July 12, 2022 – Tuesday
2 Corinthians 4:15 NIV
15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Comments
While the focus today is on the grace that is reaching more and more people here are the two preceding verses for context, 13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same Spirit-given faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.
When Paul wrote It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken” he was quoting Psalm 116:10 NKJV which I recommend in its entirety here. While Paul speaks of believing he says in the next verse we know! And what does he know but the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.
That leads us directly to our verse of the day, All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. What is Paul writing about when he writes, All this is for your benefit? All what? If we go back towards the beginning of this chapter we find, 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. And a few verses later, 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. All this is not about them, but about Jesus Christ as Lord and they will present it, preach it, no matter what they must endure to preach it. Matthew Henry adds, The grace of faith is an effectual remedy against fainting in times of trouble.
Yes, all that is for our benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Of course, the grace Paul is writing about is God’s grace or rather His favor, His unmerited favor through His Son, Jesus the Christ. The HELPS Word-studies tells us Strong’s Greek 5485 and Hebrew 2480 both
refer to God freely extending Himself (His favor, grace), reaching (inclining) to people because He is disposed to bless (be near) them. To me this says God clearly wants to bless us through His Son Jesus.
Paul wants God’s grace to reach more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. It is to the glory of God that Paul received grace and it is his desire – and God’s – that more and more people receive His grace. God wants more and more people saved and uses Paul to help make that happen. He is using us as well if we will only permit Him to do so. If we will endure what we must, as Paul and others did, to share the good news of Jesus.
Bottom Line: Grace has reached us, what will we do to see it reach more and more people?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Thank You for bringing grace to me and many around me. Help me to share the good news of Your grace to more and more people. – In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
RileyD, nwJ
Riley D. Driver – Pastor
Calvary Chapel of Dayton
in Beavercreek