Shalom, beloved brothers.
There is a man in the New Testament who is either your greatest encouragement or your greatest excuse — depending on how you read his story.
He murdered Christians and called it obedience to God. He watched a man stoned to death for preaching about Jesus and stood by without lifting a finger. He went house to house, dragging men and women off to prison. He believed with everything in him that he was doing the will of God.
And then — Grace met him on a road. And everything changed.
This month, we are going to walk through the life of the Apostle Paul, because Paul is the greatest argument for Grace the world has ever seen. And what we learn from him is this: there is no one — not one — beyond the reach of Grace. And there is no one who is not simultaneously called to live Grace Responsibility.
Two sides of the same wall. Let's dig in.
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Before we can understand what Grace did for Paul, we have to understand what Paul was without it. Because the Bible does not hide this from us. Paul himself writes about his past with devastating honesty — and he does it for a reason.
Saul of Tarsus was a Roman citizen — a privilege that put him in a very small percentage of people in the ancient world. He was educated under Gamaliel, one of the most respected rabbis of his generation. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees — the strictest of the strict, a man who exceeded the requirements of the Law in his own estimation.
Look at how he describes himself in Philippians 3:5-6:
📖 Philippians 3:5–6
"...circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."
blameless. He said it himself — he was blameless under the law. And he meant it. He was not lying when he wrote that. He had done everything the law required, and then some.
But here is what that same man did:
Acts 7:58 — He was standing there when Stephen was stoned to death. He wasn't throwing stones. But he was holding the coats of the men who were. He was complicit. He approved of it.
Acts 8:3 — "Made havock of the church." The word havoc means destruction, devastation. He was going into homes, dragging families apart, throwing men and women into prison.
Acts 9:1 — "Breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord." He was not just angry — he was breathing it out. It was in his lungs. It was in his breath. He lived for this.
And yet — look at what he writes later in 1 Timothy 1:15:
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."
Chief. He calls himself the chief of sinners. Not because he committed the worst acts in history — but because he knew exactly what he was doing when he did them. He had knowledge. He had conviction. And he chose destruction anyway.
Key Insight
The more clearly Paul understood Grace, the more clearly he understood who he had been without it. He never distanced himself from his past — he used it. Every time he wrote about his past, it was to make the point: if Grace reached me, it can reach anyone.
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And then comes Acts 9.
Saul is traveling on the Damascus road with letters in his pocket — authorization from the high priest to arrest anyone who was following "the Way." He had done this before. He was good at it. He was respected for it.
And then the light came.
📖 Acts 9:3–5
"And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest..."
Now stop here. Think about this for a moment.
Saul was a man who had authorized the arrest and imprisonment of people following Jesus. Jesus was dead — or so they thought. And yet, Jesus showed up on the road and called him by name.
Justice would have called for fire. The God of the universe, who had watched His own Son executed by a mob — and who had every right to send holy fire down on the man leading the charge against His church — what did He send instead?
A question. "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"
Not a threat. Not a condemnation. A question. Intimate. Personal. He used his name — twice. Saul, Saul. Not "you there." Not "persecutor." His name. Known. Called.
That question changed everything. Because a question is an invitation. A question says: I am still speaking to you. I have not written you off. I want to know what you think you are doing.
And then: three days of blindness. Saul was on the ground for three days. No food. No water. No sight. Sitting in darkness, having his entire worldview shattered.
And in that darkness, the Lord sent Ananias to him. Read what the Lord said about Saul in Acts 9:15:
"Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel."
A chosen vessel. Not "a forgiven man." Not "a saved man." A vessel — selected, appointed, carrying something. Grace did not just rescue him. Grace commissioned him.
Central Revelation
Grace intercepted judgment and replaced it with a commission. The same voice that had the right to condemn him called his name and gave him a mission. That is what Grace does — it takes your past, your worst moments, and turns them into the raw material of your calling.
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Here is where we have to be very careful — and very clear.
Grace says: there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Not "there is less condemnation." Not "there is conditional forgiveness." No condemnation. That word matters. And Paul — the man who once dragged people off to prison for following Jesus — became the primary herald of this truth.
Romans 8:1 is one of the most important verses in the entire Bible:
📖 Romans 8:1
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Notice the word now. Not "there will be no condemnation in the future." Not "there may be no condemnation under certain conditions." Now. Right now. The moment you are in Christ, there is no condemnation standing against you.
