Grace Abounding – Evansville Bible Church

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Romans 5:20-21, The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Nothing so demonstrates the reality of Jesus Christ as when God’s grace invades a man or woman’s life and totally turns that sinner into a new creation in Jesus Christ, which we just heard this morning during the baptism testimonies. That’s why Paul wasn’t ashamed of the gospel. He knew the grace of God is greater than sin and God is able to transform lives, regardless of how sinful they are. That’s why Paul ends his explanation of man’s plight in Adam and blessing in Christ by highlighting this abounding, this super abounding grace of God! I’m sure Paul’s heart was aflame with love for God as he penned these wonderful words. And down through the ages we who know Christ have sung about this abounding, reigning, triumphing grace. We’ve called it amazing, wonderful, infinite, marvelous. It is the key word in God’s redemptive plan, marching out of eternity-past into this world of sin, gathering repentant sinners and bringing them right back up to the throne of God Almighty, all through Jesus Christ our Lord. Martyn Lloyd-Jones notes, “Every step in our salvation is governed and controlled by grace.”

So far in Romans 5:12-19 we answered three questions.

1. Where do sin and death come from? They are not natural. They come from one man, Adam. You’ll remember we emphasized that Adam was a real historical figure created in Genesis 1, married in Genesis two, and then fallen in Genesis 3. He succumbed to Satan’s temptation, sinned, and brought the whole human race into guilt and depravity. We are all born with original sin.

2. Why do all people die, even infants who never personally sinned? Every human being is guilty before God because Adam’s sin cursed the human race and the payment or result of sin is death. We are all conceived with the curse of original sin. Even babies die in Adam, although we firmly believe God’s abounding grace brings those who die in the womb or as infants or without mental capabilities go to heaven through Christ and His saving work for sinners.

3. How is Adam a type of Christ? God appointed both to represent their people. Adam brought the entire human race into sin and death; Christ brings all His people into righteousness and life. Both our condemnation and our justification by faith alone are based entirely outside of ourselves. We’re condemned in Adam; we’re justified or declared righteous by faith alone in Christ alone. This is the story of two men.

Now we come to the last glorious truth and question. How does God’s grace abound and reign over sin and death? There are three great truths embedded in these last two verses.

GOD’S SUPER-ABOUNDING GRACE USES THE LAW TO MAGNIFY OUR SIN

Vs. 20a, The law came in so that the transgression would increase;

Paul says the law came in alongside of sin. This is talking about the Mosaic law. God brought the law in, not as a means of salvation but to shine the spotlight on our sin. In sin we aren’t aware of what sin really is. We’re like fish who don’t know they’re wet. Here are four facts about the purpose of the law.

First, the law makes sin abound. It sharpens and magnifies sin. It’s like one of those concave mirrors that magnifies the blemishes on your face. You didn’t know how blemished your face was until you looked at that mirror! Without the law we don’t know how evil our hearts really are. We’re dumb as bugs regarding the evil of sin. We knew murder was wrong, but when Jesus applied the law to our hearts, we learned calling someone an idiot is murder. We knew adultery is wrong, but Jesus says to look on a woman to lust after her is heart adultery. The law has no power to save us, but it reflects God’s perfect standard of righteousness and magnifies our sin, sharpens our awareness of our sin.

Second, the law shows us that sin is an act of high treason against God. To refuse to worship Christ, to worship other things in place of God Almighty, is an act of high rebellion and treason against our Creator God. Sproul described sin as an “act of cosmic treason against God,” and we need to be aware of it. God gave the law and when we sin in spite of it, we’re spitting in God’s face.

Third, the law even stirs up the sin that is in our hearts. There is something in us that doesn’t like to be told what to do. Tell that little guy not to stick a fork in the electrical outlet and guess what? There he goes! The capacity for sin in our hearts is scary. Sometimes the thoughts that flood from our hearts into our minds makes us think we’re the worst sinners in the church. Pride, arrogance, self-righteousness, a critical spirit, jealousy, fear, faithlessness, impure thoughts, people pleasing – you name it. There are as many potential sins at any one time crawling around in our hearts as there are babies on the back of a wolf spider. Loathsome, right? That’s our sin – loathsome! The law stirs them up.

