Why Grace Super-Abounds
Romans 5:20-21
As we continue to move through Romans 5, and especially as come to this great teaching that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” have you stopped to ask yourself the question……Why? Why does God’s grace abound? How is it that God’s grace is so super-abounding that He is able to forgive me of all of my sins irregardless of whether they were committed before salvation or after salvation and irregardless of what they were or are and how many times I have failed Him in this way and will continue to fail Him in the future? And to compound the question—how is it—why is it—that God’s grace covers not only all my sins—past, present, and future but every single sin of every single believer who has ever lived and will ever live?
Is it that God just made a decision to let by-gones be by-gones and forgive us of all of our sins? Or could it be that God just decided that our sins weren’t really all that bad? No….neither of those two suggestions are true or could ever be true.
Yes, God does forgive every single person who believes in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ for everyone of their sins but He does so not because of an arbitrary decision He made or because our sins weren’t so bad after all—No, the reason why He forgives those who run to Christ for refuge from the wrath of God for their sins is because in Christ everyone of their sins was paid for by Christ Himself on the cross of Calvary.
Let me take you back to the Cross today to show you why God’s grace is super-abundantly far greater to save you than your sin is powerful enough to condemn you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, if all you do when you look at the cross is see in terms of the physical sufferings of Jesus—you really miss the whole point of what happened there on that day when Jesus stood condemned in your place before God. You see, whereas the physical torture experienced by Christ was horrific and unbelievably gruesome beyond anything we have ever known—the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual torment far exceeded anything Christ endured physically. And the reason for this is that whereas ungodly men found great delight in torturing Jesus for several hours before hanging Him on the cross—once He was on the cross—His physical torture transitioned very quickly to a much greater and deeper and more horrific torture at the hands of not men any longer but Satan and his demonic horde for the first 3 hours He hung on Calvary’s Tree.
We know from what Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:10 that God manifested and even now is manifesting His great wisdom in how He planned out our salvation and continues to keep us saved and note to whom He is displaying His great and many faceted wisdom—angelic and demonic authorities. Thus, it would make sense that they all would have been at Calvary to see God’s great display of wisdom as His plan of salvation was worked out in and through Christ Jesus.
If you go to Psalm 22, you’ll get a first-hand, first-person account of the crucifixion recorded about a thousand years before it occurred. In this Psalm, we get a glimpse of what Jesus felt and saw while hanging on the cross. Look at Psalm 22:12-21. The metaphors being used by the writer are describing both men and demons being at the cross. And in fact, from this psalm we see clearly that Jesus saw Satan and his demons as being very much involved behind the scenes in all that transpired at Calvary. Note the description of the Bulls of Bashan ties them to the description of a ravening and roaring lion in verse 13. Peter actually gave us the literal rendering of this phrase in verse 13 and you’ll find it in 1 Peter 5:8. Thus, Satan and his demons were there.
Jesus told us that Satan would be there in John 14:30 where in warning his disciples of what would transpire after the last supper and warning them that He would be betrayed—He told them that “the ruler of the world is coming”. Instead of saying, that “Judas was coming” or that “the Jewish authorities were coming” or “the soldiers were coming”—Jesus said: “The ruler of this world is coming” and that was Satan.
And Luke 22:53 tells us that when Judas and the soldiers finally did come to arrest Jesus that He says: “this hour and the power of darkness are yours.” In other words, Jesus gave Satan and his demonic horde authority over Him to do whatever they wished to Him for a fixed period of time.
And during this time we also know that holy angels were present at the cross as well because Matthew 26:53 quotes Jesus as telling Peter at this same time when He was being arrested—to put his sword away because if He wanted help God would at once make 12 legions of angels available to him. That would be about 144,000 angelic warriors ready to rescue God the Son at His slightest beckoning. And I am sure that these holy angels were ready and very much willing and probably wondering why God the Father did not release them into battle to rescue the Son of God whom they worshipped and adored. Yet, it was God’s plan that they see all this and that they as well as the demons also see something else far worse…..for at the end of the first three hours on the cross…..Jesus was going to be handed over to a far greater and far more fearful enemy than Satan….but we’re getting ahead of ourselves now…..so let’s go to Matthew 27:33-46.
Now Matthew is not the only Gospel writer to include this account of darkness enveloping the earth after Jesus had already hung on the cross for three hours with three more still to go before He gave up His spirit and died. Both Mark and Luke also record this phenomenon, which means it was significant to everything that went on that day at Calvary. And whereas, most commentators see the darkness as being connected with God abandoning Christ upon the cross because of the weight of our sin upon Him—the onset of the darkness actually preceded God’s turning away from Christ on account of our sin by three hours.
