Who made us to differ?

(James Smith, "The Pastor's Evening Visit")  LISTEN to audio!  Download audio

"But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles . . ." Galatians 1:15-16

Paul is speaking . . .
  of being set apart from his mother's womb,
  of being called by grace to be saved,
  of Christ being revealed in him, and
  of his being made a preacher and an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ
--and he traces up the whole to the good pleasure of God!

It pleased God to convert, consecrate, and crown the apostle with such eminent success. There was nothing in him to deserve it, nothing in him to move God to do it. God blessed Paul, just because He would--because it pleased Him to do it.

Just so in our case.
Do we differ from others?
Do we differ from our former selves?
Have we spiritual life?
Have we Christian graces?
Why were they conferred upon us--and not upon others?

WHO made us to differ?

"Who makes you different from anyone else?
 What do you have that you did not receive?" 1 Corinthians 4:7

We can trace it to no cause, but the sovereign good pleasure of God!
 
He has mercy, on whom He will have mercy.

He has compassion, on whom He will have compassion.

"'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.' What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'" Romans 9:13-15

"By the grace of God, I am what I am!" 1 Corinthians 15:10