GRACE UNVEILED, #17, Matters of the Heart | Jim Hammond
Recap
Pastor Jim gave the 17th installment of his series on the book of Romans, entitled, “Grace Unveiled.” Subtitled, “Matters of the Heart,” the text for the message was Romans 5:20, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” When the law was given, it exposed the many sins of the people. The law’s effect is that the more clearly they saw what was right, the more things they discovered that were wrong. The more we see our sins, the more aware we become of the penalty from which God has saved us. But thanks be to God, those who put their faith and trust in Christ receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life!
Dive Deeper
Scriptural text: Romans 5:20, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”
Amplified version: “But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God’s unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded.”
Paul said the OT law “entered.” The Greek word for entered means “stealth.” A lot of cases, when the law enters, it’s not detectable. Meaning, you don’t realize you’re operating under that type of thinking.
An example would be a stealth fighter in the US military is about 100% undetectable. That’s why it’s called a stealth fighter.
Paul said the law entered that the offense may abound. The Amplified says, “The law came in.”
What is the Law? The law is the Ten Commandments plus 613 other laws.
Romans 5:20 says, “It expands, increases the trespass, makes the trespass more apparent to you.” Another way to say it would be, “the more clearly we see what is right, the more things we discover that are wrong.” The effect this has on people is that when they become more aware of how they are sinners, the more aware they become of the penalty from which God has saved them.
Essentially, the subject in this text is about life. Not death.
Those who have faith and trust in Jesus, be they past, present, or future, they are alive. Not dead.
Paul says, “Grace abounds for those whose hearts are anchored in Jesus Christ.” If your heart is anchored in Christ, grace is super abounded toward you.
Some people misunderstand what this scripture means. They say, “Well, every time I sin, God’s grace is going to abound to me. So I’m just going to smoke weed all day. God’s grace will abound.”
There are a lot of sins that we habitually practice, and we don’t think they are that bad. Gossip is an example.
If we’re going to study “where sin increases and abounds, God’s grace increases the more and super abounds,” we must look at the sin side of things. We can’t just look at the grace side of things.
Also, in “what” cases does grace super abound? “When” does it super abound? “How” does it super abound?
When Paul talks about tribulation, he talks about grace. The same way when he talks about sin, grace is there.
Titus chapter two says the grace of God is supposed to deliver us out of sin. However, we talked about the law entering into this through stealth, almost undetectable to cause sin to expand. You don’t even realize it’s present.
Col. 2:13–15, “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
This passage of scripture makes it clear the reasons Jesus died on the cross: “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh…” That’s your sensuality, your carnal, sinful nature that we all have. God brought you to life together with Christ by forgiving all your sins. It cost you nothing. You are forgiven. That’s past tense.
Every sin you might commit tomorrow has been forgiven. That means all your transgressions (sins) have been forgiven.
Verse 14 says, He canceled, blotted out, wiped away the handwriting of the note, the bond.” What is that? Legal decrees, demands that are in force standing against you. Actually, hostile toward you. Because He went to the cross, He set it aside and cleared it completely out of your way. That’s talking about the law, the 613 laws that go with the Ten Commandments.
Verse 15 says, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” God disarmed principalities and powers. Disarmed means they were actually armed with something. He disarmed them and made a spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. He took the law away from them. He disarmed them.
This is why knowing your covenant is so important. Colossians says “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” He nailed all the requirements of the Law on the cross!
Read About It
Rom. 5:20, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more…”
Col. 2:13–15, “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
Discussion Questions
If someone were to ask you what the Law is, what would you answer?
When the Law was given, why did sin abound?
How did we get free from the punishment of breaking the Law?