8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
Overwhelmed, the apostle Paul gushes with the amazing privilege and blessing of being God’s servant for the message of the mystery of grace. Yet, humility is the instinctive response of a heart embraced by grace. While he can confidently write with great logic and clarity about the mystery of grace, he is overcome with the thought that God would use him, of all people!
Paul, when he contemplates the greatness of the truth of God’s mystery of the church, sees himself as the most unworthy person to be its messenger. He considers himself “the very least of all saints.” One might be tempted to think Paul was simply speaking with rhetorical flourish to emphasis his point. But we rather think he actually believed this self-assessment. In another place, he wrote, “I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor … It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” (1 Tim 1:13, 15). The apostle was not given to isolated self-abasement during times of depression. This was a common refrain, “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Cor 15:9).
Paul understood grace. Paul was overwhelmed by grace. His self-denigration did not drag him into the morass of depression, but positioned him to rejoice that he had not only been accepted by grace, but also that he had been graced to be a servant of God to spread the news of that grace. He understood that the grace He experienced was great enough to reach the Gentiles as well. It was the same grace and it would be overwhelming for the Gentiles as well.
For Paul this was unfathomably rich! In the Old Testament God was known as gracious, but that understanding was infinitesimally small compared to what Paul had learned from God and what he was spreading to the whole world. In the church, God is gathering all people who come by grace through faith—it is not a Jewish thing, but a grace thing. The unseen world stands by as the truth unfolds. The Church’s existence serves as God’s object lesson to the angels who longed to understand these things. They are finally having their “aha” moment. Now it all makes sense to them (see 1 Peter 1:12).
Lord, I stand with the apostle Paul as “the least of all saints” and I also join him in praising You for wanting to use me… of all people!
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