But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,"

Believers, this is the crux of the gospel: Righteousness by faith. Romans 5:9 says:

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

In Christ, "never" above does not mean "until your next sin." Never means Never. With Christ as your righteousness, God sees you as righteous, even with all of your sins and addictions that you struggle with; all of the blessings of the righteous in His word accrue to all who believe in Jesus Christ, having Him as our righteousness. Romans 8:32 says-

"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

But many are not experiencing the blessing because they do not believe that God gives us ALL things FREELY with Christ. Because of wrong teaching, many are trying to earn the blessings of Abraham by obeying the law, an effort in futility according to Romans 4.

Believer, you see those sins that you struggle with and your inability to obey the law that some church leaders deceive you into believing are the reason why God is not blessing you, Christ came to save us from those very sins according to Matthew 1:21-

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Let's take our blessed brains to church. How can a Saviour who came to save us from our sins use those very sins that He came to save us from as an excuse for not saving us and even punish us for the sins that He came to save us from? This is akin to an oncologist dad refusing to treat his own beloved child who has cancer and even punishes his child for exhibiting symptoms of the disease.

All mankind inherited the sin/old nature from Adam. Romans 5:19 says "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

The one with the old nature inherited from Adam does not believe that the sinner who believes is made righteous in God's sight by Christ's obedience. He depends on his ability to obey the law to make him right with God, an effort in futility according to Romans 3:20- "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

That sin nature inherited from Adam is the cancer of sin that produces acts of sin and it is activated by the law that many are trying so hard to keep in order to be godly- Romans 7:5.

"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."

The law that many are trying so hard to obey in order to be godly and to get from God causes acts of sin that lead to death to multiply.

But God's everlasting gift of righteousness to us in Christ is not to make us free to go on sinning sprees as many who do not yet understand as well as those who feel that everyone except them is just itching to commit sin believe. Romans 5:20 says:

"Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,"

Paul preached this so much that people started falsely accusing him that it is okay to do evil since it presents an opportunity for God to show kindness! See this in Romans 3:

5 “But,” some might say, “our sinfulness serves a good purpose, for it helps people see how righteous God is. Isn’t it unfair, then, for Him to punish us?” (This is merely a human point of view.) 6 Of course not! If God were not entirely fair, how would He be qualified to judge the world? 7 “But,” someone might still argue, “how can God condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights His truthfulness and brings Him more glory?” 8 And some people even slander us by claiming that we say, “The more we sin, the better it is!” Those who say such things deserve to be condemned."

Peter too spoke of those who tried and are still trying to twist the gospel that Paul preached to mean what it does not in 2 Peter 3-

15 "And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— 16 speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction."

People accused Paul of preaching that it is okay to sin because of God's grace, just as many do today. Because of these accusations, Paul set things straight in Romans 6 which opens with verse 1: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?"

See the NLT: "Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace?"

This was a rhetorical question that Paul used as a backdrop to explain how we have victory over sin. This is what people falsely accused him of preaching. But many today pounce on this single verse to twist God's word to mean that Paul preached that one must obey the law in order to be godly, the very thing that Paul preached against! Why did Paul preach against this? Because this is the result according to the same Paul in Galatians 5:4-

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace."

And this from the same Paul: Galatians 3:10- "Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!”"

These verses and many more like it were not written to unbelievers. They were written to the Christians in Galatia who were deceived into believing that they had to obey the law in order to remain righteous/godly and attain perfection...after they believed Christ who gave His life to make them righteous and perfect in God's sight.

Paul did not say "grace abounds" where there is sin. He said: "But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,"" God's grace super-abounds so our sins do not stand a chance of reigning.

God's grace super-abounds so much that sin does not stand a chance in our lives; it's akin to extinguishing a lit matchstick (sin) with the force of of a thousand fire extinguishers (abundance of Grace). If your own sins are fifty matchsticks of fire, there is super-abundant grace to extinguish them all. If it is an atomic bomb, even much more grace to give you victory over it. Sin doesn't stand a chance in the life of the one who is under God's abundance of grace. Rather, under grace, we get to live in triumph over sin and death through Christ as it is written in Romans 5:17-

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Lack, sickness, depression and all earthly ills are "death begun." In Christ, we get to live in triumph over sin and death as well as all of its symptoms. The Holy Spirit transforms us from within so much that what is on the outside cannot but align with the work of the Spirit within.

But the opposite is what we are hearing in many of our churches. Many hold the wrong belief of the Galatians that made Paul call them "foolish" and "bewitched." Believers are being deceived into relying on the arm of flesh (obeying the law) that will fail in order to be righteous and sin free and so are cut off from Christ! People are subtly being led to reject Grace for their own righteousnesses which come from "doing the right thing" of obeying the law and doing good things. But Christ's death is meaningless in the lives of those who try-

"I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing!"

Believer, are you being taught to re-double your efforts at obeying the law doing works of the law in order to be godly, get rid of sin in your life and overcome death and its symptoms of lack, depression and other earthly ills? This is as USELESS as a person with cancer putting plaster on a festering sore that is as a result of the cancer within. Paul explains in Romans 8:3-4 (MSG)-

"The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us."

Believer, by grace, let go of all your human effort at obeying the law to get right with God. Believe what God's word says of us in Romans 5:9-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Know that no one can ever be sin-free by human effort. We sometimes think that we are "not that bad" and that we can control ourselves when it comes to sinning. This is the height of foolishness. Because of this false security in the arm of flesh that will fail, we berate other people by telling them that they should be "better than that" and impose loads that they just cannot carry on them, e.g. "You'd better stop sinning, obey the law and come to Christ or burn in hell..."

Understand that the reason why we are not committing particular sins is because we have not been tempted beyond what we can bear in those areas. The potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody. God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people boast about their ability to obey the law or think that some sins are beneath them, just like Peter who thought he would not deny Jesus....

See the VOICE translation of Romans 5:20-

"When the law came into the picture, sin grew and grew; but wherever sin grew and spread, God’s grace was there in fuller, greater measure. No matter how much sin crept in, there was always more grace."

The law was not given for us to keep in order to be righteous by. The law was given to show up our guilt and sinfulness (Romans 3:19-20; Galatians 3:19.) The verse numbers are not there by mistake. The law gives sin dominion over those who try to obey it in order to be godly. But all who receive God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ GET TO live in triumph over sin and death through the One, Jesus Christ.

Grace super-abounds where sin increases not to make it okay for us to wallow in sins as many misunderstand but to save us from our sins.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.