ROMANS UNWRAPPED 94

                      "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound"  Romans 5v20.

Two different words are used for abound, the first means to increase, the second to greatly increase. It could be rendered, in the second case, as super- abounded. Paul is anxious to shew that the grace of God is far superior to the greatest power in existence. Sin is a great power, a mighty force in our lives, but by a long way the grace of God surpasses it. We need not understand it quantitatively, it is not a matter of numbers, but rather qualitatively, the remarkable extent to which it can change a person's life, like nothing else can.

The principle of this can be found in nature: a broken branch of a tree repairs itself by growing another, and the new branch is stronger than the original; a broken bone in the human body begins to repair itself immediately, and the resultant formation, called callus, is said to be much harder and stronger than the normal bone, nature ensuring it is more difficult to break a second time; the formation of a pearl within an oyster takes place in a life-threatening situation, when grit or thorn or rock splinter irritates the nervous system, the oyster surrounds the offending article with a crystalline solution which hardens, and the process is repeated several times, layer upon layer until the pearl is complete. The lesson is that God has designed natural processes in such a way as to compensate for breakdown. How much more is this true in the spiritual sense? The grace of God more than compensates for the presence of offending sin. Out of the tyranny of sin, which threatened the very essence of what true life means, the amazing grace of a loving God will take us and make us right, and enrich us, and ultimately glorify us...........this is grace abounding. Out of the ocean of the depths of human sin Christ has brought the pearl of great price, the church, which will adorn the eternal city forever. GRACE SUPER-ABOUNDING!

There is no sin grace cannot overcome; there is no situation grace cannot solve, there is no need it cannot meet. The grace of God overflows to the chief of sinners, it not only saves them, it floods their inward being with the love of God, it drenches their souls with Divine light and infuses them with power to meet all challenges. If we are weak it will make us strong, if we are wicked it will make us holy, oh yes holy; if we are wayward it will straighten us out; if we are wilful it will tame us, it is the greatest power on earth. Listen to the testimony of the Apostles as they break the superlative barrier as they speak of grace.

• Peter........"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord"  grace multiplied but there's more......"according as His DIVINE POWER has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness"  2 Peter 1v2-3.
• Paul........"And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus"  1 Timothy1 v12-14.

ABUNDANT HOPE, ABUNDANT COMFORT, ABUNDANT MERCY, ABUNDANT LOVE, ABUNDANT WISDOM, ABUNDANT REJOICING,EXCEEDING RICHES, A FAR MORE EXCEEDING AND ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY. All these are sprinkled throughout scripture.

And then there is the most descriptive one of all........Ephesians 3v20   "Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us......."

There is no limit to the power of grace, because there is no limit to the God of grace.

Next; grace reigns!