Weekly Articles

                                                                                                                An Abundance Of Grace

                                         “….But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound”   Romans 5:20b

Grace is the undeserved acceptance and love received from another. Although the biblical words for “grace” are used in a variety of ways, the most characteristic use of it is to refer to an undeserved favor granted by a superior to an inferior. When we speak of it as divine grace towards mankind, it refers to the undeserved favor of God given in providing salvation for those deserving condemnation.

The New Testament word for “grace” is the Greek word “charis.” After a long history in secular Greek, it came to be used in an ethical sense of a favor done freely without any claim or expectation of something in return. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek, “charis” was used to translate the Hebrew “chen” and thus in biblical Greek came to be associated with an objective relation of undeserved favor given by a superior to an inferior. Grace is simply God’s unmerited favor towards man that is continuous, an inexhaustible supply that is never interrupted. Our salvation which we live by, and under, comes as a gift of God’s grace.

Whenever we talk about our salvation, which is the deliverance from sin and its deadly consequences, it is a reference of a superior, God Almighty, showing us the depths, height, and width of His love for us. The bible teaches us that because of Adam’s sin, death, which is spiritual separation from God, reigned here in the earth. All of mankind was under this condemnation; therefore God had to devise a plan which would deliver us from the guilt and wrath which was against us because of the reign of death in the earth. We were in need of God’s grace to give to an undeserving people what we rightly deserved; thus we receive mercy by not receiving what we deserved, but God’s grace was made available to us through the sacrifice of His Son. God did not just give us His grace, but He gave us an abundance of grace as a gift. Romans 5:15 says “for if through the offense of one (Adam) many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded to many.” Grace did not just come to us, but was given to us in abundance because of the power and reign of sin in the earth through one man’s offense. God’s unmerited favor shown to save us was also delivered to us as a gift in Christ as well. What grace God had for us as a people initially, He added a gift of grace as well in the life and death of His Son to save us. Because there was so much power and efficacy in the sin of man to condemn us, much more are there power and efficacy in the righteousness and grace of Christ to justify and save us. The stream of grace and righteousness had to be deeper and broader than the stream of the guilt our sin nature provided us. Grace had to be in abundance so “if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive (by faith) abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Because God wanted to show an undeserving people favor, He went ahead and added more grace in the gift of Christ to forgive all trespasses. The bible states that the law or commandments were given to identify sin (Romans 3:20/5:20). The offense, the sin of Adam, the extending of the guilt of it to us, and the effect of the corruption in us, are the abounding of that offense which appeared upon the entry of the law. But Romans 5:20 tells us that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” And not just abound, but was given to us in abundance to much more abound because of the strength that death carried in the earth. Our abundance came in the gift of Christ, in whom we were made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is the antidote for the reign that death had in the earth; “so that grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Therefore, we have received grace from God in abundance so that we now have the power to reign as kings in life through Jesus Christ.