Romans 1:5 reveals that the grace of God is for the enablement of the apostles. No one in himself is able to be an apostle, but the grace of God enables certain believers to be apostles.
We live by grace. The grace for the believers’ living is spoken of in Romans 1:7 and in the beginning of all of Paul’s other Epistles except Hebrews. In our Christian living, our daily life, we need the grace. Everyone has a problem with his temper. No one can overcome his temper except by grace. Who can be humble? We are always proud. We can be humble only by grace. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9). “All sufficient grace! / Never powerless!” (Hymns, #312).
When circumstances arise to cause us to react, we have to tell ourselves to be quiet, be slow, and wait. We should not say anything or express any kind of attitude for a short time. Then the grace of God will be applied to us, and we will spontaneously become humble. Who can control his loose speaking? Some people speak quickly all the time. It is impossible to control our tongue without grace. Proverbs speaks repeatedly about the taming of the tongue. If we can control our tongue, we can reduce ninety percent of our sinfulness. The tongue can never be controlled by us in our own strength. We need the grace of God for overcoming in all the details of our daily living.
Romans 3:24 speaks of the grace by which we are justified freely through the redemption in Christ Jesus. To be justified through Christ by God, we need the grace.
There is also the grace versus wages in God’s accounting for His justification of the believers. Romans 4:4 says that when God justifies us, He does not count on what we labor for or can do as a wage to account for His justification of us. Our justification is dependent upon His grace, not upon our labor, our work. If our justification were based upon works, it would be wages to us. Justification is not a wage but a grace.
Romans 4:16 says that our inheritance is out of faith that it might be according to grace. Thus, grace is for the believers to inherit the promise of God, going along with faith.
We have entered into the grace, and we stand in it. Romans 5:2 says that through Christ “we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.”
Romans also speaks of the abounding grace of God in which is the free gift of Christ (5:15, 20; 6:1).
Romans 5:17 says that we can reign in life by grace. In these days we are speaking about being a God-man, about becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. To reign is to be God. In the whole universe who reigns? Who is the king? There is only one King. But we as the children of this one King can also reign in His life. Since we reign as God does, by reigning in life we become the very God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. God reigns and we reign.
To reign is to conquer, subdue, and rule over Satan, the world, sin, the flesh, ourselves, and all the environmental circumstances. In Romans 8 Paul says this: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (v. 35). Then he says, “We more than conquer through Him who loved us” (v. 37). Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, because we are more than conquerors over all the troubles in our environment.
It may be easy for people to rule over their dogs. Dogs can be very obedient. But what about our own children? Children are not as obedient as dogs. Children learn to say no before they say many other words. The main word that comes out of young children is “No!” How can we be kings when we cannot rule our children in the divine life? We believers who are parents must exercise ourselves to learn how to be kings in ruling our children. We must have grace to rule our children. We also have to rule over the sin within us, to rule over Satan, and to rule over the world. We should not let the world’s fashion conquer us. Instead, we should conquer all things and reign in life by grace.