2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 2
The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence
Day 2
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Romans 8:2
The Law
The word “law” has various uses throughout the scriptures. Sometimes “law” refers to the first five books of the Bible, also known as “the Books of Moses” or “the Pentateuch” or sometimes “the Torah.” As an example of this, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gave us the Golden Rule, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Jesus used the term “the Law” as a reference to the Books of Moses with the complementary term “the Prophets” as a reference to the rest of the Old Testament; “For this is the Law and the Prophets” meaning “this is what the entire Old Testament is all about.” Sometimes the word “law” refers to the specific commands of God as found in Ten Commandments. In Romans Chapter 7, Paul quoted the tenth commandment of the Ten Commandments. Romans 7:7 “…for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’” In this verse, Paul used the term “the Law” to point to a specific command within a set of commands that God gave to Israel. The original giving of these commandments can be found in Exodus 20, beginning with the first of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods…”
The Law of the Spirit of Life
Another use of “law” arises out of our verse of the day, where “the law of the Spirit” does not refer to a set of books in the Bible or to a specific list of commands. Instead, “the law of the Spirit” refers to the broad principle of holy living that comes through the work of the Spirit of God. In Romans 7, Paul contrasted living under the Old Testament Law with the new life now found through the Spirit. Romans 7:6 says, “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” From Paul’s perspective, the believer in Christ Jesus has been “released from the Law.” The moment a person believes in Jesus Christ, vast and glorious things happen. Paul described one of those glorious truths in the first verse of our 40 Days of Prayer, “no condemnation.” When we trust Christ and believe in His death in our place, He bears our condemnation. The specific condemnation Paul had in mind was the just condemnation God has for us because we have broken His Law. However, the moment we believe in Christ Jesus, we die with Him. His death becomes the fulfillment of our just condemnation, thus we are immediately and forever freed from the condemnation of God due to our violation of God’s Law.
In Romans 8:2, Paul revealed another glorious truth about our life in Christ. We have been set free from the futile way of life found in attempting to follow a set of commandments. Something new has come, a new way of living by serving God “in newness of the Spirit.” In Romans 8:2, Paul restated the principle he articulated in Romans 7:6. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” He restated the principle by setting in contrast, “the law of the Spirit of life” with “the law of sin and of death.” The Old Testament Law was good and righteous. The problem was never with the Ten Commandments. The problem is with us. We, in our natural human effort, can never keep the commandments of God with perfection. His holy expectations for us cannot be achieved through our own effort. The Law came to identify our inadequacies. The Law exposed our inability before a holy God. Now, in Christ, we have been “released from the Law.” (Romans 7:6) Now, in Christ, we have been “set free from the law.” (Romans 8:2)
The Law of Sin and of Death
In this case, just as in Romans 7:6, “the law of sin and of death” refers to the Old Testament Law and the commandments of God as found in the Ten Commandments. By the grace of God, the life giving principle found in Christ Jesus overwhelms the fundamental principle of sin and death that comes from the Law. The phrase “the law of sin and of death” encapsulates the principle that sin, the breaking of God’s Law, brings death into the world. Everyone is a sinner and everyone falls under the natural consequence of sin. “The wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23. Death screams to us that this world is not as it should be. Death screams to us that we are not as we should be in reference to a holy God and His holy standards. Death is God’s calling card for the truth of His Word. From the inception of the world, the reign of sin and death has been on display. God articulated the principle of sin and death to Adam and Eve. God said to them, “…from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) Adam and Eve’s rebellion and subsequent death exemplifies this universal principle. Their deaths function as a microcosm of all sin and subsequent death. We know intuitively that there is no escaping this fundamental reality. We know there is no escape, at least not an escape we can produce in our own power.
Set Free
However, God has set us free from “the Law of sin and death.” He has done this through a greater power than the consequences of breaking His Law. The greater power is His work in our lives through faith in His Son. God has set us free. Freedom reigns over us now that we are in Christ. We are free from the Law and the underlying principle of sin and death that followed us. Though we have all broken God’s Law, the dominion of death over us has been broken. God delivered us from the binding principle that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. When sin and death seemed insurmountable, God sent His Son into the world to establish a new principle. The new law states that there is life through faith in Christ Jesus.
If God has set us free from the law of sin and death eternally, He intends this freedom to have its desired effect in the here and now. God freed us from “the law of sin and death” through the life giving work of the Holy Spirit when we put our faith in His Son. However, God did not set us free simply to bring us to eternal life. He set us free for the glory of His Son both now and forever. We were once dominated by sin and we were destined to face the judgment of God. God makes His name glorious by defeating the power of “the law of sin and death.” God brings Himself praise in the death defeating, life giving, and sin destroying work of Jesus. We maximize the glory of the name of God when we embrace this freedom completely. In other words, God set us free from the fundamental truth that our sin naturally leads to death. We display God’s power over sin and death when we allow the Spirit of God to free us daily from sin’s dominion over us now. We have been set free. Now, we display our everlasting freedom in the daily dependency on the Spirit of God. A life lived daily in the power of the Spirit of God puts on display the reality of the eternal life given by the power of the Spirit of God. May we live today through the power of His Spirit.
Prayer Focus
God, I worship You for Your perfect plan to bring glory to Your name. You, and You only, deserve our praise. Oh Father, only You could bring about my liberation from sin. Only You could overwhelm the power of sin and death. I praise You for setting me free. In my freedom, I confess to You that I have far too often allowed sin to dominate aspects of my life. Forgive me for taking Your work of salvation with so little weight. In Your grace Lord, be my liberation today. Free me from the daily bondage to sin the way You have already freed me from the eternal consequences of sin. Free me from my selfish desires. Empower me through my continual reliance on Your Spirit today to live for the glory of Your great name.
From DL Moody’s Secret Power
The first work of the Spirit is to give life; spiritual life. He gives it and He sustains it. If there is no life, there can be no power; Solomon says: “A living dog is better than a dead lion.” When the Spirit imparts this life, He does not leave us to droop and die, but constantly fans the flame. He is ever with us. Surely we ought not to be ignorant of His power and His work.