“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 wil reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17
As Paul transitions from his section about justification before God by faith alone in Christ alone (1:16-5:11) to his section on sanctification or growing in the Christian life (6:1-8:39), he contrasts two Adams (5:12-21). See the above chart for more contrasts. The First Adam brought sin and death into the world through his one act of disobedience in the Garden (5:12, 15, 17-19), whereas the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, brought justification and life (to all who believe in Him) through His one act of obedience on the Cross (5:18). Through the Last Adam, what once reigned over us – sin and death (5:12-14, 17a, 21a) – is now reigned over by grace in life through Jesus Christ (5:17b, 21b).
Grace is much more than a doctrine or theology. Grace is a Person. Grace came to us through the Person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14, 17) and He now lives inside every believer (Galatians 2:20). When we believed in the Person of Jesus Christ, He gave us eternal life and His righteousness as a gift, and seated us next to Him at the right of God the Father in the heavenly places (John 3:16; Romans 5:17; Ephesians 2:5-6). He saved us from the penalty of sin so we can now reign over sin and death through His righteousness to eternal life which indwells us (Romans 5:21).
We might compare this to the game of checkers. When playing checkers, if you make the right moves which get you to the other side of the board, you get crowned as a king. But if you don’t make the right moves, you will be removed from the board and experience defeat. What Romans 5:12-21 is telling us is if we make the right moves in our Christian lives, we will reign over what once reigned over us – sin and death! This is possible now because the One who conquered sin and death now lives in us. His righteousness has been given to us as a gift the moment we believed in Him. And as we understand and believe this, and act upon it, Christ will empower us to make the right moves so we will rule over sin and death and experience victory in our Christian lives! But if we don’t make the right moves in our Christian lives, we will experience defeat.
Someone may say, “Why do I still keep making the wrong moves in my Christian life?” One reason is because Satan has deceived you into thinking that sin and death still reigns over you. That nothing has changed in your life since you believed in Jesus for His gift of eternal life. But nothing could be farther from the truth! The truth is Jesus Christ now lives inside of you! The truth is Jesus Christ has already won the victory for you! He now wants you to live from victory, not for victory!
In Romans 13:14 Paul writes, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Every day, we have a choice to put on Jesus Christ Who fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law or to put on our old sinful self. When we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we become more sensitive to sin. For example, when you put on a beautiful new white shirt, you become more sensitive about getting it dirty. You will tend to avoid dirty places and things because you want to preserve the whiteness of that new shirt. But if you put on blue jeans and an old worn out shirt, you are not so sensitive about getting them dirty.
What God is telling us in the book of Romans is that if we will put on the Lord Jesus Christ every morning, we will become more sensitive to sin. Instead of letting sin and death reign over us, we will begin to reign over them as we put on the Lord Jesus Christ Whose grace empowers us to live victoriously for Him. Putting on the Lord Jesus is a mindset that God wants us to have (Romans 8:5-7). We can put on our old sinful self or we can put on the Lord Jesus Christ. One leads to sin and death and the other to life and victory.