Law and Spirit – Interpreting the Law of God (29)

Law and Spirit

Interpreting the Law of God (29)

Interpreting God’s Law is only living in the Spirit of God.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Romans 8:5-9

Let’s parse out the connections in this passage. Mind of the flesh, hostile to God, does not submit to the Law of God, cannot please God, condemned to death.

Mind of the Spirit, pleasing to God, works in those in whom the Spirit dwells, submits to God’s Law, yields life and peace.

This is not hard to decipher, friends. What it teaches us is plain: those in whom the Spirit of God dwells will bring their minds under the Law so that, by acquiring the mind of the Spirit, they may live in a manner pleasing to God. Those who do not submit their minds to the Law are living in the flesh and cannot please God.

In the Christian life it’s not Law or Spirit, but Law and Spirit.

Which makes it just that much clearer how important it is that we learn and rightly interpret the Law of God.

The Spirit has come as our Teacher to instruct us in the things of the Law (Ezek. 36:26, 27), as we have previously observed. The Spirit knows the deep things of God, even the deep interpretations of the Law of God which may not have been relevant when the Law was first given but now are important for us live in good works of love for God and our neighbors (1 Cor. 2:10). The Spirit, the power of God within us, is able to do in and through us exceeding abundantly more than we could ever ask or think (Eph. 3:20).

But unless we acquire His mind we will never know His power—the power for love. We sow to the Spirit, as Paul commands (Gal. 6:7, 8) when we resort to His classroom for instruction in the Law and all the Word of God.

But what does that entail?

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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.