Look at Matthew 27:45-46 again. Note that Matthew is very specific in his times. He says in verse 45 that “from the sixth hour [that would be noon] darkness fell upon all the land [or enveloped or smothered] until the ninth hour [which would be 3 pm]. Then in verse 46, Matthew moves to another occurrence that takes place at about the ninth hour—or at the end of this period of smothering darkness, in which Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?”. Now Mark in His Gospel is a bit more specific telling us in Mark 15:33-34 that darkness did smother the whole land from the sixth hour [noon] until the ninth hour [3 pm] and that at the ninth hour Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me.”
Luke in his Gospel gives us a little more information in Luke 23:44-46. Note that Luke tells us that darkness enveloped the whole land from about the sixth hour until the ninth hour because the Sun was obscured and the veil of the Temple was torn in two. Then in verse 46, Luke records Jesus as then giving up His Spirit and dying. Now, when Luke writes that the Sun was “obscured”, He uses a Greek word which means, to darken by depriving something of light. In other words, the reason why darkness enveloped the whole land, was because something acted in such a way as to deprive the earth of the Sun’s light for three hours.
So what or Who caused the earth to be deprived of the sun’s light so as to be enveloped in a smothering darkness for three hours. Whereas, many affirm that the darkness was caused naturally by a total solar eclipse—this is impossible—because Jesus was crucified at Passover and Passover was always planned around a full moon and a solar eclipse does not occur when the moon is full but rather only when it is dark. Thus, the sun being darkened so as to deprive earth of light for three hours was not a physical phenomenon. Only God could have caused the Sun to be darkened so as to deprive the earth of light for three hours. But why did He do so?
Many Bible scholars see the darkening of the sun as being a phenomenon commonly mentioned in Scripture as a sign of God’s judgment upon people for their sins. Some examples of this are Joel 1:15; 2:1-2; 31; Amos 5:20; and Acts 1:20 in which darkness will shroud the earth on the Great Day of The LORD when Christ Himself returns to judge those on earth who would not turn to Him for salvation. In fact, in Amos 8:9, we read: "And it shall come to pass in that day,' says the Lord GOD, 'That I will make the sun go down at noon, And I will darken the earth in broad daylight”.
Look at Zechariah 14:1-7 and compare it with Revelation 19:11-18. Now, note that on this Great Day of the LORD in which Christ Himself returns to earth to begin the process of judging mankind for its sin that the earth will be covered with darkness beginning at noon according to Amos 8:9 and will remain dark until evening according to Zechariah 14:7. For the Jews in Jesus' time everything from 3 pm on could be considered evening as it was the time approaching sunset, which would then be night.
It is also interesting that in Zechariah 14:6, we are told that “in that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. The word “dwindle” comes from a Hebrew word which means “to cause to loose light” or to “deprive of light”. Thus, on the Great Day of The LORD in which Jesus returns to earth to judge unbelievers, both the living and the dead, the sun will be deprived of its light at noon so that earth is dark from noon until at least sometime after 3 pm.
In other words, this phenomenon, which will take place in the future when Christ returns to judge all those on earth who did not believe that is very similar to that which occurred when He was being judged on the earth for the sins of all who would believe.
Now there is something else I want us to see about this darkness that envelops the earth when God judges sin—at the cross and at the 2nd coming. At the second coming the darkness that envelops the earth is associated with God coming down to earth and the particular member of the Godhead that comes down in this case is God the Son. Now, I don’t know if you realize it or not but there were two other instances in the Bible where God came down to earth and darkness enveloped the earth.
Look at Genesis 15. In this chapter, God is ratifying the unconditional covenant He mad with Abraham in Genesis 12, in which God promised to make His name great, make his descendents into a great nation, and give him a great land-the land of Israel. Well, in ratifying this covenant—the Abrahamic Covenant—God actually comes down to earth, causes Abram to fall asleep and then God fulfills the conditions of ratifying the covenant by Himself as though to say—that this covenant’s fulfillment will be based upon Him and His faithfulness rather than Abram.
