How has this happened? Why is there no longer any condemnation? “The law of the Spirit” may seem an unusual phrase, but remember (as I Frequently remind you) there were no chapter and verses in the original, and this follows on directly from what we read in chapter 7. And in the later stages of that chapter Paul has been speaking about finding “this law at work “(7:21), “the law of my mind” and being “a prisoner to the law of sin” (7:22). So it makes perfect sense for him to speak of “the law of the Spirit”. A new principle is at work in us. We have been set free. The Spirit gives us life. The gospel is about getting a new life, living a new life. The Holy Spirit is the One who gives us that life. When we are experiencing death, ie experiencing the reality of sin within us we should look to the Spirit, and we should look with hope. For it is His role and His desire to give us life. We should look to live differently, and to receive power and strength from a new source. We have been set free from the law of sin and death. Sin and death are the inevitable consequences of our fallen state, but in Christ, through the Spirit, there is freedom, there is an alternative.
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