By Alan Dean, retired Seventh-day Adventist pastor
In the book of John, chapter 6, is the description of Jesus feeding the 5000 men, plus women and children that were present. Jesus had been teaching and healing all day. No one had wanted to leave to go home. So by late afternoon the disciples suggested sending them all home to get some food.
However, this wasn’t Jesus’ plan. He asked for any food that may have been brought. The disciple Andrew found a lad who had 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish. That was enough for Jesus. He asked the disciples to seat everyone in groups and then He had a prayer for the food.
Jesus distributed some of the food to each of the 12 disciples and they began giving food to the various groups. Amazingly, the food did not diminish, even to the very end. When everyone was fed and the leftovers were collected, there were 12 baskets of bread and fish. “What an amazing miracle”, the people thought. “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world”, referring to Deuteronomy 18:18.
However, Jesus wanted the people to understand more than His ability to feed many people. This miracle, along with His teachings that day, was to demonstrate God’s amazing love and abundant grace for man. The lesson that afternoon reiterated the fact that without Jesus they could do nothing, but with His divine power they could all be fed abundantly, physically and spiritually.
Yes, God’s grace is measureless. John Newton taught us to sing “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” Newton knew first hand that God extends His abundant grace to all who will take hold of it. He had been a captain of an English slave-trading ship, but after his conversion, he came out strongly against slavery. The Apostle Paul says “where sin abounds, grace does much more abound” (Romans 5:20).
God’s grace also gives us strength in our life. Romans 6:14 says “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.” Our own attempts to gain victory over sin will always fail, but with God’s grace we are victorious.
As grace abounds in us, so will obedience abound. Christ in us is our hope for glory. His presence in us through the Holy Spirit will change our lives. We become like an entirely new person (2 Corinthians 5:17). But we must constantly focus on Jesus and not on others or ourselves.
In a world full of sin and death we can still find hope for the present and future through the abundant grace of Jesus.
