For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. – Romans 8:2
Law is very important in our lives because it sets boundaries for us to follow. These boundaries help keep order and protect us from harm. When we cross those boundaries, there are always consequences. In school, we learn about the difference between a law and a theory. A theory explains why or how something happens, but it hasn’t been completely proven as absolute truth. A law, on the other hand, is something that has been tested and proven to always be true. Consider the law of gravity, whatever goes up must come down. We can’t go against gravity because it’s a natural force that never stops working. It doesn’t turn off, and it affects people, water, rocks, and even the air.
Now we kind of have an idea of what law means. Once a law is established, we cannot go against it or escape it, just like the law of gravity. Paul used the word law in Greek, nomos, which means anything established, received by usage, a custom, a law, or a command. This is very similar to how we understand the word “law” today.
God gave us His laws not to harm or restrict us, but to set boundaries that guide and protect us. A law is not something that is forced upon us. Every law that exists is not fully enforced by force; rather, it is set in place to keep things in order. In the same way, gravity is not forced on anyone, yet it is always working. When we choose to cross those boundaries, there will always be consequences that follow.
I expounded on Romans 8:1, where Paul says that those who are in Christ Jesus are not condemned. But this raises an important question, what about those who are not in Christ? Why are they condemned?
To understand this, we have to go back to the very beginning. In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam a clear command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That command was spoken, and every word that comes from God is a law, because He is the King, the Lord, and God Himself.
God gave Adam a clear command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That command was the law, a boundary that God set for Adam. Just like the laws of nature or the laws of physics, God’s law was established, not enforced. It was created to bring order, not to take away the human right to choose. Laws exist to keep things in order, but they don’t remove our right to choose. We still have the freedom to stay within the boundaries that the Ruler has set or to cross them. In the same way, God set His law, but Adam still had the freedom to remain within God’s boundary or to go beyond it.
Sadly, Adam chose to disobey. The moment he crossed that boundary, sin entered the world, and the result was death. We know that God lives eternally. He is not bound by time or space. Before the fall, Adam also shared in that eternal nature, living in perfect fellowship with God. But when he disobeyed, death awakened within him. He became limited by time and subject to physical death. If Jesus had not come and died for our sins, humanity would have remained completely separated from God, and we all would have faced the same end — eternal separation from God. This separation is what we refer to as eternal damnation. This is what Paul describes as “the law of sin and death.” It means that whenever God’s law is broken, sin takes place, and the result of sin is death. As Scripture declares, “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)
Now, praise be to God in the highest, who sent our Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross and rise again, paying the price for our sins and destroying the power of sin and death. As it is written: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Through His sacrifice, Jesus broke the wall of enmity and reconciled us back to our Heavenly Father.
“For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.” (Ephesians 2:14)
“And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)
This is what Paul meant when he spoke of “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Through Christ, we have received a new law that gives life, freedom, and fellowship with God. This is the fulfillment of God’s promise of a new covenant, not written on tablets of stone but written on the hearts of His people by the Holy Spirit.
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Hebrews 10:16–17
The law condemns us because we are guilty of our sin, that produces death within us. But the new law, the law of the Spirit gives us life. (2 Corinthians 3:6)
Now, why does the law of the Spirit give life? From the very beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the Bible says, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.” Then the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. Why did the Holy Spirit move first upon the earth? Because the Spirit always gives life. The moment the Spirit moved, creation began to take form, light came, order appeared, and life released into the earth that was once empty and dark.
When God created Adam, He formed him from the dust of the ground, but Adam did not live until God breathed into him. The Bible says, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) That breath came from God Himself , His Spirit that brought Adam to life. So from the beginning, the Holy Spirit has always been the giver of life.
Then, after His resurrection, Jesus repeated this same act of creation. He breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22). God, manifested in the flesh through our Lord Jesus Christ, demonstrated this same act of creation that once gave Adam a living soul. But now, through Christ, He breathes into us a life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45). The soul can be bound by sin, as we see throughout Scripture, but the Holy Spirit cannot be touched by sin, for there is no unrighteousness in Him. He is the very Spirit of God.
Before Jesus accomplished His task when He died on the cross, He introduced the Holy Spirit to the disciples, with whom they would have fellowship after His departure. He said, “I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth.” Then He said, the Helper, the one I will send to you, is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in Jesus name. (John 14:16–17, 26). Because sin is already washed away in us when we receive Jesus, the Holy Spirit can now dwell in us. When we receive the Holy Spirit, He will teach us all things about God and help us understand spiritual things, for who can search the mind of God but His Spirit? (1 Corinthians 2:11). He will also bring to our remembrance all the words of the Lord Jesus. No wonder the disciples were able to recall every detail of the Lord’s life, from His birth to His death for it was absolutely the work of the Holy Spirit.
What the LORD Jesus did on the cross paid the full penalty for our sins, breaking the separation between us and God. Break us free from the power of satan over our lives, yet the nature of our flesh still lingers in us because all it knows is to commit sin, as it has done for thousands of years. Now, the Holy Spirit was sent to give us power to conquer the routine of our flesh. The nature of our flesh can no longer rule over us because the power of the Holy Spirit now gives life to our whole being. We are no longer slaves to sin, for Jesus has set us free. We now walk in the Spirit who gives life.
Just as He did in the beginning, when the earth was without form, void, and dark such a great description of our lives but when He hovers, light begins to shine in us. Regeneration and transformation begin. Life begins not only in our earthly bodies for He will change our corruptible bodies into incorruptible ones, into glorious bodies like the body of Christ at the appointed time. (Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:53).
Now, why do birds and planes seem to break free from the law of gravity? They don’t actually defeat gravity, it’s still working. The law is still there and active, but for those who are in Christ, there is no more condemnation, for Jesus has already received the judgment on our behalf. So, just as gravity no longer has power over a bird in flight, the law of sin and death no longer has power over us.
What birds and planes do is use another law that works alongside gravity just as the law of the Spirit gives life to us. Birds and airplanes use their wings to push air downward, creating an upward force called lift that overcomes gravity. In the same way, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we overcome the works of the flesh. As long as lift is stronger than gravity, birds and planes can fly. As long as we walk in the Spirit, there is freedom, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)
But the moment a bird or a plane stops creating lift, when its engine fails or its wings are damaged gravity takes over and it begins to fall. That fall leads to destruction, just as many lives are lost when a plane crashes or a bird dies in the fall. The same is true in our spiritual lives. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to us, given to help us overcome sin and death, yet He will not force Himself upon anyone. When we grieve or quench the Spirit, His presence remains with us, but we begin to drift away from His leading. Our hearts grow dull, His voice becomes distant, and soon we begin to fall.
The moment we stop walking in the Spirit, the pull of the flesh takes over just as gravity pulls everything down. But when we yield to the Spirit, He lifts us above the weight of sin and restores our strength. For as the Scripture says, “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31). For when we walk in the Spirit, we rise above the pull of sin and death, living in the freedom and power that Christ has given us. Amen!
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