by Russell Young
It is knowledge of the working of the law of the Spirit that is the means of the believer’s eternal salvation. The effectiveness of the law of the Spirit as availed through the New Covenant replaces the ineffectiveness of the law of Moses. Paul wrote, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 8:1-2, NIV)
The “law” must be fulfilled (Mt 5:19) and it can be for those who have confessed faith in Christ and it will be for those who walk in obedience to the Spirit. (Heb 5:9) Christ said that he had not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. (Mt 5:17) Paul wrote, “And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:4, NIV) It is Christ through his Spirit who will fulfill the righteous requirements of the law as he lives in and through the believer.
The law of the Spirit is the living law. It is not fixed in stone. It comprises the dictates and instructions of the Spirit and is revealed as the Spirit leads the believer in God’s light and in accordance to his will. Because it is so, it need not bring death but life. Jesus said that “the Spirit gives life.” (Jn 6:63, NIV) He must be obeyed however, since to knowingly deny his leading results in destruction. “Whoever sows to please the flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Gal 6:8, NIV) A person’s sowing is serious business and its truth is not overruled by the love of Christ or by God’s grace, and the evil doing of a person following his confession of faith is not nullified by the ministry of Christ on the cross.
The believer’s walk must be righteous if he or she is to avoid judgment and the wrath of God. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians “He will punish those who do not know (understand) God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day that he comes to be glorified by his holy people.” (2 Thess 1:9-10, NIV) Daniel prophesied, “But at that time [following the Great Tribulation] your people –everyone whose name is found written in the book-will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Dan 12:1-2, NIV) Not all will awake to glory even though their names have been written in the book.
The good news for the believer is that Christ is the Spirit (2 Cor 3:17) and he has come, by permission, to live his sinless life in the believer just as he did in the body that the Father had prepared for him in the womb of Mary. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col 1:27, NIV) God had tried to have his people achieve the righteousness that would bring him pleasure by starting the human race again with righteous Noah and his family following eradication of life by the flood. He attempted It through the exercise of punishment for disobedience and blessings for obedience, and by providing the written code. None of these tactics worked because of the evil imaginations of the heart of man. (Gen 6:6) His solution ant that which brings life was for Christ to take the deserved death for all men because of their sin and then to live his life through them. He is the way, the truth, and the life…and the law of the Spirit.
The law of the Spirit will lead the obedient confessor of Christ’s lordship (the believer) in righteousness and in transformation to his likeness.
The Word presents that faith and belief save. They do, but that faith (persuasion) must be sufficient that the believer recognizes his or her need and believes strongly enough to obey the law that Christ is presenting to them. They are to cling to their Lord and to love him with all of their heart, soul, and mind.
The Spirit is to be obeyed; he is not to be denied, quenched, or thwarted. Those who do not honor his law will find that destruction rests upon their souls. The law of the Spirit sets a person free from the law of sin and death. It is the law of God and must be appreciated as such. “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law (of Moses) so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” (Rom 7:6, NIV)
Christianity 201 