<p>5:21&nbsp;<i>So that as sin reigned with the result of death</i>- Or, Gk.,&nbsp;<i>in</i>&nbsp;death. We have changed masters and also changed our Kings. Our status has changed, but we must still try to live out that status change in practice- hence &ldquo;let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it&rdquo; (Rom. 6:12). Grace reigns as King right now, in that Christ reigns- and thereby we are right now in the sphere of His Kingdom.&nbsp;</p><p><i>Even so might grace reign through righteousness with the result of eternal life-through Jesus Christ our Lord</i>- In that God&rsquo;s grace operates through the &lsquo;mechanism&rsquo; of God and Christ&rsquo;s righteousness being counted to us, so that we are counted as righteous, justified. And this comes to its ultimate term in physical, literal terms in our being given eternal life at the final judgment.</p><p>Grace, and the forgiveness it brings, reigns as a King (Rom. 5:21), in the sense that the real belief that by grace we are and will be saved, will bring forth a changed life (Tit. 2:11,12). The wonder of grace will mean that our lives become focused upon Jesus, the one who enabled that grace. Grace will be the leading and guiding principle in our lives, comprised as they are of a long string of thoughts and actions. And as with every truly focused life, literally&nbsp;<i>all&nbsp;</i>other things become therefore and thereby of secondary value. The pathway of persistent, focused prayer, the power of the hope of glory in the Kingdom, regular repentance&hellip; day by day our desires are redirected towards the things of God.&nbsp;</p><p>You cannot have abstract diabolism; the evil desires that are in a man&rsquo;s heart cannot exist separately from a man; therefore &lsquo;the Devil&rsquo; is personified. Sin is often personified as a ruler (e.g. Rom. 5:21; 6:6,17; 7:13&ndash;14). It is understandable, therefore, that the &lsquo;Devil&rsquo; is also personified, seeing that &lsquo;the Devil&rsquo; also refers to sin. In the same way, Paul speaks of us having two beings, as it were, within our flesh (Rom. 7:15&ndash;21): the man of the flesh, &lsquo;the Devil&rsquo;, fights with the man of the spirit. Yet it is evident that there are not two literal, personal beings fighting within us.</p><p>Paul makes a seamless connection between the reign of God's grace now, and our future reigning in the literal Kingdom of God to be established materially upon earth at the Lord's return: Grace reigns&nbsp;<i>unto&nbsp;</i>eternal life, i.e. the result of the reign of grace now is eternal life in the future (Rom. 5:21)... and thus &quot;the ones receiving the abundance of the grace and of the free gift of the righteousness in this life&nbsp;<i>will</i>&nbsp;reign through the one, Jesus Christ&quot; (Rom. 5:17). The idea is that if grace reigns in our lives, then we will reign in the future Kingdom.</p><p><b>Notes</b>&nbsp;<br />(1) Dorothee S&ouml;lle,&nbsp;<i>Christ The Representative</i>&nbsp;(London: S.C.M., 1967) p. 69.<br />(2) W.F. Arndt and F.W. Gingrich,&nbsp;<i>A Greek English Lexicon Of The New Testament</i>&nbsp;(Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1957).<br />(3) G.E. Ladd,&nbsp;<i>A Theology of the New Testament</i>&nbsp;(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993 ed.) pp. 450-456.<br />(4) H.W. Robinson,&nbsp;<i>Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel</i>. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980).<br />(5) For documentation see Robin Scroggs<i>, The</i>&nbsp;<i>Last Adam</i>:&nbsp;<i>A Study in Pauline Anthropology&nbsp;</i>(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1966) pp. 80,81.</p>