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“Reigning in Life” No. 3 ” by Rev. Toru Asai
In order to learn to reign in life, we need to know first how different life is from death. We are so used to death and its reign over us that we do not even try to go against it, but simply accept it without thinking we can reign over it. The same attitude is usually seen even among Christians. In spite of the teaching in the Bible, we Christians do not try to reign, or do not even think we can.
In order to know what life is, we need to know what death is. Death as discussed in the Bible is of a spiritual kind—the kind depicted, for instance, in the first part of the book of Genesis. God said to Adam:
You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Gen 2:16-17).
About this death, the serpent lied and said, “You will not surely die,” and Eve believed it. Life comes from God, and only from him.
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (2:7).
But when life is stolen, death comes in. Jesus said:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10).
The kind of life God gives is called “eternal life” or “everlasting life.” Eternity is considered as the nature of God in the Bible, and “eternal life” means the kind of life God gives. It is “eternal” in the sense that it overcomes the physical death, but we need to note that even a sinner will live forever in the hell.
At any rate, after the fall of man, this “eternal life” was lost, and death and sin began to reign over humanity. We can see the effect of this in the way that sin dominated Cain and he could not master it—his jealousy and hatred, and wanting to kill his brother Abel.
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it (Gen 4:7).
In the New Testament, Paul describes the same state of death reigning over sinners with disability to master it as follows:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath (Eph 2:1-3).
Pay attention to the expressions like “in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world,” or “gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.” They depict the same state of spiritual death as Cain was not able to master his sin. But as you go further in this passage, you come to an amazing statement!
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By Davar Kingdom of GodIn order to learn to reign in life, we need to know first how different life is from death. We are so used to death and its reign over us that we do not even try to go against it, but simply accept it without thinking we can reign over it. The same attitude is usually seen even among Christians. In spite of the teaching in the Bible, we Christians do not try to reign, or do not even think we can.
In order to know what life is, we need to know what death is. Death as discussed in the Bible is of a spiritual kind—the kind depicted, for instance, in the first part of the book of Genesis. God said to Adam:
You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Gen 2:16-17).
About this death, the serpent lied and said, “You will not surely die,” and Eve believed it. Life comes from God, and only from him.
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (2:7).
But when life is stolen, death comes in. Jesus said:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10).
The kind of life God gives is called “eternal life” or “everlasting life.” Eternity is considered as the nature of God in the Bible, and “eternal life” means the kind of life God gives. It is “eternal” in the sense that it overcomes the physical death, but we need to note that even a sinner will live forever in the hell.
At any rate, after the fall of man, this “eternal life” was lost, and death and sin began to reign over humanity. We can see the effect of this in the way that sin dominated Cain and he could not master it—his jealousy and hatred, and wanting to kill his brother Abel.
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it (Gen 4:7).
In the New Testament, Paul describes the same state of death reigning over sinners with disability to master it as follows:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath (Eph 2:1-3).
Pay attention to the expressions like “in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world,” or “gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.” They depict the same state of spiritual death as Cain was not able to master his sin. But as you go further in this passage, you come to an amazing statement!