In His complete salvation, God intends not only to redeem us from the eternal perdition through His judicial redemption but also that He may fully save us in His life through His organic salvation.
In the book of Romans we see this so clearly: God’s complete salvation has two aspects, the judicial aspect (His redemption) and the organic aspect (His salvation). Christ has redeemed us by paying the highest price – His human life – so that we may be reconciled to God; now much more He is saving us in His life (Rom. 5:10).
God wants to save us to the point that we will reign in life by receiving and enjoying the gift of righteousness and the abundance of grace (Rom. 5:17). We need to see a vision of what reigning in life is, since we may be thinking we reign in life but actually sin and death may still reign in us.
In order for us to fully experience the organic salvation of God, we need to reign in life. And praise the Lord, we can reign in life because we have been regenerated with a divine, spiritual, heavenly, kingly, and royal life, a life which can enable us to reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ (see Mark 4:26; 1 John 3:9).
When we are under the ruling of the divine life in us, we reign in life over ourselves, our flesh, and anything negative in us and around us. May we continue to receive the gift of righteousness (His judicial redemption) and enjoy the Lord’s abundant grace (His organic salvation) that we may be saved to the uttermost for us to reign in life with Christ and in Him!
God’s Complete Salvation is for Us to Reign in Life!
Not many believers know or preach the complete gospel as the Bible reveals it. God doesn’t merely want to save man from hell or eternal perdition – He wants to regenerate man with His life and then save man in His life to the point that man will reign in life.
God’s complete salvation is composed of two sections: the judicial section (according to God’s righteousness) is the procedure of God’s salvation, and the organic section (through Christ’s life) is the purpose of God’s salvation.
All the believers in Christ need to firmly know that God’s complete salvation is for each one of us to reign in life by the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness (see Rom. 5:17, 21). God’s intention is that we would be completely saved until we reign in life!
In this process of salvation, grace operates in us – we receive grace, we are filled with grace, we abound in grace, and grace reigns in us, bringing all those reigned on by grace to also reign in life!
We need to realize that the dynasty of sin and of death is over – there has been a change in kings, and now it is grace who reigns! This changes things in our being – we are no longer debtors to sin and we no longer have to be in death. The law of the Spirit of life has freed us in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death (Rom. 8:1). Now, grace reigns through righteousness so that we would also reign in life through one man, Jesus Christ!
Now we as believers in Christ who are in the process of God’s complete salvation simply need to receive the gift of righteousness (God’s judicial redemption applied to us in a practical way) and enjoy the abundance of grace (God Himself as our all-sufficient supply for our organic salvation). Just receive and enjoy!
Enjoy the overflowing abundance of grace! Receive the ever-free and available gift of righteousness!
We Can Reign in Life Because we were Regenerated with a Kingly and Royal Life
We may look at our situation at home, at school, at work, or in our personal life, and we may not be too hopeful concerning us reigning in life….but we need to remember, it is not because of us and of what we can do that we will reign in life: we have been regenerated with a divine life, a spiritual life, a heavenly life, and a kingly and royal life (1 John 3:9; 1 Pet. 2:9)!
This life in us causes us to reign, and this royal and kingly life enthrones us as kings to reign over all things! When we received the Lord Jesus into our heart, He as the seed of the kingdom has come into us, slowly growing and developing in us as we turn to Him and contact Him. Daily, the Lord grows in us and develops in us into a realm of life, to become a kingdom as the realm where God’s life operates.
However, we need to ask ourselves, Is our personal life and family life a realm where the divine life operates and where we have the reality of the kingdom life? Is the Lord Jesus the king in our family, or are we each one of us kings ruling?
In the Old Testament we see that there are 41 kings over Judah and Israel, and even though all were kings, not all reigned – some reigned in name while others reigned in fact.
Even more, even though Judah had the proper ground (they had Jerusalem with the temple) and the right truths (they had the law and the priesthood), if the king had the wrong person, the whole country was degrading and was being defeated.
Today we may have the right ground, standing on the ground of the church in each locality, and we may have the right truths, fundamental and pure, so high and up-to-date, but if we are the wrong persons, we will not reign in life.
