5:20Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 6:1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 5:20-6:4
Now how to go about a full treatise on grace in 500 words or less? Actually I’m not even going to try, but here are a few disjointed thoughts that reflect what’s on my mind; hopefully it’ll make some sense…
I can sum up verse 20 in 5 words: You can’t outsin God’s grace. Yet we hang our heads low, going through life feeling as if we aren’t “good enough”. Whatever that means. Paul would agree, and sums up his response to that thought in 6:23 — “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Free gift. Did you realize the word Paul used for “free gift” comes from the same Greek word as “grace”? There’s a powerful message in that simple realization — grace is free. Actually that’s redundant. That’s like saying oxygen is a gas.
People talk about “cheap grace”, but I don’t think there is any such thing. Grace isn’t free; it cost Jesus his life (v. 21), and it will cost you yours in service to Him (Galatians 2:20). What people really mean when they talk about cheap grace is, “Oh, let’s not talk about grace, because that will give people the idea they can just sin all they want, and it won’t matter since they’re covered by grace.” That’s exactly what Paul is speaking against in 6:1-2. So yes, let’s talk about grace. Let’s thank God that through His grace we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9), and let’s praise Him that because of His grace, we are free to do the very good works we were created to do (Ephesians 2:10).
A final thought — where did this idea come from that if we’re saved by grace, that means there’s nothing we have to do to accept God’s grace? Books have been written on the subject, so let’s leave that thought without explanation. You think about it. If I hand you a gift of $100, at what point is it yours? At the point where you reach out and accept the gift, but the fact that you had to do something to reap the benefits of my gift neither means you earned the gift nor does it diminish the value of what I have given you. Such is the case with God’s grace.
Holy Father, thank you for something we do not fully understand — our eternal salvation through Your abundant grace. May we live closer each day to You and more like the One through Whom this gift was effected.
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