“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
John 6:63 ESV
We often know things intellectually that we do not fully believe in our hearts. What we genuinely believe is revealed in what we practice.
Last week, I wrote about the Word becoming flesh and how everything God created begins with His Word. Jeremiah declared, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16). This is the ministry of the Spirit of Life.
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.
In Proverbs 4:20–22, we are instructed to attend to the Word continually. The Word is not to depart from our eyes, but remain in the midst of our hearts, for His Words “are life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh.” This is the working of the Spirit of Life within us.
The Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, discerning between soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12). Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). His Word aligns us with the will of God. His Spirit refines our desires so that we no longer ask amiss. This is the power of the Spirit of Life.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.
In Romans 8:2, Paul reveals that there is a law of the Spirit of Life, found only in Christ Jesus, and that this law sets us free from the law of sin and death.
The law of sin and death began in the Garden of Eden when Adam surrendered his dominion through disobedience. God had warned him, “In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” Adam died spiritually before he died physically; sin separated him from fellowship with God, and spiritual death eventually produced physical death.
That law still works on Earth today. Creation groans under its weight. Sickness, disease, poverty, famine, war, and destruction are all manifestations of the law of sin and death operating in a fallen world.
But Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of that law. Through Him, a new law now works on behalf of every child of God—the law of the Spirit of Life. Because Christ destroyed the dominion of sin, sin no longer rules over the believer who walks in the Kingdom of Light.
Today’s passage reminds us that the words Jesus speaks sustain spiritual life and ministers to our physical well-being. It is the Spirit of God who gives life to our mortal bodies. This is the law of the Spirit, at work within us.
Without daily reception of His Word and Spirit, the inner man cannot withstand the continual pressure mounted by the law of sin and death. Darkness presses in, but as we abide in the Light—as He Himself is in the Light—we overcome the pull of the flesh towards sin.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh… is no help at all.