Romans 8:2

Rom_8:2

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Law cancelling law

1. Few words are oftener on our lips than the word law. But we are in danger of using the word as though laws were impersonal forces, independently of a controlling mind.

2. But a law is not a force. It is only the invariable manner in which forces work. Better still, it is the unvarying method in which God is ever carrying out His infinite plans. How wise and good it is that God generally works in this way, so that we are able to calculate with unvarying certainty on natural processes.

3. And when He wills some definite end He does not abrogate the laws that stand in His way, but cancels their action by laws from higher spheres which counterwork them, e.g., The flight of birds is due to very different causes from a balloons. Balloons float because they are lighter, but birds are heavier. The law of the elasticity of the air sets the bird free from the law of gravitation that would drag it to the ground. In the autumn fields the children, in gathering mushrooms, unwittingly eat some poisonous fungus which threatens them with death. Some antidote is given, which, acting as the law of life, counterworks the poison, and sets the children free from the law of death, which had already commenced to work in their members. So the law of the spirit of life in spring sets the flowers free frown the law of death of winter. And the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, set Lazarus free from the law of sin and death which imprisoned him in the tomb. And, similarly, the law of life communicated through the Holy Spirit will set us free from the law of sin and death which reigns in our hearts.

I. There is in each one of us the law of sin and death.

1. This evil tendency is derived from our connection with the human family. Races and children alike are affected by the sins and virtues of their ancestors. In every man there is a bias towards evil, just as in the young tiger there is predisposition to feed on flesh, and in the duckling to swim.

2. That tendency survives conversion. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. Its strivings may be suppressed; but it is still there, only waiting till His repressive influences are withdrawn to spring up in all its pristine vigour. Conversion is the insertion of a new principle of life, side by side with the old principle of death. Consecration is simply the act by which we put the culture of our spirit into the blessed hands of Jesus. There is nothing, therefore, in either of these acts to necessitate the crushing out of any principle of the old nature.

II. God does not mean us to be enslaved by sin. What a contrast between Rom_7:23-24, and the joyous outburst of this text! The one is the sigh of a captive, this the song of a freed bond slave.

1. Captivity: you have its symbol in the imprisoned lion, or royal eagle; you have it in the disease which holds the sufferer down in rheumatism or paralysis. But there are forms of spiritual captivity equally masterful. Selfishness, jealousy, envy, and ill will, sensual indulgence, the love of money.

2. But it is not Gods will that we should spend our days thus. We were born to be free; not, however, to do as we choose, but to obey the laws of our true being. When we free an eagle we never suppose that he will be able to dive for fish as a gull, or to feed on fruits as a hummingbird. But henceforth it will be able to obey the laws of its own glorious nature.

III. We become free by the operation of the law of the Spirit of life. The law of sin and death is cancelled by the law of the Spirit of life. Life is stronger than death; holiness than sin; the Spirit than man. The mode of the Holy Spirits work is thus--

1. He reveals to us that in the intention of God we are free. So long as you consider captivity your normal state and expect nothing better there is little hope of deliverance.

2. He makes us very sensitive to the presence of sin.

3. He works mightily against the power of evil.

4. He enables us to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin (chap. 6:11). This is the God-given way of overcoming the suggestions of sin. When sin approaches us we have to answer: He whom thou seekest is dead, he cannot heed or respond.

Conclusion:

1. Walk in the Spirit; live in the Spirit; yield to the Spirit. Do not be content to have merely His presence, without which you could not be a Christian, but seek His fulness. Let Him have His way with you. And in proportion as the law of the Spirit becomes stronger, that of the flesh will grow weaker, until as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, you will now yield them to righteousness unto holiness.

2. And as you find the Spirit of life working within you you may be sure that you are in Jesus Christ, for He only is the element in whom the blessed Spirit can put forth His energy. He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The law of sin

I. The law of sin.

1. The word law taken properly is the edict of a person in authority, wherein he orders something to be done, backing his or their commands with promises of rewards, as also their prohibitions with threatenings of punishment. In this sense there is a law of sin. For--

(1) A law is a commanding thing: it lays its imperative injunctions upon men and expects their obedience (Rom_7:1). Now, in this respect sin is a law; therefore you read of the reigning of sin, of obeying sin, of the dominion of sin (Rom_6:12; Rom_6:14). The subject is not more under the law of his Sovereign, nor the servant of his master, than the sinner is under the laws of sin. As there is this domination on sins part so there is subjection on the sinners part; no sooner doth it command, but it is presently obeyed (Mat_8:9). And where it commands and is obeyed there it condemns, which distinguishes it from all other laws. It rules of itself properly, but it condemns as it lays the foundation of condemnation by another--the law of God. And this speaks the inexpressible misery of the unregenerate.

(2) A law is backed with rewards and punishments for the furtherance of mens obedience. Answerably now to this, sin will be pretending to rewards and punishments, which, though in themselves they are but sorry things, yet they have a great power. For instance, sinner, saith sin, do but obey me, and pleasure, honour, profit, shall be thine. But if these enticing arguments will not do, sin then threatens derision, poverty, persecution, and what not. But note--That sin considered as simply commanding is not a law, but it then becomes formally and completely a law when the sinner obeys; so then he owns the power of it. The laws of usurpers, merely as imposed by them, are no laws, because not made by persons in lawful authority; but if a people freely own these usurpers and willingly put themselves under subjection to them, then, to them their laws become valid and obligatory.

2. The word law is taken improperly for anything that hath an impelling virtue in it. It hath the force of a law, and doth that which a true law uses to do. And, therefore, when sin is the principle which efficaciously excites a person to those things which are suitable to its own nature, there sin may be called a law.

II. Its mode of operation.

1. Sin exerts its powers in its vehement urging to what is evil. Sin in the habit is altogether for sin in the act; indwelling sin is wholly for dwelling in sin. Though there was no devil to tempt the graceless sinner, yet that law of sin which is in himself would be enough to make him sin. Corrupt nature is continually soliciting and exciting the unsanctified man to what is evil; it will not let him alone day or night unless he gratify it. What an instance was Ahab of this. Sin put him upon the coveting of Naboths vineyard, and this it did with such violence that he would eat no bread because he could not have his will (1Ki_21:5; see Pro_4:16).

2. This law of sin shows itself in its opposing and hindering of what is good. It is a law which always runs counter to Gods law. Doth that call for such and such duties? Are there some convictions upon the sinners conscience about them? Doth he begin a little to incline to what is good? How doth sin now bestir itself to make head in the soul against these convictions and good inclinations!

III. Its miserable bondage. Such being under the law of sin, it follows that they are under bondage the very worst imaginable. We pity those who live under tyrants. But, alas! what is that if compared with this. The state of nature is quite another thing than what men imagine it to be; they think there is nothing but freedom in it, but God knows it is quite otherwise (2Pe_2:19). To better convince you of the evil and misery of this bondage, and excite to the most vigorous endeavours to get out of it, note--

1. That bondage to sin is always accompanied with bondage of Satan. The devils reign depends upon the reign of sin; he rules in the children of disobedience, and takes men captives at his will. Shall a damned creature be thy sovereign--he who will be thy tormentor hereafter?

2. What sin is.

(1) Look upon sin in itself. It is the vilest thing that is: the only thing which God never made. It is the only thing that God cannot do.

(2) Look upon sin in the management of its power. Usurpers often make good laws; and indeed they had need use their power well who get it ill. The philosopher tells us that the intention of the legislator is to make his subjects good; but sins intention is only to make its subjects bad. Then, this sin is not only out of measure sinful in the exercise of its power, but it is also out of measure tyrannical. All the Neros, Caligulas, Domitians, etc., that ever lived were nothing to it. This first acted the part of a tyrant in them before they acted the part of tyrants over others. The tyranny of sin appears in many things. Its commands are--

(a) Innumerable.

