The word vain has several meanings depending on its context or use. To speak of a person being vain, ‘is to say such person is manifesting undue or excessive pride in his/her appearance, attainments, status, etc.’ [Webster]. To say the whole endeavor was in vain, is likely to mean that the speaker believes the endeavor was a waste of the investment of time, effort, or expense and likely produced no beneficial outcome. King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes that ‘all is vanity’ likely meaning our efforts, our pursuits in life are ultimately futile, empty of meaning, useless, even non-sensical, and apart from a divine perspective, such a conclusion is hard to avoid.
Other than Jesus, most likely Paul the apostle would be considered the most remarkable and influential character in the New Testament. In his defense of the historical reality of the resurrection of Jesus set forth in his letter to the church at Corinth [I Cor 15:3-58] Paul lists a multitude of witnesses who saw the risen Jesus, as testimonial evidence of the factual truth of it. At the end of that list he includes himself, as a ‘johnny-come-lately’ witness [‘as one untimely born’ -I Cor 15:8] having been confronted by the resurrected Jesus while Paul traveled the road to Damascus, intending to find and arrest Christians there. Instead of arresting others, Paul was himself ‘arrested’ by the risen Jesus who completely reversed Paul’s life trajectory. Paul says to the Corinthians ‘and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain’ [I Cor 15:17], i.e. empty, useless, of no value or benefit, even non-sensical.
Paul considered himself the ‘least’ of the apostles,-in fact not even fit to be called an apostle [special messenger] ‘because I persecuted the church of God’ [I Cor 15:9]. But Paul’s misdirected and murderous past life did not sabotage his ultimate response to the mercy and grace of Jesus shown him on that fateful road. “I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision.” [Acts 26:19]. Paul understood that his past hostile persecution of the church would prompt others to view him as disqualified, unfit, and not even trustworthy. But though he was shocked to the core of his being by his blinding encounter of the risen Lord, he soon realized God’s grace, kindness, and mercy shown him was part of God’s purposeful selection of Paul as God’s chosen instrument [Acts 9:15]. The depth of this realization by Paul is expressed by him in vs. 10 of I Corinthians chapter 15: “But by the grace of God I am what I am and His grace toward me did not prove vain, [i.e. empty, useless, of no effect] but I labored even more than all of them [i.e. more than the other apostles] yet not I but the grace of God with me“. Paul was not laboring for his salvation nor was he boasting of his ‘labors’ compared to the other apostles. He was laboring to fulfill God’s call and purpose for his life, as God’s chosen instrument and declaring to some skeptical believers at Corinth that the resurrection of Jesus was a fact of history, blindingly experienced by Paul with dramatically life changing results for him.
Paul’s deep personal experience of God’s gracious kindness, mercy, and redemptive opportunity given to him to serve God, resulted in his incredible life long fruitful and intense devotion to his risen Lord. Using investment terminology, it could be said that God received an ‘incredibly high rate of return’ on His investment of grace in Paul. For two thousand years we who seek to follow Jesus have benefited greatly from God’s investment of His grace in Paul via his life model and his New Testament letters.
As you evaluate your own life, what would you say is the ‘rate of return’ God is receiving from His investment of His grace in you?
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” [I Cor 15:58]
CJS
Dan; thank you so much for your open hearted comments. I had misty eyes reading your story. What a remarkable journey and ‘redemptive’ story that you have conveyed. I hope others will draw encouragement from reading your story. Blessings on you and Lyn.
My wife, Lyn, and I have been re-reading letters that we exchanged prior to and during my deployment to Vietnam in 1968-1969. Ten days following our marriage, I boarded a flight bound for combat duty in Vietnam. I was not a “happy camper” and my letters to Lyn reflected my disillusionment with God’s plan for me. Reading those letters reminds me of how immature I was in the faith. Previously, I had steadfastly refused to immerse myself in God’s Word. I would not memorize Scripture or engage in a disciplined engagement with it on a daily basis. I thought that by being raised in the church, I could absorb Christian faith and practice by osmosis. In the crucible of Vietnam – isolation from family and friends, the reality of combat, seeing death and dismemberment firsthand, the hardship of living without the comforts of home, I faced the hard reality that I needed God up close and personal. Osmosis did not cut it. As I read the often bitter sentiments and lack of faith that I expressed in those letters, I marvel that God has used me as His instrument to touch the lives of others. When I returned from Vietnam, I sincerely believed that my service for the Lord was ended. I could not fathom how He could use someone who had failed as miserably as I did during that year. Yet, God began almost immediately after my arrival at my next duty station (Ft Carson, Colorado) to begin to re-build the assurance that He was not finished with me yet – Phil 1:6.
This message (“Vain Grace”) resonates with me because of my past failures and God’s faithfulness in not giving up on me. We succeed only through His grace and by no other means. I have no foundation upon which to boast other than that God is gracious and merciful, and I am the object and trophy of His grace.