THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE

WEDNESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2021

The Spirit of God is the Spirit that gives life abundantly and eternally, not temporary. The Old Covenant established by Moses, together with its rituals and sacrifices, had some flaws but in the new covenant, God Himself graced us with a built-in internal power, as the final revelation of His will for mankind and it is faultless. So we have a brand new relationship with God made possible by the strength of His Spirit and mediated by Jesus.

Reference: 2 Corinthians 3:6 New International Version (NIV) "He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant - not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

God made us competent as ministers of a new covenant. In another way, He enabled and qualified us to be ministers of His new covenant. How did God do this? He accomplished this purpose by reproducing His divine nature in human lives.

To throw more light on the question I asked above: "How did God do this?" In Christ Jesus, God gave us His Spirit in us. He fulfilled His promise in us as revealed in Ezekiel 36:26: "And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you..." (NLT). Here, the new heart is His divine nature while the new spirit is the newly created human spirit. This just explains how we manifest the Father's nature on a day-to-day basis, as the life of God flows through our inward being. We manifest His nature, which governs our new life in Christ.

Now watch this: The latter part of the referenced Scripture says, "not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." This implies that the new covenant established by Jesus is not of written laws. It is our installed internal urge sponsored by the Holy Spirit, who resides in our inner man. On a daily basis and in many different ways, we find ourselves living the life of Christ as His Spirit works through us. Did you get it? We don't go on checking or observing the written code of the law, or "dos and donts" in order to live by them. No! A thousand times. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus isn't a code of law or set of written code, rather it is the Spirit of God expressing the very life of God in us and through us as a government.

Romans 7:6 reads, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code" (NIV). Yes, we now have and express our spiritual life in Christ because we live by the new way of God's Spirit at work in us, not in the old way of the written code. In Christ Jesus, through this new way of the Spirit, we have fulfilled everything that the laws of the old covenant tried to express in its limited shadow form.

Why does the letter kill? The Bible says, "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17 ESV). Did this Scripture mean that the Mosaic (Old) Covenant or law wasn't good for all people and for all time? Yes it wasn't good enough. Although it provided them with laws to govern their behaviour, it didn't supply them with the sufficient power needed to fulfil or obey it completely and to remain true to it, unlike now that we have the internal energy, supplied by the Spirit at work in us. For this reason it killed and couldn't justify the ungodly, because the requirements were not wholly fulfilled. In other words, the law condemns and even provokes to sin. So the New Covenant established by Christ comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit who indwells all who accept Christ as Lord, and this Spirit of God grants us the power and strength to do or fulfil the will of God.

Beloved, God has enabled us to be ministers of His new covenant. And this is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Jeremiah 31:31-33; Luke 22:20; John 6:63; Hebrews 8:10; 1 Corinthians 11:25-26.

Exuberant Declaration: God is glorious and He is glorified in me through the power of the Holy Spirit. Glory is the life of God made manifest in my spirit as I serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. The law of the Spirit of life is working mightily in me; thus I live a changed and glorious life in Christ. Blessed be God!