Abundant Grace

“Abundant Grace”

Acts 18:1-11; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Each one of us who are followers of Jesus Christ are experiencing the abundant grace of God. Your salvation has three stages: past, present, and future. The theological terms are justification, sanctification, and glorification.

The moment you turned from your sin and surrendered your life to Christ as Savior, you were justified: just-if-I’d never sinned. At that moment in your past, you were saved from the penalty of sin, death, an eternal separation from God.

At this moment, you are being sanctified, becoming more like Christ each day. Sin is no longer your master; it does not control your life. You are growing closer to Christ each day because you are being saved from the power of sin.

The moment you pass from this life, you will enter into the presence of God, a place where evil and sin do not exist. You will be glorified, completely forgiven and pure in spirit. You will, then, one day be saved from the presence of sin.

Salvation (past, present, and future) is possible only because of the abundant grace of God. You experienced His grace when He saved you, you are experiencing His grace as you battle with temptation and sin now, and you will experience His grace when He allows you into His heaven.

Yet, in our dog-eat-dog, hurried and frazzled existence, we often forget God’s abundant grace. Life overwhelms us and we fail to remember how He has saved us, is with us, and provides us with life everlasting.

Paul needed to remind the believers in Corinth of the abundant grace of God. In Acts 18, Paul spent 18 months testifying of God’s grace through Jesus Christ. Pay attention to how Luke describes Paul’s witness. SCRIPTURE

Would you not like to have heard Paul preach and testify? YouTube and Tik Tok were not around in his day to record his messages, not even a book of his sermons. We are just told he reasoned with, testified, spoke, preached, and taught.

My grandfather served as a Baptist pastor in Mississippi for 40 years. Recently, I received a notebook of sermon outlines written in his handwriting. I never had the opportunity to hear him preach; but, in these notes, I know what he said.

In June of 1959, at the First Baptist Church of Kosciusko, my grandfather’s sermon was titled, “God and Missions” from Philippians 2:25-30. His final point was “God Expects Us to Support Missionaries”. He says, “The following blessings will be ours if we give sacrificially. God will be pleased. Souls will hear the gospel. It will be credited to our account. He promises our needs will be supplied here. God will never fail the sacrificial givers in their hour of need.”

Luke does not tell us what Paul said, only the results. Many of the Corinthians who heard Paul were baptized. (8) Paul leaves his 18-month work in Corinth in 50 A.D. Five years later, Paul writes a letter to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians.

Paul addresses the problems of immorality and sexual sin in the church, as well as disruptive relationships. The believers were looking more like the culture around them than the nature of Christ in them. They had forgotten about the abundant grace of God; so, Paul reminds them.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1, Paul says, "I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you have received and on which you have taken your stand." He then repeats his reasoning, his preaching, his testifying, his speaking, and his teaching. The rest of 1 Corinthians 15 is a transcript of Paul’s preaching in Acts 18. It is a reminder of the abundant grace of God. 15:1-11 Paul is reminding them of God’s abundant grace through the gospel.

CHRIST’S DEATH

"Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures." Isaiah, declares, "He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6)

Jesus died as our substitute. You and I stand guilty before God, sinners by nature and by choice. Because I am a sinner, I deserve to go to hell when I die, to spend eternity separated from God. But Christ, in His abundant grace, stepped in and took my place.

He became my substitute and willingly took the punishment and penalty I deserve. On the cross, Jesus suffered for a few hours what I would have to suffer for eternity. For three hours on the cross, from noon to 3:00 pm, Jesus experienced hell for you and me. That is abundant grace!