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Abounded (5248) (huperperisseuo [hypererisseuo] from hupér [hyper] = over, super + perisseuo = be over and above, cause to overflow or superabound) means to superabound (even more than "superabound"!) or to abound much more in a comparative sense. The idea is to be in great excess or abundance (Ro 5:20). It is also used figuratively in 2 Corinthians 7:4 where the idea is to be full and running over, to be overflowing or to experience exceedingly. The only other use of huperperisseuo in Scripture is found in 2 Corinthians... Great is my confidence in you, great is my boasting on your behalf; I am filled with comfort. I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. (2 Corinthians 7:4) Barnhouse comments on Paul's use of abound and abounded noting that... In the Greek, these are two different words. “Where sin overflowed, grace flooded in.” Where sin measurably increased, grace immeasurably increased. Where sin abounded—pleonazo—grace did much more abound—huper-perisseuo. The prefix huper is like the Latin super. The movie ads have taught us what super does to a word. Instead of being colossal, something is supercolossal. So, where sin could be measured by multiplying the number of commands of the law by the number of human beings in the world, grace could never be measured because it would require the multiplication of the number of acts of God’s grace by the infinity of His being. Our text might well read: “Where sin was finite, grace was infinite.” (Barnhouse, D. G. God's Grace: Romans 5:12-21. Grand Rapids, MI.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company) Grace abounded all the more - Grace abundantly overflowed. "Where sin reached a high-water mark, grace completely flooded the world." (Barnhouse) Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that... The idea is that of an overflowing, as if a mighty flood were let loose, sweeping everything before it. Indeed, we might well use the term ‘engulfed’; such an abundance, such a superabundance that it drowns and engulfs everything. Contemplating the truth of superabounding grace, Spurgeon wrote... Blessed be God for that! Sin may be a river, but grace is an ocean. Sin may be a mountain, but grace is like Noah’s flood, which prevailed over the tops of the mountains fifteen cubits upward. NEB renders it... Where sin was thus multiplied, grace immeasurably exceeded it. J. B. Phillips paraphrases it... Though sin is shown to be wide and deep, thank God his grace is wider and deeper still. As Spurgeon says, the Law is a storm that wrecks your hopes of self-salvation, but at the same time washes you up upon the Rock of Ages, not only rescued, but restored and raised to the side of the Eternal God. Who would not want to cry out in joy! The words of Julia Johnston convey a beautiful picture of this overflowing grace... you might consider pausing a moment and singing this hymn as you worship the God of all grace... Grace Greater than Our Sin Play hymn Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt. Refrain Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin. Sin and despair, like the sea waves cold, Threaten the soul with infinite loss; Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, Points to the refuge, the mighty cross. Refrain Dark is the stain that we cannot hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look! There is flowing a crimson tide, Brighter than snow you may be today. Refrain Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, Freely bestowed on all who believe! You that are longing to see His face, Will you this moment His grace receive? Law added transgressions, showing even more vividly the superabundant grace of God. Grace did not set aside the law, but rather completely satisfied it. As deep as sin goes, God’s grace goes deeper. As wide as sin is, God’s grace is wider. When sin abounded, grace super-abounded. God’s grace is greater than all our sin. Praise the Lord! How sad it is when some hear this glorious truth and "run the wrong direction" with it (see notes Romans 6:1; 6:2) As Guzik says We might have expected that where sin abounded, God's anger or judgment would have abounded much more. But God's love is so amazing that grace abounded much more where we might have expected wrath. If grace super-abounds over sin, then we know that it is impossible to out-sin the grace of God. We can't sin more than God can forgive, but we can reject His grace (Ed note: even believers can "frustrate" it = Paul declares "I do not frustrate the grace of God" - Galatians 2:21, KJV) and forgiveness. (Romans 5) (Bolding added) Boice makes two practical points concerning God's superabounding grace... (1) Grace is not withheld because of sin. We need to understand this clearly, because in normal life you and I do not operate this way. If we are offended by someone, we tend to withdraw from that person and restrain any natural favor we might otherwise show. If someone offends us greatly, we find it hard even to be civil. God is not like this. On the contrary, where sin increases, grace superabounds. (Barnhouse adds that...The fundamental idea of our text is that no dam erected by sin can stop the flow of God’s grace. The great dams of the world, such as Assouan, Hoover, Bonneville, Friant, Shasta, are used to arrest the flow of rivers or to divert waters from their normal course. But nothing can arrest or divert the flow of the grace of God. Adam had not gone very far from the scene of his rebellion before the grace of God sought him, called him by name, pursued him in the obscurity of the grove where he was hiding.) (2) God’s grace