Much More the Grace of God
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We have before us today portions of Romans for our study. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans carries with it one of God's supreme messages for saints. Three great facts stand before us: (1) The fact of sin, with its universality. (2) The fact of redemption, through the Calvary work of Christ, where grace is supreme. (3) The fact of the victorious life in Christ Jesus, through the Spirit.
A fourth message that stands in the limelight in Romans is a special word concerning Israel. This part of the Book includes Chapter s 9, 10, and 11.
1. The fact of sin. Grace cannot operate apart from the darkness and gloom of sin. The fall of man, with all of the results of his sin against the Most Holy, made possible the operation of God's grace.
Grace is based upon love, and it operates in mercy; but grace bears a deeper meaning than either of the other two.
When love is toward the unworthy, it begins to operate in the realm of grace; and when mercy is shown to the guilty, it works on the basis of grace.
Grace is the kindness of God to us while we were yet sinners. Grace is mercy to the unmerciful; kindness to the unkind; goodness to the wholly bad, and salvation to those unworthy to be saved.
Where worth begins, grace ends; where merit enters in, grace passes out.
One of the great verses of the Bible is this one: "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." There is another verse which is a close kin: He "loved us, and washed us from our sins," that is, He loved us before He washed us.
Thus, where grace abounds, sin abounds. Where there is no sin there may be rivers of love, but grace moves in mercy toward sinners.
2. The fact of redemption from sin and for sinners. Grace is the great motive power that moved God in making Christ an offering for sin. Grace ferreted out the way by which God could be just, and the justifier of the guilty. Grace discovered the way by which God; the holy, could bring man, the unholy, into His Divine presence chamber.
Grace, however, does not end its mercies at the Cross. Grace reaches on into the far vistas of the "ages to come." Here is a Scripture that marvelously magnifies grace: "That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."
Grace enters into Heaven; grace passes into the ages beyond, where sin cannot enter, only because saved sinners can enter there.
It is His kindness to us the "us" carries with it the marvelous scope of redemption toward those who once were lost, dead in trespasses and sins.
3. Grace operates through faith. We are familiar with the Scripture, "By grace are ye saved through faith." Grace, is the Divine side; faith, is the human side. Grace, is God moving out toward the lost sinner; faith, is the lost sinner moving out toward God. Grace reaches down; faith reaches up. Grace is God reconciling; faith is man accepting.
There is, however, one thing we must remember, that even faith is the gift of God. Faith is made operative in us, but faith is in us because God put it there. Grace is God seeking to save, by way of the Cross, and by every other means through which He makes it possible for man to be saved. In addition to the work of Calvary, He gives the Word of salvation as found in the Scriptures. He also gives the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin.
Faith is man's act, and yet we still insist that faith is impossible, unless it is wrought in the heart, by God.
I. JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE (Romans 4:24-25)
The Spirit, through the Apostle, has been discussing the utter weakness of a sinner to save himself. He has put special stress upon the fact that the Law cannot save, because the Law is a broken precept. Under the Law, every mouth is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God. The man who rests in the Law, and maketh his boast of God, is certain to break the Law, thus bringing dishonor upon God, If we would be saved by the Law, we must be doers of the Law; however, all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. The result is, that, by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.
Grace now steps in and provides a way by which the righteousness of God, without the Law, may be manifested. This is the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus Christ. It is a righteousness that passes upon all them that believe.
Now we can sing, being justified freely by His grace.
Grace does not operate upon the basis of man's work or deeds. It operates wholly through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Grace is God setting forth His Son to be a propitiation for our sins; grace is God declaring us righteous, through the Blood of Christ. Grace is God granting the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, upon every one which believeth in Jesus.
II. GRACE FORBIDS HUMAN GLORY (Romans 4:1-5)
It is natural for the flesh to boast. We delight to say that we have done this, or, that we have done that. When we come, however, into the realm of salvation, there is no place for human glorying.
The Spirit asks, "Where is boasting then?" "It is excluded." How is it excluded? Is it excluded by works? That is impossible. If we were saved by what we are, or by what we do, we would have whereof to glory.
In emphasizing this, the Spirit uses an illustration. Let us mark His words. "If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God."
Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham went out, not knowing whither he went. Abraham became a tent-dweller, looking for a city whose Builder and Maker is God. Abraham offered up Isaac. Abraham paid a tithe to Melchisedec of all that he possessed. These were all works of faith, but by none of them was Abraham justified.
It was not works which justified Abraham, but it was the faith that worked. Abraham believed God, and his faith was counted to him for righteousness. Abraham's faith was not a dead faith, as we have seen. However, it was not the works of faith that saved Abraham, but the faith that works.
If God had counted righteousness unto Abraham because of his works, Abraham would have had every reason to glory; but since Abraham was saved by faith, the reward was reckoned unto him of grace, and not of debt.
The supreme message, herein, is, that justification is to him who worketh not, but to him who believeth on God who justifieth the ungodly; his faith is counted for righteousness.
III. GRACE OPERATES THROUGH FAITH (Romans 4:16)
Our verse says, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed."
If salvation were by law-works, it would not be equal to all; but, since salvation is by grace through faith, it is made sure to every one who believes.
Again, the Spirit brings Abraham before us, and speaks of our walking in the steps of that faith, because Abraham's faith was not through law-works; for it was through the "righteousness of faith" that the promise came to Abraham.
The story of Israel, under the Law, abundantly proves man's helplessness to keep the Law. The Law is no more than a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. The Law can do no more than to prove to us our sin. If we are under the Law, we are under the curse, for it is written, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them."
The Ten Commandments were no sooner given than they were broken. When Moses, coming down from the mountain, beheld the Children of Israel dancing around the golden calf, he broke the tables which held the Law; the Law, that the Israelites had already broken. Thus, "the Law worketh wrath,"
Now we understand the wherefore of grace, and, the position of faith. Once more the faith of Abraham is used as an example: because Abraham against hope, believed in hope. He knew that his own body was as good as dead, for he was about an hundred years old, when God certified to him the birth of Isaac. Yet, "he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief"; but he was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Abraham was fully persuaded, that God was able to give him a son, even Isaac. Therefore, his faith was "imputed to him for righteousness."
What is our conclusion? It is this: Righteousness shall likewise be imputed to us, through faith, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord, from the dead.
IV. THE MUCH MORE OF GRACE (Romans 5:14-15)
Now come into that matchless chapter, Romans five. This chapter compares the first man, with the second; the first Adam, with the last Adam. It was by one man that sin entered into the world, and death by sin. It was because of that one man's sin, that death passed upon all men, inasmuch as all men have sinned.
Thus, it was that death reigned from Adam to Moses; and, from Moses to this hour.
Over against sin and its reign, through Adam, the Spirit places the free gift of God through Christ. Verse fifteen reads, "Not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."
How wonderful it all is!
"He saw us ruined by the fall,
Yet loved us notwithstanding all.
He saved us from our lost estate.
His loving kindness, O how great!"
Not only this, but He superabounded in His grace over all the wreckage of sin. What we lost in Adam, we have more than gained in Christ. The depths to which Adam's sin, and ours, has dragged us, are not comparable only to the heights to which the grace of God has lifted us.
We delight in the expression, "Much more the grace of God."
We are now justified by faith. We now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We now have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and our hearts rejoice.
V. GRACE AND LIFE (Romans 5:17-18)
It is a gruesome sight to stand and view the result of one man's offence. Our Scripture text says, "Death reigned by one." The world has become but little more than a graveyard. The wreckage of sin is seen on every hand. Death reigns, that is, death is a monarch, holding sway. Death is a monarch, scythe in hand, whose victorious sweep cannot be hindered. We may hold back the ravages of death for a day, by attempting to resist death's reign; but sooner or later every opposing power must succumb, as grim death with open scythe stands victor mid the wreckage which death has wrought.
Every newspaper shows that sin and death still reign. Blood and carnage are ever about us. We who are living, are daily walking through a valley of the shadow of death. Sin and sorrow, shame and suffering, are on every hand. The cries of many wounded and dying are ever in our ears.
Against all of this we read that they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Christ Jesus.
How blessed it is to step out of the valley of death into the garden of life; If sin brought death, and death reigned by one; much more do we reign, in life, by One.
