Our Sin, God's Grace
By Charles Spurgeon

Romans 5.20
Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

Sin is not merely the breaking of a rule, it is rebellion against the infinite majesty and holiness of God. It is treason against the sovereign King of heaven. It is a monstrous defilement of the soul, a willful choosing of darkness over light, a loathing of God's commandments, and a love for what He hates. Sin pollutes every part of our being. Our minds are blinded, our hearts are deceitful, and our wills are enslaved. Sin makes us loathsome in God's sight and fit only for eternal judgment.

Scripture does not soften the description. We are dead in transgressions and sins, children of wrath, slaves to sin, and enemies of God. The horror of our sin is not measured by how we see it, but by how God sees it, as that which nailed His beloved Son to the cross.

And yet into that blackness shines a light so glorious that no mind could have imagined it, and no heart could have hoped for itâ€"the grace of God. His grace is unearned, undeserved, and unrepayable. It is His free favor poured out on the utterly undeserving, ill-deserving, and hell-deserving. Grace finds us filthy and makes us pure. Grace finds us guilty and declares us righteous. Grace finds us enemies of God and makes us His sons and daughters.

Nowhere are sin and grace so clearly manifested as at Golgotha. There, the horror of our sin is exposed in full, for only the death of the sinless Son of God could make atonement for it. His groans, his wounds, his forsakenness, all cry out against our guilt. At Golgotha also, the wonder of grace shines brightest. Jesus bore our sin that we might bear his righteousness. He was cursed that we might be blessed. He died that we might live. In the cross of Jesus, sin reached its vilest expression, and grace reached its highest triumph.

Holy and merciful God, I bow before you in deep shame for the evil that is in me. My sin is great, but your grace is greater still. I am in awe that your son would die for one so vile as myself. Break my pride, melt my heart, and lead me in paths of grateful obedience until the day I see you face to face. Amen.