Free from the law of sin and death

The effect of Adam’s one offence, Rom. 5. 19, was that all in his race were threatened with eternal condemnation. But in Christ Jesus that threat is gloriously lifted in its entirety, and for ever. The person who is in Christ, who characteristically lives his life after the Spirit, has by the law of the Spirit, which is life in Christ Jesus, been made free from the law of sin and death. The law was powerless to bring life because of the flesh, as we saw in chapter 7, but God’s own Son, by His flesh given in death, has condemned sin, with the effect that the righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled in the case of those who are in Christ Jesus.

This could not possibly be true for those who are still not saved, those who are in the flesh. They are dominated by, and absorbed in, the mind of the flesh. This mind is enmity against God because it is not, and cannot, be subject to the law of God. Accordingly, such cannot please God. Believers, however, are no longer ‘in the flesh’ but ‘in the Spirit’. They are taken up with the things of the Spirit as the bent of their life, and the Spirit of God dwells in them to replicate features of Christ.

This is so important to grasp. We owe the flesh nothing. It brought only that which was evil before we were saved, and is no different now that we are saved. If a believer lives according to it he shall never enter into that kind of life which God desires that we enjoy, in fellowship and communion with Him. It is vital therefore, through the Holy Spirit, to keep the members of our bodies in the place of death, as far as sin is concerned, in order that we might live that life of bliss and peace in the enjoyment of being sons of God. It is true that we shall not enjoy sonship in all its fullness until we are ‘conformed to the image of his Son’, 8. 29. But led by the Spirit of God, we may know now the joy of sonship, involving intimacy with the Father who delights to share His heart, His mind, His purpose, and His life with us. Not only are we sons of God, with all the dignity that that bestows, but we have known generative change, and are now also the children of God and heirs of God, the Holy Spirit bearing joint witness to this with our spirits.