Overflowing Exceedingly

“But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Romans 5:20

If you will allow me my own translation, the Greek says, “Where sin did overflow, grace overflowed all sin's overflowing, exceedingly.” A little wordy. Not as poetic as the AV, I know, but it makes my point. If we are ever to know what an all sin-covering grace is, we must be led doctrinally to the cross and experimentally to the depth of our fall. The Spirit must lead us into the secrets of our own hearts. What secrets do you ask? The deepest. Even then, sin will work, strive, and abound. It’s not until we cast ourselves down at the footstool of God's mercy that we begin to see and feel the reign of grace. We begin to see that grace exceedingly overflows all of sin's overflowing. Where is the fountainhead of this bubbling spring? The many channels of the Savior's blood. Only through the cross-work of our Lord can we move from guilt to grace to gratitude. And that grace will never leave its abode, until it brings them into the joy of eternal life.

And if this does not melt and move a heart praise and bless God, nothing will. Nothing can. This is justification in action. Without this, all praise is a sounding gong and clanging symbol. Until we have become aquainted with the depths of our sin,

until we are led into the secret chambers of the heart,

and made to sigh a little,

groan a little,

 and grieve under the burden of guilt a little,

this grace can't really be known.

And to learn in this is quite different from learning it from books or preachers. Learning it in the depths of a tremulous heart, by the Spirit's instruction, is a lonely but blessed time of instruction. We can never know abounding grace until God is pleased to bring the Word and Spirit together, apply them by His power, and birth the Savior in our darkened hearts. Once I’ve seen my sin answered by the substitution of Christ, I’ve made a first orbit around Christ’s super-abounding grace. And only then.