We reign in life in living a grafted life (11:17-24; Gal. 2:20a). This is not an exchanged life, with the good life replacing the bad one and the bad one becoming functionless, but this is a grafted life. We are branches of the wild olive tree (Rom. 11:17, 24) that were grafted into Christ, the cultivated olive tree, who is one with Israel (v. 24; Psa. 80:15-17; Matt. 2:15). We stand by faith to partake of the root (which bears us, Rom. 11:18) of fatness of the olive tree (vv. 20, 17). Furthermore, we, as the grafted branches, and Christ, as the cultivated olive tree, live together one mingled life in one mingled living.
Reigning in life is the full experience of the organic salvation of God. God's complete salvation is through our receiving grace and righteousness, and this complete salvation issues in our reigning in life as the goal of His complete salvation. Reigning in life in chapter five is the key to open up the rest of the book. We need to see everything in Romans chapters six through sixteen in this light. This is altogether a new way to interpret the book of Romans.
When we are reigning in life, we are in all the matters presented in Romans six through sixteen. When we are reigning in life, we are being soaked and saturated with the holy nature of God for sanctification in our disposition, and our mingled spirit spreads into our mind to renew our mind. When we are reigning in life, we can be conformed to the image of God's firstborn Son and glorified through the sealing of the indwelling Spirit throughout our entire life. When we are reigning in life, we more than conquer the environmental hardships and sufferings, even being faithful to Christ and to God unto death. We also gain the righteousness of God, which is the subjective Christ, and we enjoy the riches of God. It is when we receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life that we call on the Lord in a proper way. When we are reigning in life, we live a grafted life with Christ. If we do not reign in life, we cannot participate in these processes, but if we reign in life, we can be in all these things, and we can be constituted Christ's overcoming bride for His satisfaction, pleasure, and delight.