Fourth, the law holds us guilty. In the hands of the Holy Spirit the law comes in and convicts us. Remember Paul? “I was once alive apart from the law, but when the law came in, sin became alive, and I died” (Romans 7:9). This is the purpose of the law. The law came in that sin might increase. The law convicts us of sin.

Do we need the preaching of the law today? Absolutely. One of the greatest problems of our own day is that there is little sense of our guilt before God. We are desensitized to the evil of sin. Our culture today has zero fear of God. There’s embarrassment and shame and being offended, but almost no sense of guilt and conviction about sin before God. Sin is mocked. Our culture celebrates and affirms the very things God’s law forbids, and they call that love. True love will bring the law to shine its light on lawlessness and depravity. I see signs, “Hatred does not live here.” That typically means, “We affirm every godless lifestyle you can imagine.” But love is not true love if it affirms what God says is an abomination.

Friends, the law of God ought to stir fear in our hearts. Grace brought the law for us to see the true nature and character of sin and how it destroys, deceives, and kills. But remember, all the law can do is shine the light on sin. It cannot save from sin. The law makes us aware of our need to be saved. Spurgeon said, “The Law is a storm that wrecks your hopes of self-salvation, but at the same time washes you up on the Rock of Ages, not only rescued, but restored and raised to the side of the eternal God.”

GRACE SUPER-ABOUNDS OVER SIN

v. 20b, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

As great as sin is, grace super-abounds over sin. The word for “abounded” has the idea of going beyond, excessive, overflowing, or super-abounding. Where sin is seen for how awful and ugly and loathsome it really is, God’s grace super-abounded all the more. What is grace? Grace is God’s unmerited favor to sinners through Christ (Acts 15:11). This is the best news, the most wonderful news you’ll ever hear. While sin plunged Adam and his race into guilt and condemnation, grace super-abounded over sin. God’s grace is like an ocean compared to a trickle of sin. Where sin increases and is bad, God’s plan of grace absolutely overwhelms sin.

In Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian comes to the Interpreter’s House and is brought into a parlor, a picture of the natural man’s heart. It is covered with dust. In comes a man with a broom sweeping the floor, but all he accomplishes is to stir up the dust which chokes Christian. The dust is our original sin. The man with the broom is the law. All the law can do is stir up our sin. It has no power to save us or change us. You can throw all kinds of laws at people, but it doesn’t deal with the heart problem of sin. Every time there’s a shooting, we hear the same old mantra, “We need tougher gun laws!” The more gun laws, the less shootings, right? Back to the parlor. Here comes a woman sprinkling water all over the floor and cleansing it with pleasure. This is the gospel of super-abounding grace with its sweet and precious promises overwhelming our sin. When you sin and your conscience is roaring against you, you feel dirty, you want to jump into God’s super-abounding, much more grace tub and soak in it for forgiveness and cleansing. Like David, you pray, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” That’s exactly what God does. Where sin abounds, grace super-abounds.

Regardless of the extent of sin and guilt, there is more than enough grace for all who repent of their sins and come to Christ. Remember the prodigal? The adulteress? Paul, the persecutor, the chief of sinners? Where sin abounded, grace super-abounded. Paul highlights this pure, free, sovereign, overflowing grace of God in Ephesians.

Eph.1:3-6, We’re blessed, chosen, predestined, and adopted, to the praise of His grace.
Eph.1:7, We’re redeemed and forgiven according to the riches of His grace.
Eph.1:8, He lavished His grace upon us.
Eph.1:12, We who believed are to be to the praise of His glory & grace.
Eph.1:14 We are sealed and kept for heaven to the praise of His grace.
Eph. 2:5 He gave us new life by His grace.
Eph. 2:7 For endless ages to come He’ll show, not just His grace, or the riches of His grace, but the surpassing riches of His grace!

