As I considered what that looked like I realised it was so much more than just a nice blessing showered upon us.
This verse is the culmination of powerful events which are described in the early days after Pentecost. Chapter four gives us a flavour for what was happening that caused that grace to flow
1) persecution from the authorities 4:1
2) Fulness of the Holy Spirit 4:8
3) bold witness 4:8-30 esp 29
4) strong prayer 4:31
5) Unusual manifestations 4:31
6) One heart and soul 4:32
7) generosity 4:32
8) great power 4:33

Wow, there was a flow of great grace in the early church but with it came a boldness, manifestations of the Spirit and the power of God. Now that should make us stop and think . Is that my experience today?
We are a people of grace but it is there not just to enjoy but also as a strength that enables us to step out and be what God intends for us.

So what is Grace?

As I did research and prayer in the scriptures I quickly saw that it is difficult to put grace in a box.That is not surprising as we know you can’t put God in a box. He is far bigger and far more able to do what only He can do in whatever way He chooses than we can ever imagine.

Grace is a natural attribute of God. However, simply defining grace as “unmerited favour” never did satisfy for me so I checked out some definitions.
It gave me these options
Favour, kindness, unmerited divine assistance, a virtue coming from God(thats a help to us)
Mercy, pardon, special favour. The essence of God’s will.

There was another definition that really spoke to me. That was a reference to grace as the Operational Power of God.
I like that thought.

Brother Copeland in passing at this years KCM Ministers conference in Fort Worth said after study and prayer he had got the definition of grace from God that currently satisfied him. He said this;

“Grace is my overwhelming desire to treat people like sin never happened”

When I heard that in association with operational power I immediately felt that went way beyond an ever so humble unmerited favour if that was always God’s desire. So lets turn to Romans 5:12 and build a picture of where that truth is demonstrated in scripture.

Paul first builds up a picture of what original sin has produced in all of us. In verse 15 he then contrasts this with the free gift that comes by “the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man Jesus Christ”
Verse 17 then says “those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ”

Now to me abundance sounds like an outpouring flow.

Now hold your placethere and go to 2 Corinthians 5:21

This verse tells us that Jesus became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Now I remember from old bible school days of a great definition of righteousness that is:-

“The ability and right to stand in the presence of a Holy and Almighty God as if sin had never touched us or existed in us”.

So putting these two scriptures together and understanding what righteousness means makes good sense of Brother Copeland’s statement.
Now if we go back lets read Romans 5:19-21.

To summarise,we see that at the cross all sin was placed on Jesus. Verse 20 then tells us that where sin abounded(or became greater in quantity or increased.) then grace abounded. This word abound referring to grace is a different Greek word to that related to sin. In relation to grace it means exceeded, often overflowing. it is the same word used to describe all the fragments left over after the feeding of the 5000. It is a much bigger tsunami proportion kind of word.

To me it is like saying that as Jesus took our sin which had increased in the earth then the overwhelming flow of grace poured out of the heart of the Father and washed away our sin . He was finally able to fulfil his overwhelming desire because of what Jesus did on the cross.

As verse 21 explains grace is reigning in us through righteousness. Because of what Jesus did in you, you are treated as righteous and grace is flowing in you and causing you to reign in life.

Now we have to come to the place where we trust in that grace and live our lives accordingly. As chapter 6 points out it is not so we can keep on sinning that grace abounds it is so we can then live for him.