“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!
CHRIST’S BURIAL
"Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures and was buried." In Christianity Today, a reader wrote, “Our pastor preached a sermon and said Jesus did not die. He merely swooned on the cross and the disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think?” The editor replied, “I suggest you beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine tails with a hundred heavy strokes, nail him to a cross, hang him in the sun for six hours, run a spear through his heart, embalm him, put him in an airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens to him.
The burial of Jesus was proof of His death, not a hoax to set up a resurrection story. When Jesus was placed in the tomb, our sins were buried with Him. He bore our sins on the cross and buried our sins in the tomb. That is abundant grace!
CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
"Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures and was buried, and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures."
The resurrection is the heart and soul of our faith, the cornerstone of everything we believe. More than 500 people saw Jesus alive, but the greatest proof of the resurrection is the empty tomb. If the cross is the payment for our sin, then the empty tomb is the receipt.
Jesus took our sins upon Himself, and died in our place, enduring the penalty of those sins; three days later, He rises from the dead, leaving our sins still buried in the tomb. Christ’s death means nothing without the resurrection. But because of the resurrection, Christ has won the victory over sin and death, a victory which is ours through His abundant grace.
The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ was what Paul preached and taught to the people of Corinth in Acts 18. They needed to be reminded of the abundant grace of God, as do we. In Paul’s conclusion of his message, he encourages the believers to persevere.
"Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (58)
If you, as a child of God, feel like slowing down, or quitting, in your walk with God, then you need to be reminded of the abundant grace of God. Devote yourself to knowing Him through prayer and the study of the Word. Once the abundant grace of God gets hold of you, worship and fellowship with other believers is a joy. God’s abundant grace enables us to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
God’s abundant grace is waiting to save you from the penalty of sin, eternal separation from God, if you will come to Christ in faith, believing in Him as God’s Son and accepting His death on the cross as the payment for your sin. His abundant grace is waiting to save you from the power of sin by transforming your life to be more like Christ. God’s amazing grace is waiting to save you from the presence of sin by placing you in God’s everlasting presence. God’s amazing grace is waiting for you to say, “Yes” to Jesus.