Do you believe this for your own life – where sin abounds, grace does much more abound? This message of grace is what my wife and I heard some 50 years ago. Before then we were taught “do the best you can and hope you make it,” which had no power and only brought discouragement. But the message of salvation by grace alone and that Jesus paid it all totally transformed our lives. Jay Adam’s entitled one of his books, More Than Redemption. Jay wrote, “There is a plan behind history, and it involves God’s glory through grace to man…. The purpose of this grace is to lift man far beyond his original state.” Can you sing those songs that praise His grace from a heart of deepest gratitude? “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace freely bestowed on all who believe.”

SUPER-ABOUNDING GRACE REIGNS IN THE LIFE OF EVERY BELIEVER IN CHRIST

Vs. 21, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is the capstone of Paul’s great treatment of justification by faith alone in Christ alone (Romans 3-5). Notice the comparison of sin reigning and grace reigning. King Sin ruled in death, now Queen Grace rules in life. King Sin reigns in every unsaved heart and kills everyone who remains in his kingdom with not only physical death, but spiritual death and eternal death. Queen Grace marched triumphantly right out of heaven into King Sin’s kingdom of death and reigns in every believer’s heart through Christ’s righteousness, giving them eternal life and bringing him or her to glory!

Grace reigns effectively, sovereignly, and irresistibly: seeking, calling, convicting, drawing, persuading, regenerating, giving the gift of faith that brings justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. When Queen Grace is on the throne of your life, she will never be thrown off. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “Grace reigns and does not share the throne with anybody or anything else. You must not put your good works there, or the Church, or priests, or saints, or the Virgin Mary or anything else. Grace occupies the throne alone.”

Grace finally conquers all of God’s enemies in your life. You still have sin and death in you running around as rebels during this life, but grace will see you through. Back to Pilgrim’s Progress and the Interpreter’s house, Christian saw a fire blazing in the wall and someone (the devil) throwing water on it, but it burned higher and hotter. “Look on the other side of the wall,” said the Interpreter. There stood Jesus, hidden behind the wall, pouring copious amounts of oil onto the fire to keep it burning in spite of the water. Grace will restrain you from sin and restore you when you sin. Grace will transform you more and more into the image of Christ. It will teach you to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present evil age (Titus 2:11-12). Even when you feel deserted by God, which happens from time to time in the Christian life, Queen Grace will never climb down from her throne.

1 Peter 5:10, “The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”

The fact that grace reigns through Christ’s righteousness to eternal life means grace will reign in the believer’s life right through death and into the very presence of God Almighty. And then who knows what our Father in His grace has in store? Stephen Charnock wrote, “Our enjoyment of God will be as fresh and glorious after many ages as it was at first.” You can count on it – as a believer in Christ, the best is yet to come. Have you heard the story about the fork?

THE FORK

A Christian woman called her pastor one day asking if he would stop by. She had been a blessing to many in the church and always spoke with a tone of joy and love for Christ. But he could tell something was different. She told him they had just discovered a tumor. “The doctors say I have about six months to live.” She assured him that she was prepared to meet the Lord. They talked for a while about favorite hymns and passages of Scripture, and then Martha made a strange request. “One more thing preacher. When they bury me, I want my old Bible in one hand and a fork in the other.” A fork? This took the pastor by surprise, and he asked. “Why a fork?”

Here was Martha’s reason. She said, “I’ve been to many church dinners and banquets, and one thing sticks in my mind. At the really nice ones when they come to gather the dirty dishes, someone would lean over and say, ‘You can keep your fork.’ And you know what that meant? Dessert was coming. Not just a little vanilla pudding or even ice cream. Something really good was on the way, like chocolate fudge cake or strawberry pie. When they told me to keep my fork, I knew the best was yet to come! That’s exactly what I want people to talk about at my funeral. When they walk by and ask, ‘Why the fork?’ I want you to tell them I kept my fork because the best is yet to come!”

The reign of God’s super-abounding grace will never let you go and will finish the job it began in your life (Phil. 1:6). God’s grace will bring you safe and sound to that place where the best is yet to come! Is Queen Grace ruling in your heart? Has she brought you to see your sin and need of a Savior? Have you put your trust in Christ alone for your salvation? Now is the time to trust Him.