Grace Abounding

"Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20).  Thomas Brooks’ comments highlighted the encouragement believers should take from this verse: “The Lord looks more upon your graces than he does upon your weaknesses.  The Lord did not cast off Peter for his horrid sins, but rather looked upon him with an eye of love and pity.”  I think the very reason Christ chose Peter, with all of his faults, to be so eminent an apostle was to demonstrate how He can use the weakest instruments to accomplish His will.  Brooks applied this to all believers, “O admirable  love!  O matchless mercy!  Christ looked more upon Peter’s sorrow than his sin, more upon his tears than his oaths.  The Lord will not cast away weak saints for their great unbelief, because there is a little faith in them, or for their hypocrisy because of the little sincerity that is in them.”  A little gold is not thrown away because it is mixed with a great deal of impurities.  Neither will God cast away His dearest ones because of their flaws.  But weak Christians are more apt to look upon their infirmities than on their virtues.  Too often they fail to see the way God’s grace has impacted their lives.  What a mercy it is that our Lord overlooks our many weaknesses, and fixes His eye on our graces.