Grace Greater Than Our Sin

Julia Johnston wrote the beautiful hymn “Grace Greater Than Our Sin”.  Those five words echo across the pages of Scripture in response to the sinful deeds of men of faith.  In Hebrews 11 God calls Jacob a man of faith.  In Genesis 27 we see him more as a man of spiritual failure.  How are these opposites resolved?  It is done by our hymn title today.

Before his birth in Genesis 25, God had chosen Jacob over his older brother Esau.  That was an eternal and divine choice.  Jacob only needed to wait upon God to fulfill it.  To him were the promises and the covenant by the will of God.  By faith Rebekah could have waited for God to fulfill that promise.  By faith Jacob could have waited for God to fulfill that promise.  The word of God is sure and will stand.  By faith we are to believe it and trust Him to complete it.

But all too often that is not the way we live.  Jacob and Rebekah lost sight of their faith in God’s promises and sought to accomplish God’s goals by sinful human means.  First Jacob had Esau trade a bowl of soup for his birthright.  There was no love or care for his brother in that selfish act.  Then Rebekah and Jacob conspired to deceive Isaac to give Jacob the blessing.  There is a clear violation of the 9^th commandment.  The sinful nature won out over faith.  Could such a thing succeed?

The wages of this sin caused Jacob to be an exile from his family for 20 years.  It cost Rebekah the joy of the fellowship of her favorite son for 20 years.  It cost a breach between the brothers, Jacob and Esau, which lasted for a thousand years. The stain of this compulsive sin was reenacted in the lives of Jacob’s own sons.  There were wages of this sin.  But God’s grace was not subdued.  God appeared to Jacob, guided Jacob, blessed Jacob and quickened Jacob into being a new man with a new name, Israel.  God’s grace was greater than Jacob’s sin.

The same is true throughout time.  The same is true for us today.  As Julia Johnston wrote it is “grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt”.  As she wrote in the second verse, “Sin and despair like the sea waves cold, threaten the soul with infinite loss”.  That was surely true of Jacob and all sinners for all time.  But there is more.  That despair should show us a “grace that is greater, yes grace untold” that “points to the refuge the mighty cross.”  If you have run ahead of God, or away from God, run back to His grace.  Run with simple confession to His marvelous Cross of grace.  Be restored in His grace today.   

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