The Spirit of Life

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2). Paul is describing the difference between the law of the Spirit and the law of sin and death, the freedom we have in Christ from the law of sin and death. The law alone leads to sin and death, because it condemns us to judgment. The law of the Spirit of life sets us free, but how?

The Spirit of life is the one that caused Jesus to be conceived in Mary’s womb (Matt 1:18; Luke 1:35). The Holy Spirit becomes the Spirit of life, because he hovers over the darkness of our souls, which are “dead in our trespasses,” (Eph 2:5a) and creates life where no life existed, just as he did in Genesis 1 at creation. Thus we are “made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:5b).

It was the Spirit of life that enabled Jesus to live a perfect life in obedience to every command of God the Father. This same Spirit of life is the one that indwells each of us as believers in Christ. Because we have the same Spirit as Jesus had when he walked on this earth, we can walk in obedience to God the Father. This is because of the renewing, transforming work the Holy Spirit does at regeneration, and faith and continues in our sanctification today.

While we will never be able to walk perfectly in obedience as Jesus did on this earth, we are able to walk in obedience sometimes. Before the Spirit of life recreated life in our hearts, souls and minds, we were completely incapable of walking in obedience at anytime. Now we have the capacity to walk in obedience some of the time by living under the influence and directing of the Holy Spirit in our daily living “who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:4b).

Living according to the Spirit requires us to have a transformed nature. It is the same Spirit that gave us life, which also transforms us so that we may think not like someone who walks according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The result of this transformation is that out minds and our emotions become focused on the very things God would have us think on and feel. “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Rom 8:5).

Therefore, with this understanding of the change that must take place within us and the required work of the Holy Spirit to accomplish this work, let us seek and pray for the transforming work of the Spirit by praying earnestly and with deep feeling for God to so order it.