2 Corinthians 4:7 NLT
[7] “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.”

We have established that God’s sovereignty is expressed, not in His randomly creating some people for heaven and others for hell, but in His purpose to have a family of sons and daughters recreated in the image of Jesus through His mercy and grace.

We are all essentially clay pots, made from dust and destined to return to the dust. No one can claim any privilege or position since we were all born rebels with Adam’s nature. We are all under judgment, destined for death except for God’s intervention.

Despite the audacity of some who claim authority or office that elevates them above the riff-raff in the church, there is no grounds in Scripture for anyone assuming any such title or function outside of God’s grace. Even the greatest of the apostles called himself the least. Through grace, God called him and equipped him for his task.

Galatians 1:1 NLT
[1] “This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.”

1 Corinthians 15:10 NLT
[10] “But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.”

Paul claimed no calling or authority except by God’s grace. He appealed to the members of the churches to which he wrote always as a slave of Jesus and under His authority.

So, Paul saw himself as nothing more than an empty, fragile, and cracked vessel out of which God’s glory shone through his brokenness. He did not lord his authority over the churches as some do, but appealed to his divine appointment and his obedience to Jesus as the source of his authority.

Can those today who claim titles and offices say, as Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ”?

1 Corinthians 11:1 NLT
[1] “And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.”

What does Paul mean when he says that we are cracked pots? Let’s go back to David’s experience recorded in the Psalms.

Psalms 51:16-17, 19 NLT
[16] “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. [17] The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
[19] Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit— with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.”

Why, if God Himself had set up the sacrificial system in His instructions for worship, did David say that God was not interested in animal sacrifices?

Instead of animal blood being a symbol of repentance and forgiveness, the people of God had used their sacrifices as an excuse for sinning.

Hosea 8:11-13 NLT
[11] “Israel has built many altars to take away sin, but these very altars became places for sinning! [12] Even though I gave them all my laws, they act as if those laws don’t apply to them. [13] The people love to offer sacrifices to me, feasting on the meat, but I do not accept their sacrifices. I will hold my people accountable for their sins, and I will punish them. They will return to Egypt.“

God had come to hate their sacrifices because they sinned deliberately and offered sacrifices for their sin. They had developed a completely wrong idea about their sacrifices, not as a symbol of their repentance but as an excuse to carry on in their rebellion.

Through his blatant disobedience to God’s laws, and his humiliating exposure of guilt, David learned that a broken (crushed and shattered) heart and a contrite (collapsed) spirit, are of far greater value to God than animal blood.

Brokenness, however it happens in our lives, is of great value to us because it keeps our feet firmly on the ground. Paul was fully aware of, and never forgot his history. He was a persecutor and a murderer. Grace had changed him but the memory reminded him of who he was without God’s grace.

He could, therefore, say with all humility, “Without Jesus, I am nothing more than a cracked clay pot.”

That is the truth but not the whole truth. Paul completes his expression of truth by adding,
“… But God’s presence is the treasure, the light in me that shines out of me through the cracks!”

What an amazing picture…we are not fancy light fittings, created to adorn an expensive, up-market home. We are fragile, cracked vessels made from dirt, that carry within us the glory of God. God’s glory shines out of us through the cracks and fissures that sin has caused. Grace has rescued and transformed us but the scars of our sin remain as a testimony to that grace. It’s our very fallen-ness that qualifies us to receive His mercy and forgiveness. He places His own Spirit in us to shine out of us because we, without Him, are nothing but dark and empty.

God has chosen to reveal His glory to the world in different ways, through the mirror of His Word, through the majesty of His creation, but most of all, through the mercy of His redemption….and He has chosen to shine His mercy through the holes that sin has made in these clay vessels.

Only God could have done that!