is never reduced because of sin. There is an unlimited supply of grace available. Some people mistakenly suppose that there is only so much grace to go around. They envision God as looking down on mankind and seeing a great variety of sinners in need of salvation. One man is fairly good, but he is not perfect. He can only be saved by grace, of course, so God dips into his bucket of grace and splashes out just enough for this man to find Christ and salvation. Here is another person, a woman. She is not as “good” as the man. She needs more grace. Finally, here is a very terrible person. He has committed every sin in the book and is not the least bit inclined toward God or godliness. This man is also saved by grace, but it takes a lot of grace to save him. God has to scrape the very bottom of the bucket to get this vile profligate in. All this is a gross misunderstanding. Grace is not something that is depleted as it covers our deficiencies. Furthermore, by grace God provides one hundred percent of what is necessary for the salvation of one hundred percent of the people he is saving. Grace is not doled out in proportion to our misdeeds. And God’s superabundant supply never runs dry! There is another error related to the first. Imagine a man who was once walking close to God but who fell into some great sin. I do not care what sin it was. It may have been Moses’ sin, David’s sin, your sin. Having fallen into sin, this man now thinks that he has forfeited something of God’s grace. It is as if he had originally been given one hundred percent of God’s grace but now supposes that he is slowly wasting away this treasury of grace by his major transgressions. Do you ever find yourself thinking that? Are you thinking that now? That you were saved in the past and you were once a first-class Christian; but now, having sinned, you are condemned to be only a second-class or third-class Christian forever? Forget that idea. Your sin did not keep God’s grace from flowing to you in full measure when you came to Christ. It will not keep grace from you now. (Barnhouse adds that..."God does not say of a monstrous sinner, “Oh, that man is so bad that I must scrape the bottom of the barrel of grace for him!” Nor does He say of another, “There is an average man, doing average things in an average way, so I need only an average amount of grace to deal with him.” He does not say of a third man, “There is a highly moral man, well thought of by all his fellows; just a scoop full of grace will meet his need.” The degree of sinfulness does not enter into God’s dealing with men. The question of sin was settled forever when the Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross of Calvary. Now, because of that righteous act, God can reach any man in any degree of sin, and save him. The grace that goes forth to all sinners, whether first-class, second-class or third-class, is the limitless, measureless, infinite grace of God. It knows no change of source or purpose. It would be impossible for God to exert more pressure and bestow more grace, because grace is already the supreme, infinite flow of perfect love. It would likewise be impossible for God to do less for a sinner, for no brakes can check the work of God. At the cross He forever destroyed all that sin is and all that sin can do. - Ibid) I do not mean to suggest even for a moment that God condones sin. God hates sin so much that he sent Jesus Christ to die to rescue men and women from its destructive rule and tyranny. He hates sin in you. He will continually work to remove it and give you victory over it. But the point I am making here is that God will never diminish his grace toward you because of your sin. (Ibid) Wayne Barber in his sermon on this passage says... I want you to look at Romans 5:20 [note]. There is something I want to point out that may help you as we enter into Romans 6. It says And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Now there are two words used in that verse for abound or increase. The first one is pleonazo, which means "is more than enough; to have enough." The other word used, perisseuo, is actually a synonym, but when they are used together, they are saying different things... pleonazo means to abound, but perisseuo means to go even beyond that... (and) takes it to a greater extreme. Not only that, but Paul put a preposition, huper in front of the word perisseuo. So what he is saying is, not only does it go beyond increasing, where sin increased, but it goes way beyond. There is another difference in the words. Grace has abounded over what sin did to man. The word perisseuo means you are conscious of this abounding. The first words "sin increased," describes something that you may not be conscious of. But the second word means you are conscious of this. This is very important. How did sin abound? When you cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ and grace super abounds over that sin that you were once in, the grace of God is extended to you. Now are you aware of it? Oh, yes! You’re aware of it! You’re aware of the fact that something happened to your life. We’re going to be looking at this in Romans 6. First, you are aware that the penalty of sin is gone. No longer will you have to endure the penalty of death. Even when you die physically on this earth, immediately you are in the presence of God. Death no longer reigns over you. He took your death for you. He went to the cross for you. The penalty fell on Him. He went to the cross. Therefore, when we put our faith into Him, it has no effect on us. Secondly, the power of sin, now, has no more claim over our lives. Whereas, when we were in Adam, Sin