…our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3.5, 6

One of the purposes of the Law of God is to kill us dead. The Law exposes and condemns the sin that lingers in us, but it has no power to resuscitate us into true life.

That is the work of the Spirit. The Spirit uses the Law to destroy our old works and to make a mockery of our every thinking we might be able to do anything good to earn the favor of the holy God. Then He uses the Law to guide us into the good works God has before ordained for us in His Law (Eph. 2.10). We take up these works, not to earn some favor from God. Rather, having been favored by Him, we take up His Law to show our love for Him and to acquire the mind and power of the Spirit for living in love toward our neighbors.

The Law of God, as it was given through Moses, is much deeper and richer than even Moses or the Prophets understood. It holds insights to the mind of God which must be mined in every generation, and this is the work of the Spirit. Just as the Spirit taught the Apostles how to apply the Law to their situations in ways that would have left Moses scratching his head, so He intends to bring out from the letter of the Law its relevant spiritual truths for our contemporary lives.

But unless we have the mind of the Spirit and are committed to the path of holiness, we’ll never be able to make meaningful sense of the Law, or to know its power to bring holiness, righteousness, and goodness to light in our lives and times.

We must take up the Law daily, heeding whatever the Spirit would teach us, and press on toward the holiness which is in Jesus Christ alone. As we do, and as we continue this discipline, we will discover new and wondrous ways that the Law of God brings the blessings of God to bear on our everyday lives.

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