(b) Contrary. Lust clashes with lust (Tit_3:3).

(c) Rigorous. It must have full obedience or none at all (Eph_2:3).

(d) Never at an end.

(e) So imperious and cruel that its vassals must stick at nothing.

3. That it is a soul bondage. The bondage of Israel in Egypt was very evil, yet not comparable to this, because that was but corporal and external, but this is spiritual and internal. There may be a servile condition without and yet a free and generous soul within; but if the soul itself be under servitude then the whole man is in servitude.

4. That of all bondage this is the most unprofitable. As to ether bondage the master may be cruel enough, but then he makes some amends by giving good wages; but the sinner serves that master which pays him no wages at all--death excepted (Rom_6:21).

5. That the worst of this bondage is that they who lie under it are altogether insensible of it. Where it is external and civil bondage men groan under it, would fain be rid of it (Exo_2:23). But the poor deluded sinner, like some distracted persons, plays with his chains.

6. That it is the most hurtful and most dangerous bondage: for it makes way for and most certainly ends in eternal death. Death puts an end to other bondage (Job_3:18-19); but the worst of spiritual bondage follows after death. You have in the text the law of sin and the law of death coupled together (see also Rom_6:16; Rom_6:21; Rom_6:23). (T. Jacomb, D. D.)

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ

1. Men of the world think that the gospel has to do only, or chiefly, with death, and that its atmosphere is generally repressive. But the fact is the reverse. The gospel gives life for death, joy for sorrow; a conquering power of soul to meet the disability of the flesh; an abounding sphere beyond this world.

2. Every life force is mysterious. We cannot explain the forces of nature. Nor can we explain the mystery of this unique transformation, but we may study its effects and ask ourselves if they are realised in us. Contemplate the change wrought--

I. In human activities. I will not select one whose life has been abandoned, but who is no stranger to religion, and who has led an outwardly correct life under the guidance of self-respect, and with regard to the good opinion of others. When renewed by the Spirit of God and freed from the law of sin and death he comes under the control of new influences. The love of Christ constrains, not prudence or sagacity. The charm of the Scriptures and of the sanctuary is something never known before. Resistance to sin is not, as before, a feeble, prudential avoidance, but a vehement hate. Love for holiness is ardent, and Christian work not a burden, but a joy.

II. On ones mental convictions. I would not refer to the scoffer, but rather to one who regards himself orthodox. He accepts Christianity as the most rational interpretation of nature. He accepts also the historic Christ, and redemption as well. But when such a person is born again, and sees God as his own Father, and the Saviour as his own Redeemer; when he sees the atonement, not as a philosophic scheme, but as a transcendent fact, involving greater resources than those of creation, a patience and love that shrunk not from the Cross, then a flood of light bursts on epistle, gospel and apocalypse, and a glory in the future rises on his view which is unspeakable. This intellectual elevation comes not from a study of the catechism, from a course of eloquent sermons, or from mere reflection upon the Word of inspiration, but as the result of that transforming power called the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

III. On the temper of his heart. The ordinary attitude of a thoughtful mind toward the realities of religion is one of wonder and admiration. Yet all this sentimentality is inert and inoperative. There is no personal affection for the Saviour. Sometimes the character of an acquaintance is dim and commonplace, until some critical exigency arises which gives beauty and worth to that character. Then a personal and passionate attachment is roused. So with the waking of the new life in the soul, Christ appears in new and alluring loveliness. He seems no more afar off, but near at hand, in closest fellowship day by day. With such a Saviour, daily duties are delights however humble. The temper of heart is changed toward Christs followers as well. The Christian loves his brethren for the Masters sake. His love is not founded on social or intellectual considerations, but grows out of spiritual unity and kinship, because of likeness to Christ. This change of temper and taste is the result of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus alone.

IV. In the expectations of the future. All men, pagan as well as Christian, look forward to a future existence. Unconverted men hope to be Christians before they die, but their ideas of the future are dim. With the believer death is seen to be but a transitional step, the mere portal to the shrine. While the worlds law is death in life, the gospels law is life in death. So the gospel fronts the world. Which is the better? Conclusion: Learn--

1. That it is in this gospel that life asserts its freedom. All departments of thought and effort, religious and secular, are alike ennobled and quickened.

2. This is a life which tends to consummation and perfection. The snow-bound field lies bare beneath the fetters of frost. It seems dead and barren, but with the melting warmth of spring there comes a verdure in place of ice and snow. All things are changed. So when this spiritual life force is allowed to exert its renewing and transforming energy on the soul of man, life is perfected and crowned. (R. S. Storrs, D. D.)

The Christian liberty achieved; or, the law of the Spirit of life making free from the law of sin and death

The therefore now does not introduce an inference from the immediately preceding argument--which could not warrant it--but one grounded on the previously affirmed effectiveness of the gospel to accomplish that for believers which the law never could. The justifying ground of this discharge from condemnation was set forth in Rom_3:21-26. The principle upon which it proceeds was illustrated in Rom_5:12-21. The persons to whom it is extended, and the new life of which they become the participators was specified in Rom_6:1-11. The reason for the impotence of the law was stated in Rom_6:14, and this impotence had supplied the theme for illustration in Rom_7:6-25, and the power of the gospel which had been distinctly stated in Rom_7:6, with an eye to which the apostle had penned (Rom_7:25). Note--

I. The law of sin and death from the power of which believers obtain deliverance in Christ. It will be observed that the apostle does not speak of two laws, but of the one. Not that the two things are one, but that the one law pervades them both, and binds them together (Rom_5:12-21; Eze_18:4; Jam_1:15; Eph_2:1-5; Eph_4:17-19). This one law renders it impossible that the sinner can of himself regain the possession of innocence and peace, and evermore impels him onwards and downwards in the fearful descending circle of transgression and punishment. Man in the very act of sinning dies; or, being already dead, plunges into a still deeper death (Heb_9:14).

II. The sphere within which liberation has been provided--In Christ.

1. In Christ the double necessity of mans case has been provided for; the two-fold difficulty has been solved; the one by the death of the Son of God, the other by His life (Rom_4:25; cf. Rom_5:18; cf. Rom_5:21).

2. The actual liberation is conferred on men only as they become united to Christ. It is indeed true that there has come a dispensation of grace and renewed probation to all men; but the actual discharge from condemnation, and the liberty from the law of sin and death, do not come to any but to those who are found in Christ by faith (cf. Eph_1:1-23)

.

III. For all those who are in Christ the liberation is actually accomplished.

1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ: He was condemned on their account, and they were condemned in Him. He died for their sins, and they died in Him (Rom_6:7-8).

2. The liberation from sin is secured to believers in the active life; for the law of the Spirit of life, etc.

(1) The law of sin is a law of death; and the law of the Spirit is a law of life. Sin deals death, and thereby perpetuates both itself and its punishment; but the Spirit inspires life, and thereby liberates both from sin and death, and insures everlasting victory and blessedness.

(2) But how does the law of this new life in Christ exert within us its liberating power? Does it seize upon us from without, as the Spirit of inspiration seized upon the prophets? Or does it come upon us as a new constituent element of being? Or is it not the law of a new life which is infused into our spirit by the Spirit of God?

(3) The new law acts upon the conscience through the medium of the light and truth of the gospel (Joh_17:3; 2Co_4:6; 1Pe_1:23). This living and abiding Word supplies--

(a) That precious knowledge of the redemption in Christ which provides peace for the guilty conscience.

