Pastor’s Pen Pulpit
June 4, 2006
GRACE GREATER
THAN ALL OUR SIN
Ephesians
2:1-7
Part one
And
you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the
lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and
were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His
great love which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions,
made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised
us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in
kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
As
I’m still working in a very difficult section of Romans chapter four and will
require research and preparation longer than expected, we will take a detour
for a couple of weeks to talk about the grace of God.
Several
years back, when the earthquake hit San Francisco (it was during a World Series
game between the Giants and the Oakland A’s), the media soon afterward
announced the size of the shaker to exceed 6.9 on the Richter scale. That was the official, technical reading. The real
magnitude of the quake, however, was measured by the enormous amount of damage
it caused- both originally and in over 350 aftershocks that followed. We normally measure the size or quality of
something on a scale of 1-10.
I’m
wondering how we would measure the magnitude of Adam’s sin. On a scale of destruction, a 10 being the
highest, would Adam’s sin measure 10?
However, we can really measure the magnitude of Adam’s sin by observing
the damage caused. His transgression
opened spiritual and physical destruction, misery and ruin that is beyond human comprehension and calculation. From the epicenter of that transgression in
the Garden of Eden, destruction reached out and encompassed the whole of time
and humanity. Furthermore, every sin
that has been committed since that time has been an aftershock every bit as big
as the original.
On
the other side of the picture, how would we measure the magnitude of the grace
of God in Jesus Christ Who came and picked up the pieces…the grace that
intervened into this dark, depressing, hopeless, human dilemma? I’m certain that if sin could be measured on
a 1-10 scale, grace could be measured on a 1-20 scale – for there is much more
grace than there is sin. Romans 5:20
tells us that “The law came in so that
the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all
the more.”
In
order to appreciate what you have, it is necessary to see the other side. The Word of God often emphasizes the quality
of greatness of something by giving absolute contrasts such as light versus
darkness or life and death. A bright
light doesn’t show up nearly as well in the daylight hours as it does in
darkness. It isn’t that the light is
less in daytime, rather there is less opportunity for that light to be seen.
In
Ephesians 2:1-7 the magnitude of God’s grace is seen in three movements. These movements deal with the believers PAST,
his PRESENT and his FUTURE.
In the next couple of pen pulpits we’ll see how this works itself out
from the text of Scripture. God bless
and have a great week.
Grace,
Grace, God’s grace
Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within
Grace,
Grace, God’s grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin.