ICS Daily Devotions
Reign in Life

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

We are dressed with the imputed righteousness of Christ. We will have abundant life and be in the presence of God in eternity. We have peace with God. The wrath of God towards the sin in our lives have been placed upon Jesus and God judged sin on Christ. Peace with God marks the end of hostility from God and we are to reign in life through Jesus Christ.

The first Adam brought us into the slavery to sin and condemnation. One cannot be reigning in life when you are a slave to sin. The second Adam who is Jesus Christ brought us liberation, freedom from the bondage of the law by fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law for us. Jesus paid the entire price for the sin of mankind and brought us peace with God! He imputed righteousness on us when we believe in Him that He has redeemed us from our sins! It is a gift of righteousness given to us by the abundance of God’s grace and it is not by works so that nobody can boast.

This is the gospel, we are set free from the requirement of the law, there is no more condemnation because Jesus fulfilled it and we are saved. This is liberty and freedom! We are no longer a slave to sin but we are to reign in life with this gift of righteousness. We used to be dictated by the flesh because of the sin nature. When we reign in life through righteousness then the flesh has to listen to us. There is a reversal!

This is exciting news: we are able to reign in this life now! The only thing that we need to deal with is the flesh in order to reign in life now that we are born again and has the nature of God living in the new creation. We can choose to act righteously, choose to walk in love and forgiveness. We need not yield to what our fleshly desire dictates us to do.

It is very comforting that the Scriptures do not say that we ought to reign in life with our own strength. It says we will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, the victorious Christian living and reigning in life will be through the empowerment of the resurrected Christ in our lives. We will be reigning in the present life and in eternity with Christ.

We are called to reign as kings in life over the flesh now. The position of a king and a slave is very different. The king is a ruler who gives order and has power to reign while a slave is someone who does whatever he is being told. We have been promoted from being a slave of sin to reigning as kings in life through Jesus Christ! We have God’s nature in us as compared to having the sin nature previously. The mentality of a king and a slave is very different, too. There must be adjustment in our lives. The king has the complete authority and right to control in an absolute manner. In this case, we have the empowerment through the resurrected Christ to have complete authority to rule and control our lives in an absolute manner by not giving in to the flesh that has long been used to the sin nature.

We need to have this in our mind constantly that we have the indwelling resurrected Christ living in us. He empowers us for godly living. We have been given precious promises from God, His imputed righteousness and the calling to reign in our lives through Jesus Christ!

Sermon Series: The Best Gift