The doctrine of sin is fundamental to any scriptural understanding of life in this fallen world. But where there is sin, there is death – and not only the separation of soul from body at the end of our time in this world. Charles Hodge, in his doctrinal remarks on the last part of Romans 5, explains that “the term death is used for any and every evil judicially inflicted as the punishment of sin”.1 It includes spiritual death – the total lack of spiritual life – which is to be discerned in the absence of spiritual activities, such as faith, repentance, and love to God, to His cause, to other believers, and to holiness. It also includes eternal death, which is the final, permanent separation of the unbelieving sinner from God and from all conceivable blessings, even in the smallest degree.
In Romans 5:17, Paul comes to the third in a series of contrasts; the first part of it is: “If by one man’s offence death reigned by one”. It is not that death has merely impinged on human life – interfering minimally with our relationship to God, our relationship to other human beings, and our own welfare in time and in eternity. No, it has reigned; so that “there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom 3:10,11). It reigns over all of humanity, and its reign over every individual is total. Except by divine power, it is impossible to escape from the dominion of death.
But the other part of the contrast is this: “much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ”. Here is good news, even for those over whom death is reigning: they may be saved from death, and from the sin which is its cause. Indeed, they may receive an abundance of grace, which is God’s kindness to the unworthy. If only sinners will receive it by faith in Jesus Christ, this abundance of grace will be theirs. No matter how sinful they have been, no matter how dead they feel spiritually, no matter how ignorant they are, an abundance of grace is set before sinners in the gospel.
Consider the greatness of the One who came to provide salvation for sinners. He is the eternal Son of God. He finished the work that was given Him to do; He suffered the full punishment for the sins of all whom He was representing; He kept the law of God perfectly, in their place. And we can be sure that His work was accepted by God the Father, because on the third day He was raised from the dead; death could not hold Him.
Thus it should be clear that the salvation Christ worked out is a great salvation; there is abundance of grace for all who will trust in Him. Satan and unbelief in the person’s soul may combine to focus attention on the greatness of their sin, but no matter how great anyone’s sin is, the abundance of grace makes forgiveness possible even for the greatest of sinners. We cannot earn it; it is a free gift. Who can earn what is of infinite value?
Whatever other spiritual needs people may be conscious of, they can be supplied, and supplied fully because this grace is abundant. The stream of God’s grace can never run dry; it can never be exhausted. When, through abundant grace, Legion – who was possessed by many devils and was a danger to himself and to others – was delivered by Jesus, he could be seen “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind”. But every sinner has a polluted nature. That is why outwardly-moral sinners reject Christ and His salvation: there is enmity to God and His Son in their polluted hearts. It is only because God’s grace is so abundant that it is possible for the sin of rejecting Christ, and every other sin, to be forgiven. All sinners need to be delivered from spiritual death and transformed by the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit so that they are made alive and are given a right mind – a mind which receives the whole revelation of the Word of God as true, authoritative and in every way relevant.
So Paul, looking back on his conversion, acknowledged that “the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant” (1 Tim 1:14). This was true when the Saviour met him as a persecutor on his way to Damascus, and this grace was abundant till the end of the Apostle’s life. So it is with all God’s children; His grace is abundant in bringing them into the narrow way, and it continues to be abundant until they are brought to heaven – whether or not they are always properly conscious of that abundance. Because God is so gracious, they can be sure that He “shall supply all [their] need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19). The “riches in glory” are the treasures of blessing that He is distributing from His throne in heaven, in the abundance of His grace.
So, if believers are oppressed by indwelling sin and a corrupt, untrusting heart, let them realise that these needs can be supplied through that abundant grace, from Christ’s treasures of blessing. Let them receive, by faith, the supply of their needs from the provision that has been made for all God’s children – a provision for indwelling sin to be subdued and so that temptation may be resisted. God has not willed that the power of sin should be removed in an instant – not until the soul parts from the body at death – but He assures all His children that, in His abundant grace, provision has been made for their continuing sanctification. Again, they will always be vulnerable to temptation while they continue in this world, but let them look to the Lord, pleading that, graciously, He “would either keep [them] from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver [them] when [they] are tempted”.2
Peter, when he denied his Master, was not the first or the last to fall into serious sin. But even then God’s grace towards him was abundant; his suffering Master looked on him, and it was a look that brought him to repentance. Besides, there was his Master’s intercession, as He had told Peter when he was utterly unwilling to accept that he was in danger of falling: “I have prayed for thee”. Abundant grace is still being exercised today in reclaiming backsliders and in making intercession for them and for all God’s children, as the Mediator presents the merits of His finished work before His Father. How clearly the abundance of God’s grace is illustrated in Paul’s words: “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38,39)!
God’s children may be stumbled by the call to “grow in grace”, when they feel they are too weak to make any progress in the Christian life. But they never will make any progress if they look only to themselves; they must look to the One who has procured for them an abundance of grace. Yes, they must make use of the means of grace; in particular, they must grow also in knowledge. But obedience to the call to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18) can only come through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in the soul.
Whatever trouble or difficulty, spiritual and temporal, that believers may experience on their way through this world, let them remember the abounding grace of Him who loved them and gave Himself for them. God’s assurance to the Israelites was: “The Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Deut 31:6); their God would bring them safely through the Jordan and into the promised land. So God assures all His spiritual Israel that He will go with them; He will never leave them, but will bring them safely through this world and on to eternal life at last. It is certainly not what they – sinners that they are – deserve, but it is what they will receive, for Christ’s sake, through the abundance of divine grace.
1Hodge, A Commentary on Romans, Banner of Truth reprint, 1983, p 184.
2The Shorter Catechism, answer 106.