Reference: Isaiah 32:1 and Romans 2:7-11
The meaning of the word reign or reigningis to exercise soverign authority, or to rule. Now we know that it's a naturalthing for a person to desire to be in a position where they can exercise themighty power of God that the Bible reveals and speaks about.
It's also an established fact that manwants to hold an authoritive position in the everyday walk of life such as ingovernment affairs and city and state affairs. According to God's word a man isfull of vanity wanting to be someone great in the eyes of the public and alsoin the eyes of Almighty God.
Now man can very well work himself into avery good position in life if he is willing to pay the price and attend theschools where he can get his degrees and become whatever he wants to be become.Now when it comes to the things of God a person can yet hold a very goodposition in the eyes of God, but here also a person must meet certainconditions a present himself to God in a way that is pleasing to him. Pleasenotice that in our text of Isaiah 32:1 we are told that a king shall reign in righteousness.
This verse of scripture is of coursereferring to the Lord Jesus Christ, but this yet holds true for anyone else whodesires to serve God and do his will. Please notice that Paul tells us in Romans 2:7-11 that we throughpatience and continuance in well doing can seek for glory and honour andimmortality and finally eternal life.
Paul plainly lets us know that weabsolutely must seek for this glory by patient continuance in well doing.Christ was of course the Son of God who also did the will of the Father seekingconstantly to do things that was pleasing in his sight. Christ reigned in hisposition because he was righteous and holy. Isaiah said that he would reign inrighteousness. Now this is yet very true for us today.
If we want to reign with Christ then wealso must reign in the same realm of righteousness that he did. Now there aremany people today desiring to reign with God and manifest his great and mightypower, but Satan has deceived them into thinking that they can reign with himon a mere confession of Christ as Lord and Saviour and failing to come to theknowledge of the truth contained in the scriptures.
Man today thinks that he is manifestingGod's great miraculous power based on the fact that they have received the giftof the Holy Spirit which has supposed to have been evidenced or proven by thefact that they spoke in tongues. Now what these poor deceived people aretotally ignorant of is what the Holy Spirit is given for.
According to what Jesus said, the HolyGhost is given to us so that he will lead and guide us into all truth. Now theSpirit's leading us into all truth is exactly what places us in this righteousposition where we can truly reign with him.
Referring again to what Paul said in ourtext of Romans 2:7 we are told that we through patient continuance in welldoing we seek for this glory and honour. The reason that Paul stated it in thisway was simply because we must through patience continue in God's word of truthso that the truth can do its work on our whole being and spiritually transformour lives unto the very image of Jesus Christ our Lord.
The religious world today has been led tobelieve that this salvation is received when a confession is made on Christ asbeing their own personal Saviour. Now we of course know that Christ Jesus isour righteousness, but what today's religious leaders are blind from is thatGod's righteousness is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, meaning thatwe come to this standing with Christ as we walk in and obey the truth.
The leaders in the churches today thinkand believe that righteousness is imputed to them in a split second of timewhen they confess to receive Christ as Lord and Saviour. Receiving Christ isnot done by just saying you accept him with your mouth. Paul tells us that withthe mouth we must confess to believe in Christ and that God raised him from thedead, but doing this does not save us and make us an entirely new creation inhim like the religious world thinks today.
To be in Christ means that we become a newcreature, but for a man to be where the Bible calls "in Christ"this is the position where we can reign with him, and we can reign with himbecause we are righteous as he is righteous.
Coming to this righteous position can onlybe achieved by walking in and obeying the truth of the gospel. Obedience to thetruth is what transforms our life and makes us the new creature that Paulrefers to in II Corinthians5:17.
We put on this righteousness as we walk inand obey God's word of truth. To walk in and obey the truth will spirituallytransform our lives to the image of Christ by it purifying our hearts andrenewing the mind and crucifying the deeds of the body of flesh. This wholework is a process and it takes time to accomplish. This truth the religiousworld today will absolutely not accept. They won't accept it because itrequires time and much patience, of which very few possess.
The average person today will not receivethe truth because it reveals their true condition and also that we must walkdaily in a righteous way of life and allow the truth to spiritually transformour life to Christ's image.
During this process of becoming a newcreation in Christ, we will experience many trying and difficult circumstances.Most people will fail to go through this process because this process will meandeath to the carnal man and his way of life. While going through this processthe child of God will also have to overcome the many false and misleadingdoctrines that this world is so filled with.
A true christian will be rejected anddespised by the religious world and they will be told that they are notchildren of God proven by the way they refuse to take part in the religioussystems today. If you fail to take membership in some denominational churchtoday you will be looked upon as being of the devil and thinking that you areholier than everybody else.
The true christian will know that fewthere will be that find the narrow way to life eternal and they will not beseduced by false spirits into an easy way that leads to destruction. The worldtoday is full of false doctrines that sound good to the carnal mind and ears.
If a person truly desires to reign withChrist then they absolutely must get themselves in the righteous standing thatthe Bible reveals as Paul states in Romans1:16,17.
Weare plainly told in II Timothy3:16-17 that "ALLSCRIPTURES" is inspired of God to INSTRUCT US IN ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS,that the man of God may be PERFECT, THROUGHLY FURNISHED UNTO ALL GOODWORKS..... You must be INSTRUCTED.....