Today's Devotional

May 17, 2005

Subject:  When Death Reigns

Romans 5:14 - "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come."

"...The grisly finds were a new twist in an endless stream of violence, with more than 460 people killed in a wave of bombings and ambushes since the April 28 announcement of the new Iraqi government..."

This is the statement out of a current news article depicting what is happening in Iraq today.  The last month has been increasingly horrific in its death toll to the Iraqi people.  While this death toll is comprised of civilians and soldiers, it doesn't include the hundreds of insurgents or "bad guys" that have also been killed.  It's as the verse says above, everyone is subject to death in Iraq these days.  Death reigns.

In our bible study last week, someone posed the question about which time period would you rather live in, the time period from Adam to Moses where there was no law or a period after that?  The question was asked because verse 13 of Romans says, "For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law."  So as we mulled answering the question, we then observed those few key little words that begin verse 14 that says that during this time period "death reigned."  Small words, but boy do they carry a wallop.

See when death reigns, it's not like Saddam Hussein is in charge with his mass killings and so everyone fears him.  Death is in charge.  When death reigns, it's not that our armed forces can go into Iraq and just kill a lot of bad guys.  Death is in charge.  When death reigns you walk out on the street contemplating if the next step will be your last.  Death is in charge.  But next we have to realize this, when death reigns, it's not just physical death.  It's a separation from God and taking God totally out of the picture.  There is no sense of peace when death reigns.  There is no sense of restraint when death reigns and there is no sense of life or purpose for living because death is to die spiritually even while we are physically alive.  Many experience that today, in fact, every time we sin, we experience the reign of death.

Today if you live with an addiction or a part of your life that is continually subject to sin, then death reigns.  The beauty of it all is that God answered death's reign a long time ago and it no longer has to sit on the throne of our lives.  Today we must put "Him that was to come" on the throne and all death has to flee, because He is the Way, the Truth and most of all, He is the Life.

Carlen