(b) That knowledge of the royal and perfect law of liberty which is a sure and sufficient guide for conscience in the practical life.

(c) That knowledge of God, as a God of love, as our God and Father in Christ, which imparts joyous courage and prevailing power to conscience. Conclusion:

1. Secure this glorious liberty.

(1) Ponder well the terrible power of this law, and the dreadful consequences of remaining beneath its dominion.

(2) There is now in Christ a perfect liberty from this law available for all who will accept it. Lay hold, by faith, of the hope now set before you in the gospel of Christ.

2. Having secured this inestimable liberty see that you hold it fast. (W. Tyson.)

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ

I. The law of the Spirit signifies the power of the Holy Spirit, by which He unites the soul to Christ, in whose righteousness it therefore partakes, and is consequently justified. This law is the gospel, whereof the Holy Ghost is the Author, being the authoritative rule and the instrument by which He acts in the plan of salvation. It is the medium through which He promulgates the Divine testimony; by which also He convinces of sin and testifies of the almighty Saviour. The gospel may be properly denominated a law, because it bears the stamp of Divine authority, to which we are bound to submit (Rom_10:3). It requires the obedience of faith (Rom_1:5; Rom_16:26); and when men refuse this submission, it is said that they have not obeyed the gospel (Rom_10:16). Although, therefore, the gospel is proclaimed as a grace, it is a grace accompanied with authority, which God commands to be received. Accordingly, it is expressly called a law (Isa_2:3; Mic_4:2); and in Psa_110:2, referring to the power exerted by its means, it is said, The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies--namely, by thine almighty power. The gospel, then, is the law of the Spirit by which He rules, and the rod of His strength, by which He effects our salvation, just as, in Rom_1:16, it is denominated the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is itself called the Spirit, as being administered by the Holy Spirit (2Co_3:8).

II. The gospel is the law of the Spirit of life, the ministration of which giveth life, in opposition to the letter or old covenant that killeth (2Co_3:6; cf. Joh_6:63; Eze_37:14; 1Co_15:45). Christ is the life itself, and the source of life to all creatures. But here the life is that which we receive through the gospel, as the law or power of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which the apostle calls the life of God (Eph_4:18).

III. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is set before us in two aspects. As God, the Spirit of life resides essentially in Him; but as Mediator, the Spirit of life has been given to Him to be communicated to all who are one with Him. On this account the Spirit was not given in His fulness (Joh_7:39) till Jesus Christ as Mediator had entered into heaven, when the Father, solemnly receiving His satisfaction, gave this testimony of His acceptance, in pouring out the abundance of the Spirit on His people (Joh_16:7; Eph_1:3). That the Spirit of life is in Jesus Christ, not only as God, but also as Mediator, is a ground of unspeakable consolation. It might be in Him as God, without being communicated to men; but as the Head of His people, it must be diffused through them as His members, who are thus complete in Him. Dost thou feel in thyself the sentence of death? Listen, then This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. I am come that they might have life. Because I live ye shall live also. This life, then, is in Jesus Christ, and is communicated to believers by the Holy Spirit, by whom they are united to Christ, and from whom it is derived to all who through the law of the Spirit of life are in Him. (R. Haldane.)

Law of the Spirit of life

The law in the text, whether that of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, or that of sin and death, is a constraining influence--a moral force, an active power--an agency that acts mightily on the soul. And it is plain from the statements made regarding them, that these laws respectively are paramount at the time; they govern the whole being, either one or the other sits upon the inner throne of a man and governs him. It is a matter of life and death--of happiness or of misery, of freedom or of slavery, of everlasting weal or eternal woe.

I. The inquiry relates to the law of sin and death. This must be an influence or force which is evil, which is the parent of sin, driving us along in the path of transgression, and which is not only of the nature of spiritual death, but which also issues in eternal death.

1. In order that we may ascertain its nature, let some thought be given to the process by which it is first established in the human soul.

2. As a mighty force this law is seen in those ruling passions of mankind which discard the authority of God. What is supreme love of money but self-gratification at the expense of ones allegiance to the Most High.

3. We further discover the might of this law of sin and death in the sins of man against his fellow man. When one overreaches another in trade, does he not gratify his desire for gain at the expense of another?

II. Some general characteristics of this law.

1. It is often subtle in its actings.

2. It is a law of death as well as of sin.

3. It is slavery. This law of sin and death befools and degrades, and it is an unmitigated despotism. Woe to the soul under its unrestrained power!

4. It has had control universally.

III. We have to ask concerning the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

1. It is a Divine implantation. The Spirit of life is undoubtedly the Holy Spirit, who is the Author of spiritual life in the soul. When He cometh, He shall convince the world of sin. Until He speaks inwardly, the mind seems unaware of the presence and power of the law of sin and death. It is also His gracious office to attract the soul to a vital union with Christ. Under the blessed light which He kindles around and within the heart, the redemption of Christ appears in its true aspect as most full, glorious, and adapted to save.

2. As the other is a law of Sin and death, this is one of obedience and life. Self-love now seeks its gratification in pleasing God and doing His will.

3. Observe throughout that it is in Christ Jesus. To those who receive Him, He gives the privilege to become the sons of God. The Cross of Christ slays the enmity of the heart.

IV. This law sets free from the other. If it be established as the governing principle the other cannot be. They are in their own nature opposites. Self-love is gratified in the one case, in opposition to the claims of God and the well-being of others; in the other, by obedience and devotion to the supreme law of our being, love to God and man. Conclusion:

1. The adaptation of the religion of Christ to man.

2. We discover where true freedom and true happiness are found.

3. What we all need, and what the world needs, is to be delivered from the law of sin and death by the working in us of this ennobling force. What a glorious object of pursuit! How well worth all self-sacrifice! (H. Wilkes, D. D.)

Believers are freed through the law of the Spirit of life

I. The deliverance obtained--

1. By nature we are all (chaps. 6, 7) in spiritual bondage. We are sold under sin, and so necessarily are under death (Rom_5:12). The law of sin and the law of death are one and the same principle disclosing itself in different manifestations and degrees. Poisonous fruit is sap worked up, legitimately developed.

2. This evil principle drives man from God.

(1) As it is darkness (1Jn_1:5-7; 1Jn_2:9), it drives him from the fountain of soul light.

(2) As it is death, from the fountain of life (Act_17:28).

3. From this evil principle believers are made free. Not from death, though its sting is taken away; nor even from sin perfectly. But over against death faith sees the resurrection placed, and over against sin the unblemished perfection of the redeemed.

II. The agency whereby this deliverance is accomplished. Law counteracting law.

1. The term law may mean--

(1) A certain code like the Decalogue and the laws of nations.

(2) A principle operating with all the regularity and fixedness of statute--in which sense laws of thought, gravitation, refraction, are laws.

2. The latter is the signification here.

(1) The law of the Spirit this new victorious law is called. It is contrary to whatever is of the flesh. In its origin, nature, mode of working, it is Divine. From God it comes. For God it moves. To God it leads.

(2) It is the law of the Spirit of life. As the same Spirit is named the Spirit of wisdom, counsel, etc. (Isa_11:2), of holiness (Rom_1:4), of truth (Joh_14:17; Joh_15:26), because He makes wise, holy, leads into all truth, so He is here named the Spirit of life, as He leads into life, and works life. Of all soul life He is the Author, Promoter, Regulator, Perfecter (Joh_6:63; 1Pe_3:18). This law of the Spirit of life as the stronger man casts out the strong (Luk_11:22). Water poured into a vessel expels the air.

