By Summer Martin
Have you ever been away at a conference and someone says something during a testimony that just smacks you right in the face? Because that’s me coming off a Tres Dias weekend. And as much as I am glad to be home, sometimes I wish I could stay more than three days in that little bubble, but I digress, let me get back to the point. A gentleman spiritual director on the weekend was giving his testimony and made the statement “where sin abounds, grace abounds more”, and it was like a legit anvil landed on my face to knock some sense into me. Being on this weekend had already reminded me how we need to surround ourselves with brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes we all have different backgrounds, different testimonies, histories, struggles and stories, but every single one of us has something in common.
We are all sinners in need of a Savior.
Yes, we. Me included. My pastor says it all the time, the longer I go in my sanctification walk with Christ the more I realize the wretched person I am. But yea, that quote by that gentleman kept coming back to me over and over this last weekend.
Where sin abounds, grace abounds more, taken from Romans 5:20.
And it’s a beautiful statement, one that could be placed on a coffee mug, t-shirt, mouse pad, or even an image to put on social media. But do we really stop and consider what Paul meant when he wrote those words?
He wasn’t offering a sentimental reminder that God loves us despite our mistakes. He was declaring something far more extraordinary. The grace of God in Jesus Christ is greater than the condemnation brought by sin. And that changes everything.
Grace Doesn’t Make Sin Insignificant
The way the world is going in our life today, sin is becoming more and more comfortable for not only people in the world, but for some Christians too. We either rename it, justify it, excuse it, or just out right ignore it when it’s brought to light under our nose. Bitterness starts becoming peace, and disobedience well, sometimes we call that feeling following our hearts. Oomph. Yeah, that hurt.
However Scripture doesn’t allow us to redefine things such as sin to make us comfortable, Scripture is the only truth that we know for certain, 100% truth. Romans 3:23 reminds us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Not some of us, not those whose sin are a little more visible than ours, but ALL of us. And sin isn’t just poor decisions or mistakes, it is rebellion against a holy and righteous God. This matters because if we misunderstand the seriousness of what sin is, we will inevitably misunderstand the magnitude of grace.
In Romans 5:12-21, Paul contrasts two representatives of humanity: Adam and Christ. Through Adam’s disobedience, sin and death entered the world, but God. The obedience of Jesus Christ, righteousness and life are given to those who belong to Him. Paul wasn’t suggesting that sin was somehow insignificant because grace was greater, he was actually stating quite the opposite.
Grace abounds because Christ is sufficient, not because sin is insignificant.
Pause here and think about that.
God didn’t look at humanity’s rebellion and decide it wasn’t really that serious after all. He didn’t lower His standard of righteousness or overlook the guilt of sinners…..He sent His Son.
Jesus Christ lived a perfectly obedient life that we could never achieve. He willingly bore mocking, beating, scourging, and the penalty of sin in the place of His people by crucifixion upon the cross, satisfying the demands of God’s justice through His death. And He rose again, victorious over sin and death!
This here is the beauty of substitutionary atonement. Christ stood in the place of sinners. Not because we deserved it, not that we earned His favor, not because God saw something inherently worthy in us that made salvation a reasonable investment.
It was His mercy and grace.
And through faith in Christ, we are justified before God. Our sins are forgiven, and Christ’s righteousness is counted as ours. We are declared righteous, not because we are sinless, but because we are covered under the One who is.
That is the gospel. God saves sinners. And that is grace worth celebrating.
The Grace That Saves Us Also Changes Us
Let’s be careful here, because someone out there could read Romans 5:20 and come to a dangerous conclusion. If God’s grace abounds where sin increases, wouldn’t more sin simply mean more grace? Or that if God’s grace abounds, that gives free rein to sin. NO. Paul answers those in Romans 6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound? By no means!”.
Scripture settles it. Grace is not a permission slip to continue living however we please. It is not an excuse to remain comfortable in sin while reassuring ourselves that our sins are covered past, present, and future. Paul goes on to explain in Romans 6: 3-4 that believers have been united with Christ in His death and resurrection so that we might walk in newness of life.
See the language there.
Newness of life.
Not the same life we were living, sprinkled with a little Jesus on top. Not a cleaned up version of ourselves we put on for Sunday mornings. A new life in Christ. Titus 2:11-14 teaches us that the grace of God not only brings salvation but also trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions to live godly lives. That’s another little nugget, did you catch it?
Grace doesn’t merely forgive us. Grace teaches us.
The same grace that saves us is at work sanctifying us. We don’t automatically become perfect at the moment we are saved, we are consistently and constantly being sanctified. Sanctification is the ongoing work of God in the lives of His people, by which the Holy Spirit progressively conforms us to the image of Christ.
