Vital Signs: Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Transformed by Grace

What is it that makes Paul “Paul” and not “Saul”? It’s the grace of God. Saul, a man of learning, privilege, and power, bent his knee in awe at the foot of the cross. When he did that, he became Paul, a completely new person transformed by grace.

The only response to the grace of God is to choose to become its servant. Paul’s first words in his epistle to the Romans are, “Paul, a servant of the gospel”...literally, “a slave of the gospel.”

Grace brings us all down to the same level because, at the foot of the cross, there’s no economy class and no first class; there’s only kneeling class.

How do you weigh your successes and failures? Do you think that when you succeed, you are more approved by God? When you fail, do you think God withholds His grace from you? We know that where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20). You and I must be like Paul and be able to say, “By the grace of God, I am what I am.”