If we are not those allowing the Lord as grace to reign in us, even though we may be in the church life and have the highest truth, we will lose our right and eventually our lampstand. We have been given the right ground, the best teaching, and the most wonderful fellowship, but are we people who reign in life by denying ourselves and enjoying Christ as our good land so that we may reign in life?
His divine life in us can do it; we only need to cooperate with the Lord by allowing Him to grow in us, rule in us, and fill us with grace and righteousness so that we may reign in life through Him.
Reigning in Life in Romans 5 is the Key to Everything in Romans 6-16
One of the highest truths is the fact that reigning in life as seen in Romans chapter 5 is the key to everything in Romans 6-16. The consummation of God’s organic salvation is reigning in life, and reigning in life brings us into the full experience of the organic salvation. When we reign in life, everything in our personal life and our church life is in the constant process of God’s organic salvation for the building up of the Body of Christ.
I really thank the Lord for the ministry of our brother Witness Lee, who was a gift given by the Lord to His Body to help us see the highest truths in the Word of God. In some of his last speaking (before he went to be with the Lord in 1997), he opened up this matter of reigning in life being the key to interpret and open up everything in ch. 6-16 of the book of Romans.
Here are some specific items that are unlocked and opened up by the key of reigning in life:
- When we reign in life, we have a real and complete consecration to the Lord (see ch. 12).
- When we reign in life, we live in reality the grafted life – one spirit with the Lord (see ch. 9).
- When we reign in life, we trust in God’s righteousness and not in our own (see ch. 9).
- The practical Body life in the church life described in Rom. 12-16 is a result of reigning in life in ch. 5.
- When we reign in life, we are being soaked and saturated with God’s holy nature so that we may be sanctified in our disposition, and our mingled spirit spreads into our mind to renew our mind (see ch. 8).
- We are being conformed to the image of Christ, the Firstborn Son of God, as a result of our reigning in life (ch. 8).
- When we reign in life, we more than conquer all the environmental hardships and sufferings, being faithful to Christ and to God unto death.
- When we reign in life, we call on the name of the Lord (Rom. 10), we gain the righteousness of God, and we enjoy the riches of Christ subjectively.
The key to being in the process of God’s organic salvation is to reign in life by receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.
All the matters in our Christian life, family life, and church life that relate to God’s complete salvation are not a result of our endeavouring, struggling and fighting, but they turn out to our salvation by our receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, thank You for Your judicial redemption and praise You for Your organic salvation. Thank You that we can now be much more saved in Your life until we reign in life. Lord, save us much more in Your life today. Keep us receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness so that we may reign in life through You. Lord, may Your life in us grow so that Your kingdom and Your rule in us would increase. Open our eyes to see what reigning in life is and how we can reign in life in a practical way every day!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration (besides the Word of God and my Christian experience): bro. Andrew Yu’s speaking in this message and portions from, Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans (msg. 4), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 4 / msg 4, The Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life (3) – Reigning in Life.
- Further reading: recommending msg. 4 from, The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life (by Witness Lee).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Through God’s dispensing, abundance of grace, / Christ’s saving life will reign and death displace; / God’s holy nature, our life sanctifies, / His saving life soon, our life glorifies!
# God’s complete salvation / Is based upon His righteousness and through our faith. / By the two divine transfers: / Out of Adam into Christ / And out of the flesh into the Spirit. / In the one spiritual union of the / Spirit of Life with our spirit / Forming a mingled spirit. / For us to reign in life by the abundance of grace / and of the gift of righteousness.
# Every time I say “Amen” to His Spirit / And walk by my spirit, / The kingdom seed grows and develops / Deep inside of me. / On the outside, it may seem that there’s / No change in me— / But I’m not the same, / ’Cause as the seed grows in me, / Inside I’m becoming God!
# Jesus the kingdom has come into us, / Reigning and shining He’s all glorious, / Christ as the seed is the King who has come, / Into our spirit His kingdom He’s sown.
About aGodMan