III. The sphere within which this agency is so efficiently operative. Like laws of nature, it works within certain limits. Iron, not glass, will conduct electricity. Dews, droughts, hurricanes are conditioned by varied zones of atmospheric circumstances; so outside the region of being in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life does not effect its hallowing results upon our souls. Within that radius, however, its might is sovereign. It frees believers. Conclusion: Note--

1. The urgent importance of ascertaining which of these laws is supreme in our soul. If not conscious of resistance to the law of sin, we are under its sway. We may even be troubled about the commission of certain sins, and give heed to certain duties, and yet be in utter servitude to it (Eze_33:31).

2. The great need of asking the promised Spirit (Mat_7:11 : Luk_10:13). Regeneration, sanctification only obtainable through His power.

3. The duty of consciously living in this freedom, not confusing liberty with license (Luk_1:74-75). Carefulness against presumption and despondency alike is indispensable (Eph_6:11-13).

4. The strong consolation of knowing that ultimate perfection can be calculated upon with all the certainty of a result of law. Given the reign of the law of the Spirit of life in a soul, then amid and in spite of all conflicts the beauty of the renewed life will be patent and increase (Psa_138:8; Heb_12:23; Heb_13:21). (J. Gage, B. D.)

The law of the Spirit frees from the law of sin

Note--

1. The Spirit frees from the law of sin. In reference to this you may consider Him either essentially as He is God, or personally. As it is the Sons proper act to free from the guilt, so it is the Spirits proper act to free from the power of sin, it belonging to the Son to do all without and to the Spirit to do all within. That which God once said in reference to the building of the temple--Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit--is applicable here.

2. This is done by the Spirit of life. This refers either to the Spirit as He is a living Spirit, or refers to the time when the Spirit quickens and thus regenerates, or to the method of regeneration itself. The Spirit who renews, when He renews, by renewing, brings sin under.

3. It is the law of the Spirit by which this is done. Here is law against law, the power and efficacy of the Spirit against the power and efficacy of sin (Eph_3:20). The law of sin has a moral and a physical power; and so with the Spirit. He hath His moral power, as He doth persuade, command, etc.; and He hath His physical power, as He doth strongly, efficaciously incline and impel the sinner to such and such gracious acts; yea, as He doth effectually change his heart, make him a new creature, dispossess sin of its regency, and bring him under the government of Christ. And herein the law of the Spirit is above the law of sin. Set corrupt nature never so high, yet it is but a finite thing, and so hath but a finite power; but the Spirit is an infinite being, and puts forth an infinite power. For the better opening of the truth in hand, note--

I. The necessity, sufficiency, efficacy of the power of the Spirit in freeing men from the power of sin.

1. The necessity of the power of the Spirit. Omnipotency itself is requisite thereunto; that is the strong man which keeps the palace till Christ, through the Spirit (which is stronger than it), comes upon it and overcomes it. The power of nature can never conquer the power of sin, for natures greatest strength is on sins side. That the power of the Spirit is thus necessary if you consider that--

(1) Sin is in possession.

(2) It hath been so a long time.

(3) Its dominion is entire; it hath all on its side.

When there is a party within a kingdom ready to fall in with the foreign force that comes to depose the tyrant, he may with more facility be vanquished; but if all the people unanimously stick to him, then the conquest is the more difficult. Christ said, The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me; so the poor sinner may say, The sin-subduing Spirit comes, but He finds nothing in me to close with Him.

(4) The natural man likes the power of sin.

(5) Sin is very resolute for and in the maintaining of what it hath; it will fight it out to the last, and die rather than yield.

(6) Satan sets in with it, and upon all occasions gives it all the help he can, as allies do.

2. Its sufficiency. As Christ is able to save to the utmost from sins guilt, so the Spirit also is able to save to the utmost from sins power. God once said to Paul, My grace is sufficient for thee (2Co_12:9). Now, as that grace is sufficient to bear up under the heaviest afflictions, so this grace is sufficient to bring down the strongest corruptions. Who is sufficient for these things? Why He, and none but He, who hath infinite power.

3. Its efficacy.

(1) He doth not only in a moral way advise, counsel, persuade the sinner to cast off sins bondage, but puts forth an insuperable strength upon him, and so goes through with the work.

(2) When He comes about this or any other saving act, He doth not leave the sinners will in suspense, but, in a way congruous to its liberty, He overcomes and determines it for God against sin, so as that it shall neither hesitate nor make any resistance to His grace.

II. In what ways the Holy Spirit doth exert his power.

1. He effectually works upon the understanding, that being the leading faculty.

(1) Whereas He finds it under darkness, He acts as a Spirit of illumination, filling the soul with saving knowledge. It required Omnipotency to say, Let there be light; no less a power is requisite to the saving enlightening of the sinner (Eph_5:8). But this being done, sin is broken in its power by it; for ignorance is one of its royal forts.

(2) Whereas it lies under sad mistakes, therefore the Spirit doth rectify it and makes it to judge aright.

(3) Whereas it is full of high and proud thoughts, of strange imaginations and reasonings, He casts them down (2Co_10:5).

2. He then proceeds to the will.

(1) Of all the faculties, sin contends most for the will, which, when it hath once gained, it will not easily part with. And so, too, the Spirit contends most for the will. He puts forth the greatest efficacy of His grace for the setting of that right and straight for God, that it may choose and cleave to His holy commands in opposition to the laws and commands of sin.

(2) Yet though He acts thus efficaciously, He doth not at all violate its liberty, but exerts all this power in such a way as agrees with that liberty (Psa_110:3; Son_1:4). He removes that averseness, obstinateness, reluctancy, that is in it against what is holy and spiritual.

3. In acting on the affections, He disengages them from sin, and sets them directly against it, and so freeing the sinner from the love of sin.

Application:

1. Let such who desire this mercy betake themselves to the Spirit for it.

(1) See that you pray in faith, believing in the sufficiency of His power.

(2) Let all other means be joined with prayer. They are but means, and therefore not to be relied upon; yet they are means, and therefore not to be neglected.

2. Let such who are made free from this law of sin own the Spirit of life as the author of their freedom, and ascribe the glory of it to Him.

3. Greatly to love and honour the Spirit.

4. As you have found the law of the Spirit in your first conversion, so you should live under the law of the Spirit in your whole conversation.

5. Set law against law--the law of the Spirit against the law of sin. (T. Jacomb, D. D.)

The believers freedom from the law of sin

I. The leading terms of the text.

1. By the Spirit of life we are here to understand the Holy Ghost. Men are spiritually dead; the animal and intellectual life remains; but the spiritual life--the life which connects man with, and qualifies him for the enjoyment of God--was extinguished by the fall, and can only be restored by the Spirit of life. And hence we are said to be born again of the Spirit. And as it is His office to restore spiritual life, so He maintains it. All good comes from Him and depends on Him.

2. He is called the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Because--

(1) We are indebted to Christ for the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is owing to Christs meritorious sacrifice that we are enabled and entitled to receive the Spirit.

(2) It is the office of Christ to dispense the Spirit. From His fulness it is that we are to receive grace upon grace.

II. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. By this we are to understand the gospel, applied by the Spirits power to the hearts of men. The gospel is often called a law--The perfect law of liberty; The isles shall wait for His law; The law of Messiah shall go forth from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. What law ever went forth from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth but the gospel?

1. A law is an enactment or command issuing from supreme authority, fully published and made known, and enforced by sanctions of reward to the obedient, or of punishment against the disobedient. This constitutes, when it is published or made known, the rule of action, the standard of character, and the ground of decision and judgment; this is law in general. The gospel answers to this general definition in every particular.

