"Much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ." Romans 5v17
The contrast to "death reigned" is "reign in life." We will study the contrast in due course, but first of all we must consider the phrase "they which receive the gift of righteousness." Before even that, we should highlight the glorious presentation of justification in this verse It is called "the abundance of grace (that is the Giver), and the gift of righteousness (that is the gift)." From a God of limitless grace we have received a priceless gift, that of righteousness, whereby all past, present and future guilt has been banished and we stand fit for the presence of God, and ready for the service of God. We shall see later that we have all this with added Divine power, because the idea behind reigning in the bible is that of power, and that is the force behind the phrase "reign in life."
Let us now consider the word "receive"." Paul says we receive this blessing from Christ, and this is in stark contrast with our position in Adam. In Adam we had no choice; sin entered, and death was passed upon us all. We were not even born, we had no say in the matter, but we were under condemnation even before we existed! That is the inescapable truth of verse 12,18 & 19. However when it came to the point of our salvation, we were consciously aware of what was happening, if not the full details. We had a choice, we received the gift, we accepted God's offer of salvation. There are only two things we can do with the gift of God, we can receive it or reject it. We may choose to ignore it, neglect it, delay it, even mock at it, but all these just mean we have rejected it. The gift of God has been offered to us freely, and at infinite cost to Himself, and our destiny will depend on what we do with it. In John chapter 1v12 it is written "as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name." In Acts 2v41 we read "they that gladly received His word were baptised and the same day there were added unto them about 3000 souls." In Acts 8v14 the apostles which were at Jerusalem "heard that Samaria had received the word of God;" in Acts 11v1 the brethren that were in Judea "heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God." Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles within the space of a few years received the gift of God. They did not have to do anything, they just had to receive it. It is an obvious conclusion that if we refuse Him, He will refuse us.
Under the canopy of rejection would come the following: (acceptance of it is wholehearted acceptance of its principles as clearly stated).
- Some think to take part of the gift, but want to add something to it. This was the Gnostic heresy dealt with in Colossians. They did not deny Christ, they simply wanted to add something to Him like, humanism, rationalism, legalism, mysticism, stoicism. Paul declares that Christ is all and in all.
- In Acts 8v20 - Simon Magus thought he could buy the gift of God, no doubt thinking he would be able to sell it for a fortune. Beware of so-called evangelists looking for your money or "subscription," as they call it. The gift of God is free and cannot be bought, it can only be received.
- In Acts 17v32 - the Greeks in Athens mocked at it, others put it off.
- In Acts 24 - the governor Felix had perfect knowledge of it and trembled, but put it off, saying to Paul "when I have a convenient season I will call for thee". There is no record he ever called.
- In Acts 26 - King Agrippa said to Paul "almost you persuade me to become a Christian." Almost is not enough, almost is lost; how many come to the very threshold of heaven and turn back?
There are four responses to the gift of God highlighted in the letter to the Hebrews; we can neglect it - let it run by (chapter 2): we can harden our hearts against it (chapter 4): we can wilfully sin against the light given to us (chapter 10): we can turn away in outright rejection (chapter 12).
JUST BETTER TO RECEIVE IT.
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