The Spirit of Life
The Spirit of life is the life-giving Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the author and giver of life, and the life He
gives is free of condemnation. There is now no condemnation for the believer in Christ
because of the saving work of Christ which sets His people free from the law that
condemns.
The principle on which the Holy Spirit works in the Christian’s
life operates in power. He can do what the law could never do.
It is interesting the word Holy Spirit is found more often in chapter
eight of Romans than in any other chapter in the New Testament.
The Holy Spirit is the “distinguishing mark” of the
believer. His very presence in the Christian means defeat of the power of sin in the
believer’s life. The Holy Spirit rules within the heart.
“When the Holy Spirit comes into a person that person is
liberated from bondage to evil and finds a new power within, a power that causes the
defeat of sin and leads the liberated person into ways of goodness and love,” writes
Leon Morris.
By the death of Jesus Christ the believer was freed from the law of
sin (Romans 7:23, 25), and death (7:10-11, 13). That does not mean, however, that we are
sinless even though we have been liberated from its dominion (6:18, 22). We have a new
relationship to the law because of our new relationship with Christ.
Someone said, “Moses law has right but not might; sin’s law
has might but not right; the law of the Spirit has both right and might.”
The Christian now has life in the Spirit. “For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death” (8:2).
The law of the Spirit of life is in Christ Jesus. It is the principle of the new being,
and this has freed us from the law of sin and death. “There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (v. 1).
This is the new spiritual principle of life. It is through our vital
union with Christ that we have received this life-giving Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the
one who has claim on our lives; the law no longer has any claim on the Christian because
we have been set free from the law of sin and death. New principles now control the
Christian’s life, with new dynamics. We have found deliverance in the person and work
of Jesus Christ. The law no longer has any jurisdiction over the Christian. It can no
longer lay any claim over you. We have been bought out of the slave market and set free to
live this new life in Christ. God sent His Son to be our sin offering and die in our place
to turn the wrath of God aside.
The emphasis the apostle Paul is making is there is
not even one bit of condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. He
freed you once for all from the law of sinful nature and of death.
The law could not save you, and it cannot sanctify you (v. 3). The
law was weak through the flesh without the Holy Spirit. Because Christ suffered for you,
the law could no longer condemn you. Christ suffered the condemnation of the law on our
behalf. Christ came “in the likeness” of sinful flesh and bore our sins in His
body on the cross. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, and since we are now “in
Christ,” God will not condemn us again. God condemned sin in the sacrifice of Christ
so that we can now stand before God in His perfect righteousness.
Because of the life in the Spirit the law can no longer control the
Christian (v. 4). The difference between the life of the Christian and the life of the
legalist is the believer lives a righteous life, not in the power of the law, but in the
power of the Spirit of God. The law does not have the power to produce holiness in us. The
only power it has is the ability to condemn.
How then does the Christian live in obedience to God’s will and
bring glory to Him? The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit produces the new life in
us. He enables us to walk in obedience and fulfill the righteousness of the law in us.
As the believer yields to the control of the Holy Spirit he
experiences the sanctifying work of the Spirit in his daily life.
The righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled as we yield the
control of our lives to the Spirit. The righteous and just requirements of the law are
fully met in us, who live and move and have our being in Christ.
The difference is who is in control of our lives. Our lives are no
longer controlled by the standards of the world, but are now under the control of the Holy
Spirit.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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