THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE – Part 1
Romans 8:2 (NKJV) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Notice two laws in this verse. One sets you free from the other. For the first law to set you free from the second, you must be alive to the first and dead to the second. Because of Adam’s sin, we were born under the authority of the law of sin and death. You know that you are under the authority of the laws where you live.
My wife and I have lived in five countries and visited many others. We are citizens of the United States, but we are currently living in Norway. The laws of Norway are not exactly the same as those in America. If we do something in Norway that is not against the law here, even though it is against the law in Am- erica, we will not be required to answer to the local authorities for our actions. One way to be free from one set of laws is to move to another country where those laws do not apply. For instance, if I want to drive my car without limits at the speed my vehicle can reach, I can move to Germany and drive on their autobahns. There is no speed limit on those highways. There are speed limits on their local roads, of course. So I cannot forget that when I exit the autobahn.
There is another way to be free from a set of laws. That is to die.
Romans 7:1-6 (NKJV)
1Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another— to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Paul explains it to us. In verse 1 we are reminded that the law of our nation has authority over us. Whatever country you are in, the law of that land has authority over you. Paul talks about the woman who has a husband. She is bound to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband is dead, she is free from the law of her husband. My wife tells me she is glad I am still alive.
Let’s say you live in Finland and yesterday you drove too fast according to the speed limit signs and they took your picture. Let’s also say that while you were driving too fast you did not stay on the road while turning a corner, you hit a tree and you died. When the notice to pay the fine for driving too fast comes to your house, you will not get it. They can try to get you to pay the fine all they want. They might come to your grave and say, “Listen, you drove too fast and you need to pay this fine.” Would you wake up and pay the fine?
Let’s say you could hear them (which you could not). You might say, “Do you understand that I am dead? I’m sorry that I went too fast before I died. But I am dead now. Your law does not apply to me anymore. I am not going to listen to you anymore. I don’t have to. I’m dead. Go talk to someone who is alive.”
In verse 4 Paul tells us that we become dead to that old law through the body of Christ. The law of sin and death is from the Old Covenant. Under that covenant, if you sin, you die. If I live under that old law, when I sin, I die. But if I live according to the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, I die, but I live. I live!
This is a wonderful mystery. We can be alive and yet dead. How is that pos-sible? Only through Christ; for when we accept Christ as Savior, the Spirit of God sticks us into the body of Christ. Every believer is in His body somewhere.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (NKJV)
12For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
The great thing about being in the body of Christ is that we exchange our history for His history. We get included in His work of redemption which means His death and His resurrection. So we are dead, yet alive. Consider these next verses of scripture.
Romans 6:1-7, 11 (NKJV)
1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin.
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Can you see what has happened? As your history is now included in the history of Christ, you died on the cross when He died there and also, you rose from the dead when He rose from the dead. The old you died. You are dead. And when He rose up from the grave, you were in Him. So when He rose up your new man came to life. By faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross and His resurrection from the dead you become a new creation altogether.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Therefore, you are dead to the law of sin and death, because Jesus fulfilled that law and died without sin, in your place and my place. More so, you are now alive in Christ by the power of His resurrection from the dead. In Christ you are dead, but you are alive! As a new creation in Christ you are alive. And that new creation is free from the law of sin and death. You are free!
You don’t have to be controlled by sin anymore. You don’t have to believe the lies of the enemy anymore. You don’t have to live in fear anymore. Every sin has fear in it. You would not sin if you trusted God enough to say, “No” to sin. Why would a dead person be afraid of anything?
When sin comes to tempt you, it has to come to your grave site and try to get you to come out of the grave. Sin says, “Get up. Let’s go to town and do the stuff we used to do.” But you are dead. You don’t have to listen.
When the devil says, “You’re going to die of cancer because your mother died of cancer;” you can say, “No. I’m dead already. That old man who came from my mother’s heritage with the curse of cancer has already died.” Galatians 3:13 says that when Jesus hung on that cross He became a curse for us; so you don’t have to die of the curse that took your mother’s life. You don’t have to live in the curse of poverty that your father lived in.
Sin was your master at one time. But it is no longer your master. Now you can readily serve Christ in righteousness, if you can just get your heart and your head to understand what I am saying. You do not have to walk around expecting to sin everyday. You can live in the newness of the Spirit, by the power of a greater law of life. You have liberty to walk and live by the Spirit of God and expect to not sin. Sin should become a rare event in the life of a Christian. What you believe and what you confess makes all the difference.
Romans 5:10 (NKJV) For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Read this again in the Amplified version.
Romans 5:10 (Amplified Bible) For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin’s dominion) through His [resurrection] life.
Being “saved by His life” is a daily salvation from the power of sin into the power of His victory over sin. His life produces liberty in us to live as we want to, in righteousness. If you believe and confess with your mouth that sin is powerful and the victory of Christ does not help you, your faith in the power of sin will work in you what you believe. And sin will continue to rule your life.
Romans 6:16 (NKJV) Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
You can choose to remain stuck in the ways of sin and death or choose faith in the finished work of Christ.
Romans 6:14 (NKJV) For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Sin does not have to rule your life anymore, if you will get it into your heart and your head that Jesus is Lord, confess that, and live in that faith.
Romans 10:10, 11 (NKJV)
10For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
2 Corinthians 4:13 (NKJV) And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak.
What do we speak? We speak what we believe; that Jesus is Lord. As we believe that and speak that, we can live in His righteousness as servants of righteousness instead of slaves to sin. His power (grace) over sin is given to us.
Romans 6:13 (NKJV) And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Again, what you believe and speak is what you get. Do not give more power to sin to rule your life. Give it to God. We enter the life of Christ by faith. Faith is not only a correct belief; it is activated by what we speak.
Romans 10:6-9 (NKJV)
6But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Jesus has already paid the full price to set you free from the law of sin and death. The truth is, once you accept Him into your heart as Savior, He imputes to you His righteousness and you are free from the law of sin and death now. Activate that reality in your everyday life by refusing to yield to sin. You are dead to sin. Live in the truth. Meditate on these verses and ask the Spirit of Truth to make them life to you. As they become living revelation in your heart, you will “know” them as your living reality. Then you will be able to declare that you are free and have full liberty to follow Christ all day, everyday. As you do you will find that the power to live free from sin flows in your life more freely day by day, as you grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. You might say that as this grows on you, you will grow in it (the truth).
2 Peter 3:18 (NKJV) but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
Next I want to talk about more benefits to believers as we grow in this grace. This present teaching prepares the way for you to walk in the perfect law of liberty which is the law of love and to enjoy Christ’s victories over fear, disease and judgment. Truly He has done great things for us!
COMMENTS: The Law of the Spirit
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gena