REIGN

For if by 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 – Romans 5:17

The Call of Grace is a Call to REIGN. GRACE REIGNS: “so that as sin reigned in death, even so GRACE might REIGN through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom.5:21). Grace is a key part of the Believer’s Sceptre – our Instrument of Dominion and Royalty! There is no defeat in Grace.  By the Spirit, all of us – the lovely and the plain, the strong and the weak, the affluent and humble, the brilliant and the typical, the fast and the slow – are being changed into the likeness of Christ. Together we are the objects – indeed the Portraits of His Grace. Together we shall all be satisfied on that glorious day when we awake in His likeness. David declared: “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psa.17:15).

However, in order to live by Grace in the Reigning Realm, here are Seven Caution-signs:

• Do not forfeit or forsake grace and mercy: Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy (Jon. 2:8).

• Do not frustrate the grace of God. Paul declared: “I do not set aside the grace of God…” (Gal.2:21).

• Do not let grace be in vain or of no effect: We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. 6:1).

• Do not fall away from grace, back into legalism: You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace (Gal. 5:4).

• Be strong (stand firm) in the grace: You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:1).

• Allow grace to grow and abound in your life: But as you abound in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us – see that you abound in this grace also (2 Cor. 8:7).

• Do not turn grace into a licence for lewdness or lasciviousness: For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 1:4). Grace should never be a licence to sin.

On a final note: Paul opened his letter to the Galatians with the salutation, “Grace be to you.” He closed it with, “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen” (Gal.6:18). This inferred that: the grace of Jesus, not the law of Moses, was the Galatian’s greatest need. To walk in the power of His Spirit, not in the vain efforts of the flesh, was their calling. The Questions resound: “Will you rely on your own righteousness, or will you trust in God’s gracious provisions? Will you abide in the simple message of salvation by grace through faith? Or will you add your own list of carnal rules, regulations, and righteous works to the finished work of Christ? Will you walk in the flesh or in the Spirit? Will you glory in the Cross of Christ alone? Or will you seek the approval and rewards of this world so that you may glory in your flesh?

These are issues that every believer in every generation eventually must wrestle with. The answers you stand for will spell the difference between faith and fear, peace and anxiety, humility and pride, even spiritual life and death. May you stand without wavering for the Grace of Jesus Christ! May you not be moved by the deceptive desire to please men apart from God! May you be so heavenly minded that you’re of the greatest earthly good, holding out the Word of Life in an increasingly dark and hopeless world! May you glory this day in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you, and in that alone! His Name alone be praised as we round off this Prophetic Adventure into Grace. This is my prayer for you: “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen” (Rom.16:20).