RESTORED SOVEREIGNTY
The Power to Rule Your Life
"For if by one man's offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." - Romans 5:17
Sovereignty has to do with the power to execute controlling influence. According to our text, we learn that through Adam's sin death took full sway over the human race. The very idea that "death reigned by one" indicates that a power entered this world that gained controlling influence over man. Weymouth's translation of the New Testament describes this phrase "death reigned by one" as "Death made use of the one individual to seize the sovereignty." We are not talking about God's sovereignty. We are talking about man's sovereignty.
When death came into the human race it seized what God had put into man's possession, which was the ability to execute control over his life and his environment. One of the certain plagues that infected man's spirit, the moment sin entered, was his inability to execute the will of God on earth.His ability to rule his own life, much less the ability to reign in God's life, was snatched from his hands. If you read Hebrews chapter two, you will discover that God put"all things in subjection under man's feet" (Heb. 2:8). It even says,"He left nothing that was not put under him..."
However, the moment the light of heaven went out of man, he fell subject to the powers of darkness. Death began to rule in the earth in place of the sovereign rule that was put in man's hand. All the ills of mankind: sickness, disease, poverty, calamities, etc. are the influence of death acting as a king. It was sin that caused man to become subject to the Lordship of death. Romans chapter eight says,"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope" (Rom. 8:20). What this simple means is all of creation, including mankind, became subject to the very things that had once been put in subjection to man. It wasn't long before the fear of death took sole possession of man's consciousness. Paul described the fate of man this way:"For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter" (Rom. 8:36). There was no possible way that man could control his own fate. His ability to rule became inconsequential.
One of the great wonders in Christ coming into the earth was his ability to master the forces of darkness. He was able to execute the will of God over all the power of the enemy. There was nothing that the prince of the power of the air could do to stop him. That same mastery was restored to us in Christ's resurrection. When he appeared to his disciple in the Upper Room, he said,"ALL power (authority) has been given to me in heaven and in earth" (Matt. 28:18). Where once death had seized the sovereignty, now life re-seized it, and qualified man to re-possess what he once lost. Our very life in Christ holds the key to taking back controlling influence over our life and our surroundings. To whatever measure death was able to hold controlling influence over man, now we have the ability to hold controlling influence through the one, Jesus Christ. The days of being dominated have ended for the man or woman who fully understands who they are in Christ and knows how to rightfully take their place in him. Paul said,"We have been delivered from the powers of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son" (Col. 1:13). Peter said,"We have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). Even in Ephesians, we find these words: "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light"(Eph. 5:8).
What is this light? It is the light of our sovereignty being restored to us. We are no longer to be controlled by fear, lack, ignorance, or any form of bondage. We have the light of life to empower our weaknesses and inabilities. This light illumines our path so that we know where we are headed. It shines forth the excellency of Christ's triumphant as well as Satan's defeat. By walking in the Light we can now take back control over our lives and our surroundings and demonstrate the authority we possess in Christ Jesus; an authority that has controlling influence over sin, sickness, disease, poverty, and death. All these things have been put under his feet, and we are now his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all! Therefore, they are subject to us, and we must reckon it so through the faith of him that loved us and gave himself for us!
luence over all of creation.