ruled and reigned in our lives. We were sinners, ungodly, all of us! But when you reach out to Christ, His grace is something you experience. It’s not just something you preach about! It’s not just something you talk about! You actually experience the grace of God. You are conscious of His grace, of the fact that now something new has happened in your life. Not only does it deal with the power of sin, it even deals with the desire to sin. I think Paul is trying to get us to the point of understanding that when you become a Christian, you are aware that something brand new has taken place in your life. It’s not like when you were (unsaved, unregenerate) in Adam. You didn’t even know what the problem was until the Scripture came and revealed your need. But when you put your faith in Christ, you seek after Him. When the Holy Spirit opens this truth, you reach out to Christ. Now when I say, "You seek after Him" I really mean He sought after you! But when you see the grace, you reach out for it. That grace coming into your life transforms you! 2Cor 5:17 says, "Therefore, if any man is in Christ." Where was he before? In Adam. How did he get in Christ? He put his faith into Christ, and the result of that was baptized into His body with the Holy Spirit. There is no such thing as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is never found in Scripture. It’s the baptism with the Holy Spirit or by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. The moment you reach out for that grace, it super abounds over the sin and you are consciously aware of it. "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things [all of that old life style in Adam] passed away; behold, new things have come." What? The old becomes new. Here it is, right here in Romans. Oh, if you can get this down in your thinking, it will radically transform your lifestyle. J C Philpot... In order to know what grace is in its reign over sin, and in its super-aboundings over the aboundings of iniquity, we must be led experimentally into the depths of the fall. We must be led by God himself into the secrets of our own heart; we must be brought down into distress of mind on account of our sin and the idolatry of our fallen nature. And when, do what we will, sin will still work, reign, and abound, and we are brought to soul poverty, helplessness, destitution, and misery, and cast ourselves down at the footstool of his mercy--then we begin to see and feel the reign of grace, in quickening our souls, in delivering us from the wrath to come, and in preserving us from the dominion of evil. We begin to see then that grace superabounds over all the aboundings of sin in our evil hearts, and as it flows through the channel of the Savior's sufferings, that it will never leave its favored objects until it brings them into the enjoyment of eternal life! And if this does not melt and move the soul, and make a man praise and bless God, nothing will, nothing can! But until we have entered into the depths of our own iniquities, until we are led into the chambers of imagery, and brought to sigh, groan, grieve, and cry under the burden of guilt on the conscience and the workings of secret sin in the heart--it cannot be really known. And to learn it thus, is a very different thing from learning it from books, or ministers. To learn it in the depths of a troubled heart, by God's own teaching, is a very different thing from learning it from the words of a minister or even from the word of God itself. We can never know these things savingly and effectually, until God himself is pleased to apply them with his own blessed power, and communicate an unctuous savor of them to our hearts, that we may know the truth, and find to our soul's consolation, that the truth makes us free! (December 1) Romans 5:21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (NASB: Lockman) Greek: hina hosper ebasileusen (3SAAI) e hamartia en to thanato, houtos kai e charis basileuse (3SAAS) dia dikaiosunes eis zoen aionion dia Iesou Christou tou kuriou hemon. Amplified: So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death, [so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord. (Amplified Bible - Lockman) Newell: In order that, just as sin reigned-as-king by means of death: grace might reign-as-king, through righteousness, unto life eternal, through Jesus Christ our Lord. NLT: So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (NLT - Tyndale House) Phillips: The whole outlook changes - sin used to be the master of men and in the end handed them over to death: now grace is the ruling factor, with righteousness as its purpose and its end the bringing of men to the eternal life of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Phillips: Touchstone) Wuest: in order that just as the aforementioned sin reigned as king in the sphere of death, thus also the aforementioned grace might reign as king through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Eerdmans) Young's Literal: that even as the sin did reign in the death, so also the grace may reign, through righteousness, to life age-during, through Jesus Christ our Lord. THAT AS (the) SIN REIGNED IN DEATH: hina hosper ebasileusen (3SAAI) te hamartia en to thanato: (14" class="scriptRef">Ro 5:14; 6:12,14,16) Note how Romans 5 begins with justification or declaration of righteousness and fittingly ends with eternal life! That (hina) introduces a purpose clause which in this case is that the purpose of the superabounding grace was to replace the reign of sin in death which would ultimately bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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