The Law Of The Spirit Of Life
Paul was given new
revelations by Jesus. He was given greater spiritual insight to reveal
matters of the Spirit – deep matters, things that transcend the boundaries
of mortality and humanity.
God’s purpose through
Jesus was so sublime that it was too much for minds educated by merely Old
Covenant mentality to comprehend. The physical mind cannot grasp these
things, and new believers were finding it hard to come out of the old
mindset. Many don’t grasp what Paul was saying, to this day.
We have two extremes in
the Church. On the left there are liberals, who distort what Paul said, to
make out he was dispensing with all OT law. On the right we have legalists,
who rigidly adhere to a strict legalistic outworking of biblical precepts,
and who thereby deny the operation of the Spirit.
In between is a whole
array of varying shades of these colours.
The truth is that Paul was
NOT doing away with OT law, otherwise he wouldn’t have made the unambiguous
statements in Romans 7:7 and 7:12 about the moral integrity of OT law, and
of its further establishment through NT faith in Romans 3:31.[1]
What he was trying to do
was convey the far greater spiritual
virtues which come through the Spirit, that can only be accessed by
faith. And such faith is not human but divine – given by God through Jesus.
We are saved by Jesus,
through faith in Him, and that faith is evidenced in our acceptance of the
things of the Spirit. The Spirit refashions our own spirit, bringing a new
level of obedience to God, purifying our thoughts, inner motives and
emotions. In a nutshell that’s what Paul was trying to convey in his letter
to the believers in Rome and which he also continued in his letters to the
Philippians, Colossians and Ephesians.
In The Spirit
It is amazing how
far-reaching, penetrating, and all-encompassing the potential spiritual
change can be when God’s Spirit truly lives in us. Those who are nominal
Christians, and who have not yet received the Spirit of God as a
life-changing entity, do not experience the wonders of God. They are still
“in the flesh” and “cannot please God” (Rom 8:8).
But you are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you (Rom
8:9).
And when this imbuing
takes full hold (for this to occur, you have to submit to the Spirit,
want the Spirit, love the things of God, and live, breathe and
eat for God, so that you are one with Him), God takes you into a new realm
of existence. He doesn’t take you out of this world, but He does things that
confound rational explanation. Here is one example:
“John G Lake was a missionary to Africa
many years before the modern Full Gospel
movement. The deadly bubonic plague broke out in his area – hundreds died.
He cared for the sick and buried the dead. Finally the British sent a ship
with supplies and a corps of doctors. The doctors sent for Lake to come
aboard and asked him, ‘What have you been using to protect yourself?’
“ ‘Sirs,’ Lake replied, ‘I believe the law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and
death. And as long as I walk in the light of that law of Life, no germ will
attach itself to me.’
“ ‘Don’t you think you had better use our
preventatives?’ the doctor urged.
“ ‘No’ said Lake, ‘but, doctor, I think you
would like to experiment with me. If you will go over to one of these dead
people and take the foam that comes out of their lungs after death, then put
it under the microscope you will see masses of living germs. You will find
they are alive until a reasonable time after a man is dead. You can fill my
hand with them and I will keep it under the microscope, and instead of these
germs remaining alive, they will die instantly.’
“The doctors agreed. They made the experiment
and it was true. When they expressed wonder at what caused it Lake told
them, ‘That is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’.” (K E Hagin,
In Him, pp 22,23.)
When the Spirit of Jesus
finds a home in you, God gives you faith like He did to John Lake, and He
performs wonders that defy human explanation.
What Lake was quoting were
these words:
There is therefore now
no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:1,2).
I’ll come to what this law
of the Spirit of life is in a moment. First, some more examples.
My wife and I were sitting
in church many years ago, when a false minister (we didn’t know he was false
at the time) delivered a message (you couldn’t call it a sermon, because it
contained only one scripture at the end, of pitiful ‘relevance’) against us
and our views. He didn’t name us by name, but he insinuated that my wife was
a witch. He attacked our views on various spiritual matters and health remedies which we deemed were valuable (mentioned in
The Mystery of the
Invisible). It was so unscientific, so unfactual as to be risible, but
his diatribe went unopposed – until later, when I took it apart, point by
point, in a 10 page personal letter to the infidel (which he never addressed
or responded to).
