The Reign of Grace

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The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:20-21).

In these verses Paul presents the reader with an image of grace reigning. This is the radical result of the death and resurrection of the Son of God. Understanding this fully requires some background knowledge and so Paul spends some time in this chapter of Romans articulating to his audience.

Paul explains to his readers that sin came into the world through the sin of one person (Romans 5:12). This sin was a purposeful action; an action that Adam knew was against the will of God. Paul’s point though is that it was only one sin, by only one person and yet it infected the whole world. Through this one action the world was made open to sin and the power of sin spread. It could be said that the action of sin on Adam’s part created a small gap in the good that was God’s creation, a very small gap in fact, but a gap through which sin was able to squeeze through into the world, where it proceeded to multiply.

Sin leads to death through an action and reaction relationship. Sin is the action that drives people away from the presence of the Creator who gives life and sustains life, and as a result death is the reaction of being away from the Creator who is the source of all human life. One sin spread the death reaction like a plague through the world and creation became caught in the cycle of violence that proliferated from that process.

Even more significant though is that grace also entered the world through one person (Romans 5:15). Grace is God’s answer to the presence of sin in the world and the cure for the death that sin brings. The problems the world faced when trying to overcome sin were: First, just as Adam was sinless before he committed the first action of sin, so the person who brought grace into the world had to be sinless. Second, death had to be conquered to stop the spreading reaction to the initial sin.

To simply live a sinless life and die was not enough, for if a person had lived a sinless life and died than sin would still have still won, the cycle of violence and death would not be interrupted. Until Jesus Christ was born there had been no one capable of fulfilling the requirements for overcoming sin and death. No one was sinless and no one was able to face death and overcome it. 

Jesus Christ was born to a woman, he was completely human and so he qualified as a person. He lived a sinless life and he died sinless, so he met the basic qualifications which no-one previous had been able to meet. Because this wasn’t enough though to break the cycle of death he had to go beyond dying a sinless and innocent person. So Jesus didn’t just die, he rose from the dead, alive and whole in bodily form, demonstrating in his very being the power of God over death and the grave.

This is why the tomb was empty and he was able to appear to the disciples and his followers. For the first time in history death had been defeated, for the very first time in history death had not been able to hold a person against their will. One person had opened the door to victory over the cycle of death and others began to walk through it. Those who had died and waited for the grace of God rose with him. The victory of Jesus Christ as one person spread, so that in the wake of his death all believers were able to take advantage of the grace of God. In his death and resurrection Jesus Christ provided the path to freedom for all people, freedom from the reign of death.

The death of Christ and his subsequent resurrection opened the door for grace to come into the world. Grace, a gift from the Father, is in turn able to give the gift of righteousness to any that acknowledge the death, resurrection and lordship of Christ. It is that gift of righteousness, enabled by grace, and grasped in soiled and wholly human hands, that makes a person sinless in the sight of God (Romans 5:17).

So through the humiliation of his Son the Creator actively opened a way for his creation to return to him so that he would not have to be separated from his creation any longer. Jesus Christ’s death was the means of propitiation for our sins, fulfilling the demands of divine justice, so that we, as humans, didn’t have to. This process, of the active redemption of humanity, was the result of a longing on God’s part to be in relationship with his creation and in particular human beings. The scriptures tell us that God is unwilling that any person should perish (2 Peter 3:9). The pain and anguish of the Son of God’s experience at the cross speak powerfully of the great lengths that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are willing to go through to be with God’s people in eternity (John 3:16).

There are more subtle revelations for the reader in the letter writing of the Apostle Paul as well. Paul speaks of the reign of grace, he tells us how grace reigns in this life for the purpose of bringing about eternal life for people (Romans 5:21). The same power and authority that the Lord Jesus used to defeat death and sin in order to rise from the dead has now been delegated to grace, so that grace might extend this to all people who are willing to accept it. It is important to remember though that accepting the reign and authority of grace also means accepting the death and resurrection of the one who delegated that authority.

Grace does not seem like a very concrete thing to humanity. It does not appear as something to be touched or held, it is not something in itself that can be seen and understood in the physical form. So how does it work, how does it operate when it is so seemingly intangible in our physical world?

The answer is that grace works through people. Just as it first worked through Jesus, now it works through his followers. The resurrection of Jesus has returned to humanity the opportunity to take dominion over creation (Genesis 1:28), something that had been lost since the first time a person sinned. While it is a reclaimed authority, the method by which it is gained is more powerful that the original because it is authority delegated directly through Christ via his suffering and the shedding of divine and human blood together (Luke 10:19). This authority comes through grace, because without the grace of God there would no authority remaining (Colossians 2:10).

Because of the cost of the grace that has been given it is reasonable to expect the bearer of this authority to demonstrates humility in the knowledge that is not of themselves that they are saved and empowered, but through Christ and his gracious sacrifice (Galatians 2:20).

So grace, which has been given the reigning power over death and sin, is what enables believers to live their lives undefeated by sin and be free to follow God’s call on their lives. Interestingly the work of the Holy Spirit works in harmony with grace and primarily works through the authority of grace.

Another wonderful point that the Apostle makes is that it is not, as we commonly say, just the death of Jesus that saves us, but also his resurrection. Because of the death of Jesus we were reconciled to God and now Jesus’ ongoing life is able to save us (Romans 5:10). It was the resurrection that marked the ultimate defeat of sin and death and it is the continual life of Jesus that ensures that victory is ongoing and eternal. Jesus is alive today, he rose again, ascending from the grave to live forever. Jesus himself is the constant statement of record that death is eternally defeated. Eternal life is secure for those who accept it as people and children of God. Choosing to accept this offered grace and accepting its reign of victory will bring fulfilment to our human lives.