From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
July 27 "That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 5:21 This is the mercy for mourning saints who are sighing and
groaning under a body of sin and death, that God has decreed that grace not
only may reign, but that it must reign. Were it left to us, we could no more
rescue ourselves from the dominion of sin than the children of Israel could
deliver themselves from the house of Egyptian bondage. But they sighed and
groaned by reason of the bondage, and their cry came up unto God. He had
respect unto his covenant, and looked upon them and delivered them (Exodus
2:23-25). So God has determined on behalf of his people that sin shall not
be their eternal ruin; that it shall not plunge them into crime after crime,
until it casts them at last into the gulf of endless woe, but that grace
"shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life." But it must reign here as well as hereafter, for by its
reign here its eternal triumph is secured. It must then subdue our proud
hearts, and never cease to sway its peaceful scepter over them until it has
secured in them absolute and unconditional victory. Now this is what every
sincere child of God most earnestly longs to feel and realize. He longs to
embrace Jesus and be embraced by him in the arms of love and affection. As
the hymn says, "But now subdued by sovereign grace, My spirit longs for your embrace." He hates sin, though it daily, hourly, momently works in
him, and is ever seeking to regain its former mastery; he abhors that cruel
tyrant who set him to do his vilest drudgery, deceived and deluded him by a
thousand lying promises, dragged him again and again into captivity, and but
for sovereign grace would have sealed his eternal destruction. Subdued by
the scepter of mercy, he longs for the dominion of grace over every faculty
of his soul and every member of his body. "O," he says, "let grace reign and
rule in my breast; let it not suffer any sin to have dominion over me; let
it tame every unruly desire, and bring into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ!" Thus, he who truly fears God looks to grace, and to
grace only, not merely to save, but to sanctify; not only to pardon sin, but
to subdue it; not only to secure him an inheritance among the saints in
light, but to make him meet for it.