Living After the Spirit, Not the Flesh

Today I would like to clarify some things about the new covenant, or the fulfillment of the law, which in fact are the same thing. Jesus clearly and plainly stated that he came to fulfill the law, meaning the old covenant (Mat. 5:17). The apostle Paul just as plainly said that Jesus DID fulfill the law, when he stated the following: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:3,4). So the law is fulfilled ONLY IN those who have both RECEIVED the holy Ghost into their lives, and are FOLLOWING AFTER the same holy Ghost without sin. That is why the same apostle in the same letter, three verses earlier said this: "There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:1). The only way anyone can be without condemnation in their conscience is if they no longer have sin in their heart. That is what Jesus came for, to make a way for man to be truly washed in the inner man from sin, and to live in "righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24). That is "what the law could not do," as the apostle stated in the above quoted scripture. The same was stated even more emphatically in Hebrews: "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: HOW MUCH MORE shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb. 9:13,14). So there it is my friend. Because "it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins," Jesus had to come and become the sacrifice that COULD take away sin, literally from the heart and conscience (Heb. 10:4). And having one's sins truly and literally removed from their being, and thereby "putting on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image [holiness] of him that created him;" can only take place BY FAITH in Jesus unto being baptized with the holy Ghost [by Jesus] with the accompanying sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance" (Col. 3:10; Jn 7:38; Jn. 16:7; Acts 1:4,5; Acts 2:4; I Cor. 6:11; Tit. 3:5). The Spirit of God IS the new covenant, or new testament, as the apostle explains with the help of Jeremiah: "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them" (Heb. 10:14-16). And to add just a touch of clarity to that statement, we have this: "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 Cor. 3:3). That says it all my friend. The law is no longer in a carnal format, being written on tables of stone, or contained in carnal ceremonial ordinances. That is the revelation that God gave to Paul, whom he sent to be the apostle to the Gentiles, who had never been under the law to begin with. The old covenant format of the law is known as "the letter" in the apostle Paul's writings (Rom. 2:27,29; Rom. 7:6; II Cor. 3:6). And he minced no words in letting the congregations he established know that "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" (II Cor. 3:6). The phrase that he called "the spirit" in that passage is referring to the NEW COVENANT, which in fact is the same law in its true format, which is spiritual, not carnal (Rom. 7:14). Paul also called the law "the ministration of death," because man was in sin and the law manifested that, but did not provide a deliverance from the sinful state (II Cor. 3:7; Rom. 7:7-11). The law was and is the will and mind of God, but that will could not be established in men as long as the old covenant stood, because sin kept man from being literally reconciled and joined to the Lord (Heb. 9:8; Heb. 10:19). And that is why the law was written in tables of stones and depicted through carnal, ceremonial ordinances under the old covenant. And what Jesus accomplished was to get the will of God out of carnal form and into the hearts and minds of men where it needed to be. And that takes place only when someone is literally joined to the Lord, whom the scripture says, "IS that Spirit" (I Cor. 6:17; II Cor. 3:17). And that can only happen "by faith in Christ Jesus, For as many of you as have been baptized [with the Spirit] into Christ have PUT ON Christ" (Gal. 3:26,27).

Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Mat. 5:18). But he CERTAINLY did not mean that the carnal, old covenant format of the law would not be discontinued. What he DID mean is that the new covenant would be the ESTABLISHMENT of the law "in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." As the apostle Paul stated in II Corinthians 3:3 which is quoted above, those who have the Spirit and walk therein ARE the walking epistle of the law of God; having it written "not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart." As long as there are people who are truly filled with the holy Ghost and walking in the Spirit in holiness, the law is being effected. But that is the ONLY form of the law that exists in the sight of God now, and if we try to mix that with the ceremonial ordinances of the old testament, which only SYMBOLIZED what Jesus was going to make available; then we are "frustrating the grace of God," as Paul clearly stated: "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Heb. 10:1; Gal. 2:21). And that is why the same apostle said the following to the same Galatians, who had been subverted by Jewish men in the body of Christ who were teaching the Gentiles that they had to keep the old covenant ceremonies of the law: "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:2,3). Paul told the Colossians that they were "complete" [perfect] simply by being "in Christ," and the only way anyone can be "in Christ" is by being baptized with the holy Ghost by Jesus (I Cor. 12:13). So the Spirit baptism is what puts us into Christ, and it is also what writes God's laws in our hearts and minds, thus fulfilling the law in us. And there simply are NO MORE ceremonial ordinances to keep under this spiritual covenant. That is exactly why Paul told the Galatians: "But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are NOT under the law" (Gal. 5:18). And that is what he was referring to in the following statement the Philippians: "For we ARE the circumcision, which worship God in THE SPIRIT [only], and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philip. 3:3). The phrase he used here, "the flesh," is referring to the ceremonial ordinances of the law that pertained only to the flesh, and did nothing for the heart and soul. And that was the warfare of this great apostle's ministry, trying to keep the Gentile believers who had never been under the law to begin with, from being subverted into thinking that they had to keep the carnal, old covenant format of the law in order to be completely right with God. That was the point of Paul's rebuke of Peter in Antioch: "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid" (Gal. 2:17). In other words, if we try to keep the carnal format of the law through ceremonies such as water baptism, so called "communion" services, the Sabbath observance, etc; we are declaring ourselves to be sinners at the same time that we are claiming justification by faith in Christ (Col. 2:13-17). The law was for sinners, plain and simple (Rom. 3:10-20; I Tim. 1:9,10). The two covenants CANNOT exist at the same time, because the new has fulfilled the old, and the carnal format of the old has been abolished in favor of the true, spiritual format of the new (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14). There simply are NO carnal, ceremonial ordinances under the new covenant, which is what Jesus meant when he said that new covenant believers "must worship in SPIRIT [only] and in truth" (Jn. 4:24). The moral laws on how to live have been transferred from tables of stone into the hearts and souls of those who have the Spirit. The civil laws on how to deal with the breaking of the moral laws is no longer in the hands of God's people, because the body of Christ is a spiritual nation, and not a carnal nation like Israel was under the old testament. The penalties for law breakers are now in the hands of the governments of the lands we live in as citizens, except for non-criminal matters that are to be judged by congregation leadership (I Cor. 5:3-5,12,13; I Cor. 6:4-6). Those are the three kinds of laws that were in "the law;" ceremonial, moral, and civil; and that is how they have been fulfilled. Amen.