When God comes down, according to Genesis 15:17, He does so in the form of a smoking oven and a flaming torch. Now—what is the significance of a “smoking oven” and a “flaming torch”? Well, if you remember how God led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness—you’ll remember that by day He led them by day with a column or pillar of a cloud, which would have greatly resembled “smoke”. By night, He led them with a column or pillar of fire or a huge flaming torch. Well, that is essentially how God appears in Genesis 15 as well when He ratifies this covenant with Abram. But what I want you to notice is that when God comes down to ratify this great covenant—He comes in darkness.
Look at Genesis 15:12 and 17. Literally, verse 12 reads: “Now when the sun was gone, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold a terror of great darkness fell upon him.” Now, why would Abram be in terror of darkness—even great darkness—if it were night time? He wouldn’t be. And that’s the point—you see, the verse isn’t saying that this occurred when the sun normally set or was going down. What the verse says, is that when “the sun was gone” a great darkness—verse 17 refers to it as a “mysterious darkness” in Hebrew where in English the phrase “very dark” is used—came upon Abram. And in this darkness, God appeared to ratify or fulfill the conditions of the covenant He made with Abram.
Now, the second time God comes down to earth in darkness is to give another covenant. Look over at Exodus 20:21. In this scene, God has just given Moses the Ten Commandments and was about to give him the rest of the Mosaic Law and notice that when Moses approaches God on Mt. Sinai that God is enveloped in a “thick cloud”. Now the KJV, renders it “thick darkness”. Both are true—because the Hebrew word means a “cloud of thick, ominous, terrifying, and mysterious darkness”.
Now, there are many covenants in the Bible but there are only three that involve the people of God and God’s acting upon their behalf to provide them with eternal spiritual blessings—the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, and the New Covenant. And whereas, the New Covenant which promised that God would forgive His people’s sins and remember them no more, was announced in the Old Testament in Jeremiah 31:31-34—it was not ratified until the New Testament.
Look at Luke 22:20. Here Jesus tells His disciples as He institutes the ordinance of communion that the cup represented His shed blood on the cross which, is the substance of the New Covenant, first announced in Jeremiah 31, in which God promised to forgive the sins of His covenant people and remember them no more. Now, the cup of wine that Jesus held in His hand at this last supper represented the very blood—His life-blood—that He would shed as He died on the cross the very next day for the sins of all who would believe in Him. And if God came used darkness to manifest Himself as He came to earth to ratify the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant—could it be possible that He would do the very same thing in ratifying the New Covenant? I think so.
Listen, before God the Father would turn away from Jesus at 3 pm as He hung on the cross bearing our sin, the darkness had already enveloped Jesus for three hours. And what did God the Father do to Jesus before He ever turned away from Jesus? Well—go with me to Isaiah 53 and I’ll show you. Let’s read verses 3-4 and 10.
Listen, after man had tortured Christ for several hours before ever nailing Him to the cross, and after Satan and the demonic host assailed Jesus for the first three hours on the cross hoping to push Him to the point of calling the 12 legions of angels that surrounded the cross so as to rescue Him and doom us—All of Heaven and Hell held their breath as they could see what man could not see—God the Father approaching the cross under the cover of thick darkness. And what were they about to see? Had the Father come to rescue His Son? Had He come to destroy Satan, the demons, and all those who had participated in the torture of His Son? No—To the utter astonishment of Satan, the demons, and even the holy angels—God the Father approached the cross and once there He beat His Son—not just once but over and over again as He poured out His wrath upon Jesus Who was bearing our sin.
The cross was not a time for praising His Son—or rescuing His Son—it was the time for beating His Son because His Son was bearing our sin and our sin had to be punished in order for us to be forgiven. And this is why God’s grace super-abounds to us and will always be greater than all of our sin because all of our sin was punished by God the Father as He beat God the Son while God the Son hung on the cross because of our sin.
What man could not do to Jesus—what even Satan and his entire cohort of demonic evil could not do to Jesus—God the Father did. He came to the cross in darkness to ratify the New Covenant, which promises us forgiveness of our sins forever, but to do it He had to strike His only begotten Son with violent, fierce, and utterly terrifying divine wrath and vengeance for our sin.
You know, the final wrath of God for sin must come from God. It cannot be mediated through angels, demons, or men. It must come directly from and through God Himself. Thus, in order for Jesus to satisfy His Father’s holy and righteous wrath for our sin had to receive His Father’s wrath from His Father’s own hand. And this occurred during the last three hours on the cross when manifested in complete darkness God the Father poured every bit of His wrath for the believer’s sin out upon Jesus—So that—He could pour out all of His grace and love upon you!
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