Dead to the Law

4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh,[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us so that we bore fruit for death. 6 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.

Paul tells us that as Christians we have died to the law and its demands. Before Christ set us free by our death we were under the law. The power of the law was that it would shine a light on what was right and wrong in my life revealing to me that I was a sinner bound to my sinful ways and headed for death. The law gave me no power to keep the law…and so we were prisoners of the law. But now that we are in Christ, we have died to the law and therefore we are no longer under the law’s mandate. Not because the law has been nullified, but because we have been released to serve Christ by the power of the Spirit that is alive in us enabling us to fear fruit for God.

As long as I remain alive in my flesh, and try to live in my own strength, I will fail in my walk with God. But when I die to my “flesh” and I let Christ live in me, then His Spirit provides power to accomplish God d’s will and purposes. Jesus had said that we are to “take up our cross daily and follow Him”. Today, I will draw upon the power of the Holy Spirit to produce in me the fulfillment of God’s law.

Lord, I thank you for the life You have provided which empowers me to live the life You have called me to live. May I find my strength and my power in You and not in my own “flesh”. I place myself at your disposal for Your glory’s sake! Amen