(1) It is an enactment or command. It comes with authority. It is not a statement of historical facts, an exhibition of truth, a collection of promises only; it comes to us with authority, that the facts should be credited, the truths received, the blessings included in the promises sought by us; so it may be said of us that we are Gods witnesses that the gospel is a law. Where there is no knowledge of the gospel there can be no obligation to receive it; but the moment the gospel comes to a man, from that time it becomes binding upon his conscience, and it is at his peril if he neglect or disobey it.

(2) It is enforced by sanctions; there is reward to the obedient, punishment for the disobedient.

(3) It issues from the highest authority in the universe.

(4) It is duly published and made known. Whatever may be said of the condition of those who live in the dark places of the earth, generally speaking, at least, ignorance of the gospel among ourselves is wilful, and therefore criminal.

(5) It constitutes the standard of character and the rule of decision. God will judge the secrets of all hearts, says Paul, according to my gospel.

2. But why is it called the Spirits law? Because it is the instrument by which the Spirit most efficiently operates upon the understanding, the will, the conscience, and the character of the man. By, and with it, he operates with the force and the authority of a law, overcoming and reducing and governing the mind. The power that accomplishes the great work of regeneration is the power of the Spirit; but the instrument He employs is the Word of truth.

III. The law of sin and of death.

1. By this some understand the moral law considered in its application to fallen man, as the covenant of works. This law, when given to man innocent and holy, in the possession of Divine and spiritual life, was well adapted to his case. But when man became a transgressor, then that which was ordained unto life began to operate unto death. It is the law of sin to all the unconverted, its very object being to make sin appear exceeding sinful. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Let a man apply it to his own character, and it will prove, to the conviction of his conscience, that he is a sinner; and, of course, wherever it proves sin it pronounces the sentence of death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

2. But others understand (and the general scope of St. Pauls argument is favourable to the opinion) the sinning principle in the nature of fallen man. Wherever this principle of unsubdued enmity to God and holiness exists in the heart, it will manifest itself in outward acts of sin. And these acts become habits, by repetition; and thus sin becomes master. There his law is a law of death. Wherever there is sin in the root, there is death in the fruit; the end of these things is death. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

IV. The law of the Spirit of life makes us free from the law of sin and death.

1. This is true of the law of sin and death, understood as the covenant of works, the broken moral law. It is in reference to this that the apostle seems to be speaking in ver.

1. Before they were in Christ, they were condemned by the law for having broken it. But no sooner did they put their souls, by penitence and faith, into the Saviours bands, than all the mass of transgressions and guilt which rested upon them was removed. And now there is no condemnation, they are made free from the condemnatory demands of the moral law, from the curse of the covenant of works.

2. But true believers are delivered from the sinning principle which contaminates our fallen nature. Sin shall have no dominion over you.

V. Practical inferences. The salvation of Christ is--

1. Of indispensable necessity. It is, in fact, the one thing needful; our souls without it die.

2. A present salvation. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free.

3. That connected with satisfactory evidence of its existence. St. Paul does not speak as if he were at all doubtful; as if it were a business of mere conjecture or probability, of inference or anticipation. He had a consciousness of his freedom.

4. A personal affair. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free. (Jabez Bunting, D. D.)

Freedom from law achieved by law

We see this principle at work in the material world. A higher law comes into play and overrides ordinary law. Thus dynamic law subjugates mechanical force, as in the steam engine; chemical law, in turn, annihilates dynamic force; and intellectual power is superior to vital law, and moral to intellectual. The lower laws take effect upon the lower natures. The mechanical law of gravitation affects stones; but let a higher law of affinity come into operation, and those stones will be transformed into other combinations, such as gases, which will be above the laws of gravitation, and will form food for plants, etc. Mechanical law, however applied, cannot convert stones into bread. Chemical law can. If you mechanically pound ice or melt it, you can get nothing but water; but chemistry transforms it into power, and gas, and food. In the text the apostle is presenting to us in the kingdom of grace what is taking place in the kingdom of nature--law conquering law--e.g., a human body subject to chemical law ferments, putrefies, decays; but the vital law holds all these in check. It is only when the higher vital law is gone that the lower law reigns. (Percy Strutt.)

The two laws

I. What is meant by law.

1. Law is an authoritative code framed by a master for the regulation of his servants. But when we speak of the laws of nature, we denote the process by which events invariably follow each other. The law which accountable creatures are hound to obey is one thing; the law, in virtue of which creatures are always found to make the same exhibition in the same circumstances, is another.

2. It is not difficult, however, to perceive how the same term came to be applied to things so distinct. For law, in the first sense of it, is not applicable to a single command which may never be repeated. True, like all the others, it is obeyed, because of that general law by which the servant is bound to fulfil the will of his master; yet it does not attain the rank of such a denomination unless the thing enjoined be habitual. Thus the order that doors shall be shut, or that none shall be missing after a particular hour, or that Sabbath shall be observed, may be characterised as the laws of the family--not the random orders of the current day. Now this common circumstance of uniformity has extended the application of the term law. Should you drop a piece of heavy matter, nothing is more certain nor more constant than its descent--just as if constrained so to do by the authority of a universal enactment on the subject, and hence the law of gravitation. Or, if light be made to fall on a polished surface, nothing more mathematically sure than the path by which it will be given back again to the eye of the beholder, and hence in optics the law of reflection. Or if a substance float upon the water, nothing more invariably accurate than that the quantity of fluid displaced is equal in weight to that of the body which is supported; and all this from a law in hydrostatics. But the difference lies just here. The one kind of law is framed by a living master for the obedience of living subjects, and may be called juridical law. The other is framed by a living master also, for it is God who worketh all in all; but obedience is rendered by the force of those natural principles wherewith the things in question operate in that one way which is agreeable to their nature. This kind of law would by philosophers be called physical law.

II. In which of these two senses shall we understand law in the text. To determine this, we shall begin with the consideration of--

1. The law of sin and death. It is quite obvious that this is not a law enacted in the way of jurisprudence. It is neither more nor less than the sinful tendency of our constitution. It is called a law because, like the laws of gravitation or electricity, it has the property of a moving force, inasmuch as it incessantly aims after the establishment of its own mastery. Death comes as regularly and as surely in the train of our captivity to sin as the fruit of any tree, or the produce of any husbandry, does by the laws of the vegetable kingdom.

2. The law of the Spirit of life just expresses the tendency and the result of an operative principle in the mind that has force enough to arrest the operation of the law of sin and death. The affection of the old man meets with a new affection to combat and to overmatch it. If the originating principle of sin be shortly described as the love of the creature, the originating principle of the spiritual life might also be briefly described as the love of the Creator. These two appetites are in a state of unceasing hostility. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

III. The second of these laws.

1. Is called--

(1) The law of the Spirit, because referable to the Holy Ghost, by whose agency the new moral force has been made to actuate the soul and give another direction to the whole history.

(2) The law of the Spirit of life, because he in whom this law is set a-going is spiritually minded; and as to be carnally minded is death, so to be spiritually minded is life. It is like the awakening of man to a new moral existence, when he is awakened to the love of that God whom before he was glad to forget; like a resurrection from the grave when, aroused from the deep oblivion of nature, man enters into living fellowship with his God. It is only now that he has begun to live.

2. When does this visitation of the Spirit descend upon the soul? This is shown by the words In Christ Jesus. As surely as when you enter a garden of sweets one of your senses becomes awakened to the perfumes; as surely as when emerging from the darkness of a close apartment to the glories of an unclouded day another of your senses is awakened to the light and beauty, so surely when you enter within the fold of Christs mediatorship, and are united with Him, then there is an awakening of the inner man to the beauties of holiness. We refer to a law of nature, the impression of every scene, in which he is situated, on the senses of the observer; and it is also by the operation of such a law that, if in Christ, we become subject to a touch that raises us to spiritual life, and maketh us susceptible of all its joys and all its aspirations.

