Corinthians 15:10 we start the verse with "But." Paul is going to use the flip side, and we showed you in Ephesians 2:1-3 where he listed all the things that were part of the past of every one of us, and then in verse 4 he begins: "But God" - the flip side. We're no longer what we were, but rather we are what we are, not because we have done so much, but because God has done it all. Now it's the same way here. The Apostle Paul does not claim that he received his apostleship because he was so educated, which of course he had been. He doesn't claim to be the apostle of the Gentiles because of some merit on his part:


I Corinthians 15:10a

"But by the grace of God I am what I am:..."


I remember the question came up in one our classes, "What's the difference between Grace and mercy?" Well Dr. Bellamy got a computer program with all the Greek, and ramifications of the Hebrew, so I asked him to look up the difference between the two on his program. Then the other night he shared with us, and I haven't gotten it out of my craw ever since. "Grace is that attribute of God, that unmerited favor which makes the pouring out of His mercy possible." Have you got that? If it weren't for the Grace of God, He could have never poured out His mercy on mankind, because we don't deserve it. But since Grace is that unmerited favor, then God was able to pour out His mercy. Now don't you love that? I'm going to be teaching that every chance I get, that it's the Grace of God that makes it possible for Him to show mercy rather than wrath and judgment. So here this persecutor, this raging religious zealot who hated the Name of Jesus with a passion, in verse 10 says:


I Corinthians 15:10a

"But by the grace of God I am what I am:..."