Paul was used by God mightily and at a stage he was shown a lot of things by God in 2 Corinthians 12: 1- 7, he had an out of body experience and in this revelations he saw a lot of things :
I have to boast, even though it doesn't do any good. But I will now talk about visions and revelations given me by the Lord. I know a certain Christian man who fourteen years ago was snatched up to the highest heaven (I do not know whether this actually happened or whether he had a vision—only God knows). I repeat, I know that this man was snatched to Paradise (again, I do not know whether this actually happened or whether it was a vision—only God knows), and there he heard things which cannot be put into words, things that human lips may not speak. So I will boast about this man—but I will not boast about myself, except the things that show how weak I am. If I wanted to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I will not boast, because I do not want any of you to have a higher opinion of me than you have as a result of what you have seen me do and heard me say.
But to keep me from being puffed up with pride because of the many wonderful things I saw, I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan's messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud.
Paul asked God to please help him with the condition he had. And God said this to him in 2 Corinthians 12: 8 -10
Three times I prayed to the Lord about this and asked him to take it away. But his answer was: “My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak.” I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God said to Paul that His grace was enough for him.
What is Grace?
Grace is Chesed in Greek meaning:
deliverance from enemies, affliction or adversity.
Grace is enablement, daily guidance, forgiveness and preservation.
Grace is Charis:
It focuses n the provision of Salvation
Jesus is God's grace.
Grace is all about what Jesus accomplished when He came on earth.
Grace is putting faith in what Jesus as done.
Grace is choosing to believe in the good news.
Grace is putting my trust in what Jesus as done for me on the cross of Calvary.
Grace is not what I do for Him.
Grace is receiving the finished work of Jesus.
We are living the christian life and serving the Lord by the grace of God.
Paul had to lean on God's grace and trusted God in everything he was going through. Because of this Paul was blessed in all things and actually wrote a lot of books in the Bible. Paul also had faith in God and this helped him a lot.
God through his grace makes right any person who as faith in His Son Jesus Christ. We are made right with God through faith only and not what we have done to follow the law. The Blood sacrifice of Jesus paid for our sins and this is what the WORD of God says to us that sin shall not have dominion over us. Having faith in God causes me to be what the law actually wants.
Romans 6: 1 -14 Paul writes this
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Paul is saying to us that we cannot continue in sin and expect the grace of God to abound in our lives, because when we have accepted Jesus into our lives through faith our old nature dies and we die spiritually to sin. Since we are spiritually dead to sin, it should no longer have dominion over us. But because it's a spiritual reality that we are dead to sin, we are to live our everyday lives by activating this reality by faith, in other words we are to choose with our will to "reckon ourselves dead to sin, this means by faith we are to choose to be dead to those things in our lives that are not pleasing to God.
In Romans 6: 1 -14 Paul asked this question that shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
But in Romans 6: 15 - 23 he gave us the answer to this question
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?
CERTAINLY NOT!
Another translation puts it this way:
GOD FORBID!
What he is saying is this
That whoever we yield ourselves to obey is been a servant to whomever it is. If we yield to sin the fruit it produces is death but if we yield ourselves to live according to the WORD of God the fruit it produces is living a righteous life, which leads to eternal life.
God in His faithfulness gave us Christ's power to work in us where we can turn off the sin switch and turn on the righteousness switch and we still have a choose to live a life that is pleasing to God.
Jesus is God's grace!
Therefore through the grace of God we are not under law. And He daily provides us His strength like He did in the life of Paul.
What is law?
It's the system of rules that a particular country or community recognises as regulating the actions of it's members and may enforce by imposition of penalties.
OR
The body of divine commandments as expressed in the Bible or other religious texts.
Jesus had to come to set us free from the bondage of sin
Romans 6:14
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 7: 1-6
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
1 Corinthians 15: 56
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
2 Corinthians 3: 14 -15
The people were stubborn, and something still keeps them from seeing the truth when the Law is read. Only Christ can take away the covering that keeps them from seeing. When the Law of Moses is read, they have their minds covered over with a covering that is removed only for those who turn to the Lord.
Galatians 2:19
For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
Galatians 2:21
I don’t turn my back on God’s undeserved kindness. If we can be acceptable to God by obeying the Law, it was useless for Christ to die.
Galatians 3:13
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”)
Christ came to redeem us all from the curse of the law. We are the redeemed ones he bought and paid the price in full for our freedom, It is written in his WORD he whom the Son sets free is free indeed. I therefore, choose to live in that freedom and I refuse to be in any form of bondage why? the Blood of Jesus set me free and his Blood and death cannot be in vain in ( our ) lives.
The enemy fights to keep us under law but we have a choose to say NO! to his devices and live a righteous life.
HOW DO WE LIVE A RIGHTEOUS LIFE ?
We accept the truth of Jesus' coming
We live in obedience to his WORD
We obey His voice
We walk in love and forgiveness
We love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength
Jesus is God's grace
Paul rested in the grace of God when God told him that His grace was sufficient for him. In times of infirmities, reproaches, needs, persecutions, distresses for Christ' sake Paul took pleasure in it all and knew that in his weakness he is also made strong.
My prayer for us all is that in our times of all these may we rest in the grace of Almighty God and thank Him for it all and then His grace will also be sufficient for us all.
Acts 6:8
Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.
We in Christ are also full of God's grace and power to His glory! Amen
