Reigning in Life | Oct. 25, 2026 | Ps. Raph Felix

Reigning in Life

What makes a culture

Many elements make up a culture: food, language, and many other things. Over time, these elements begin to shape you, and eventually, you start to look alike. Not in the sense that everyone becomes identical, but in the sense that certain traits inevitably make people identify you with that particular culture.

It is more than just your ethnicity. It is what you become. There is an old saying: You are what you eat.

"Numbers 11:5-6 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

I often think about the people of Israel when they left Egypt. After 430 years in Egypt, they had begun to look less like Israelites and more like Egyptians. God needed 40 years to purge, cleanse, and transform them. And do you know how that process actually began? First of all, He changed the way they ate.

"Deuteronomy 8:3 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 8:3)

I read an article this week about the new fever for bread and cheese in Europe. The hottest food isn’t some high-tech, elaborate creation. 

It’s a simple snack called bólle méd ôst—a freshly baked bun with butter and a slice of hard cheese.

Food experts call it the ultimate test of fundamentals. 

As one food researcher put it, ‘You can’t pretend with it. You can’t fake it. It has to be really, really good.’ 

When a snack is that simple, there’s nothing to hide. You can’t mask a stale bun or poor ingredients behind a fancy presentation..

Everywhere you look, people are trying to ‘sell’ Jesus with add-ons. 

Add layers of marketing, cultural trends, political branding, and rigid religious formulas. It becomes Jesus plus something else.

Why do we do that? Because complicated things usually hide what is genuine. When a dish is fancy with sauces, microgreens, and foam, it’s usually because the chef is trying to mask low-quality ingredients.

Strip away all the human add-ons and religious packaging, and leave only the raw, unadorned truth of the Gospel.

Christ didn't come to give us a complicated, marketed system; He offered Himself as the Bread of Life.

John 6:35 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

A real walk with Jesus. No hidden gimmicks, no elaborate religious facade—just a clean, open-faced reliance on the pure grace of God.

To Reign

Romans 5:12-21 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 

20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

To reign: Lexically, the term implies an active exercise of sovereignty, dominion, or power by a monarch or a ruling force over a given sphere or domain. 

Here there are two ruling regimes:

The realm of death by the power of sin (The Adam Administration): Death is an absolute monarch that "reigned from Adam to Moses" through one man's trespass.

Death could only reign if it had a sting, a weapon to threaten. That is sin.

1 Corinthians 15:56-57 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I grew up going to the cattle farm. My dad uses a cattle prod to urge the bulls and cows. That is the image here.

 But in the Bible, the image relates to a cattle goad used to make oxen, horses, and other beasts of burden keep moving the load.

Now, if sin is the sting, the one poking that sting, the power of sin, is the law.

Sin is a reigning tyrant operating "in death" (v. 21). Here, basileuō highlights humanity's helpless subjugation under a hostile power.

The realm of grace through Righteousness.

Romans 5:21 …so that … grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The kingdom of God is the realm of absolute grace, divine life, and sovereign triumph. That kingdom comes into real experience when you accept the gift of righteousness. That is more than assent with your mind. It is a deep conviction of forgiveness, a clean slate, and clean consciences. 

Colossians 1:13-14 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

But more than that, it is righteousness: you have credit, a good deposit; you not only paid all your debts, but you have a positive balance in your account.

When you owe nothing and, in addition, have a good balance, what do banks and credit card issuers start to do? They send you non-stop offers of credit lines. They want to do business with you. They favor you.

I consider that what God wants to do with you. Because you stand in Christ’s righteousness, you are under God’s favor. But God’s favor will be translated into divine connections.

Now, rather than victims under a tyrant, we are elevated to a royal status where we exercise dominion. —not through human effort, but as an overflow of God’s grace and imputed righteousness.

If Death—an intruder — could exercise an iron-clad, tyrannical reign over humanity, how much more certain is it that believers, flooded with the unmerited "abundance of grace" and the legal standing of "righteousness," will exercise a royal reign in life?

To "reign in life" is not a call to aggressive self-help, positive thinking, or authoritarian dominance over other people.

In context, it stands in direct contrast to being ruled by condemnation and death. It describes a restored status of royal dignity, granted entirely as a "free gift" and received through Christ.

Grace’s power completely surpasses sin’s reign. Rather than being crushed under the Fall’s dominion, we receive God’s abundant grace and the gift of righteousness, enabling us to reign victoriously in life.

