1 Corinthians 15:10

Paul reflects on his own transformation with deep humility: "by the grace of God I am what I am." Having just called himself the least of the apostles because he once persecuted the church, he traces everything good in his life back to God's grace. He was not self-made; he was remade by undeserved divine favor. Grace is the explanation for his identity, his calling, and his usefulness.

Yet Paul does not let grace become an excuse for passivity. He insists that grace "was not in vain" -- it took effect and bore fruit in tireless labor. In fact, he "laboured more abundantly than they all." Paul worked hard, harder perhaps than any other apostle. But just as quickly he corrects any impression of self-credit: "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Even his strenuous labor was the working of grace within him. Here grace and effort are not opposites but partners: God's grace empowers genuine human effort, and that effort, in turn, gives no ground for boasting. The verse models a healthy spiritual self-understanding -- neither denying one's labors nor taking pride in them, but seeing all of it as grace at work. Paul's whole life answers the question of identity with a single word: grace, received and not wasted.