3. What have we to do that we may attain this condition. I know of no other instrument by which the disciple is grafted in Christ Jesus, even as the branches are in the vine, than faith. And the Holy Ghost is given to those who believe. The promise of the Spirit is unto faith. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)

Delivered from the law of sin

Sin and death are partners of one throne and issue one law (cf. verses 14, 21)

. To obey the one is to obey the other. In former days Paul was compelled to do the bidding of sin. But the Holy Spirit has set him free by making His own will the rule of Pauls life. Just so a conqueror, by setting up his own laws in a conquered country, makes the former laws invalid. That the country obeys the new laws is a proof of conquest. Similarly, the presence and guidance of the Spirit have made Paul free front the rule of sin. This is not a change of bondage, but freedom from all bondage. For the law of the Spirit is the will of our Maker, and therefore the law of our being. And to obey the law of our being is the only true freedom. In Christ. Pauls deliverance took place objectively in the human body of Christ (Rom_3:24); subjectively, by Pauls spiritual union with the risen Saviour (Rom_6:11). (Prof. J. A. Beet.)

Free from the law of sin and death

I. The misery of all men by nature. And that it consists of a state of bondage and captivity, which is here in this Scripture called the law of sin and death. We shall speak of the law of sin. Sin, in those which are unregenerate, does exercise a tyrannical power and authority over them, therefore it hath the denomination of a law given unto it; not that it hath anything which is good or lawful or regular in it, for it is properly the transgression of a law. But it is called a law in regard of that rule which it bears in the hearts of all those that are entangled with it. This is the condition of sin, that it carries with it the nature of a law to the subjects of it. First, in the constant actings of it; sin is like a law so. Things which are acted by law they are acted with a great deal of constancy. The ordinances of heaven and earth, the sun, moon, and stars, they keep their course by a settled decree which is upon them. Even so is it also with those who are carried by this law of sin; it is that which is usual with them, they make a constant course and practice of it as their trade and life. Secondly, it hath the motion of a law in that men are carried to it powerfully and irresistibly without opposition. So is sin to an unregenerate person; it commands him and has power over him, it rules and reigns in him. This is first of all grounded upon that curse which was laid upon man for his first rebellion. But, secondly, sin gets a great deal of power by custom, which has the force of a second nature with it, and in that regard the notion of a law. The Ethiopian may as soon change his skin, and the leopard his spots, as they may cease to do evil that are accustomed to it. Now, for the further illustration of it, we may take notice of the misery of this bondage in these following aggravations. First, in the subject of this thraldom; and that is the soul itself--the immortal soul--that part of man which had the image of God in a special manner imprinted upon it. For this to be in slavery and servitude is a very sad business indeed. We know in the way of the world how bondage is usually aggravated from the quality and condition of the person that is brought into it. Secondly, consider it also in the persons which men are in thraldom to by it, and that is to Satan and his instruments. For a man to be in bondage to a stranger it is not very desirable, but to be in bondage to an enemy or adversary is very abominable. Thirdly, there is an aggravation also in it from the nature and quality and condition of the servitude itself, in all the circumstances of it. Of all servants we count them to be in the worse case that are sold. To this we may further add the insensibleness of this their condition which is usually attendant hereupon. We count them most desperately miserable who discern not the misery which they are in, as mad men that sing in their chains. And so much may be spoken of the first branch of a natural mans captivity, as it is considerable in his thraldom to evil expressed here in the text by the law of sin. The second is as it is considerable in his obligation to punishment: and that is here also expressed by the law of death, which is added and joined to the other and goes along with it. There is a three-fold death which the Scripture makes mention of, and they are all of them the wages of sin. First, natural death, which consists in the separation of the soul from the body (chap. 5:12). Secondly, there is also a spiritual death, which consists in a deprivation of the image of God upon the soul, and the withdrawing of His favour from it. When a man is void of all grace and comfort too, he is then thus far in a state of death (Eph_2:1). Thirdly, there is eternal death also, which consists in the separation of soul and body from God forever in hell. Therefore let us accordingly look upon sin and death in this conjunction. Let us not separate or divide these things which God hath thus put together, but in all temptations to the one think of the other.

II. The second is the happy recovery and restoration of believers by grace in these words, The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free. First, here is the remedy itself which is mentioned, The law of the Spirit of life which is, etc. Where, first, of the meaning of the words. First, there are three terms here before us; there is life, and the Spirit of life, and the law of the Spirit. By life here we are to understand the grace of holiness and sanctification. By the word Spirit joined to life we are to understand either the original, because it is wrought by the Spirit, or the activity and intention of it. By the law of the Spirit we are to understand the power and efficacy of it. For law it is a word of command and hath prevalency with it. Now the point which is here observable of us is thus much, that in the human nature of Christ there is a law of the Spirit of life. There is a fulness and sufficiency of all grace and holiness in Christ considered as He was man. This the Scripture doth sufficiently intimate and confirm unto us in sundry places of it, as in Col_1:19, It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell. This was requisite thus to be upon a two-fold ground and consideration especially--First, in regard of the personal union of His human nature with His Divine. Secondly, as this was requisite in regard of His personal union, so also in regard of His work of mediatorship. First, take it in the preparatory reference; and so the Spirit of life in Christ, it did fit Him and dispose Him and qualify Him for the work of the mediatorship. This we may conceive it to have done in these respects--First, in the sanctifying of the flesh of Christ in the womb of the Virgin. Secondly, it also dignified this nature and advanced it above all other creatures. Thirdly, this Spirit of life in Christ it did also fill His human nature with as much grace as it was capable of, and with all these perfections whereunto the nature of grace doth reach and extend itself. Again, further, it is also considerable in the exertions and transactions of it. Whatever Christ did as mediator, He was more particularly enabled hereunto from this Spirit of life. As first of all, it was this which quickened Him and encouraged Him in His entrance upon it. Secondly, it likewise sustained Him, and upheld Him in the very performance itself. Thirdly, in that moreover it at last revived Him and raised Him from the dead. Adam, he brought down our nature and subjected it to a great deal of disparagement by his transgression; but Christ by His purity and holiness hath set it up, and taken off that disparagement from it which was formerly upon it. Again, further, here is comfort as to the point of continuance of grace and perseverance in it. Forasmuch as that grace and holiness which we now partake of under the gospel, it is in good and safe hands. The grace which we had given us in Adam we lost, but that grace which we have now in the new covenant we have it upon better and surer terms, being such as is now rooted in Christ as the proper subject of it. This law of the Spirit of life it is in Christ Jesus. The second is the efficacy of this remedy upon St. Paul and all other believers, Hath made me free from the law of sin and death: where the remedy is as large as the disease, and the plaster as broad as the sore. Here is the law of the Spirit in opposition to the law of the flesh, and the law of life in opposition to the law of death in us. First, as to matter of justification. This holiness of Christ it frees us from the law of death and condemnation. But secondly, it holds good in point of sanctification likewise. The pure and holy nature of Christ is the spring and original of all holiness in us. And of His fulness do we all receive, and grace for grace, as the apostle tells us (Joh_1:12). The Spirit of God does not bestow grace upon us immediately, but he bestows it upon us through Christ. Let us learn from hence to bless God for Christ, and give Him the glory of His own holiness in us. (Thomas Horton.)

