The Necessity of the Spirit The Rule of Law: Government of the Soul (5)

The Necessity of the Spirit

The Rule of Law: Government of the Soul (5)

We cannot submit our hearts, minds, and consciences to God’s rule apart from His Spirit.

“And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may truly live.” Deuteronomy 30:6

God knew that His people did not have the kind of inner strength they would need in order to be governed in all their affairs by the Law of God. The history of Israel throughout the Old Testament bears ample witness to their failures of soul. Loving themselves and the world more than God, the people of Israel consistently repudiated His covenant, despised His Law, and forfeited His blessings.

We continue doing the same to this day.

Yet, even as Israel was preparing to invade the land of promise, God held out yet another promise for them, which they would realize only after much suffering and hardship: He would circumcise their hearts so that they would be truly holy, would love the Lord their God as He intended, and would enjoy all His promised blessings as they walked in obedience to all His Law (vv. 9, 10).

As the Lord explained through Ezekiel and Jeremiah, this new heart would come with the new covenant, as God sent His Spirit to establish a pliant, living soul within His people, that they might know the fullness of His presence and power for blessing (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:26, 27). Only the Holy Spirit can bring the inward renewal unto life that is essential for God’s people to be governed in their souls by His Law. He dwells in them and teaches them God’s Word, convicting and transforming them by His inward presence, and empowering them outwardly to live as witnesses for Jesus Christ.

If we would know the rule of God’s Law in our souls, therefore, we must be filled with the Spirit of God. Conversely, if we possess the Spirit, and if we are truly filled with Him, we must expect that our inward life will be such—heart, mind, and conscience—as to produce glad obedience to God’s Law in all the outward expressions of our lives.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Bookstore, then Church Issues.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.