Grace Is Greater Than Our Sin
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Introduction
Grace Is Greater Series
Part 1: Grace is greater than our sin
Introduction
As time passes, there are new words that come into being. Every so often new words are added to the dictionary. Here are a couple of words that have recently been added to a dictionary.
Phonesia = the act of dialing a phone number and forgetting who you were calling just as they answer.
Disconfect = the attempt to sterilize a piece of food dropped on the floor by blowing on it, assuming that this will somehow remove all the germs.
These are some funny new terms to things that have been going on for some time. There are terms that we have heard many times before, but sometimes frequency causes us to miss the meaning of it.
One word that is often overlooked is ‘grace.’ As one person put it, “The word grace is so common, it doesn’t feel very amazing.” The truth is that God’s grace is more beautiful, freeing, and altogether greater than we could ever imagine.
= make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God…
Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.
It should be the prayer and mission of the church to see that no one misses the grace of God. But to fully understand the grace of God, we need to understand our need for it.
The need for grace
The need for grace
When it comes to our position before God, the Bible is very clear.
= For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
All means all. We all have broken God’s commands and fallen short of what He would have us to do. You… me… the person sitting next to you… all.
Sin is like a spiritual disease that we all suffer from. While is like a diagnosis of the problem, is the prognosis. It says that all sin leads to death.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There are those who do not like to admit when they are sick. To admit that they are sick, they would have to change some things, and they do not want to do that. That may interfere with their plans.
One problem we have is that we categorize sin and dismiss ours because “it is not as bad as others.” What we may not realize is that is actually sin - pride and self-righteousness.
When we look to , we see that this sin that infects us all came from the very first human beings in the Garden of Eden. Just like Adam and Eve experienced a separation from God and their life on earth ended, sin does the same thing to each of us.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
There is a temptation among many to not admit to sickness when it is present in our bodies. It may be that we think that if we do not acknowledge it then it isn't real, but that doesn't work. When our bodies are sick, we need a remedy. Grace is the cure to our sickness, but that means nothing to the one who will not admit that they are sick.
This is where we can see that though our sin is great, there is something greater...
tells us about the gift of God (His grace). It does not want to bring death to us, but rather it wants to bring life and healing and most importantly it wants to bring us back to God. When you see the great need for God's grace and that He has extended it to us, you can truly sing that it is "amazing grace" and see its beauty.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many.
In this verse, Paul essentially says that sin is powerful, but God’s grace is greater.
Grace deals with our brokenness
Grace deals with our brokenness
When sin comes into our lives, it breaks everything. It breaks our relationship with God. It breaks our relationships with others. What do we do with all this brokenness? You may be here broken and saying to yourself, “This all sounds good, but what can God’s grace do for my brokenness?”
I would draw your attention to an event in . In that chapter, Jesus demonstrates that God’s grace is greater than our brokenness.
There was a woman in a village that had been put through the ringer. She had been married to five different men and was living with another man. She was completely broken... didn't feel that she had any self-worth. We see that because she would go to get water from the well in the middle of the day when no one else would be there. She didn't want to hear the whispers... she didn't want to suffer the glances... she was just limping through life broken.
One day, as she was going to get the needed water, there was someone waiting at the well. It was Jesus. He has a conversation with her and offers her hope. The conversation got a little weird when Jesus told her about her past. How did this stranger know so much about her? More than that, with Jesus knowing her past, why was He still talking to her and offering her hope?
"The worst thing thing that could happen is that you spend your life trying to outrun God because you think He's chasing you to collect what you owe - when He's really chasing you to give you what you could never afford." (Kyle Idleman)
You may be here and wonder what could God do with the broken pieces of your life. The grace of God says, "I'll put them back together as they should be and use it for My glory."
Grace deals with our regrets
Grace deals with our regrets
Not only does God’s grace deal with our brokenness, but it also deals with our regrets. I’m sure that there is something in each of our pasts that we wish we would have done differently. Regret can be crippling if it is not properly dealt with.
When we look at Jesus’ encounter with Simon Peter after the resurrection in , we see how God’s grace deals with our past regrets.
Simon Peter had boasted that he would never leave nor forsake Jesus (). Jesus responded in a way that seemed very strange. Jesus said that before the night was over, Simon Peter would deny Jesus three times… and that is exactly what happened.
Simon Peter ran from Jesus’ trials broken and weeping. The next time we see him, he was checking out the empty tomb and trying to wrap his mind around all that was going on. He went back to what he knew - fishing. That’s where we find Simon Peter in . Jesus tells the fishermen to cast nets on the other side of the boat and bring in a great catch. They immediately recognized it was Jesus.
When Simon Peter recognized Jesus, he jumped out of the boat and swam to shore. Jesus had already prepared breakfast. Then Jesus has a hard conversation with Simon Peter. Jesus asks Simon Peter if he loves Him three different times - one question for each denial. Jesus didn’t sweep Simon Peter’s failures under the carpet. Rather, Jesus dealt with them. It was hard… it was painful… but it was necessary.
Jesus does the same thing with us. He does not turn a blind eye to our failures and the things that cause so much regret in us. He pulls them out in order to deal with them and make them right.
= For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.
Our regrets should lead to remorse. That’s the right response when we are confronted with our sin. God’s grace won’t leave you there, but that’s where God’s grace will most often find you.
Will we let our past mistakes rob us of the life that God has for us? Or will we let them be a “trophy of God’s grace”? Jesus does this by bringing God’s grace to our past regrets and setting them straight just as He did with Simon Peter. There may be some things in your past that are still crippling you with regret and preventing you from being all that God would have you to be. I would invite you to come to Jesus and let Him apply God’s amazing grace to those areas.
Conclusion
It is true that sin is powerful and very present. But do not be fooled, God’s grace is greater than our sin. It can pick up the broken pieces and put them back together as they should be. It can deal with the heaviest of regrets. It is able, that’s a fact. The question is, will we move from knowing about it to experiencing it ourselves?
