I do not know about you, but the truth we have discovered over the past few weeks is a bit overwhelming. We are discovering who God has made us to be when he accepted us as his children. Another way of saying this is by answering the question, “What characteristics of God are now mine because of my faith in Jesus?” As amazing as the list has been so far, we are only about halfway through. This brings us to our discussion God’s wisdom and understanding.
We found last week that the redemption and forgiveness which the believer has in Jesus Christ is, Paul states, “in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” We described the grace of God in a previous post. Here we will discuss the way this grace is distributed in our lives.
God’s grace is dispensed based on his infinite wisdom and understanding. We will come back to this in a moment. First, we need to see that when God is ready to distribute his grace, he does not hold back, he lavishes it on us. This is a word picture of providing more than could ever be needed. Envision a person pouring a beverage into a glass but not stopping when the glass is full. It spills over the side and impacts everything around it. This is how God gives grace. We have enough for us and plenty to spare to offer to others.
Back to our main point. God distributes this abundance of grace because of his wisdom and understanding. God knows in a way we will never understand, the depth of his own holiness. This purity is so complete and unreachable by any stain of sin that no sinful man could ever survive in his presence. Therefore, we receive abundant grace that purifies, forgives, and redeems us. God knows how horrendous the punishment for our sin must be in eternity and did not want us to have to experience that. Therefore, abundant grace removes the eternal consequence of sin. Because he knew, in his infinite wisdom and understanding of our lostness and inability, he lavished upon us a deliverance and a forgiveness measured only by his immeasurable grace.
In Romans 5:17-21, we are reminded of the completeness of his understanding of his strength and our weakness, For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Because of God’s wisdom and understanding, we have nothing to fear in this life or in eternity. We will never have the level of understanding of God’s holiness or our lostness that God possesses. All we are asked to do is accept his decisions based on his infinite supply.