Spiritual emancipation

The word law may denote commandment, or the customary habit or state of any creature. In the one sense we talk of the laws of God, or the laws of kings; in the other sense we talk of the laws of nature, of matter, or of mind. It seems much better to understand the verse according to the second or subjective use of the word law, and then its reference is seen to be to the believers sanctification.

I. Mans natural state of moral, thraldom.

1. There is a principle of depravity in every human heart (Rom_3:23; Gal_3:22). The whole work of Christ, as tasting death for every man, is based upon the assumption that all the world is guilty before God; for if not, there must be some for whom Christ has not died, inasmuch as they needed no atonement. Yet where are these to be found? This principle of evil may be described according to its various modes of manifestation. It is--

(1) The love of the creature, in opposition to the love of the Creator.

(2) Self-will, or self-assertion, in opposition to the will of God and the requirements of His law.

(3) Sensualism, in contrast with that which is intellectual and spiritual.

(4) Pride and self-preference.

(5) Selfishness and self-seeking.

(6) A tendency to falsehood and guile.

2. This principle operates with the regularity of a natural law, determining all our volitions and affections. Man sins with the same certainty that an apple, loosened from the tree, drops to the ground. It is natural for the sun to rise and set, for the moon to wax and wane, for the tides to ebb and flow, for the seasons to revolve, and for the generations of men to be born and die: to do otherwise, in any of these instances, would imply a miracle or a violence done to the uniformity of nature. So likewise it is natural and inevitable that men, unrenewed by grace, should sin.

3. This law of sin is likewise a law of death. God by express enactment has appointed death as the wages of sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. But in addition to that external decree, there is an internal tendency in sin to fructify in death (Jam_1:15), and to destroy the life of the soul.

II. The state of moral freedom achieved for us by the gospel.

1. There is a principle of life in them that believe. They live, by having their minds enlightened with the knowledge of God, by feeling the burden of their sins removed, and by being able to look up to God with filial confidence and trust, by having the conscience cleansed from dead works to serve the living God, by being inspired with new emotions, animated by new aims.

2. This life is imparted and sustained by the Holy Ghost. It is not self-generated, but it is given from above. He who receives it is born of the Spirit.

3. This principle of life operates with the regularity of a law. The Spirit takes up His residence in the breast of the converted man, and goes on working till every thought is brought into subjection to Christ, and the work of the believers sanctification is complete.

4. This Spirit of life is realised only by our being in Christ. (T. G. Horton.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 8:2. For the law of the Spirit of life — That is, the doctrine of divine grace in the gospel, accompanied with the quickening, commanding influence of the Holy Spirit, hath made me free from the law of sin and death — That is, not only from the Mosaic dispensation, which, if relied on for justification, left men under the guilt and power of sin, and condemned them to the second death; but also and especially from the law, or constraining power of sin itself, which is attended with spiritual death, and, if not removed, brings men to death eternal. In other words, “The Spirit of Christ, giving me a new life, is now another law, or rule of my actions, freeing me from the motions and power of sin, to which I was subject while under the [Mosaic] law, and from the death to which that law subjected me; or, the gospel, attended with the Spirit, hath wrought this freedom in me.” So Whitby. The gospel, or covenant of grace, may be fitly termed the law of the Spirit, or a spiritual law; and that not only as it reaches to the spirit of man, but is such a law as gives spiritual life, or is the ministration of the Spirit, and of life, 2Co 3:6; 2Co 3:8; being accompanied with a divine power, which communicates spiritual life to the soul here, and prepares it for eternal life hereafter. It is observable, that the person who speaks in the foregoing chapter is introduced here as continuing the discourse, and showing the method in which his deliverance from the body of sin and death, mentioned Rom 7:25, was accomplished. And what is affirmed concerning him, is intended of other believers also. Here, therefore, we have a second motive to holiness, namely, that under the new covenant sufficient assistance being given to all who in faith and prayer apply for it, to free them from the law of sin and death, they cannot excuse their sins by pleading the strength of their sinful passions, or the depravity of their nature.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Romans

‘THY FREE SPIRIT’

Rom 8:2.

We have to distinguish two meanings of law. In the stricter sense, it signifies the authoritative expressions of the will of a ruler proposed for the obedience of man; in the wider, almost figurative sense, it means nothing more than the generalised expression of constant similar facts. For instance, objects attract one another in certain circumstances with a force which in the same circumstances is always the same. When that fact is stated generally, we get the law of gravitation. Thus the word comes to mean little more than a regular process. In our text the word is used in a sense much nearer the latter than the former of these two. ‘The law of sin and of death’ cannot mean a series of commandments; it certainly does not mean the Mosaic law. It must either be entirely figurative, taking sin and death as two great tyrants who domineer over men; or it must mean the continuous action of these powers, the process by which they work. These two come substantially to the same idea. The law of sin and of death describes a certain constancy of operation, uniform and fixed, under the dominion of which men are struggling. But there is another constancy of operation, uniform and fixed too, a mighty antagonistic power, which frees from the dominion of the former: it is ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.’

I. The bondage.

The Apostle is speaking about himself as he was, and we have our own consciousness to verify his transcript of his own personal experience. Paul had found that, by an inexorable iron sequence, sin worked in himself the true death of the soul, in separation from God, in the extinction of good and noble capacities, in the atrophying of all that was best in himself, in the death of joy and peace. And this iron sequence he, with an eloquent paradox, calls a ‘law,’ though its very characteristic is that it is lawless transgression of the true law of humanity. He so describes it, partly, because he would place emphasis on its dominion over us. Sin rules with iron sway; men madly obey it, and even when they think themselves free, are under a bitter tyranny. Further, he desires to emphasise the fact that sin and death are parts of one process which operates constantly and uniformly. This dark anarchy and wild chaos of disobedience and transgression has its laws. All happens there according to rule. Rigid and inevitable as the courses of the stars, or the fall of the leaf from the tree, is sin hurrying on to its natural goal in death. In this fatal dance, sin leads in death; the one fair spoken and full of dazzling promises, the other in the end throws off the mask, and slays. It is true of all who listen to the tempting voice, and the deluded victim ‘knows not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depth of hell.’

II. The method of deliverance.

The previous chapter sounded the depths of human impotence, and showed the tragic impossibility of human efforts to strip off the poisoned garment. Here the Apostle tells the wonderful story of how he himself was delivered, in the full rejoicing confidence that what availed for his emancipation would equally avail for every captived soul. Because he himself has experienced a divine power which breaks the dreadful sequence of sin and of death, he knows that every soul may share in the experience. No mere outward means will be sufficient to emancipate a spirit; no merely intellectual methods will avail to set free the passions and desires which have been captured by sin. It is vain to seek deliverance from a perverted will by any republication, however emphatic, of a law of duty. Nothing can touch the necessities of the case but a gift of power which becomes an abiding influence in us, and develops a mightier energy to overcome the evil tendencies of a sinful soul.

That communicated power must impart life. Nothing short of a Spirit of life, quick and powerful, with an immortal and intense energy, will avail to meet the need. Such a Spirit must give the life which it possesses, must quicken and bring into action dormant powers in the spirit that it would free. It must implant new energies and directions, new motives, desires, tastes, and tendencies. It must bring into play mightier attractions to neutralise and deaden existing ones; as when to some chemical compound a substance is added which has a stronger affinity for one of the elements, a new thing is made.

Paul’s experience, which he had a right to cast into general terms and potentially to extend to all mankind, had taught him that such a new life for such a spirit had come to him by union with Jesus Christ. Such a union, deep and mystical as it is, is, thank God, an experience universal in all true Christians, and constitutes the very heart of the Gospel which Paul rejoiced to believe was entrusted to his hands for the world. His great message of ‘Christ in us’ has been wofully curtailed and mangled when his other message of ‘Christ for us’ has been taken, as it too often has been, to be the whole of his Gospel. They who take either of these inseparable elements to be the whole, rend into two imperfect halves the perfect oneness of the Gospel of Christ.

