Text: “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” — Romans 5:20
Introduction
What is divine grace? It is the outpouring of God’s kindness upon those who deserve wrath. It is heaven’s hand extended to the guilty. It is love stooping low enough to lift the dead. But divine grace is more than mercy. It is more than pardon. It is power—holy, transforming, and unstoppable power.
Grace is not sentimental softness. It is not God merely feeling sorry for the sinner. Grace is God intervening, God rescuing, God working. It is the energy of heaven poured into the poverty of man. It is the strength of God applied to human frailty. It is not passive. It is active. And where sin shows its strength, grace shows it stronger.
Romans 5:20 declares, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Not equal to sin. Greater than sin. This is not a poetic phrase. It is a spiritual law. Divine grace overcomes what no man can. It rebuilds what sin has shattered. It heals what guilt has infected. It reigns where death once ruled.
Today we consider not merely grace, but the power of divine grace. Power to save. Power to sustain. Power to sanctify. Power to preserve. Power to crown.
I. The Power of Grace to Overrule the Weight of Sin
Sin is no light matter. It enslaves the mind, pollutes the heart, and ruins the soul. Its power is not superficial. It penetrates every fiber of fallen man. Romans 3:23 reminds us, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Sin is not merely what we do. It is what we are without Christ.
No religion can remove sin. No ritual can cleanse it. No philosophy can repair its damage. Sin is deeper than human wisdom can diagnose.
But grace goes deeper still.
Romans 5:15 says, “But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God… hath abounded unto many.” Adam’s fall reached far, but Christ’s grace reached farther. What sin destroyed, grace can redeem. What the law could not accomplish, grace has accomplished through Christ.
When Christ hung on the cross, it was not just an act of love. It was an act of power. He bore the weight of every sin—not only to forgive, but to cancel its reign. The blood did not cover sin like a blanket. It removed it like a cleansing flood.
The thief on the cross received this grace in his dying hour. A life full of crime, wasted years, rebellion—and yet with one breath of faith, grace overruled. Jesus said, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” That is power. That is grace.
II. The Power of Grace to Break the Chains of the Past
Sin leaves scars. It wounds the soul and brands the mind with shame. Even after forgiveness, the memory of failure can paralyze progress. Many believers are forgiven but still walk as prisoners of their past.
But divine grace does not stop at absolution. It breaks the chains.
Second Corinthians 5:17 proclaims, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” That is not poetic exaggeration. That is the reality of regeneration.
Grace gives more than a second chance. It gives a new identity.
Consider the Apostle Paul. Once a murderer. Once a persecutor. A man with blood on his hands and hatred in his heart. But when grace found him on the road to Damascus, the chains of guilt were shattered. He did not become an improved version of Saul. He became Paul—a new man, a chosen vessel, a preacher of the faith he once tried to destroy.
This is what divine grace can do. It speaks over your past and says, “You are not who you were. You are mine now.” It silences the voice of shame and replaces it with the song of redemption.
III. The Power of Grace to Sanctify the Present
Grace does not only reach backward. It empowers the present. Many misunderstand grace as a permission slip for weakness. They think grace means God overlooks sin without changing the sinner. But this is not divine grace—it is a counterfeit.
Titus 2:11-12 gives us the truth: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”
Grace teaches. Grace trains. Grace disciplines. Divine grace is not lazy. It labors. It works within us to will and to do of God’s good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). It is power to grow, to overcome, to walk in victory.
When temptation comes, grace is not far behind. Hebrews 4:16 invites us to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Grace is help. Grace is strength. Grace is fire in the soul when darkness closes in.
It is divine grace that makes the tongue pure, the eyes holy, the heart tender, and the hands generous. Without it, no man can please God. With it, no man can fail.
IV. The Power of Grace to Preserve the Soul
This world is a battlefield. The believer is assaulted from within and without. Doubts rise. Trials press. The flesh is weak. The enemy roars. And many wonder, “Can I make it?”
But divine grace does not merely begin a work. It completes it.
Jude 1:24 declares, “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless…” This is not wishful thinking. It is the promise of preserving grace. The same grace that saved you will sustain you. The God who called you will carry you.
Peter knew the power of grace to preserve. Jesus warned him, “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.” But then came the comfort: “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:31-32). Peter would fall. But grace would hold his faith.
First Peter 1:5 says we are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” Divine grace is that power. It surrounds the believer like a fortress. It guards the soul through every storm.
Grace is not only for the beginning of your walk. It is for the night seasons, the dry deserts, the long trials. It does not always remove the storm. Sometimes it simply keeps your boat afloat.
V. The Power of Grace to Glorify the Future
The final triumph of grace is not just forgiveness, not just transformation, not even perseverance. The final triumph of divine grace is glory.
Romans 8:30 gives us the golden chain: “Whom he justified, them he also glorified.” It is grace that begins the story, and grace that writes the final chapter.
Philippians 1:6 gives this confidence: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” What God starts in grace, He finishes in glory.
At the resurrection, grace will speak again. It will say, “Arise.” It will clothe the mortal in immortality. It will wipe every tear. It will present the saint blameless before the throne with exceeding joy (Jude 1:24).
This is not human optimism. It is divine certainty. It is the power of a grace that cannot be stopped.
When the redeemed stand before the throne in white robes, it will not be their record that earns them a place. It will be grace. Not because they were strong, but because grace kept them. Not because they never fell, but because grace lifted them.
Conclusion
What can divine grace do?
It can save the rebel.
It can cleanse the defiled.
It can empower the weak.
It can preserve the faint.
It can glorify the dying.
It can do what the law could not, what man could not, what religion could never do.
Grace is not theory. It is power. It is the breath of God in the lungs of man. It is the life of heaven poured into the hearts of earth. It is not just God’s attitude toward us. It is God’s action within us.
And it is available today.
If you are broken, there is grace.
If you are guilty, there is grace.
If you are weak, there is grace.
If you are tired, there is grace.
If you are beginning, stumbling, or finishing—there is grace.
Fall at His feet and ask for it. Open your heart and receive it. Trust in Christ, who is full of grace and truth.
And then rise in strength—not your own, but the power of divine grace.
Amen.