No Favorites in the Kingdom, Part 1
God is a specialist at taking the unlikeliest of candidates and turning them into trophies of His grace, according to Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement. He is able to make a beautiful change in each of us, Chuck has written in his popular book, Why Grace Changes Everything. Read more about how God uses “ordinary people” here.
Have you noticed how oftentimes the very people we have classified as impossible to save have been marked by God as the next converts?
It's not uncommon at Calvary Chapel for long-lost friends to meet unexpectedly in a hallway, look quizzically at each other, and say in unison, “What are you doing here?” Seeing each other in church with a Bible in hand and a smile on their face just wipes them out. Neither thought the other could be saved.
I don't suppose very many people in the early church were praying for Saul's salvation. They were probably saying, “Lord, take that guy out. He's going to kill the church. Stop him, Lord!” They were probably hoping God would lower the boom in judgment.
But God had another way of stopping him—unlike anything they had anticipated. God brought Saul's life to a halt and turned him around 180 degrees as he was on the road to Damascus. Saul was reborn as Paul and became the greatest proclaimer in history of the gospel of grace.
God is a specialist at taking the unlikeliest of candidates and turning them into trophies of His grace. He is able to make a beautiful change in each of us. He can change our value systems and make us new creatures in Christ. He calls us to be examples of what His grace can do.
No One Too Small
Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking God uses only “special” people: the strong, the intelligent, the beautiful. We don't think He has a place for the rest of us. We are so wrong!
God doesn't have “important” people. God uses ordinary people and works through plain people. That is why Paul wrote: For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty (1 Corinthians 1:26-27).
God loves us ordinary folk and endows us with gifts so that we might fill our place in the body of Christ. Any ability we have is a gift from His hand. Everything we have was given to us. As Paul said in I Corinthians 4:7, What do you have that you did not receive?
How can I glory in my ministry as though I didn't receive it, as though what I am able to share is something of my genius or brilliance? Anything worthwhile I have came from God. There is no way I can be proud and boastful, as though I were somebody independent of Him. Apart from Him, I am nothing. Apart from Him, I can do nothing.
Men often develop an inflated view of their own importance and greatness and gloat over their place in the work of God. But the truth is, God doesn't need any of us. I'm sorry if that makes you feel unimportant, but it's true. He has chosen to use us, but He doesn't have to. He could just as easily use someone else.
To me, that is thrilling. I haven't been chosen to serve because I am so wonderful. God doesn't choose us because of our greatness, abilities, or potential. He chooses us because He decides to choose us. Important, proud people do not like that. They are “above” being chosen—so usually they are not. God chooses by His grace. He chose me. He chose you.
Heaven is going to be full of surprises. As we look around, the first surprise will be all the people who were thought would never make it. The next surprise will be those sitting in the front row in the place of honor. We will say, “Who are these people? I never saw them before.”
“Some of them went to Calvary Chapel,” someone will say, “but where is Chuck?” And somewhere way out in the back of the crowd, in the peanut gallery, I will yell, “Here I am! Thank God, through His grace I made it.”
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In our next installment, Pastor Chuck reminds us that all are equal in God’s Kingdom.
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