This reign is secured "through the one man, Jesus Christ," making it a triumph empowered by grace rather than achieved through human effort.

(Romans 5:15) “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.”

By one man, Adam, sin and death entered the world, and all humanity was plunged into ruin. But through the last Adam, Jesus Christ, God’s grace abounded infinitely more. 

Your eternal salvation is secure not because you hold on to Him with failing hands, but because He holds you with pierced hands.

Many believers confuse their standing with their state. They think that when they stumble, their standing with God is fractured, or their eternal destiny is somehow put back on trial. 

Let the truth dismantle that fear:

(Romans 5:16) “And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.”

Someone will say, that is a dangerous message. If you say that someone if completely forgiven by faith through grace, that person will receive that as a license to sin. Now they will not. The more you understand how clean and justified you are, the freer and cleaner you stand. The consequence is greater boldness, leadership, creativity, and authority. 

A fascinating social experiment on a city street showed how truth shapes our behavior. A team took two sides of a road near their office: they scrubbed one side until it was completely spotless, while leaving a little bit of litter on the other side.

Over the next few days, they watched what people did without saying a word. The side with a little trash quickly became much dirtier, while the side they cleaned completely remained spotless.

Why? Because when something is already broken or dirty, people keep adding to the mess; yet when something is pristine and beautiful, people naturally want to protect and maintain it.

When a person receives righteousness, they are made spotless, and that will make a single wrapper be cleaned immediately. 

A person shared with me that, after hearing us speak about the righteousness of God in Christ, the first thing they wanted was, “I got tired of pretending and making myself a hostage of my addictions. I decided to come clean with my wife.” What happened? He was cleaned and wanted to be clean. 

When we truly realize God has washed us completely clean, our mindset shifts—we no longer want to dirty ourselves because we finally recognize we have been made pure.

The free gift of God swooped down into the wreckage of our lives and brought complete, unshakeable justification.

In 1830, a man named George Wilson was convicted of robbing the United States mail and endangering the life of a mail carrier, a federal crime for which he was sentenced to death by hanging.

Influential friends pleaded for mercy, and President Andrew Jackson issued an official presidential pardon to spare him the gallows.

Astonishingly, when brought before the court, George Wilson refused to accept the pardon. The legal confusion went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, makeing the following decision:

"A pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance." The Court concluded that if a pardon is rejected, no power on earth can force it upon the prisoner. 

A pardon may be fully paid for and freely offered by the highest authority, but it only saves the one who is willing to receive it.

Christ has secured an absolute pardon for humanity through His blood, yet millions refuse the free gift. 

John 1:12 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

But for those of us who have received it, we possess a justification that can never be revoked. Your legal standing before a holy God is permanently settled.

Entering the Kingdom

Ephesians 2:8-10 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Entrance into God's eternal family—justification, eternal life, and being born again—is received by faith alone in Jesus Christ, entirely apart from works. It is a free, unmerited gift.

Inheriting the Kingdom

Scripture distinguishes between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, and between entering the kingdom of God and inheriting within it the inheritance of the Kingdom of heaven, a reward, and a reigning position.

This connects to our discipleship and reigning in this present life.

What It Means to Reign in Life Now

(Romans 5:17) “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”

Reigning in life isn’t reserved for some distant future eternity; it is meant to begin here, right now, in the midst of a broken world.

That means that sin, fear, anxiety, and the pressures of this world no longer dictate your identity or your daily existence. Stop trying to earn God's smile, and you start living from His victory.

Salvation is a free gift received by faith, but reigning is enjoying the children's inheritance now. 

Justification is different from sanctification and discipleship.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

It is time to learn the culture of the kingdom well enough to reign in this life. 

A life that surrenders to the Holy Spirit, feeds on the Word and walks in discipleship will experience Christ's rich rule in daily life.

It is that capacity to rule now that connects you to reign when Jesus returns. The one who learns to reign in life now will reign with Christ then.

Conclusion

Stop relying on your own strength today to conquer your habits, fears, or trials. Look away from yourself and fix your eyes entirely upon Jesus Christ. He has provided an abundance of grace. He has given you the gift of righteousness.

Receive His grace afresh this moment. Stand securely in your righteousness, and let the Holy Spirit train your heart in the culture of the kingdom, so you can lift your head, overcome the darkness, and truly reign in life through our glorious Savior.