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“The Manifold Wisdom of God” “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Romans 5:20-21
We have seen “the manifold wisdom of God” in the accomplishment of redemption by Christ alone, the revelation of his glory in redemption, God’s wise provisions of grace, the angelic interest in redemption, our God’s overruling evil and sin for the good of his people, and his use and overthrow of Satan. Now, let’s see what the Scriptures teach us about God’s great wisdom in the exercise of his grace abounding over sin in the salvation of our souls by Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Law “The law” mentioned in verse 20 refers specifically to the moral law, the Ten Commandments, God gave to Israel at Mount Sinai. That law intervened between Adam’s sin and Christ’s sacrifice. And the law of God enters into the conscience of a sinner under Holy Spirit conviction, exposing our sins to us. This is what Paul means when he says, “I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Romans 7:9). By the entrance of the law into a person’s conscience, the offence, sin, abounds. The law of God discovers and exposes my sin to me, takes away all excuses for sin, and leaves me speechless (Romans 3:19). And, at the same time, it stirs up and aggravates sin in the rebel’s heart. Paul asserts, over and over and over again, the utter impossibility of justification by the law. The law of God can do nothing but expose sin, identify sin, and work condemnation in us because of sin.
Abounding Grace “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” — The law exposes sin. Grace removes sin. The law condemns. Grace removes condemnation. The law renders us guilty. Grace removes our guilt. As sin abounded in human nature, grace has much more abounded in that same nature, when the Son of God assumed human flesh and appeared in our nature “full of grace and truth.” Sin abounded in Adam. Grace much more abounded in Christ, the last Adam. Sin has abounded in all the powers and faculties of the human soul, so that man’s understanding, his will, and his affections are under the dominion of sin. But in regeneration the grace of God much more abounds, enlightening the mind, subduing the will, and turning our hearts to God in faith and love. Sin abounded in the world. But now the gospel of the grace of God, being preached in all the world, grace much more abounds in turning men and women from their idols and their sins to serve the true and living God. And where sin has abounded in particular people, grace has much more abounded.
The Reason In verse 21 Paul shows us the reason for God’s superabundance of grace over sin. — “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Grace Triumphant Sin is a monarch, with absolute power and dominion, reigning over all men and women by nature. Its dominion is universal and complete. All Adam’s race is under the dominion of sin. And sin’s dominion over man is so thorough that it reigns even over man’s will, making all men its voluntary servants. But the reign of sin is unto death. — “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,” spiritual death, physical death, and eternal death. Death is the fruit and result of sin. — “The wages of sin is death.” But grace is triumphant over sin! “Even so” in just the same manner God has determined that “grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Grace too is a monarch, reigning with super abundant power and dominion. Grace, as it is in the heart of God toward his elect, reigns in the salvation of his people and reigns over all the world to accomplish our salvation. The throne from which God rules the universe is “the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).
Through Righteousness Grace reigns through righteousness. God will not exercise grace at the expense of his righteousness. The grace of God reigns in perfect harmony with righteousness, justice, and truth “unto eternal life.” Eternal life is what grace has promised to and prepared for God’s elect. Grace makes us worthy of eternal life, and freely bestows eternal life upon us in a perfectly righteous way “by Jesus Christ our Lord,” by the merits of Christ’s righteousness and blood atonement as our Substitute. The superabundance of God’s grace over man’s sin is another revelation of “the manifold wisdom of God” as it is set forth in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks be unto God, our God, the triune Jehovah, forever, for his triumphant grace in Christ Jesus! — “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!”
Don Fortner
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