Years ago when slavery was officially abolished in Jamaica, some of the slaves in the remote areas did not know of their freedom. Years after their release had been announced they still continued to serve their masters, oblivious to the fact that they were legally free. Their owners kept the news from the slaves as long as possible, hoping to extract every ounce of work from their captives. These people put up with these conditions for only one reason. ¹ They didn’t know they were free. In Rom. 8:2 Paul says For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. You’re totally free because of Jesus if you only know it.

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Romans 8:2–3 (KJV)
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

The Words ‘For the law’ in the Phrase ‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’

Reason #1 – The Law of the Spirit of Life is a Higher Law

• The word ‘For’ is a connecting word which leads into ‘exactly how it happened’ that believers are in a ‘no condemnation’ state.
• We have no condemnation because Jesus activated the law of the Spirit of life, through His death burial and resurrection. And that law is a higher law than the law of sin and death.
• Laws are different in terms of force and ability. One law may be higher than another law. A law passed at State level, here in the United States, can be overturned by a higher court.
• The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, a higher law than the law of sin and death, cannot be upended. Life always tops death.
• The Spirit is always superior to the flesh. No comparison exists.
• That’s good news because it means no matter what is bugging you in your flesh, no matter what weight is pulling you down, there is a higher law you can tap into.
• This law is consistently higher not just every once in a while.
• The law of gravity is at work on planet earth. But so is the law of lift. The law of lift is what airplanes use to overcome the law of gravity.
• So, in nature, you see two laws here. One is higher than the other.
• The law of lift overcomes the law of gravity every single time its properly employed. There isn’t a single time when the law of lift will fail. It operates so perfectly that you never even think twice about it as the plane you are in powers down the runway.
• I have flown many times and I never, not even one time, wondered whether or not this plane was going to get off the ground. Didn’t think twice about it.
• The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus works in the same vein. It works perfectly. It works every single time. Every single solid time a person calls on Jesus as Lord, that law goes to work.
• It’s a higher law than the law of sin and death. It operates in a repeatable fashion, no human being, who meets the conditions of Romans 10:9-10 ever loses out.
• The law of the Spirit of life in Christ will set any human being free from the law of sin and death.

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Reason #2 – God Backs the Law of the Spirit of Life

• Generally, the effectiveness of any law is in the government or institution which enforces it.
• It doesn’t matter how well a law is written. It doesn’t matter how well its crafted, if it’s not going to be enforced, it has no value.
• An unenforced law might as well be no law at all.
• The law spoken of here is ‘in’ Christ Jesus or enforced within the eternal truth realm of God.
• This means no situation exists where the law does not work when activated or applied.
• We have a settled and undeterred fact. When the conditions are met, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ will make you free from anything connected to sin and death.
• All of which means, there are no hopeless situations only people who think hopelessly.

The Words ‘life’ in the Phrase ‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’

Reason #3 – Life is Always Greater Than Death

• What is the Law of the Spirit of Life?
• Think about how God lives. Does He live well? Can death stand in His Presence?
• Zoe is the life of God. It is life not degraded by sin of any kind.
• Sin always brings a man down. It always brings Him lower. God’s life is untainted life.
  1 John 1:5 says, God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Zero – Total light means total life.
• That’s what people want. People desire to live life to the fullest. They are hunting for it. They are searching for it.
• The law of the Spirit of life is part of the salvation equation.
• It is the power of the New Birth, that is, the Holy Spirit coming into our spirits and making us new creations in Christ. Salvation includes the new-birth. Salvation includes spirit regeneration (2 Cor. 5:17).
• Real life begins with a real regeneration of your heart.
• If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Once the inner life is recreated, you now have the capacity to enjoy life.

Reason #4 – The Law of the Spirit of Life is the Law of the New Covenant.

• The law of the Spirit of life is a covenant promise (Jeremiah 31:31–34).
• That’s the New Covenant. That’s the Law of the Spirit of Life. Now I am not going to go into covenant other than saying covenant is the strongest agreement in existence on planet earth.
• If you want to know more about covenant, there is a free offer on the website. There is 66 pages of notes on the Blood Covenant. All you have to do is fill out your email address and you can get access to that information.

The Words ‘has made me free’ in the Phrase ‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.’

