Grace Like We've Never Seen

Don’t you love abundance?  I like it when I get a bonus.

I got an extra helping of potatoes recently at our favorite restaurant

Carolyn is giving me an abundant back rub right now.

I love abundance. 

Does God ever shower us with abundance?

He does indeed.

The scriptures remind us of this:  

Where sin abounds, grace abounds more.

~Romans 5:20

For comparison purposes, let’s say that you and I commit a series of sins.  On the Richter scale of sins, this amounts to 100 sins. 

That’s a whole lot of sins, would you agree? 

100 sins – and they fill the house and overflow the windows.

And along comes God.  

So God sees our 100 sins.  Does he give us a measure of grace equal to 101 sins?  Not according to our key verse.

Let’s be generous.  Let’s say he gives a measure equal to 150 sins.  Surely one and a half times more grace than sins is a good thing, right?

And to add to our dilemma, tomorrow and for the next four days we commit these sins five days in a row. 

Wow.  That means our sins now amount to 500 sins.  Surely God will run out of grace on that one.

Hold on, worried child of God.

His word promises, PROMISES I say, that where sin abounds, grace abounds more.

Not grace in a measure of 150 per day, or the 750 for five days. 

Think more in terms of the “thousand” power, even the “ten thousand” power.

God loves us so much that he gives and gives and gives in abundance, overflowing, pouring forth.  He gives more grace than our sins can handle.

He floods our sins with abundant grace, grace like we’ve never seen before.

The question is this – can we accept that kind of grace?

Can we accept that kind of love?

Can we believe in the abundant, lavish love of God?

We hear the scriptures that proclaim …

God so loved the world that He gave his only Son …John 3:16

I have loved you with an everlasting love.  Jeremiah 31:3

But to receive grace in such magnitude?

Is God really that rich in grace?  You bet He is. 

As Philip Yancey says, “God is looking more for ways to bring you home to heaven than He is in seeking ways to keep you out.”

My favorite author, Brennan Manning, says this:  “Only God knows how to pardon.”

And He does it very well indeed.

Where sin abounds grace abounds more.

Thanks be to God.

P Michael Biggs

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