"For if by one offence 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 5v17
We continue with the contrast between the act of Adam and that of Jesus Christ. We have seen the essential difference between them,; we have seen the vast difference in the Divine verdicts; we now turn our attention to the global consequences of each action and we will begin by looking at the consequences following Adam's one sin.
The description of the state of the world from Adam's sin until the advent of Christ is that DEATH REIGNED. We have to grasp the enormity of this, because the concept of "reigning" in the Bible is different to our modern understanding of the word. Today we think of monarchy, and kings reigning as purely figure heads for cultural and image purposes, but they have no real power. The biblical concept of a king is that of a despot, in modern language a tyrant, whose word was law everywhere, and over everyone within his realm. A king had the power of life and death, and could determine the prosperity or otherwise of its citizens. This is the biblical image of what it is to be a king, and what it is to reign. It is with this background Paul says that death reigned. This is an enormous statement, but in fact we know it is absolutely true. The cemeteries are full, the hospitals are full, health services are stretched to the limit, budgets to fund it all ever increasing despite the advances of modern science. Death reigns by fear, people live constantly in the fear of death because death is the end of all things as we know it in this world.
The writer to the Hebrews speaks of this in chapter 2, when describing the work of Christ at Calvary, "that through death He might render powerless him that had the power of death (notice the past tense "had") that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." The writer is acknowledging that life on earth is dominated by the fear of death. In this way death has become a domineering force in our existence and so Paul is absolutely right when he says death reigned. If you read Genesis chapter 5, nine times over it refers to people who were born and in each and every case the post script is "and he died". The only exception was Enoch who was translated by God to heaven before dying, something that is going to be repeated in the experience of the latter members of the church. Death and the fear of death dominates our thinking, our conversations; there is always someone we know who is ill, and some we know who has died. Death is one of the most common reports in the world mass media; death reigns.
The reason why this is so is because we see only life in this world. In the book of the Revelation there is a repeated phrase "them that dwell upon the earth". Since these are different to believers in Jesus, it is accepted that this is referring to what we might call "earth dwellers" : that is those whose life and vision and horizon is totally bound up on this earth. There is no doubt in my mind that that is what the phrase is referring to: people whose horizon is only for this world, they have no concept of the world to come, they spend their life getting as much as they can to pass on to their families, they spend fortunes seeking cures for sicknesses and even death, but it is all in vain. We may tinker about the edges but we will not solve the death sentence that was passed upon us by God through Adam those many years ago. The fear of dying therefore has become a tyrant, a spectre, a dark shadow over our existence, because it is the end of all our hopes and dreams. There is nothing worse than death, there is no greater grief, because in the common world view it is indeed the end, there is nothing beyond.
The bible speaks of "the sting of death", "the shadow of death", and "the sorrows of death."
There is a phrase in the bible "jealousy is cruel as the grave" there is nothing more cruel than the grave, it is final, it is the end of everything as we know it. "It is appointed unto man once to die". We all of us have an appointment with death, it is absolutely certain; there is a saying in the world "there are only two things that are certain in life, and that is death and taxes." The bible also says "He has prepared for them the instruments of death". Not only is it certain we will die, God knows exactly when we will die, and by what means we will die
It could be said that this is a very morbid subject but it is a life reality and we must face up to it. The effect of this in the world has been to bring a shadow of fear over our lives leading to false religions, superstitions, despair, depressions, and hopelessness. Paul commented in one place that "if in this life we only have hope, we are of all men most miserable." We can mask the fear by filling our lives with entertainment and intoxication and drugs and all kinds of pursuits, with the attitude of "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." The shadow of death is over this world and so the dark consequence of Adam's sin is that "death reigned." This is a greater influencing power in our lives that we imagine.
Tomorrow d.v we look at the phrase "Reigning in life."
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