Angelic Conflict part 306: Reigning in life – Rom 5:12-21; Isa 26:3; Mat 11:28; Joh 10:27-30; 1Co 15:50-58; 2Ti 1:7-11.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 306: Reigning in life - ROM 5:12-21; ISA 26:3; MAT 11:28; JOH 10:27-30; 1CO 15:50-58; 2TI 1:7-11.

 

 

ROM 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

 

ROM 5:21 that [in order that], as sin reigned in death [spiritual death], even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Man's rebellion against God was stubborn and universal and it has only increased as God's revelation increased, but where sin increased grace super-abounded all the more.

 

The ultimate triumph of our Lord will be at His second coming, but in each believer's heart there is the very real potential of the triumph of grace before that glorious day.

 

The gift of the queen of sin is death. The gift of the queen of grace is righteousness and eternal life.

 

The Adamic nature will never accept the rulership of the queen of grace and so that nature had to be crucified and it was, on Christ, on Cavalry.

 

The Adamic nature will not accept something freely. Either he desires something selfishly or he will receive only when he has contributed in some way to the formulation of the gift.

 

The queen of sin is like communist Russia during the cold war - powerful but lifeless.

 

The queen of grace offers freedom and priceless gifts.

 

No man can clothe himself in righteousness, only God in Christ can clothe him in it. No man can attain to eternal life no matter what his legacy, only God in Christ can impute eternal life to a believer.

 

When the believer comes to know that he is forever clothed in righteousness and forever possesses God's eternal life his heart will live in perfect peace.

 

ISA 26:3

The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace,

Because he trusts in Thee.

 

Grace reigning in a believer's life is a life of the mature peace of Christ. [Exodus is the great example again - they rejected God's gifts and so they lived in fear rather than peace]

 

When we take our eyes off of God and put them on ourselves and our surroundings it proves fatal to the peace that comes from enlightened eyes that are set on these wondrous things of grace.

 

Therefore God explains these things in many ways and in simple, but elegant language. It is repeated, used in parable and metaphor, in typology, and application is concluded all throughout His word so that we can see it clearly and plainly. In this way, the student of the word of God, after some time of learning all these things, finds it difficult to take his eyes off of them and so he maintains his peace much more effectively.

 

MAT 11:28

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

 

Could that be any simpler? Do we need the theologian with ten advanced degrees to explain it to us?

 

Because of the cross God can bring us to Himself without contaminating Himself. I discover that His blood cleanses me, that His grace surrounds me, that His righteousness enfolds me, and that He sees me in His Son. I may wonder if He can touch me and remain clean, but He looks at Christ and declares that He can. Thus sinners reach the throne of God. He did all this that grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

We have received eternal life by grace and not 10 years or 100 years of life, but His life, eternal life.

 

It has no beginning and no end. I was placed in it and it will go on forever, so although I will die physically, I will never be separated from God. I will never die spiritually. Death has been dethroned and I live in Christ eternally.

 

ROM 11:29

for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

 

JOH 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

 

JOH 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.

 

JOH 10:29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

 

JOH 10:30 "I and the Father are one."

 

Both have the same hands and no one is going to snatch any one of the saved out of those hands. We cannot be loosed, even if in stupidity we wished for it.

 

Thus where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Thus where death reigned, grace now reigns. The reign is complete, final, and absolute. All of His own are in Himself, and none has been lost or can be lost. Because of His grace which thus maintains His own, God calls us all to holiness of living in absolute surrender to Jesus Christ our Sovereign Lord.

 

No believer has to wait until heaven to live in surrender to Jesus Christ our Sovereign Lord, because having eternal life, we can live the resurrected life now, in time, and we will, if we learn to allow the queen of grace to reign in our lives.

 

Therefore, we incurred the penalty of spiritual death and Christ redeemed us from the penalty and defeated and removed death and sin from us while simultaneously gracing us out with resurrection life.

 

Hence there is in this worldview nothing "natural" about death. At least as we presently experience it, death was never part of God's design for creatures. It is, rather, the ultimate scourge of the evil one.

 

Death was never part of God's design for His creatures.

 

GEN 2:16-17

"From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die."

 

God's response to this was to destroy death through His own incarnation into mankind in the person of Christ. It was for this reason that we studied ROM 5:12-21.

 

ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — 

 

ROM 5:13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

 

ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

 

ROM 5:15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

 

ROM 5:16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

 

ROM 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

 

ROM 5:18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.

 

ROM 5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

 

ROM 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

 

ROM 5:21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

So we see that this is not a mere 7 fold repetition of the same contrast between the first Adam and the Last Adam, but in each a different nuance of the amazing grace gifts of life in Christ Jesus is given.

 

Grace of God abounds

The gift by the grace of Jesus Christ abounds

Free gift of justification

Abundance of grace

Gift of righteousness

Reign in life

Justification of life

Made righteous

Super-abounding grace

Grace reign through righteousness to eternal life.

 

In bringing the kingdom of God, therefore, Christ came to destroy death by destroying "the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil." (HEB 2:14)

 

1CO 15:50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

 

1CO 15:51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

 

1CO 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

 

1CO 15:53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

 

1CO 15:54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory.

 

Faith in this in time will ensure victory in time or reigning in life.

 

1CO 15:55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

 

1CO 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;

 

1CO 15:57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

1CO 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding [perisseuo - abounding grace = abounding work] in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

 

We were given the victory (abounding grace) and we abound in the work of the Lord.

 

2TI 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

 

2TI 1:8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,

 

2TI 1:9 who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

 

2TI 1:10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

 

2TI 1:11 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.

 

It is by abolishing death that Christ atones for the captives and sets them free from the strong man and into grace and life in Him. His resurrection being the proof of its success on the cross.

 

Therefore, His exorcism and healing ministry finds its climax in the cross where He abolished death, atoned for all mankind, and shared the plunder by giving the kingdom of God to mankind.

 

ISA 53:12

Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,

And He will divide the booty with the strong;

Because He poured out Himself to death,

And was numbered with the transgressors;

Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,

And interceded for the transgressors.