Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3115
“Where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound.” Romans 5:20.
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon this text are as follows: Sermons #37, Volume 1—LAW AND GRACE and #2012, Volume 34— GRACE ABOUNDING OVER ABOUNDING SIN]
THERE are two very powerful forces in the world which have been here ever since the time when Eve partook of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Those two forces are sin and Divine Grace. A very great power is sin, a power dark, mysterious, baleful, but full of force. The sorrows of mankind—from where did they come but from sin? We would have known no war, nor pestilence, nor famine, nor would anything of sickness or sorrow ever have smitten the human race had not sin sown its evil seed in this earth! Sin is the Pandora’s box from which all evil has come to mankind. See what ravages death has made—its hillocks are everywhere! Its mighty scythe mows men down as the mower cuts down the grass of the field—but death came by sin and after death comes judgment and, to the ungodly, the doom that never can be described, the eternal wrath whose blackness the wildest tempest cannot imitate! Who dug this pit? It was the Justice of God on account of sin and sin must, therefore, be charged with the authorship of sorrow, disease, death and Hell. This is no mean power with which we have come into conflict—it is a veritable Goliath—stalking along and defying the whole race of mankind!
The power that is to fight and overcome sin is never described in the Word of God as the natural goodness of human nature. Pshaw! That is but as wax before the fire, or as the fat of rams upon the altar—it is consumed in a moment in the fierce heat of sin. The force to combat sin is never described in the truthful pages of God’s Word as the power of human endeavor to keep the Law. Indeed, this has been tried and it has utterly failed! The way to Heaven is not up the steep sides of Sinai—that granitic mountain is too rugged and too high for unaided human feet to climb. Not there can be found the weapons with which a man may slay his sins and fight his way to everlasting bliss.
The only counter force against sin is Divine Grace, so my text tells us, and we may learn the same Truth of God from a hundred texts besides. And what is Grace? Grace is the free favor of God, the undeserved bounty of the ever-gracious Creator against whom we have offended, the generous pardon, the Infinite, spontaneous loving kindness of the God who has been provoked and angered by our sin, but who, delighting in mercy and grieving to smite the creatures whom He has made, is always ready to pass by transgression, iniquity and sin—and to save His people from all the evil consequences of their guilt. Here, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, is a force that is fully equal to the requirements of the duel with sin, for this Grace, of which I am going to speak, is Divine Grace, and hence it is Omnipotent, Immortal and Immutable. This favor of God never changes and when once it purposes to bless anyone, bless him it will and none can revoke the blessing! The gracious purpose of God’s free favor to an undeserving man is more than a match for that man’s sin, for it brings to bear upon his sin, the blood of the Incarnate Son of God—and the majestic and mysterious fire of the eternal Spirit who burns up evil and utterly consumes it! With God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit united against sin, the everlasting purposes of Grace are bound to be accomplished, sin must be overcome and my text proved to be true—“Where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound.”
I. To illustrate the great principle of my text, I ask you to notice, first, that the context refers us to THE ENTRANCE OF TRUE LAW. “The Law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound.”
Instead of giving any historical statement concerning the introduction of the Law in the days of Moses, I am going to speak about the experimental matter of the introduction of the Law of God into our hearts. Those of you who have been converted remember the time when the Law of the Lord first entered your heart. The Law engraved on the two tablets of stone, the Law recorded in the Bible does but very little for us—but when the Law really enters our heart, is does much for us. What does it do?
The first thing the Law does to most men is to develop the sin that is in them. Paul writes, “I had not known sin, but by the Law: for I had not known lust, except the Law had said, You shall not covet.” But as soon as he found that there was a Law against a certain sin, by some unhallowed instinct of his unrenewed nature, he wanted to do the very thing that he was forbidden to do! It was like that with us—the first effect of the entrance of the Law of God into our hearts was to develop the sin that was already within us. “That is a dreadful thing,” says one. Yes, it is, but look at the matter from another aspect. Here is a man who has within him a dire disease which will be fatal if it is allowed to remain, so the physician gives him some medicine which throws the disease out. The man used to have a beautiful complexion, but after he has taken that medicine, his face is covered with blotches. Is that a bad thing? Yes, the blotches are bad, but the hidden disease was worse! While that disease was concealed within his system and was killing him, he probably did not even know that is was there. He knew that he was not well and, perhaps, thought that he was dying as the result of some other complaint. But now he sees what the disease is, and everybody sees it, and now that which looked like an evil thing may turn out to be for real good to the man.