Grace Abounding

John Bunyan’s autobiography is a brutal read. He called it Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, or Grace Abounding for short. He knew he was a sinner but grace is the thing he just couldn’t seem to get a grasp on for page after page in his testimony. Bunyan kept getting close to comfort for his soul in Christ, close to knowing the peace of God through justification by faith, yet he struggled for years until sovereign grace brought him home.

The second half of Romans 5 is like drowning, but more fruitful for our faith. Here is where anxiety in the soul goes to die. This is buoy of comfort in a tidal wave of soul worry. If it seems too good to be true, it at least reiterates that the good isn’t up to you. It never has been. There is a statement Paul makes in verse 20 that is so joy-good that it will take two more chapters to deal with the abuses some men make of it. Do you have sin? Is it great, grievous sin? Do you see your guilt before God? However awful it is, grace is more.

The point of this section in the letter is to secure our rejoicing. We rejoice, thrice, in verses 1-11. God’s glory, when it is revealed in fulness, will vindicate all we ever hoped for, the kind of hope that others others mocked us for. Our trials will be proven to have made us better. So God Himself is the lifter of our heads. The basis is not in us. The basis is love, and Christ sacrificed Himself for us while we were still sinners.

Since verse 12 Paul has been showing that all we’ve gained in Christ is much more than we lost in Adam, which is actually a big loss. We deserve condemnation because of what we’ve done, but we already deserved condemnation because Adam represented us and he failed. All of humanity has been under the reign of death since, and while ours is a ruined nature, it pales in comparison to the reign of righteousness and life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

rise, the woman’s conquering Seed,
bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface;
stamp thine image in its place.
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy love.
(—Charles Wesley, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”)

In Christ God is redeeming a new race of men who will live forever, and it is through grace abounding.

These verses offer two parallel summaries (“So then” or “consequently”) of the relationship between Adam and Jesus.

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18–19 ESV)

It’s possible to understand the “one(s)” as the one act of each or the one person committing each act. It amounts to the same. One man committed one trespass. Adam disobeyed in the Garden of Eden (see verses 12, 14). The results of that can be described as 1) it led to condemnation for all men and 2) by it the many were made sinners. This reiterates what he wrote in verse 12. God counted Adam’s disobedience as disobedience of us all.

Prior to and without regard for any inevitable individual disobedience, Adam’s guilt is imputed to us, to every human born of man.

This is a bad predicament, but a God-given precedent. God gave another representative in whom we can be counted righteous.

A different one act by one man: one act of righteousness which must be a summary of sacrifice, and one man’s obedience leads to justification and many being made righteous. One brought death, this One brings life.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22, ESV)

This is not a doctrine of Universalism, as if everyone will be saved. Every one whom Adam represented is condemned, and every one who Christ represents will be saved. Who are Adam’s? The born. Who are Christ’s? The believers only.

These are the only two worlds, and only those represented by Christ have true life.

While it is true that every man is guilty even before his own sins, his sins and guilt are useful to 1) point him outside of himself for help and 2) give him reason to rejoice and praise God’s grace.

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20–21, ESV)

One sentence with three movements.

First, Law’s job was to point out sin, and make it so that no one can claim any excuse. Paul already said as much (Romans 3:19-20, also in Galatians 3:23-24). Since imputation is the point, why even bring this up? It’s at least because God revealed more than that men were guilty in Adam. Is that reality even recognizable in the OT? The law, especially as revealed in the Law of Moses, was given as a tool to show the symptoms of their corrupted nature. All men need a new heart. They need to be made new creatures. They need forgiveness, but also to be reconciled and renewed. They are not obedient because they were born in sin. The law is like a mirror. Otherwise they might not see.

While it is true that the law may have some effect of restraining sin, that’s not what Paul described her. The law, as light, reveals more and more the violations of the standards.

Second, Sin is always second. The law increased sin, but where sin increased, graced abounded all the more.

Abounded all the more or “multiplied even more” (HCSB);” where aboundaunce of synne was/ther was more plēteousnes of grace” (Tyndale). Grace is a five-gallon bucket of water for a cardboard match; it is the Pacific Ocean for a box of matches. Grace is lavishly supplied. Grace scales, not just keeping pace to keep it covered, but in multiples of the sin. That’s abounding grace.

No matter what you have done you have not out-sinned grace. Adam represented the whole of mankind, and that sin brought death to every man, and still it wasn’t greater than Christ’s obedience and love and sacrifice.

There is no manipulation left for religious people here. It’s why Christianity through her Protestant preaching declares something different from all the other systems which expect our works. If being right depended on you, there could never be more than a moment’s peace, or else it would be a false peace, a peace of delusion. Grace changes that relationship from fear and threat.

Third, Grace has no end. Grace for forgiveness, grace for now and forever.

In verse 17 two reigns are compared, two dispensations: death and life. A dispensation here is (not related to eschatology but) a system of order, a way things are organized, the rules of administration. Death reigned and believers reign in life by free gift. Here the dispensations are named again, not by sequence of chronology but by power of authority.

Sin reigned in death. The ugly trifecta: law, sin, and death. Sin’s administration is one of a bully-tyrant who separates and destroys. Much more is grace, righteousness, and eternal life. Grace is more than a lenient attitude or blind eye, it is an effective, declaring and then transforming energy. It transfers all those believing ones from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (see also Colossians 1:13), and turns them from slaves to kings, or as we’ll see in chapter 6, from slaves to sin to slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18). They will now forever be serving righteousness and seeing the fruit of life.

Such grace is so great that is gets abused (see chapters 6-7).

Romans 5 teaches that Adam is a type of Christ (verse 14). Adam disobeyed, Christ obeyed. When Adam sinned, there isn’t any indication that he knew that he was the representative of humanity. But he did know that he was responsible for Eve. Eve was deceived, and, on the timeline, Eve sinned first (Genesis 3:6). Eve’s sin was punished (Genesis 3:16), but Adam was held responsible. Adam disobeyed God’s Word and ate from the forbidden tree, and his sin brought death to the world, not hers. His test was not just at the tree, it was what to do with a sinner. He joined her.

Christ was given a Bride by His Father, and He took responsibility for her. He died while we were still sinners. He showed His love not by joining in our sin, but by giving Himself in place of us who deserved death for our sin. His obedience was perfect and so was His sacrifice.

Adam neither obeyed or offered himself instead of Eve. He blamed her (Genesis 3:12). In effect he said, “Take her instead of me.” Jesus said, “Take Me instead of them.”

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:49, ESV)

Sin is less than grace. Death is less than grace. Grace abounds unto a reign of grace and a reign of joy.

You cannot out-sin God’s grace. By His grace you won’t try to. There is an adversary, a prosecuting accuser who will try to devour your faith and joy. Resist him, and resist biting and devouring one another (Galatians 5:15).

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:8–11, ESV)