The Law and the Spirit

 

Read 2 Corinthians 3

For a good portion of the New Testament, Paul discusses the Law and Grace, the flesh and the Spirit, or the Law and the Spirit. Can’t we just believe in Jesus and be done with it?

You could. Many have and many miss out on life—abundant life.

So why all the confusion over the law and grace or the law and the Spirit? There’s a lot of gaslighting going on these days, and I am not talking about politics but the church.

You have seen the memes, “If the law was nailed to the cross…”  Stop right there, gaslighters. That’s a false premise used to manipulate an audience of people who don’t want to read their Bibles but want to be right because they keep up with their memes, reels, and disinformation dump of the week.

The law was not nailed to the cross, so don’t set that up as your premise. Our sins and debts were nailed to the cross, but never the law. The false premise is used to bolster the status of the law, directives surpassed by the glory that we know in Christ Jesus.

The law showed us our sin. It was given so that our trespass might increase—now that sounds weird. The law showed us just how far away from God and his goodness we had come and were going. The law showed us what our human eyes instinctively turn a blind eye to—our own sin.

I think we better understand this whole increase of the trespass like this. The more intently we look into God’s law, the more we see the gulf between us and his righteousness. Our knowledge and awareness of our sinful nature and lives become more and more evident to us.

So too, does the awareness of how much greater God’s love for us is, much more than our sin. God’s love has overcome our sinful nature. In comparing ourselves to the law, we see two things very clearly.

1.    We are like filthy rags. We can stop thinking highly of ourselves. We are humbled.

2.    God’s grace goes beyond our worst sins. He didn’t create us to throw us away. He desires an eternal relationship where we are in right standing with him.

The law brings us to death. The law convicts us of our trespass. The law says that the wages of sin is death, and so it is, but God did not end the story there.

We were already dead in our trespasses but God saved us from our disobedience, wickedness, and rebellion. God did it all so that no one could boast.

The law shows us that we are dead in our trespasses. Christ is our only hope for life. We have crossed over from death to life when we believe in Christ Jesus.

But how will we live?

If we genuinely want to please God, we will live by the Spirit he placed inside us. In so doing, we will instinctively live by the guide to good living, otherwise known as the law.

If we truly love God, following his commands will not be a burden. And if God’s Spirit within us leads us to live a life of love, we will have fulfilled the demands of the law.

So, why was the law even necessary?

God’s law serves to mitigate the evil in our hearts. It reduces the effects of our sinful human nature, but the law is not the end of the story. Mitigation is not the objective.

God desires to replace the heart of stone—our hardened, sinful, self-serving, and comfort-governed nature—with a heart of love.

God desires that none perish but all repent and come to life in Christ Jesus. The longevity of life does not matter as much as the love that proceeds from our lives in Christ.

How can we live such lives? By listening to God’s Spirit. You both live at the same address. God’s Spirit lives within you. Let God’s Spirit lead you to live by love.

Consider Paul’s words at the beginning of the chapter.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.  He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

We are all Letters from Christ, but how does our letter read?

The curse of modern Christianity is to acknowledge God, acknowledge Jesus died for our sins, and acknowledge that the Spirit lives within us, and then live unchanged lives because we hold our own understanding in such high esteem.

I stole this from my Marine Corps brethren and adapted it to my purposes here.

If you were accused of being a Marine, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

To us, now:

If you were accused of living a life of love, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

If you were accused of living by the Spirit of God who resides at your place now, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

The law shows us that we were dead.

The Spirit shows us how to live with Jesus as Lord.

The law shows us what we once were. We were sinners at best. I think Isaiah nailed it with filthy rags, but sinners at a minimum.

The Spirit leads us to live as a new creature.

The law had a glory all its own.

The Spirit shows us how Jesus surpassed the law.

The old self is gone.

The new has come.

One is about death and the other about life.  The law brings death. The Spirit brings life.

Choose life. Live by the Spirit!

Amen!