Romans 5:20
“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” We miss something in the English translation. In the Greek, Paul uses two different words for abounded and abound. For much more abound, Paul adds the prefix huper, which is equivalent to our word super. You know what super does to a word. We can say something is colossal, but when we say something is supercolossal, it makes it stupendous. It’s bigger than life! It’s more than you can imagine. It’s beyond human comprehension. So, Paul uses two totally different roots and then adds the huper in an attempt to help us understand the incredible grace of God. Sin abounded…but we can count the number of sins a person commits. It may take a week or a year to count them all, but it can be done. But God’s grace cannot be counted. It is beyond measure. Our sins are finite, but God’s grace is infinite.
It is really difficult for our earthly minds to wrap around the concept of God’s grace. We tend to think of it in terms of quantity instead of quality. Paul was a great sinner. He persecuted Christians and probably was the impetus behind the death of many of them. So, it must have taken a lot of God’s grace to save Paul, right? That’s our human thinking. But God’s grace is not bestowed in proportion to our deeds. It is God’s grace that gives us a second start in life, even new life, and God does that without regard to our old life. God does not say of a monstrous sinner, “That man is so bad that I will have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with enough grace to give him new life.” Or, He doesn’t look at a very moral, upstanding citizen and say, “A little dab will do.” The grace that goes out to all sinners, whether first-class, second-class, or third-class sinners, is the limitless, immeasurable, infinite grace of God.
God’s grace is not a bonus we get when we get our act cleaned up. If I go to a restaurant and am waited on by a young lady, I might come to the end of my meal and say to her, “You have been exceptionally patient and helpful in serving me my meal. Here is a twenty dollar bill to show my appreciation.” Those around who are watching might exclaim, “Wow, that man is really gracious.” By human standards that might be true. But that does not in any way describe God’s grace. God’s grace would walk up to the young lady in the restaurant and say, “I don’t want any food, and there is nothing you can do for me. I am giving you this twenty dollars because it pleases me to do so.” God’s greatest satisfaction comes when we comprehend that where sin abounded, His grace flowed without measure.
Why would God do this? What motivates Him to lavish His grace on us when we totally do not deserve it? His first, and greatest, motivation is His love. We are really limited in our understanding of the greatness of that love. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” God created us in His own image and breathed into us His own breath of life. We are His creation, and until we get to Heaven and can look back on our earthly time, we will probably not realize the relationship between God and ourselves and the uniqueness of who we are as humans. God loves us! He created us for fellowship with Himself.
Secondly, God created us in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand for us to walk in them, or do them (Ephesians 2:10). When we were created, God envisioned what He could do through us. Psalm 139:16 says that each day of our lives was scheduled before we even began to breathe. God wanted to share His ministry and purpose with us and to live His life through us. Paul told the Corinthians that “...we are His ambassadors, as though He is making His appeal to the world through us”
(II Corinthians 5:20). So, God lavished His grace upon us so that we could have a meaning and reason in living…to fulfill the purpose for which we were created. There are things we were designed to do that no one else can do. Ephesians 2:1-3 reminds us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, walking around with no more purpose than a dead person would have.
A third reason God lavishes His grace on us is a little bit harder for us to comprehend. In Ephesians 1:23 it says, “God gave Christ to be Head of the Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him that fills everything.” It seems presumptuous to think that it takes us to give Christ His fullness. But let me give you an illustration that might explain. King George V became King of England in 1911 with Queen Mary (May) at his side. But who was Mary? Was she of queenly birth? King George was the son of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra; but Mary? ...She had been Princess Mary of Teck, just one of a hundred princesses of equal rank among the noble families of Germany. George’s older brother, Prince Albert Victor, had first chosen Mary for his bride, but he died suddenly of pneumonia before the marriage could be consummated. So, Prince George asked Mary to marry him. She agreed and became the Queen of England. Without His love she would have been unknown, but because of his love she became a queen. There she sat in regal splendor, her every action casting praise and glory upon her husband-king. This gives us a faint glimpse of what it will be for us who have been chosen to be the Bride of Christ, the fullness of Him who fills everything. Jesus finds His purpose and completeness as He fulfills Himself through us.
