The Spirit and the Law

Hello everyone,
 

How are you doing on this day? I hope well and bubbling in the Lord. Under the Old Testament, the law prevailed. God gave certain requirements for His people to fulfill – don’t steal, kill, lie, and many others. The problem was that it was difficult to perfectly obey these commandments. And so, God in His infinite mercy presented a way for us to be made right through Jesus Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

 

Primary Text

“For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],” Romans 8v3 (AMP)

“The law failed in bringing about righteousness, because the flesh (human nature without the Holy Spirit) could not follow the law. And if you sinned in one part, you had sinned. So it didn’t matter that you did not murder, because if you lied, or broke any part of the law, then you had fallen short of the law.  The law therefore could not help man to become righteous.  Therefore, God sent Jesus, “His own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.” Romans 8v3-4 (NLT)

“God went for the jugular when He sent His own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In His Son, Jesus, He personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.” Romans 8v3-4 (MSG)

 

Indeed, we know that God is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Romans 8v13 (AMP) also tells us that “For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” Beloved, let us embrace this work that God has made available for us and begin to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the power of the Spirit.

Prayer

Father, I thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which sets us free from the law of sin and death. I renounce sin, and say the law of sin has no power over me and I refuse to live according to its dictates anymore in Jesus name, amen. Father, I yield myself to you and every member of my body to glorify Your name now and always in Jesus name, amen.