Paul writes this as a man who knew exactly what condemnation felt like — he had handed out condemnation. He had watched it destroy people. And now he is saying: all of that is gone for anyone who is in Christ.
Romans 3:23-24 makes this even clearer:
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
Freely. Not paid for. Not earned. Not by works. Freely. By His grace. The word "freely" means without cost, without condition. Grace is not something you negotiate. It is something you receive.
And here is what this produces — a world where hierarchy under Grace does not exist. Look at Galatians 3:28:
📖 Galatians 3:28
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
Under Grace, the divisions that the world uses to rank people — race, social status, gender — all of it is gone. You are not better than the man who is in recovery. You are not above the person who made different choices. If you are in Christ, you have the same access to Grace that the most faithful saint has.
And because of this — because now there is no condemnation — we are told explicitly not to judge each other. Romans 14:10 and 13:
📖 Romans 14:10, 13
"Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ... Let us not therefore judge one another any more."
Why dost thou judge thy brother? The question is direct. The answer is direct: stop.
Here is what this means for your life: the person whose journey you do not understand — the one who made choices you would never make, who is in a situation you cannot imagine — that person is covered by the same Grace that covers you. You do not get to decide who is too far gone. God already decided: no one is.
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And now — here is the part most people skip.
Grace is not a license. Grace is not a free pass. Grace is not permission to live however you want because "God will forgive you anyway." That is a counterfeit gospel, and it will destroy you.
Paul anticipated this objection. Someone in the early church was going to say: "Wait — if Grace covers all sin, then why not sin more?" And Paul's answer is the strongest negation in the entire New Testament.
📖 Romans 6:1–2
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may increase? God forbid."
God forbid. In the original Greek, this phrase is mē genoito — and it is the strongest possible negation in New Testament Greek. Paul is not hedging. He is not saying "well, hopefully not." He is saying: absolutely not. Never. Under no circumstances.
And then he gives the reason: "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" Romans 6:2.
If you have died to sin — if you have been buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life — then continuing in the old patterns is a contradiction of everything that happened to you. It does not make sense. It is a denial of your own identity.
Look at Romans 6:4:
"Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
Walk in newness of life. The word "walk" is a continuous action — it is not a one-time event. It is a daily, ongoing, sustained walk in newness. Grace is not a moment. Grace is a direction.
And here is the beautiful part — look at what Grace itself teaches us. Titus 2:11-12:
📖 Titus 2:11–12
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."
Grace teaches us. Grace is not passive. Grace is not silent. Grace itself is the classroom. Grace itself is the curriculum. Grace says: live soberly. Live righteously. Live godly.
So if someone says "Grace means I can do whatever I want" — they have not understood what Grace is. Grace does not tell you to do whatever you want. Grace teaches you to deny ungodliness. It teaches you to live soberly, righteously, and godly. That is the curriculum.
And here is the formula. The one Paul gives us in our anchor scripture, 1 Corinthians 15:10:
This is the balance that most people miss. Grace calls you to work harder than everyone else — but not in your own strength. It calls you to labor, to press on, to exert yourself — but always with the understanding that it is Grace doing the work in you. Not your willpower. Not your discipline. The Grace of God which was with me.
Grace is not the excuse to sit back. Grace is the fuel that drives you forward. And it drives you forward specifically because you understand you did not earn your place — and you are not going to waste it.
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Paul did not just teach Grace Responsibility. He lived it. And the evidence of how he lived it is in one of the most brutally honest passages in the New Testament — 2 Corinthians 11:23-28:
📖 2 Corinthians 11:23–28
"In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft... in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."
Beaten with rods. Three times. Stoned once until people thought he was dead. Shipwrecked three times. Spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. In danger from rivers, from bandits, from false brothers, from his own people. In danger in the city and in the wilderness. In danger on the sea and among false Christians.
And he adds: in cold and nakedness. He had nothing. He was hungry. He was cold. He was without a roof over his head. And he kept going.
And then — read how he responds to all of it. Philippians 4:11:
"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
Learned. Contentment is not natural. It is not something you are born with. Paul learned it. And that learning came through suffering — through being cold, being hungry, being without, and choosing to say: I am content in this state.