Reason # 5 – God Has Already Done It

• Notice the phrase ‘has made me free’ is past tense.
• The Law of the Spirit of Life has made me free. It’s not going to make me free.
• He has made me free. Not going to make me free.
• Watch the tenses of God’s Word. People sometimes get in trouble because they misread the tenses.
• Believers are praying to be free when the Word says they’re already free. They get their faith misplaced.
• You cannot obtain a blessing which God has already said is yours any other way then by acting like it’s yours.
• You can’t work for something God has already given you. You don’t have to struggle with addictions. God said you are already free. Appropriate it. Put your faith in what God said and watch God back it.
• Act like it’s so and you will enjoy the reality of it.
• Dominated is a great word to describe our life before we met Jesus. We were a conquered people. Sin was our Master.
• We were completely under enemy control. Whatever the sin nature dictated, we did without dissent. Resistance was futile. We had no control. That’s the law of sin and death.
• You wanted to change but you couldn’t. You wanted to say no and you did say no but it didn’t do any good. You fell right back into the same sins. The good you wanted to do, you couldn’t do and what you didn’t want to do, that’s what you did.
• But when Jesus came into our heart, the tables turned. It’s summed up in this verse in Paul’s second letter to Timothy.

2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)
7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

• Self-control is a fruit of the recreated, born-again human spirit. It’s one of the first things a person will notice after receiving the miracle of the new birth.
• Once the insides of man experience the power of the Spirit of Life in recreation, that man now has the capacity of self-control.
• Now it’s unfortunate that there are times when saints in the church act as bad or worse than unbelievers outside the church.
• At times, there’s almost have no distinction between them at all. And there should be a light and darkness difference between the two.
• People who are positionally free from sin can act as though they have no position at all.
• People who are ‘in Christ’ can act like they are not in Him at all.
• We are free. Not going to be. We already are.

The Words ‘For what the law could not do’ in the Phrase ‘For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,’

Reason # 6 – The Law of Moses is Powerless to Save

• What is it that the law could not do?
  • The law could not free us from judgment.
  • The law could not give us a righteous standing before God (2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 3:21).
  • The law could not clear the conscience (Hebrews 10:1-2).
  • The law could not give the ability to control the sin nature.
• Now, you remember Paul is writing to both Jews and Gentiles.
  • To the Jew keeping the law meant keeping the Ten Commandments, walking according to all the precepts of the Torah, and following the Mishna.
  • To the Gentile, this means something different. Different kind of man made laws and ideas.
• Various Gentile methods have been employed in an effort to come some other way than God’s way.
• These include…
  • Religious systems – do this and don’t do the other and you’ll be righteous.
  • Moral goodness and right conduct – some people are just naturally nice and caring. It’s good you were raised with morals but again this is not righteousness.
  • Philanthropic endeavors – you know, ‘good deed doers.’ They try to make the world a better place but one more time this is not righteousness.
• What’s wrong with religious systems, what’s wrong with moral goodness and right conduct, what wrong with philanthropic endeavors? The sin nature is what’s wrong.
• It taints all of man’s endeavors. While man is trying to do good, the law of sin and death is yet at work in his nature.
• It’s man’ nature which is wrong.
• Men do not go to hell for what they do.
• They go to hell because of who they are.

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John 8:44 (KJV)
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

• Jesus told these leaders they had a different father. The devil was their daddy. In other words, they were in the wrong family.
• Death reigned in their heart. The lusts of their father they would do. They were chips off the old block. Like father like son.
• You have to have your nature changed. You must be born again.
• The only avenue of obtaining this right standing comes via the acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus for mankind.

Call to Action:

Men continuing on their own, trying to establish their own righteousness, experience a death state both naturally and eternally. The establishing of the only avenue for obtaining a God acceptable righteousness and the subsequent ability for that man to realize a mastery of the flesh nature is what the law of the Spirit of life contains. This law is your law and it’s your hour to walk in it.

Episode Resources

You can find more information on Roaming through Romans by visiting the following posts:

1. #S2-020: How Romans Can Add Value to Your Life [Podcast]
2. #S2-021:  Why There Is No Condemnation In Christ [Podcast]

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Question: In your lifetime, have you ever tried to be acceptable to God with your own works? How did this work out? Please leave your comments in the comments section below.