Is God in Control? Part 3

Jesus Christ Gets Back Man’s Dominion

In Part 2 we went to the Bible and learned about God’s authority on earth as in heaven, Jesus’ purpose of overcoming the Devil, who the god of this world is, how Lucifer became the Devil, how Lucifer got dominion in the earth, how Satan attacked Job—and God’s deliverance when Job sought His help.

Now we will see how God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to redeem mankind and regain for God’s children dominion in this world over the adversary. Although the Devil thought he would have dominion forever, God provided a mediator to give man back his God-given authority. That man was a ransom, a savior—the Lord Jesus Christ!

I Timothy 2:5,6:
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Why We Need a Savior

Remember that God had bestowed dominion over all the earth and every living thing in it to Adam as the first man and to Eve, his wife. By giving mankind dominion, God authorized the work they were to do, provided His blessings and abundance to them, and gave them the authority to exercise that dominion. Yet we saw that they were deceived into handing over dominion to God’s enemy, that old serpent, the Devil.

I John 5:19 [Contemporary English Version]:
We are certain that we come from God and that the rest of the world is under the power of the devil.

God Supplies Our Need in Jesus Christ

Without God’s help, the Devil exercises authority in the lives of men on this earth. Yet God allows believers to reign in life by Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:17:
For if by one man’s 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.

Let’s see the context of Romans 5 to understand how God did this in Christ. The authority that Adam surrendered to the serpent has been more than regained in Jesus Christ. All the following verses from Romans 5 are from the New Testament in Modern English.

Romans 5:12-14:
This, then, is what happened. Sin made its entry into the world through one man, and through sin, death. The entail of sin and death passed on to the whole human race, and no one could break it for no one was himself free from sin.
Sin, you see, was in the world long before the Law, though I suppose, technically speaking, it was not “sin” where there was no law to define it.
Nevertheless death, the complement of sin, held sway over mankind from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sin was quite unlike Adam’s. Adam, the first man, corresponds in some degree to the man who has to come.

How Jesus Christ Regained What Adam Lost, and More

Let’s explore these verses more closely. Everyone since Adam has died physically. Only Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead to die no more. Jesus Christ had sinless blood. He was born of Mary, but his life came from God, his Father. That is why Jesus Christ only corresponds to Adam in some degree. Because soul life is passed down through the blood from generation to generation, God “made of one blood [Adam’s bloodline] all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26).

But Jesus Christ was different. He only took the flesh (body) from his mother. God caused Mary to conceive our savior.

Hebrews 2:14:
Forasmuch then as the children [of Adam] are partakers [share fully] of flesh and blood [both egg and sperm], he [Jesus Christ] also himself likewise took part [took only a portion] of the same [flesh, from Mary]; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.

Jesus Christ died to destroy the Devil’s death-dealing power. Even though Jesus Christ had sinless blood and always did the will of the Father, he became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We are a new creation in Christ.

II Corinthians 5:17-21:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [creation]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And all [new] things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For he hath made him [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Legally Justified in Christ

Now back to Romans 5.

Romans 5:15,16:
But the gift of God through Christ is a very different matter from the “account rendered” through the sin of Adam. For while as a result of one man’s sin death by natural consequence became the common lot of men, it was by the generosity of God, the free giving of the grace of one man Jesus Christ, that the love of God overflowed for the benefit of all men.
Nor is the effect of God’s gift the same as the effect of that one man’s sin. For in the one case one man’s sin brought its inevitable judgment, and the result was condemnation. But, in the other, countless men’s sins are met with the free gift of grace, and the result is justification before God.

We have been legally justified in Jesus Christ. The authority and dominion that Adam handed over to the adversary has been spiritually regained by Jesus Christ for those who are born again of God’s spirit. Even in his earthly ministry, people saw the authority that God gave Jesus Christ.

Matthew 9:8:
But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power [authority] unto men.

Legally Righteous in Christ

Romans 5:17-19:
For if one man’s offence meant that men should be slaves to death all their lives, it is a far greater thing that through another man, Jesus Christ, men by their acceptance of his more than sufficient grace and righteousness, should live all their lives like kings!
We see, then, that as one act of sin exposed the whole race of men to God’s judgment and condemnation, so one act of perfect righteousness presents all men freely acquitted in the sight of God.
One man’s disobedience placed all men under the threat of condemnation, but one man’s obedience has the power to present all men righteous before God.

Jesus Christ’s accomplishments are “a far greater thing” than Adam’s loss. We can live like kings, victorious over our adversary, the Devil. We have the spiritual authority as God’s children to use the name of Jesus Christ and get the results God promises in His Word. We are not only freely acquitted from Adam’s wrongdoing, we can now stand righteous before our heavenly Father in what Christ has done for us. We are more than conquerors in this life, and all eternity awaits us in joyful fellowship with God our Father, and with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:20,21:
Now we find that the Law keeps slipping into the picture to point the vast extent of sin. Yet, though sin is shown to be wide and deep, thank God his grace is wider and deeper still!
The whole outlook changes – sin used to be the master of men and in the end handed them over to death: now grace is the ruling factor, with righteousness as its purpose and its end the bringing of men to the eternal life of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Claiming Our Victory Today

The cost of Adam’s sin is indeed wide and deep. We suffer sickness, break fellowship with our heavenly Father, and physically die because of Adam’s offense. Yet God’s grace in Jesus Christ is wider and deeper still! God’s grace is the ruling factor in our lives. That is how we claim victory over the adversary. Like Job, we recognize Satan’s attacks and go to God for His help. For us, as born-again believers, our help is in Jesus Christ.

I John 4:4 [Contemporary English Version]:
Children, you belong to God, and you have defeated these enemies. God’s Spirit is in you and is more powerful than the one that is in the world.

With God’s spirit in us, we can claim the authority that Adam lost. In Christ, we can strive together as one body.

Philippians 1:27,28:
Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 
And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition [destruction], but to you of salvation, and that of God.

Each day we claim the victory and reign in life through Jesus Christ. Our lives of spiritual unity and fellowship with our Father and His Son Jesus Christ are a demonstration to the Devil and his fallen angels of their future destruction. And our lives rich with God’s power are a testimony and evidence of the wholeness that we have from God through our wonderful lord and savior, Jesus Christ!

In Part 4, we will see that we each have the freedom in Christ to have our heavenly Father give us the victory, even though we live in a world ruled by Satan.

NEXT: Is God in Control? Part 4

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