Galatians 5:18 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
The law of God is a wonderful blessing to humanity because it reveals God’s will for us. It shows us what it means to be holy in a fallen world. Many laws of the Bible are contextually conditioned, intended for specific cultures and situations. Behind all of these laws are timeless truths. When these truths are “boiled down” to the essentials, at the core we will find love: loving God and loving others.
We experience a two-fold problem with the law. First, on the positive side, we seek to follow God’s law. That is important and required. It is what it means to be a believer. However, in our effort to obey, we may be tempted to think that we can make ourselves good enough before God by our obedience to his law. The problem is that we will never measure up to God’s demand of righteous living and obedient holiness. We will fall short of this goal because of the problem of sin that dwells within the deepest part of our person. Thus, the law ends up being a trap for those who seek righteousness by “works of the law.”
Second, on the negative side, the law points out our sin. The law makes the sinful nature with which we all were born react in rebellion against God. Without the law, we would not know what sin is. When we realize the law–basically any aspect of it–we will push against it. The law calls for obedience, but we want to go our own way. Just like Adam and Eve, we will exert our own wills against God’s will. Thus, again the law ends up being a trap for all people because it gives sin the opportunity to rebel against God.
When we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the law no longer functions as a trap but serves its purpose as pointing the way to Christlikeness. The Spirit will take God’s laws, especially the heart of the law as love, and will write these laws on our hearts. Another way to understand this is that the Spirit helps us to understand and apply love by developing our consciences and changing our world view. Our inclinations change from pleasing self and satisfying the desires of the flesh, to thinking how we can show our love for God by growing in our faith and how we can show our love for other people by acts of kindness and compassion.
To be led by the Spirit requires that we first of all entrust our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This will grow into a life of faith. We will then seek to please Christ by allowing the Holy Spirit to be our guide. Our faith will become evident in obedience. This is what it means to “walk in the Spirit.” We are led by the Spirit and then response by walking in faith and obedience.
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