“Therefore, 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.” Rom. 7:4.

Once we have died to the law, we belong to someone else. Who did we belong to before that? We belonged to ourselves, “for 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.” Verse 5. However, now we are no longer our own. We have come into the body of Christ, and we belong to Him who died and rose again for us. Even though we are dead to the law through the body, we are not dead in the body of Christ. But we know that our old man was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Rom. 6:6. The body of sin is gradually done away with after we have come into the body of Christ, after we have been set free from the law, and after the old man has been crucified with Him. We follow the laws of the Spirit of life in the body and thereby grow the growth of the body. While we were in the flesh, the law of Moses was in effect, the outward law; but in the body of Christ, the law of the Spirit is at work. The law of Moses condemned the old man, while the law of the Spirit condemns sin in the flesh.

We are to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, but being baptized in the Spirit is not enough. This same Spirit requires something of us. These requirements are the laws and life-giving power of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit is a baptism of grace, but when the requirements have been met, it becomes a baptism of righteousness. Between this grace and righteousness, the fire reigns—the fire with which Christ was baptized. In other words, the requirements are contained in the fire, which consumes sin in the flesh. We are born again by water and Spirit, but after we have been born again, the Spirit unites with the third witness: the blood. 1 John 5:7-8. This witness testifies of sacrifices in the Spirit, since Jesus sacrificed Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit and was raised up through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Heb. 13:20.

We are born by water and Spirit, but we are also born from above of the incorruptible seed, through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. This shows that the Word was already flesh when we were born again, because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Since sin dwells in the flesh even after the new birth, and we still receive the Word through the Holy Spirit, it’s clear that the flesh, which is the Word in Him, will become flesh in us by acknowledgment in the Spirit. A word is a word before it is carried out; however, once it is carried out, then it is fulfilled. Nevertheless, the Word was considered and reckoned to be a word before it was fulfilled, because God’s foreknowledge in the Spirit of truth testified through the holy prophets about the sufferings and death of Christ and the glories that would follow, in that He called things that did not exist as though they did.

Similarly, even after we are born again, our flesh is permeated with the law of sin. But God has spoken the word that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. Therefore, this word is reckoned as flesh before that has taken place, because it has been fulfilled in Christ; and because Christ’s faithfulness was so perfect, God could speak words beforehand and testify in the Spirit of truth as though the work had already been fulfilled. Our faithfulness in the Spirit makes us partakers of the glories of Christ. However, even if someone is unfaithful, Christ remains faithful, and through this faithfulness the body of sin has already been destroyed in Him. A person’s unfaithfulness does the most harm to themself if it isn’t done away with in them by the work of Christ.

It is through the obedience of faith, for which Paul was chosen to be an apostle (Rom. 1:5), that we receive the word in the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:6) and enter into that most perfect ministry in the Spirit. When God is able to reveal His will to us, and we, by faith, are able to understand it, we come into a perfect and unencumbered relationship with Him. Then God is able to speak to us when we are walking down the street, at our workplace, in the meetings—and He is able to carry out His will because He has a willing vessel in flesh. The law of Moses could never bring a person to this. A person in this position of faith—and position of obedience—can also expect their prayers to be answered, because they do the will of God and are pleasing to Him. A person who does not do His will places themself outside of the kingdom where God reigns and where His will is done. In other words, sanctification is a transformation according to God’s will, where the laws of the Lord pierce into the depths of our spiritual life and transform our entire being into the image of His Son. The sufferings of Christ are painful to the flesh, but they are extremely profitable. They lead to the death that makes room for life—eternal life.

The ways of the Lord are amazing. Who can understand them unless it pleases the Lord to reveal them. He who has His commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Jesus Christ, and he who loves Him will also be loved by the Father, and Christ will manifest Himself for him. John 14:21. This manifestation takes place by the Spirit of truth—that Spirit which takes those things that are His and declares them to us.

Therefore, if you have received the Spirit of God, be attentive and obedient to the Spirit, and It will then reveal to you the mysteries of Christ; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.