PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD

Iain Mitchell

Romans 5: 20 (from “…where sin)

“Where sin abounded grace has overabounded” – I had it on my heart to say something about the possibilities of coming into what God has in mind for us in His grace. I am not an expert on what grace means, it means much, but I was just struck and impressed by these two states, the state of sin and the possibility that grace opens up to us. Brought together in this passage, Paul’s letter to the Romans, on the one side sin and on the other grace, diametrically opposed to each other in one sense, yet the grace of God coming in to remove and dispel completely that matter of sin that rests upon us.

I was thinking in the week that it would be easier if everyone had a realisation of sin. What I mean is that people away from God, and perhaps myself too, to a certain extent, fail to have a real realisation of what sin is. Unbelievers especially would tend to say that. People accept that sin exists in the world, people accept that bad things happen in the world, but as to sin itself, people have a difficulty in the acknowledgement that sin is existing, not just philosophically but actually in persons. The scripture says, “sin abounded”. God has a view about sin; He felt it very much when sin came in at the beginning, the man and the woman had to be banished from the garden because they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had to move in such a way that Adam and Eve were removed from that wonderful place that God had set up for them, that satisfied an answer to their every need; that is because sin came in, sin existed in the world from that point onwards. It has continued and continued until the point where Paul says, sin abounded. Sin abounds in the world as we know as believers, we feel it, we feel it as we go around our daily work or our daily activities, sin is there. It is oppressive sometimes.

