The Boasting Chisel

Imagine you had the opportunity to go back in time and visit Michelangelo. You go into his workshop to observe his work and you say, "Can I please see the chisel? I think that's really marvelous!" Wait, what?? No, of course not. You want to talk to the sculptor. You want to know the guy using the chisel. The chisel isn't very special; it's the master you want to know.

Paul wrote,

I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. (Rom 15:18)

To you and me, that might sound like fake humility. But Paul is being a boasting chisel. It's not the tool Christ uses that is of interest; it is Christ. Paul is the tool -- look at what Christ can do with such a tool.

You remember Paul. He called himself "the least of the apostles" (1 Cor 15:9). He sought to murder Christians (Acts 9:1-2). He wasn't a "magnificent tool." So Paul doesn't get (or give himself) any credit for what Christ was doing. It wasn't false modesty or fake humility. It was fact.

We who are believers know that we can't lead a single sinner to salvation; that's the Holy Spirit's work. We know that our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isa 64:6). So when we start to think, "Hey, I'm doing a pretty good job for God, if I say so myself," we become arrogant tools. And if we are to do all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31), perhaps we ought to start by admitting that He is the master sculptor, not us, His tools.