The law of the Spirit sets us free from the law of sin and death

The law of sin and death is at work in our members. The law of the Spirit, which gives life in Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans7:21-23; Romans 8:2.)

The light of the law could not shine into the body and enlighten the place where the law of sin and death hides, because the light of the law was only for outward sins, which were the fruit of the inner law of sin and death.

What was impossible for the law, God did by sending His Son as an offering for sin; He condemned sin in the flesh. (Romans 8:3.)

God’s judgment over sin in our members has now been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. The kingdom of heaven is now within us, and the Spirit of Christ will, through our obedience, open a way to previously unknown areas in our body—namely, to those places where the law of sin and death is active. As God’s Spirit progresses through the water and the blood (the death of Christ in our flesh), He is able to gradually destroy the law of sin and death. He can do this because the law the Spirit possesses makes our human spirit—which formerly was bound by the law of sin and death—alive.

The law of sin and the law of death are two distinct laws, and they each work in their own way. The law of sin constantly forces its demands upon our consciousness. If we yield to these demands, the law of sin will lead its prey into the law of death. As long as the law of sin rules a person—before he has been given over to the law of death—the conscience is awake, and the Spirit convicts that person of sin. However, by sinning again and again, the law of death silences the conscience, and the person sins with no sense of guilt. The law of sin leads the ungodly further into unknown territory. The person sins there, and the law of death continues to work to destroy the conscience so that, in the end, the person becomes dead in trespasses and sins.

The law of the Spirit works in the opposite way. It casts its light on the sin a person has previously committed without getting a bad conscience. It takes sin from the iron hand of the law of death and brings it into the light of the conscience. We agree with God’s Spirit, judge the sin and cease from it. (Galatians 5:16-18; 1 Peter 4:1.) The next time a new sin is brought before our consciousness, it also receives its judgment, and the process continues. In this way we are made alive. This is a gradual process and cannot—unlike the forgiveness of sins—take place in a moment.

Life is serious. We ourselves determine our own salvation or condemnation. God has established laws for everything, and He does not depart from them, because He is no respecter of persons.

We who live are continually given over to the death of Christ, so that the life of Christ will be manifest in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:10-11.)