Let the artist paint the shadow of sin and of death with ever so gruesome a detail; yet, his painting will afford no more than the background, which shall enhance the beauty and the glory of the reign in life, which is given to us, by grace.
Let hell be pictured in all of its honors; Heaven doth super-abound in all of its glories.
We delight in God's far-flung vision of redemption. We can almost hear our Lord saying, "The former things are passed away." The new Heaven, and the new earth, and the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, will soon come. God will soon be dwelling with men. What now is before us? "There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away," Thank God for the "much more" of grace!
Jesus, my Saviour, Bright Morning Star,
Come soon, Lord Jesus, come from afar;
Thy saints have grown weary with Thy delay,
Bend Thou the heavens, come soon, we pray.
VI. GRACE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 5:20-21)
In the preceding study we spoke of the "much more of grace," in the vision of life and its beneficent results super-abounding over death and its devastating wreckage.
We continue with much the same thought, only, instead of seeing life reigning, we find grace itself is reigning through righteousness unto eternal life.
In Adam sin reigned. In Christ grace reigns. Where sin reigned, the curse reigned. The supreme conception of sin, is its downward pull. Sin steals from us everything that is worth the while. It reigns until it ravages humankind, and reigns unto death.
How blessed it is that we can enter the valley where sin abounded, and find grace superabounding! We who sat under the scepter where sin reigns unto death, now sit in Christ where grace reigns unto eternal life.
We saw in a Georgia swamp, mid the mirk and the mire of death and decay, a beautiful white flower, sending out its fragrance. As we stooped down and plucked it, we thought of how, when we were dead in trespasses and sin, God quickened us, gave us a new life; and raised us, and gave us a new righteousness. Then He caused us to sit down with Him in the Heavenlies, and gave us a new fellowship.
Let us turn our gaze from sin, as it sits upon its throne, reigning unto death, and behold grace, as it sits upon its throne, reigning through righteousness unto eternal life.
Where is he that would not like to renounce the throne and scepter of sin and Satan, and enlist under the throne and scepter of righteousness and of Christ?
VII. THE SUPREME QUESTION (Romans 6:1; Romans 6:14-15)
We have been following God's message concerning grace. We have passed along, step by step, until, by grace and through faith, we have seen ourselves lifted up, from the dominion of sin and of death, and into God's eternal life and glory. A supreme question now is thrown before us. It is twice asked. First in verse one, of chapter six; and again in verse fifteen of the same chapter.
Verse one, asks, "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?"
Verse fifteen, asks, "Shall we sin, because we are not under the Law, but under Grace?"
The questions are similar, the answer is the same: "God forbid."
Is grace a license to lust, even unto those who have drunk from its bounty? Is grace a permission for impiety? Is grace an encouragement to iniquity? Shall we sin, because grace super-abounds over sin? God forbid.
Grace is a call to live in righteousness. Grace teaches us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
Shall we who are baptized into Christ's death on the Cross; and then buried with Him by baptism in the likeness of His death, and of His resurrection, continue in sin?
Shall we who, in Christ, are dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God, permit sin to reign in our mortal body, that we should obey it in the lusts thereof?
If we yield ourselves as servants of sin unto death, how can we call ourselves servants of righteousness unto life?
Of old, we yielded our members to the authority of uncleanness and iniquity; but now we yield our members as servants of righteousness unto holiness. God has said, "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the Law, but under Grace."
AN ILLUSTRATION
Thinking of God's much more of Grace over sin, reminds us of Dr. Biederwolf's story:
"Deeper Than That"
"Depth" (Ephesians 3:18).
"When Nansen was looking for the North Pole he found himself in very deep water. He tried to take his sounding, but his line would not reach bottom. He took his book and wrote the date, the length of his line, and added this note: 'Deeper than that.' The next day he lengthened his line and dropped it, and again it failed to touch. Again he wrote down the date and length of his line and added this note: 'Deeper than that.' The next day he gathered all the rope that could be found on the vessel and made it into one long line and dropped it down, but it did not touch the bottom. Once more he took his book and wrote the date, the length of his longest line, and added this note: 'Deeper than that.' Oh, the depth of the love of Christ!