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The Spirit of the Law

Paul made a distinction between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law in Romans 2:26-29, while defining who is and who is not a Jew:

²⁶ So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷ And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? ²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. ²⁹ But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

Paul asserts that if uncircumcised men keep the Law, God considers them to be Jews (i.e., of the tribe of Judah). In other words, while men may define a Jew by physical circumcision, God does not agree. Physical circumcision was indeed commanded by the letter of the law, but it is only a type of true circumcision, which is of the heart and which fulfills the spirit of the law.

Even Moses recognized the value and purpose of heart circumcision. Deuteronomy 30:6 says,

⁶ Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so that you may live [receive immortality].

Physical circumcision is a sign of Old Covenant obligation to fulfill one’s vow of obedience. The problem is that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and that all who have been physically circumcised are included as sinners who have violated their vow. The Old Covenant regulates behavior but does nothing to change the heart.

The intent of God is not that men should be physically circumcised but that they should love God with all their heart. Such a heart change can come only through the New Covenant, by which God fulfills His vow by sending the Holy Spirit to write the law upon our hearts. Behavior is altered by self-discipline (works of the flesh). Heart changes come by the Spirit’s work.

So Paul uses the term “letter” to indicate an outward form of behavior modification, in contrast to the “spirit” of the law, whereby God changes our nature itself. The main difference is that one depends on a man’s ability to fulfill his own vow, while the other depends on God’s ability to fulfill His vow.

In Romans 7 Paul expands upon this theme in the context of marriage vows. Romans 7:2 says,

² For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning her husband.

In other words, widows are no longer obligated to keep their vows that have bound them by law to their husbands. This is self-evident, of course. Paul then applies this principle more broadly in Romans 7:6,

⁶ But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

If the widow remarries, no one can object by pulling up a copy of the original marriage contract and say, “See here! The contract says you must reserve yourself only to the husband whose name is on the contract.” To assert such an objection would be to follow the “oldness of the letter.” As believers, however, we are no longer bound by the vow of our fathers in Exodus 19:8, for now God alone is bound by the New Covenant to change our hearts.

Death nullifies all earthly contracts, promises, and vows. As believers, baptized into Christ’s death, and raised again to walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4), we are no longer bound by the vows of our earthly fathers, even though they bound their descendants along with themselves. Being crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6), we have put to death the old man which was born fleshly through the will of man.

That fleshly identity, born naturally under Adam, is no longer the real You. You have been begotten by the Spirit as a new man and now have God as your Father. If you continue to claim, as your true identity, that you are the son of your earthly parents—even going back to Abraham or further back to Adam—the great Judge will treat you accordingly in the divine court. Does anyone seriously want to claim the original man of sin as his father?

We are either children of God or children of the flesh, and the divine court will proceed according to the identity that we claim. The law itself is the same either way, but it has provisions for each one according to his/her claim. Death does not put away the law, for the law is the expression of the nature of God. The New Covenant simply passes the obligation from man to God, because whoever makes the vow is the one responsible to keep it.

So Paul insists that uncircumcised men who keep the law are the real Jews, but those who have only physical circumcision are not recognized as Jews in the divine court. The idea that Jews are chosen on account of some genealogical connection with Abraham is refuted by the apostle Paul.

The spirit of the law points to God’s mind and intent. The letter of the law, set forth in various statutes, are practical, earthly scenarios illustrating the spirit of the law. If a man does this, then God’s judgment (verdict) is such-and-so. But if men limit the application to the letter of the law, they have missed the spirit of the law which God intended to reveal to us.

For example, theft is described in terms of stealing an ox or a sheep in Exodus 22:1. But would this not apply, by the spirit of the law, to a tractor or to a llama? A literalist might use the letter of the law to justify stealing anything other than what was specified in the law.

Those who treat the law as an unwelcome impediment to sin tend to search for ways around the law. Thousands of years ago, it was not uncommon for men to look for ways to justify their desire for fornication. A man would find a harlot and quickly make a marriage covenant with her, and then give her a bill of divorce the following morning. While this seemed to satisfy the laws of marriage and divorce by the letter of the law in Deuteronomy 24:1), it did not conform to the nature of God.

True sons of God do not search for ways around the law; they search the Scriptures to know the mind of God, which is the ultimate standard of righteousness. The law not only defines sin (1 John 3:4) but also restrains sin through fear of judgment. In other words, those who desire to sin must live in fear of the law, while those who desire righteousness embrace the law and appreciate its restraining effect upon the lawless ones.

The sons of God do not consider the law to be a constraint but a model by which we can monitor our hearts to see the progress of the Holy Spirit as it changes our nature. This change of nature does not occur all at once. As we are led by the Spirit in various experiences, one law at a time is written on our hearts over a lifetime. If we begin our walk with a desire to steal, the Spirit of God removes that desire—often through judgments—until we no longer have that desire.

It is not that our flesh is being perfected. The desire to sin is inherent in our flesh, as Paul well knew (Romans 7:14). The Spirit does not reform the flesh but causes us to identify more closely with the new man that has been begotten by God. As we learn to identify with the new man, the old man dies daily a little at a time.

It is not hard to tell the difference between the mind of the flesh and the mind of the Spirit. Paul says in Romans 8:6, 7,

⁶ For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, ⁷ because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.

Paul tells us that the fleshly mind desires to put away the law and is “hostile toward God.” Those who teach that the law has been put away are acting in accordance with “the mind set on the flesh,” which lacks the capability of subjecting itself to the law of God. Unfortunately, there are many churches that remain carnal, even while pretending to be spiritual. Though Paul tells us that “the law is spiritual” (Romans 7:14), they think that to be subject to the law of God is to fall from grace and to become unspiritual.

This teaching is “hostile toward God,” Paul says. Those who follow such lawless teachings show that their old man of flesh still dominates their daily lives and that the Holy Spirit has not yet written the law on their hearts (Hebrews 8:10), as the New Covenant provides. “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9).