And then — right after saying he has learned contentment — he says one of the most famous verses in the entire Bible. Philippians 4:13:
"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
This is not a prosperity gospel verse. Paul wrote this while cold, hungry, and shipwrecked. I can do all things — including bear suffering, including be content in want, including press on when I have nothing. Through Christ who strengthens me — not because of what I have, but because of who is in me.
And this is the life behind our anchor verse. Look at Philippians 1:21:
"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
That is Grace Responsibility. Not "to me to live is comfort." Not "to me to live is success." To live is Christ. Everything in his life pointed toward and flows from the Person of Christ. And dying — the thing that should terrify every man on earth — he called gain.
This is what Grace Responsibility produces: a man who can say — in the middle of being beaten, shipwrecked, and hungry — I am content, and to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
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Total Engagement
Labor more abundantly than they all — Paul's life was poured out without reservation.
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Total Credit to the Giver
"Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Every victory, every step — attributed to Grace.
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So what does this mean for you — today, in your specific life, in your specific circumstances?
Let me give you five practical takeaways from this letter:
1. Release the habit of judging others' journeys.
Romans 2:1 says: "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."
Every time you look at another man and say he should have done better or I would never be in that situation — you are condemning yourself. Because the only reason you are not in that situation is Grace. The only reason you are not the man standing there right now is the same Grace that reached Paul on the Damascus Road.
Turn It Inward
Romans 8:1 covers your worst moment. NOW — right now — there is no condemnation for you. If Grace has already declared you clean, stop declaring yourself guilty. You have been set free. Walk in it.
2. Grace is the classroom, and the curriculum never stops.
Titus 2:12 — Grace teaches you to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. That means today. Right now. In your job, your family, your recovery, your relationships. Grace is not just something that saved you — it is something that is actively teaching you every single day.
The moment you stop learning is the moment you start sliding. Stay in the classroom. Stay under teaching. Stay connected to people who will correct you, challenge you, and point you back to Christ.
3. Labor from abundance, not from scarcity.
Paul says he labored more abundantly than they all. Not barely enough. Not just getting by. More abundantly.
This is not about working yourself to death. This is about understanding that you have been given something — and you are going to give it back with everything you have. Not from a place of fear that you will lose it. From a place of gratitude that you ever had it in the first place.
4. Grace moves through us — not ends with us.
Paul did not keep Grace for himself. The same Grace that saved him — he turned around and carried it to the Gentiles, to kings, to the ends of the earth. Ananias was sent to him, and then Paul became the Ananias for the next generation.
Grace is not meant to stop at you. It is meant to flow through you. Who is in your life right now that needs to see Grace in action? Who is the man sitting next to you in your group, your meeting, your housing program — who needs to see a man living this out, not just talking about it?
5. Your worst moment is not your identity.
Paul called himself the chief of sinners — but that was never his identity. His identity was in Christ. He looked at his past — the blood on his hands, the churches he destroyed, the families he ruined — and he said: that is the man I was without Grace. And I am not that man anymore.
Whatever is in your past — whatever you did, whatever was done to you — Grace has already handled it. Romans 8:1. Now. Your worst moment does not define you. Christ defines you. And He has already called you clean.
"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."
Receive the Grace. Own the Responsibility. Drop the Judgment.
🙏 Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for the Grace that interrupts us on our worst roads — that meets us in our worst moments, not with condemnation, but with a question, a commission, and a name spoken twice. Give us humility enough to withhold judgment from others, because we remember — truly remember — that we received this same undeserved Grace when we deserved it least. Give us the courage to live Grace Responsibility fully: to labor, to press on, to suffer if we must, to rise again, and to be vessels worthy of the message we carry. Let it never be said of us that His grace was in vain. Let our lives be the evidence that it was not.
In the name of Jesus — who is both the Giver of Grace and the model of it. Amen.
S.A.A.L.T.
Substance Abuse Awareness & Leadership Training
Grace is not a theory at U.N.I.T.Y Connector — it is a program. Through our 5-pillar S.A.A.L.T. ministry, we put Grace Responsibility into practice: Surrender, Accountability, Application, Leadership, Testimony.
Surrender · Accountability · Application · Leadership · Testimony
This is Living Testimony News — Edition #6.
A monthly letter from my heart to yours.
Share this with someone who needs to hear it.
— Deacon Benny Tiller Jr.
U.N.I.T.Y Connector
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