The Law of the Spirit Sets Us Free From the Law of Sin and Death

The law of sin and death is found in our members. The law of the Spirit, which gives life in Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death.

The light of the law could not shine into the body and enlighten the place where the law of sin and death hides, because the light of the law was only for outward sins, which were the fruit of the inner law of sin and death.

What the law could not do, God did by sending His Son as an offering for sin, and He condemned sin in the flesh.

God’s judgment over the sin in our members has now been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. The kingdom of heaven has come into us, and the Spirit of Christ will, through our obedience, open a way to previously unknown areas in our body—namely, to those places where the law of sin and death is at work. God’s Spirit works together with the water and the blood (the death of Christ in our flesh) and is thereby gradually able to destroy the law of sin and death. This takes place as the law that the Spirit bears within it makes our human spirit—which was formerly bound by the law of sin and death—alive. The law of sin and the law of death are two different laws, and each works in their own way.

The law of sin constantly makes its demands on our consciousness. If we obediently give in to these demands, the law of sin will lead its prey into the law of death. As long as the law of sin has dominion over a person, and they have not yet been delivered to the law of death, their conscience is alert, and the Spirit convicts them of sin. However, by sinning again and again, the law of death deadens the conscience, and the person sins with no remorse. The law of sin leads ungodly people further into unknown areas. They sin in these areas as well, and the law of death continues to deaden their conscience so that, in the end, they become dead in trespasses and sins.

The law of the Spirit works in the opposite way. It sheds its light on the sin a person previously committed without having a bad conscience. It takes sin from the iron clutches of the law of death and brings it into the light of the conscience. We agree with God’s Spirit, judge the sin, and renounce it. The next time a new sin is brought into our consciousness, it also receives its judgment, and the process continues. In this way we are made alive. This is a gradual process and cannot—unlike the forgiveness of sins—take place in a moment.

Life is serious. We ourselves determine our own salvation or condemnation. God has established laws for everything, and He does not deviate from them. He shows no partiality.

We who are alive are always being delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh.