Now, if anything in the interpretation of the Apocalypse may be relied on as valid and beyond question it is that the reign of Christ is not a future event, to be expected at some day which has not yet dawned upon earth, but is a present and existent fact. That kingdom was inaugurated when the Lord Jesus, having risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, led captivity captive and bestowed upon his followers the gift of the Holy Spirit. When St. Paul in writing to the Corinthians says, “He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet,” surely the meaning is that he does now reign and shall continue so to do until the result is accomplished. The mediatorial sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ is, indeed, the one theme of the whole book of Revelation. The consummation and undisputed supremacy of the kingdom has not been reached. It is in its militant, not triumphant state. But imperfection within and hostility without no more affect the reality of its being, although they may militate against its well-being, than did treason within and war without contravene the fact of the sovereignty of David and his house over Judah. Into this kingdom not a select number, but all the true followers of Jesus are introduced. They are “a royal priesthood.” They are “joint heirs with Christ.” “We see not yet,” indeed, “all things put under him;” but we see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor;” and “he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Again, it may be accepted as almost an axiom of interpretation that the resurrection referred to in the words, “They lived and reigned with Christ,” means a spiritual change, and not a physical or bodily one. It is synonymous with that epoch in the Christian’s life when he is delivered “from the power of darkness” and translated “into the kingdom of God’s dear Son,” that crisis of spiritual existence which is called conversion or regeneration, when one is “born from above” and raised with Christ into newness of life. The resurrection spoken of is stated to be that of “the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image.” It is also called “the first resurrection,” thus differentiating it from another and subsequent resurrection of “the rest of the dead.” This first resurrection, moreover, exempts those who partake of it from the power of “the second death,” which is defined as the being “cast into the lake of fire.” It separates them from “the rest of the dead”――those who are dead “in trespasses and sins,” as they themselves once were――who live not again until “the thousand years” are finished.