We see then that we have received righteousness from God, apart from observing the Law of Moses, by believing in the atonement made by Christ on the cross of Calvary. We see also that, apart from the guidelines of the Law, we must choose to live righteously.

We are informed that we are legally free from the Law because we have died with Christ. We are reminded that the Law condemned us to death while in our heart we desired to live righteously. The law of sin and death in our flesh keeps urging us to disobey God while the Law thunders at us that the soul that sins will die.

Chapter Eight of Romans. Chapter Eight gives us the solution. We find now the new law, the law of the new covenant, the law that takes the place of the Law of Moses. That law is the Holy Spirit Himself.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)

Notice that Paul does not state there is no urge to sin in those who are in Christ but rather that there is no condemnation. When we choose to live in the Spirit of God, obeying the Spirit in every detail of life, we are without guilt in the sight of God.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)

Our new law is the Law of the Spirit of Life. It is this law that gives us victory over the law of sin and death that resides in our flesh. The new law sets us free from the lusts of the flesh.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)

The Spirit of Life sets us free from the law of sin and death. While we are following the Spirit we are not under the Law of Moses. When we as a Christian believer turn away from the Spirit of God and walk in the flesh we return under the condemnation of the Law.

For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. (James 2:11)

That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)

As long as we walk in the Spirit of God we are without condemnation. We through the Spirit keep on choosing to be the slave of righteousness. The Spirit helps us keep the commandments, given by the Lord Jesus and by His Apostles, not according to the letter as in the case of the old covenant but as interpreted by the Spirit of God.

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. (II Corinthians 3:3)

To be continued.