What I want to say something about, and I feel very unqualified as to it, is as to the fact that “grace has overabounded”. What came in in the beginning as to sin God has had to say to, He has dealt with. It is good to understand and to lay hold of it in our souls, but as to sin, as to the matter of what exists in our hearts and exists out there, God has dealt with that matter already. He will have to say to it finally, we know that and that is a day in the future. But, God has dealt with it, and as dealing with it He is able to come out to a poor sinner like me and poor sinner like you in the fulness of His grace. It says, “where sin abounded grace has overabounded”; an over-abundance of grace has come in to meet what is there in us that denies us our presence with God Himself, which He wants us to have. Think of that, sin has come in to deny us that and the devil would work in order that that position should remain between us and God. Grace has come in from God Himself in order that the position that we have as away from Him might be dealt with and that the distance might be removed completely in order that we might know Him as Father and be brought into His very presence and be with Him forever. Grace is the favour and graciousness of God towards sinful men, women and children. Think of that! That is the position that we have. God is in a position of righteousness and holiness, nothing of that which is tainted by sin can enter into His presence, yet in His love, because everything that lies behind God’s attributes and the way He moves is His love, He has come in in grace, the favour and the graciousness of God towards sinful man. From one point of view you wonder that God, at the incoming of sin, did not start again, start in some other way, but in His heart He has come in in a way to deal with what was between us and Himself and in such a way that He Himself is glorified and as doing that praise and worship and glory accrues and ascends to Himself forever. These things are beyond our minds to grasp, the Spirit would help us to come into some knowledge of them, but grace has overabounded, grace from God’s side has come in in order that it might reach people like us. Is that not wonderful? That it might come in to reach us and bring us out of the abyss of sin, out of the condition that we are helpless to bring ourselves out of through any work that we can do ourselves, God has come in from His own side in the fulness of His love and He has overabounded in grace towards us. We are in this condition of sin and God has come in for us and He has come in for us by giving from His own side in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given us a Saviour. We read about that in Luke (see 2: 11), also in Matthew, Emmanuel, God with us (see Matt 1: 23). God is there in heaven, but the Lord Jesus has come in, He who Himself is God, the creator of the worlds has come here and as we read so affectingly in Luke, come here as a babe. He grew up to be a Man, but He came here as a baby born in a manger in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes. That was the condition, the lowliness that He came into so that He should go that journey to meet the just judgment of God upon sin and deal with it fully unto God’s satisfaction. He went to the cross and died there and shed His blood there, buried here on this earth and raised again, appeared here through a period of forty days and then ascended to heaven. Think of the wonder of the story of grace that has come so near to us in a Man. What it meant for God Himself, and what it meant for a Man who was perfect, who had committed no sin, who went about here doing good, healing, helping, blessing, bringing people into the acknowledgment of what they are. He was bringing people into the realisation of a relationship with Him, relationship with God, “seeks such as His worshippers”. Think of that, He went about looking for people who were able to worship. Are we able to worship in our current state, in our old man? No we are not, but as we come into contact with Christ, through the grace that God has poured forth to us we find that we are able to be brought into a relationship with Him. How are we brought in? We are brought in because God is able to look upon us when we put our faith and trust in Jesus and in the worth of the Lord Jesus apart from sin. An amazing fact and something I wish I understood more and was deepened in my soul and heart as to it, but how can God look upon me? How can God have you and me in His presence? He can have us in His presence because our sins and our sinful state was dealt with fully and perfectly to His full satisfaction when the One who was perfect and had not committed any sins went to the cross, suffered and died there, took the righteous judgment of God upon sin, took it upon Himself and exhausted God’s judgment. He exhausted it, He did not just take God’s judgment on but He exhausted it. That is how God can come out in grace and blessing towards each and every soul, man, woman and child in whatever condition, no one outside of that possibility, whatever condition they come in repentance to the Lord Jesus. He is now in heaven, He was here. Come to Him, cry to Him in acknowledgement of ourselves and what we are, but in the realisation that He has gone there. He has gone to that cross and He has taken all that judgment that was due to me and to you. He has taken that upon Himself. What grace there is from the divine side, what fulness of blessing there is as we are able in our measure to come into the full understanding of these things, but in order for us to move from that position in which we are, we must put our faith and trust in the One who came in here as a Man and went about doing good, “healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with him”, Acts 10:38. He was able to go to that cross and to take the judgment upon Himself for my sins and yours because of who He was in Himself. He Himself was God, but came into this earth as a Man in flesh and blood condition, in a condition in which He was able to suffer. He took that condition on Himself. It says, “thou hast prepared me a body” Heb. 10:5. Think of that, He came in and took a body that which He could suffer and die. In the condition that He was before that it was not possible that He should go through those sufferings, so in His great love and in the outshining and outflowing of divine grace to me and you, the Lord Jesus Himself, the One who was creator of the worlds, One who was with God Himself before time, came from that place, that glorious place of which we know very little, He came here with that express mission in life that He should go to that terrible cross and take upon Himself the matter of sin and sins while He was yet alive. Darkness covered the earth, it was not possible that man could see that that transaction worked out between God and Christ, but it was worked out: but it involved the awfulness of one perfect Man having to be made sin. Think of that! Having to be made sin, One who had never committed sin although He felt sin, felt it when He was walking around, the awfulness of it, the oppression, what it did to people, but that very One was made sin in order that you and I could be set free from our sin, relieved of it forever and have the knowledge of the fact that our sins are fully dealt with and removed and put away. The Scripture says of God that “their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more”, Heb. 8:12. We are not able for that, we are not able never to remember things, things come back into our memories even when we want to put them aside. God is able to never remember. It makes one think of the goat sent into the wilderness, to a land apart from men (see Lev 16: 21), removed completely. The one goat which had to have its blood shed and died is a type of Christ as having to suffer for our sins, but the other as being sent away and removed completely. Think of that. That is the fulness of the way that the sin has been dealt with.

My impression is that grace has overabounded. It has more than fully resolved that which has come in from sin and has enabled God to come out in the fulness of forgiveness to those who come to Him through Christ and enabled God to come out in the welcome of the fulness of divine love. His very essence and character is love and able to bring in all those that know Him through the work of Christ, and those brought in to have that peace now. We are able to have that peace now, but fully able in that time to come when the Lord comes to bring every one who has put their faith and trust in Him, to bring them with Him to that wonderful place where He is now. Think of that! That wonderful time, “of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end” (Isa 9: 7). It increases and increases, it is beyond our human minds to understand, but it is so and we have the faith and the Spirit helps us to understand something of it.

That is my simple impression. I cannot say much as to grace, but I feel that grace has come in for me, and I would desire that it should be realised by all, divine Persons are able for it. We often think of how many there will be, we know there will be myriads upon myriads, we like to think that there will be the most, God will have the victory over everything here. The most will be with Him, how much there will be. What an accrual there will be through the work of Christ, “grace has overabounded”. I feel that my understanding of it is so shallow yet I wish it was more, but I feel that how grace has come in and it has come in for each one of us here, but how much has been provided, how much has been given from the divine side. May we take advantage and be brought into it ourselves and kept in it so that there may be more for God Himself while we are still here, more praise to Him in our lives here.

May these things be so. For His Name’s sake.

COLCHESTER