Purpose and Grace

One of my absolute favorite passages in all of Scripture is 2 Timothy 1:8-9 which says,

Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began…

God has allowed me to be a pastor.  Technically, my job titles says that I’m a “Minister to Students” but I view my ultimate calling as a pastor to the local church.  This is a great job.  I get paid to preach, study God’s Word, hang out with believers, share truth with the lost, encourage those who are struggling and work alongside other great people doing the same.  Through all of these things, I get to daily see God reveal his glory and majesty!

Now here’s the amazing thing in all of this: I’ve done absolutely nothing to deserve it!   There’s not one thing I have ever done on my own that I can point to and say, “that’s why I get to be a pastor!”  The beautiful truth of this, of my “holy calling,” is that it’s all because of God’s purpose and grace.

Now what does that mean?

First, God has a great purpose in all that he does.  There is a grand, divine intentionality to every detail of our lives – even our jobs.  For me personally, there is a greater reason for me being a pastor then to just have a cool way to make a living.  God, in his divine wisdom and for his glory, allows me to do what I do.  There is a heavenly purpose behind it.  I believe part of the purpose is the fact that God receives tons of glory when he accomplishes his will through fallen humans.  It shouts of his power and greatness when he takes weak and frail individuals and communicates the Truth of the Gospel through them.  The purpose behind me being a pastor is that God can use the life he created to point glory back to himself…and I’m completely cool with that!

What about Grace?  Basically, grace is when we receive what we don’t deserve or don’t receive what we do deserve.  For instance, because of the sin in my life, I deserve God’s eternal wrath.  Fortunately, we have a merciful God who sent his Son Jesus Christ to take the penalty that we deserve (death) on himself.  Therefore, what I deserve, because of my faith in Jesus, I do not receive.  On the flip side, I do not deserve his love, patience, provision, wisdom or presence but he freely gives all of these!  The same is true of my calling as a pastor.  I in no way deserve to stand as an ambassador for a holy God, but he has allowed me to do so because of his grace.

So, purpose and grace defines what I do.  God has a purpose for my life and because of his grace, not my own merit, he has chosen to use me.  I think that’s pretty awesome.

~ by joshephillips on March 23, 2010.