ROMANS UNWRAPPED 85

In the grace of God in Christ there is abundance,  God is an extremely generous God, unlike what we human beings usually are.   Paul speaks here of  the grace of God (not now the judgement of God) and the gift by grace (by which he means justification, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation etc. etc.) and he gives this without measure.   The point that is being made here is that God not only gives us the grace, but He gives it freely and in great measures.   Comparing this to the offence of Adam toward God, who would want abundance of death and disease and pain and sorrow and hard labour?; but we do want abundance of peace and mercy and grace and love and all the benefits that flow from a gracious God.   In Christ, God provides much more than Adam lost, or even possessed, before the Fall.   Adam only knew at best innocence, the believer knows righteousness, which is not only the cancelling of all that Adam brought in but the giving of a right standing with God that belongs only to Jesus Christ.   To put this in picture form, consider a down and out tramp whose clothes are way beyond recovery and whose body contains sores beyond healing; God has not only stripped us of our filthy clothes but He has clothed us with royal garments and we shall see more of this as we go on.

Jesus said "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."   John 10v10     Paul writes to the Ephesians believers who have come into the good of the grace of God, like this "now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."  Ephesians 3v20     He reminds Titus, one of his converts "after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour."    Titus 3v4-6    Peter writing to the Jewish believers said something similar  "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."   2nd Peter 1v11      

We shall come in verse 20 of this chapter to the portion which says not only abundance but super abundance is the word used.   Abundance beyond abundance.   there are no half measures with God; when He blesses, He blesses again and again, and more and more.   There is a statement in John's gospel which goes some way to describing this "and of His fullness have all we received and grace for grace."   John 1v16    This phrase grace corresponding to grace, if you like, grace without limit.   In this connection I am reminded of the hymn by Annie Flint, based on James 4v6.

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase,
To added affliction He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men,
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,   
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half-done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Paul reaches the wonder of this truth in Ephesians 3v8 when he says  "unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ."   It is the word unsearchable that brings out the true extent of the grace of God to man.    this word occurs only once again in the New Testament in Romans 11v33   "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!   How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out!"   There Paul states that God's wisdom has no limit, has no end to it, is way beyond human searching and it is this phrase  "past finding out" that is the same word used in connection with God's grace. 

The essence of Adam's act was to bring offence to God and thus bring misery and death on the entire human race~ the essence of Christ's act is to bring unlimited blessing on all believers.   

Tomorrow we look at the differences in the Divine verdicts following the two acts.