And speaking from experience….that work is sometimes uncomfortable as all get out. Sometimes it involves confronting sins we would rather ignore. Sometimes it means acknowledging pride, repenting of bitterness, asking forgiveness, or admitting that our attitudes haven’t reflected the Savior we profess to follow.
Sometimes it means realizing the problem isn’t always everyone else.
Eek! Did I just say that? Yes, yes I said it.
But want to know the beautiful part?
God doesn’t begin a work in His children only to abandon it halfway through. Philippians 1:6 reminds us that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Our sanctification isn’t dependent upon our ability to muster up enough determination to make ourselves holy. It is only through the work of God, who calls us to actively pursue holiness through the power of His Spirit. We repent, we obey, we put sin to death, we pursue righteousness. Not to earn the grace that saved us, but because that grace has already made us His.
Three Days Don’t Change the Sufficiency of Christ
Coming out of Tres Dias, I think it’s important to remember that as meaningful a weekend as it is, the power isn’t in the weekend itself. It’s not in the schedule (took me a little to realize that), the activities, the talks or even the emotions we experience. The power belongs to God, and God alone.
And while this weekend sets us apart from our normal routines and can provide opportunities for reflection, encouragement, repentance, and renewed commitment, it doesn’t make Christ any more sufficient than He already was.
He was sufficient before we arrived.
He was sufficient while we were there.
And He remains sufficient now that we are home, the laundry is waiting, the responsibilities are piling up, and life has returned to its regularly scheduled chaos.
And I don’t want any of us to miss that.
Spiritual growth isn't measured by how emotional we become during a particular experience, it’s revealed over time in the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit. It’s seen in our growing love for Christ, our hatred of sin, our willingness to repent, and our desire to obey God’s Word.
And ya know, sometimes that growth happens in the most ordinary moments imaginable.
When:
We choose patience instead of anger.
We extend forgiveness instead of holding on to bitterness.
We humble ourselves enough to admit we were wrong.
We open our Bibles even when we don’t particularly feel like it.
We continue pursuing Christ long after the excitement of a weekend has faded.
That’s where the ordinary, sometimes uncomfortable work of sanctification continues, and thank God that His grace isn't confined to those three days.
When We Struggle to Believe Grace Is Enough
Have you ever had difficulty believing that God’s grace is sufficient for you? We have no problems believing it for someone else. We can encourage a sister, remind a brother of the forgiveness found in Christ, and confidently proclaim that no sinner is beyond the saving power of Jesus.
But when it comes to our own failures? Yeah, that’s a different story. At least for me.
We replay our mistakes, wrestle with guilt, and remember who we used to be and wonder how God could possibly continue showing patience toward someone who still struggles as much as we do.
And sometimes, even as believers, we begin living as though Christ’s finished work needs a little assistance from our own performance. As though we must somehow make ourselves worthy of the grace we’ve already received.
The truth is though, that’s not the gospel.
The only thing I bring to my salvation is the sin. And because of the gospel and Scripture, Romans 8:1 tells me that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
No condemnation. Did you see that?
Not because our sins are imaginary, but because Christ has borne the condemnation our sins deserved. It doesn’t eliminate the need for repentance, in fact, genuine grace produces it.
But there is a difference in condemnation and conviction.
Condemnation tells us our sin has placed us beyond hope.
Conviction exposes our sin and directs us back to Christ.
We can acknowledge the ugliness of our sin without questioning the sufficiency of our Savior. We can grieve our disobedience without forgetting the righteousness that has been credited to us through faith, and we can continue pursuing holiness.
The finished work of Christ is not made incomplete by the unfinished work of our sanctification.
Where Sin Abounded, Grace Abounded More
As I have reflected on Tres Dias this week, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve, to worship, to encourage, and to be reminded of the incredible grace of God. But perhaps one of the greatest reminders I carried away from last weekend is this:
Every single one of us needs the same Savior.
The person who has walked with Christ for fifty years and the person who has only recently come to faith are both entirely dependent upon the grace of God.
Our testimonies may look different. Our sanctification may be at different stages. But none of us graduates from needing Jesus. And the wonderful news of Romans 5:20 is not that sin doesn’t matter. It’s that sin doesn’t have the final word for those who are in Christ.
Jesus does.
His obedience is sufficient. His sacrifice is sufficient. His righteousness is sufficient. And His grace is sufficient. Not only to save us from the penalty of sin, but to continue transforming us as we walk with Him.
My prayer is that we continue growing in our understanding of the gospel, that we become increasingly sensitive to our own sin, and that we grow in gratitude for the Savior who has redeemed us. May we never become so comfortable with grace that we begin treating sin casually, and may we never become so overwhelmed by our sin that we forget the sufficiency of Christ.
Because where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
Not because our sin was small. But because our Savior is greater!
Soli Deo Gloria
