In Romans 5:20b,
the apostle Paul, by inspiration, wrote to the saints at Rome,
“But where sin abounded, grace
abounded much
more...” We sing of this abounding grace when we
rightly sing that the
grace of God is greater than all our sin. Today, we wish to look at the
words
that are translated in this text by our English word
“abounded.” In the first
portion of the sentence in which the Holy Spirit caused Paul to write
that “sin abounded,”
he used a word, which according to Perschbacher, in this text means
“to come
into wider action, to be more widely spread” (331).
Consequently, when Paul
spoke of the sin abounding, he was simply saying that it had become so
widely
spread that it would seem there was no remedy for it whatsoever.
However, then,
he added that in this case “grace
abounded much more.” Literally, the words
“abounded much more”
come from one Greek word, which would
perhaps be better
translated “super-abounded.” Nevertheless, the idea
is that where sin had
become so widespread that no one could see its parameters and man could
see no
way of ever controlling it, the grace of God had become much more
widespread.
That makes the grace of God the only solution to sin!
If the words here translated “abounded”
and “abounded much more”
are interesting to
study, and they are, the word “grace”
draws an even greater interest. The
word “grace”
in this passage comes from a Greek
word that in English is
spelled “charis.” This word is usually defined by
English speaking people as “unmerited
favor,” and it is that, but there is a bit more depth of
meaning to the word
that we will do well to consider. The word, in various lexicons, has
rather
long definitions. Most of them include such words as beauty, favor,
pleasing,
kindness and other such beautiful terms, it is fundamentally defined as
a “charitable
act,” or a “generous gift” (Perschbacher
436). A charitable act is a positive
act of love. God certainly has had that for His creatures all down
through the
centuries of time. Jesus testified that, “...
God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have
everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to
condemn the
world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John
3:16‑17
NKJV). That which is given is a gift. When God wanted to show both the
immutability and the greatness of his love, He sent man a gift in the
person of
his unique Son. If man would, by faith, accept that gift, he would be
born to
eternal life.
The sending of Christ to overcome sin in the hearts of
men was most certainly a charitable act! We did not deserve that gift,
nor
could we with anything known to us, pay for it. It was and remains free
to all
who will accept it. By the same token, it is a generous gift, as a
matter of
fact, the most generous gift that has ever been proffered to mankind.
The
Father has never given a greater gift, nor can He give a greater gift
than a
part of Himself for the redemption of man. So, wherever sin has spread,
the
grace God offered through His only begotten Son has spread in an even
greater
way.
One tries to imagine what this world would be like had
the gift of God that brings salvation never been given by the Father of
lights.
How much more sin would there be in the world? What would be the
magnitude of
murder, adultery, homosexuality, drunkenness or any other sin conceived
by
Satan and committed by man? There is no way of answering this question!
We are
thankful to God that this is the case. How thankful we are that where
sin
flooded, the flood of grace was even greater, and it was something that
we did
not have to earn nor buy; it was a gift that came from the generous
heart of
our God who loved us so much He was willing to give for our salvation
the one
thing that not even heaven could have two of! Thank God for his
abounding
grace!
Abounding
Grace