What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Cor. 3:5-7)

Here the Apostle Paul reminds us never to depend on human heroes alone to fulfill divine plans. Why? 

Is it entirely honest to talk about David’s victory over Goliath but never mention his sin with Bathsheba? Is it fair to recite David’s Psalms and disregard his murder of Bathsheba’s husband?  If we only talk about David when he was good, are we really teaching the whole truth of Scripture?

The truth is there’s only one untainted hero of the Bible — that’s Jesus. Everyone else needs him.

To focus on the Bible’s human heroes without mentioning the grace of God that enabled their heroism or overcame their flaws, warps the biblical message. Every flawed figure served God’s process of planting and watering the seeds of the Gospel in Scripture until the time was ripe for Jesus.

Grace is written on every page of the Bible, as God gives victories to the weak, pardon to the flawed, and purpose to the failures. He’s the hero of the helpless and the heroes!

So, next time you read about a “hero,” look for how God is planting seeds of grace to blossom for times and trials when “hero” would not be our label.

Prayer:
Lord, help me to see the real hero to which every story in the Bible points. May I see Christ’s grace sprouting on every page so that I turn to him on my non-hero days.