While he was speaking,
however, Helena was enveloped in what she could only describe as a
protective spiritual bubble. It completely surrounded her, isolating her
from the extremely hurtful untrue comments and false accusations. She was
shielded supernaturally. It was wonderfully reassuring.
You are safe in the
abiding presence of God:
He shall cover you with
His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be
your shield and buckler (Ps 91:4).
When you are in God’s
will, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets you free from the
law of sin and death.
A young woman was
imprisoned for her faith as a Christian in China – one of very many! She was
handcuffed, which made it impossible for her to do the necessary things to
take care of bodily functions. She had to eat like a dog on all fours, just
using her mouth. Her bed was a top bunk. She couldn’t climb into it without
falling down onto the hard concrete floor. The harsh metal cut into her
wrists, and the steel was ice cold in the bitter winter weather.
Her situation was very
distressing! Yet she didn’t want to complain to God. She accepted her lot
with humble resignation.
But the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus sets you free from the law of sin and death. He
tells you that you can ask Him for anything (Jn 14:14). In every situation
God enables you to conquer. He is always there with us, in every
circumstance.
Humbly, she prayed.
“Father, if it is your will that I must endure this, then so be it. I accept
what- ever you say. But if it be your will – that I may praise you and
magnify your name, though I am not worthy – I humbly ask you to remove these
shackles from my wrists.” Immediately the handcuffs fell to the floor.
When
the guards found out, she did what she had promised God – to praise and
magnify His name – she told them God had answered her prayer. The miracle
was undeniable. It was a witness to hardened communist guards of the reality
of the God they deny.
I have mentioned in God
Speaks To The WCG of the despicable duplicity and heinous hypocrisy of
the Worldwide Church of God. Their ministers rose up against my wife and me,
opposing and vilifying us.
But the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death. God
demonstrated it again.
In 1998, God spoke in a
dream, depicting me flying like superman. I was given supernatural power to
do God’s will, to witness against the enemy.
When the enemy comes in
like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him
(Is 59:19).
And so He did. Under the
unction of the Spirit I wrote a series of articles blitzing the WCG’s
failings, misdemeanours, hypocrisy and sham. It was a witness against them.
God judged them.
They accused us of
wrongdoing, but we were free because of the Spirit of life. They are
the ones deceived and in prison to demonic spirits. They will not get out
until they have paid Him the last penny.
The Law of The Spirit
What did Paul mean by “the
law of the Spirit of life”, and “the law of sin and death”?
You and I live in a world
that is governed by laws. They are automatic in the way they operate. You
don’t have to understand about the law of gravity to see how it works. It is
irrevocable.
So is the law of sin and
death. If you sin, you will eventually die. You won’t live forever.
Automatically, you have come under the force of this unavoidable
principle. In that sense Paul called it a ‘law’. It is philosophical
terminology.
But Jesus has set us free
from that irrevocable law and its penalty by dying to pay the price for us.
If we want to live sinlessly from now on – that’s true repentance – He
rescinds the penalty of our sins, so the law does not claim us as its
victims.
Jesus didn’t do away with
the righteous requirement (Rom 8:4) – our need to be completely obedient to
God’s commandments and principles of righteousness. But, through the power
of His indwelling Spirit, we have what we formerly lacked, so that we can
obey Him now in every way.
With Jesus’ Spirit living
in us, we have new motivation, a new heart, a cleansed outlook and will. It
is to do HIS will. And so, the law of the Spirit of life is now an equally
irrevocable force working within us. If we are totally yielded to Him, so
that His will is our will, we have His life. We are “in Christ Jesus”, and
we don’t “walk according to the [desires of the] flesh but according to [the
will of] the Spirit” (Rom 8:1).
Such a person, completely
sold out to God, automatically comes under the protection of the Spirit for
the purposes of God, that He can accomplish His plan through that person. In
John Lake’s case, he was a missionary
to Africa about 100 years ago, and what God was doing through him was
indispensable.
Thus, the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set him free from the law of sin and death.
The devil wanted him dead.
He wanted Lake to die of disease, and there were many in Africa that he
could have died from. But Lake declared his complete trust
in God, because of Jesus. He knew that life in Jesus is more powerful than
potential death that Satan could bring.
You can have that same
assurance of faith. It is as sure as law. Give your life to Jesus. Let it
go. Take His in its place and you will know this law of life.
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