Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley<\/p>\n
All rights reserved<\/p>\n
The \u201cspirit of the law\u201d spoken of in the New Testament is revealed to and in a believer through the Holy Spirit, not through self-indulgence, not through self-righteousness, not, in fact, through \u201cself\u201d-anything but through God Himself. Knowledge of the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law is at the very core of the new life granted to the children of God through Christ. It is part and parcel of the freedom bought for us at the cross and is absolutely essential to fully experiencing that freedom. The opposite errors of legalism and license that have plagued so many Christians through the centuries are both derived from a functional ignorance of what Jesus came to deliver His people from, and both lead to back to spiritual bondage.<\/p>\n
In the case of legalism this ignorance manifests itself in a futile attempt to earn our way to God through self-righteous moral scrupulosity. Such scrupulosity may be based on codes of conduct obvious or implicit in either the Old or New Testaments, but in each case it is manifested by works that originate in the self rather than in the enabling power of God. Furthermore the motivation behind legalism is often found in a combination of pride and fear of punishment, rather than love of Christ. Because of this faulty motivation those caught up in it cannot please God no matter how holy their conduct may appear. They are out of touch with the grace and kindness of God, the only things that lead to true repentance in humility of spirit. People who are bound up in legalism have bypassed the cross to their own harm and the harm of those under their sway. To be completely given over to legalism is to exhibit the same alienation from the Son of God for which the Pharisees were condemned.<\/p>\n
Licentiousness, meanwhile, shows an ignorance of the continued destructive power of sin. This is the error that says that Jesus came to abolish the law rather than fulfill it. To be licentious is to be morally self-indulgent, to commit obvious or subtle sins in the mistaken belief that one can somehow avoid sin\u2019s wages because one has been released to do so by grace. But as Paul said in his letter to the Romans \u201cAre we to sin so that grace shall abound? God forbid!\u201d License does not prove freedom from the law of God, but only defiance of that law. Its end is the same slavery to sin that held us before we came to know Christ and, like unrepented legalism; licentiousness begs the question of whether we ever really came to know Him at all.<\/p>\n
Standing over and against both these potentially deadly errors is living in a state of harmony with the \u201cspirit of the law\u201d. This is the hallmark of the truly surrendered and Spirit-filled Christian. Such a person is no longer ruled by the opposite poles of self-centeredness apparent in legalism and license, but by the Spirit of Christ Himself. This kind of believer is not sinless, no Christian this side of Heaven is, but the true law of God is in the process of being written on his or her heart. This can only happen when the Holy Spirit has so shifted our attention off ourselves that Jesus is before our spiritual eyes more than we are. He then progressively fulfills the law in us and makes us truly holy as He is holy. We come to embody the fulfillment of the law that our Lord and Savior achieved on Calvary. True freedom from the sins of legalism and license is the lasting fruit of this vicarious fulfillment. The \u201cspirit of the law\u201d now becomes resident in our deepest hearts and we are set free to live the truly moral life we once tried to either simulate or reject.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved The \u201cspirit of the law\u201d spoken of in the New Testament is revealed to and in a believer through the Holy Spirit, not through self-indulgence, not through self-righteousness, not, in fact, through \u201cself\u201d-anything but through God Himself. Knowledge of the difference between the letter of the law and… <\/p>\n