Finally, and perhaps most important, God lavishes His grace upon us so that His grace can be seen throughout eternity. In Ephesians 2:6, 7 we find these words: “He raised us up with Him (Jesus) and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Peter expressed the same truth in
I Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, so that you may declare the wonderful deeds of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
God’s supreme motive is nothing less than His desire to demonstrate before all intelligences, principalities and powers, celestial beings, and terrestrial beings the exceeding riches of His grace. They know of the depths of man’s sin and of their own sin and the hopelessness of man’s condition without God. But they will also see man redeemed and saved from his lostness and appearing in the highest glory—like Christ. The only explanation for such a change can be the grace of God that passes understanding.
When the old green Living Bibles came out, I devoured the Book of Ephesians. It came alive to me. And in Chapter 2 I read these words, “But God is so rich in mercy; He loved us so much that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, He gave us back our lives again when He raised Christ from the dead—only by His undeserved favor have we ever been saved—and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with Him in the heavenly realms—all because of what Christ Jesus did. And now…God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich His kindness is, as shown in all He has done for us through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-7).
That really piqued my interest. What did Paul mean when he said that “...now God can point to us as examples?” Who is questioning what God has done? Are people watching me? I found the answer to my question in the next chapter. In Chapter 3, Paul says, “Just think! Though I did nothing to deserve it, and though I am the most useless Christian there is, yet I was chosen for this special joy of telling the Gentiles the glad news of the endless treasures available to them in Christ; and to explain to everyone that God is the Savior of the Gentiles, too, just as He Who made all things had secretly planned from the very beginning. And His reason? To show to all the rulers in Heaven how perfectly wise He is when all of His family—Jews and Gentiles alike—are seen to be joined together in His Church, in just the way He had always planned it, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Ephesians 3:8-11).
The term rulers in Heaven is the same phrase used in Chapter 6 when Paul talks about our spiritual battle not being against people made of flesh and blood but against persons without bodies—“...the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world and against a huge number of wicked spirits in the spirit world.”
God’s grace began to make sense. But then I also realized that Peter said this: “Salvation was something the prophets did not fully understand. Though they wrote about it, they had many questions as to what it could mean. They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about, for He told them to write down the events which, since then, have happened to Christ: His suffering and His great glory afterwards. And they wondered when and to whom all this would happen. They were finally told that these things would not occur during their lifetime, but long years later during yours. And now at last this Good News has been plainly announced to all of us. It was preached to us in the power of the same Heaven-sent Holy Spirit, Who spoke to them; and it is all so strange and wonderful that even the angels in Heaven would give a great deal to know more about it” (I Peter 1:10-13). More people are curious about God’s grace and are watching us.
But it wasn’t over yet. I was reading in Hebrews 11 and discovered that many of the martyrs did not receive their reward on the earth but that God wanted them to wait and share the even better rewards that were prepared for us. Chapter 12 begins by saying, “Since we have such a huge crowd of witnesses watching us from the grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down and holds us back…and let us run with patience the particular race God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1, 2).
God’s grace is on display for the entire universe to see. His grace abounds in your life. It is infinite. You didn’t earn it or deserve it. You received it because God loves you and because He wants to fulfill His love through you. He wants you to be an extension of Himself here on the earth. And He lavishes His grace upon you because He wants you to be part of His family. You are betrothed to His own dear Son. And finally, He lavishes His grace upon you so that the whole universe will see and understand Who He is. “God can always point to you as an example of how very, very rich His kindness is as shown in all He has done for us through Jesus Christ.” Bathe yourself in His grace.
-QUESTIONS-
1. What does the Greek word huper mean, and how does it change the comparison of man’s sin and God’s grace?
2. Doesn’t it require more of God’s grace to save Joseph Duncan than to save a wonderful, upstanding citizen? If God’s grace is not bestowed in proportion to our needs, what does He use as a criteria to lavish His grace on us?
3. How can God love a sinner like Paul, who was killing Christians? What is behind His love?
4. Is it presumptuous to say that God is fulfilled when He lavishes His grace on us? How does God fulfill Himself through us?
5. If we don’t do the works which God prepared beforehand for us to do (Ephesians 3:10), will God cover our bases for us and clean up after us?
6. Why would God want us as a bride for His Son? Couldn’t He do better somewhere else?
7. When Paul said that God’s intent was that “...through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms...” (Ephesians 3:10), who was he talking about? List three or four different groups that are watching as God points to us as objects of His grace.
8. If God lavishes His grace on me, does that mean I am free of responsibility and can skate home free? Study Philippians 2:12, 13; Ephesians 6:10-18; Colossians 1:10; James 2:17, 18; I Peter 2:12; Hebrews 10:24.