By Major W. Ian Thomas
The Law of the Spirit of Life
For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. (Rom. 8:2)
The Gift of the Spirit gives us the ability to respond to the teachings of our Lord as we pass through the time of testing and seek to enter into the Life of Promise. “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13) in the Kingdom-Life.
In other words, there is a work to be done after spiritual regeneration. We prepare God’s temple by separating ourselves from the ways of the world as we are led by the Spirit. The Lord will eventually manifest His Kingdom-Life within everyone who will Obediently follow Him through the cross and into the Heavenly realms.
For you are the temple of the Living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them…” Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. (2 Cor. 6:16-17)
He who has My commandments and keeps them {with their regenerate heart}, it is he who loves Me…and I will Love him and manifest Myself {the Kingdom-Life} to him. (John 14:21)
It was to bring about this change of government and introduce this New law of Spiritual Life from Heaven that the Second Man lived, died and rose again from the dead. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s Obedience many will be made Righteous.” (Rom. 5:19)
Do not confuse the written Law with the New law of the Spirit of Life. The Old Testament law, although righteous, could only bring about the experience of sin and death in the children of God. Paul said, “I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.” (Rom. 7:10) The law, we will learn, was given to bring about a real death to the old self-sufficient way of life that everyone has inherited from Adam. This “original sin” needs to die before the Kingdom-Life of God can be fully established within the heart.
( This law is found in: Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. This was the first spoken law in the form of a command, a law because with the command there was given the penalty for the disobedience to the spoken command. This was separation from the Life and Love of God which is found in our intimacy or intercourse with God. Emphasis added)
We know there had to be “an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect.” (Heb. 7:18-19) While Jesus expects His disciples to fulfill all the righteous requirements found in His teachings, including His Sermon on the Mount it can only be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. “It is the Spirit who gives Life {the Kingdom-Life of self-sacrificing Love}; the flesh profits nothing.” (John 6:63)(Here the law referred to is the Law given to Moses and through Moses to Israel found in Leviticus through Deuteronomy which no man could fulfill but which reveals our undoneness of bankruptcy to follow the Will of God in obedience. Emphasis added)
Written laws have only a limited application in God’s dealings with man. First of all, written laws are needed to restrain people who are not living by God’s Spirit. This includes the use of laws established by governments in this temporal world. God uses them to place a restraint on the evil nature in fallen man. In a sense, we can therefore say that written laws are necessary in a fallen and evil world. “Before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law.” (Gal. 3:23)
However, God never intended for man to live by law. The children of God were designed to participate with God in His own Divine nature. And where the fruit of God’s Spirit is being manifested through fully Sanctified Christians {those who have allowed God to set them apart for His exclusive use and are sharing in the Divine nature}, there is no need for law.
But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no {need for} law. (Gal. 5:22-23 Emphasis added)
We can therefore say that written laws will only be needed while people are still living by the strength of the flesh. Once the believer has died to the ways of the flesh and has entered into a real participation with Christ in His Divine nature (2 Pet. 1:3-4), he {or she} will be moved by the Spirit in a Way that naturally fulfills all the requirements found in God’s written laws.
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things {pertaining to the Kingdom-Life and Godliness}…The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you {through written laws}… (1
John 2:20, 27)
Christians, after being reconciled to God through Christ’s blood, will have a natural tendency to live by human effort. Because they are not yet living under the full control and power of the Holy Spirit, but still have some dependence on their own strength, they are unable to consistently display the Fruit of Christ’s Spirit through their lives.
The law will therefore have a limited application in the life of every born again Christian. God has provided written laws to reveal what True Righteousness is like. His laws will therefore expose the defects {bankruptcy} that continue to rise out of the heart when one is still living by the strength of the flesh. There will be something within them that “is not subject to the law of God.” (Rom. 8:7) They will find that their old “Adam-life” sometimes still has an opposing nature to the sacrificial Agape Love as displayed by Jesus, the prototype Son.
While these earnest Christians will generally prevent sinful tendencies from breaking forth into outward displays of sin, they will still sense the presence of an evil within their hearts. For example, they will periodically find a selfish anger
coming to the surface when people treat them poorly. And even though this anger ever breaks forth into actual murder, the corruption that exposes itself in selfish anger is the same as murder in God’s Sight. God therefore expects them to submit their Adam-life to the cross so they can die to this old nature and enter into a participation with Christ in His Divine nature.
The requirements that Christ established in His Sermon on the Mount are impossible to keep by human effort. But this does not mean that He does not expect His believers, followers and disciples to fulfill all the Righteous requirements found in His teachings. It simply means that every born again believer will need to learn to live by the Spirit. “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26)
The law has a work to do in the heart of every Christian. It is designed to break the natural sense of self-sufficiency found in the fallen nature. This old spirit (evil, as it is the nature acquired from Satan) needs to be brought to its death. Only then are believers able to enter into the pure faith that will enable them to “put on the New self, created to be Like God in True Righteousness and Holiness.” (Eph. 4:24)(Emphasis added)
The apostle Paul reveals in Romans seven how this process took place in his life. As he has described, the standards found in God’s laws will eventually kill the self-sufficient {evil} spirit in everyone who has earnestly sought to be Obedient to God’s laws.
…Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law… I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death… But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful… For in my inner being I delight in God’s law {a sign of spiritual regeneration and the presence of the Holy Spirit}; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members… Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Rom. 7:7, 10, 13, 22-24 Emphasis added)
Paul did not always remain “a prisoner of the law of sin.” As he later said, “For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me Free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:2) The Spirit of Christ was able to set him Free from his old sin nature. The Kingdom-Life was established within His heart once he realized that “it is the Spirit who gives Life {the Kingdom-Life}; the flesh {striving by human effort} profits nothing.” (John 6:63)
Every Christian will need to learn how the law was designed to bring about a real death to the self-sufficient life they inherited from Adam. Once they have lost all hope in their ability to fully conform to God’s Ways by human effort, they will be prepared to turn to Christ with the kind of faith that will permit Him to set them “Free indeed” from the “law of sin.”
…Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord… (Rom. 7:24-25)
…I tell you the Truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin… So if the Son sets you free {from the sin nature}, you will be Free indeed. (John 8:34, 36)
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