We are often told that Paul was the true author of Christian doctrine, and are bidden to go back from him to Jesus. If we do so, we hear His grave sweet voice uttering in the upper-room the deep words, ‘I am the Vine, ye are the branches’; and, surely, Paul is but repeating, without metaphor, what Christ, once for all, set forth in that lovely emblem, when he says that ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.’ The branches in their multitude make the Vine in its unity, and the sap which rises from the deep root through the brown stem, passes to every tremulous leaf, and brings bloom and savour into every cluster. Jesus drew His emblem from the noblest form of vegetative life; Paul, in other places, draws his from the highest form of bodily life, when he points to the many members in one body, and the Head which governs all, and says, ‘So also is Christ.’ In another place he points to the noblest form of earthly love and unity. The blessed fellowship and sacred oneness of husband and wife are an emblem sweet, though inadequate, of the fellowship in love and unity of spirit between Christ and His Church.

And all this mysterious oneness of life has an intensely practical side. In Jesus, and by union with Him, we receive a power that delivers from sin and arrests the stealthy progress of sin’s follower, death. Love to Him, the result of fellowship with Him, and the consequence of life received from Him, becomes the motive which makes the redeemed heart delight to do His will, and takes all the power out of every temptation. We are in Him, and He in us, on condition, and by means, of our humble faith; and because my faith thus knits me to Him it is ‘the victory that overcomes the world’ and breaks the chains of many sins. So this communion with Jesus Christ is the way by which we shall increase that triumphant spiritual life, which is the only victorious antagonist of the else inevitable consequence which declares that the ‘soul that sinneth it shall die,’ and die even in sinning.

III. The process of the deliverance.

Following the R. V. we read ‘made me free,’ not ‘hath made me.’ The reference is obviously, as the Greek more clearly shows, to a single historical event, which some would take to be the Apostle’s baptism, but which is more properly supposed to be his conversion. His strong bold language here does not mean that he claims to be sinless. The emancipation is effected, although it is but begun. He holds that at that moment when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, and he yielded to Him as Lord, his deliverance was real, though not complete. He was conscious of a real change of position in reference to that law of sin and of death. Paul distinguishes between the true self and the accumulation of selfish and sensual habits which make up so much of ourselves. The deeper and purer self may be vitalised in will and heart, and set free even while the emancipation is not worked out in the life. The parable of the leaven applies in the individual renewal; and there is no fanaticism, and no harm, in Paul’s point of view, if only it be remembered that sins by which passion and externals overbear my better self are mine in responsibility and in consequences. Thus guarded, we may be wholly right in thinking of all the evils which still cleave to the renewed Christian soul as not being part of it, but destined to drop away.

And this bold declaration is to be vindicated as a prophetic confidence in the supremacy and ultimate dominion of the new power which works even through much antagonism in an imperfect Christian. Paul, too, calls ‘things that are not as though they were.’ If my spirit of life is the ‘Spirit of life in Christ,’ it will go on to perfection. It is Spirit, therefore it is informing and conquering the material; it is a divine Spirit, therefore it is omnipotent; it is the Spirit of life, leading in and imparting life like itself, which is kindred with it and is its source; it is the Spirit of life in Christ, therefore leading to life like His, bringing us to conformity with Him because the same causes produce the same effects; it is a life in Christ having a law and regular orderly course of development. So, just as if we have the germ we may hope for fruit, and can see the infantile oak in the tightly-shut acorn, or in the egg the creature which shall afterwards grow there, we have in this gift of the Spirit, the victory. If we have the cause, we have the effects implicitly folded in it; and we have but to wait further development.

The Christian life is to be one long effort, partial, and gradual, to unfold the freedom possessed. Paul knew full well that his emancipation was not perfect. It was, probably, after this triumphant expression of confidence that he wrote, ‘Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.’ The first stage is the gift of power, the appropriation and development of that power is the work of a life; and it ought to pass through a well-marked series and cycle of growing changes. The way to develop it is by constant application to the source of all freedom, the life-giving Spirit, and by constant effort to conquer sins and temptations. There is no such thing in the Christian conflict as a painless development. We must mortify the deeds of the body if we are to live in the Spirit. The Christian progress has in it the nature of a crucifixion. It is to be effort, steadily directed for the sake of Christ, and in the joy of His Spirit, to destroy sin, and to win practical holiness. Homely moralities are the outcome and the test of all pretensions to spiritual communion.

We are, further, to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, by ‘waiting for the Redemption,’ which is not merely passive waiting, but active expectation, as of one who stretches out a welcoming hand to an approaching friend. Nor must we forget that this accomplished deliverance is but partial whilst upon earth. ‘The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.’ But there may be indefinite approximation to complete deliverance. The metaphors in Scripture under which Christian progress is described, whether drawn from a conflict or a race, or from a building, or from the growth of a tree, all suggest the idea of constant advance against hindrances, which yet, constant though it is, does not reach the goal here. And this is our noblest earthly condition-not to be pure, but to be tending towards it and conscious of impurity. Hence our tempers should be those of humility, strenuous effort, firm hope. We are as slaves who have escaped, but are still in the wilderness, with the enemies’ dogs baying at our feet; but we shall come to the land of freedom, on whose sacred soil sin and death can never tread.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:2 the power (literally the law) of the life-giving Spirit: This reference to power or law could refer to the law of Moses, which the Spirit can use to produce life. But because Paul does not portray the law as a life-giving entity, “law” here, as in 7:23, probably means principle or power. The Holy Spirit is a power that frees the believer from the power of sin that leads to death.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rom 8:2. Νόμος τοῦ πνεύματος) the law of the spirit, the Gospel inscribed on the heart; comp. ch. Rom 3:27; 2Co 3:8. The spirit makes alive, and this life invigorates [vegetat] the Christian.—ἠλευθέρωσέ με, hath made me free) a mild term, and in the preterite tense; he had formerly put the weightier verb ῥύσεται in the future. Grace renders that most easy, which seems difficult to man under the law, or rather does it itself. Both are opposed to the phrase, bringing me into captivity, ch. Rom 7:23.—τῆς ἁμαρτίας καὶ τοῦ θάνατου, of sin and death) He has respect to those things which he said in behalf of the law of God, ch. Rom 7:7; Rom 7:13. Observe that and is put here, and is not put at the beginning of the verse in the antithesis, πνεύματος τῆς ζωῆς, of the spirit of life, where either the conjunctive particle is wanting, of spirit, [and] of life, or it must be explained thus, τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς ζωῆς, the Spirit of life.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_8:2. For the law of the Spirit leading to life delivered me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For the right explanation, it is to be observed(1.) The νόμος τ. ἁμ. κ. τοῦ θαν. necessarily, in view of the connection, receives the definition of its meaning from chap. Rom_7:23; Rom_7:25, as indeed ἨΛΕΥΘ. answers to the ΑἸΧΜΑΛΩΤΊΖ. in Rom_8:23. For this very reason neither the moral law (Wolf) nor the Mosaic law (Pareus, de Dieu, Semler, Böhme, Ammon, and Reiche) can be meant; the latter cannot, for the further reason that, after Rom_7:7; Rom_7:12; Rom_7:16, Paul could not thus name the Mosaic νόμος here, as Chrysostom has already urged. It is rather the law in our members, the power of sin in us, which, according to Rom_7:24, comp. Rom_7:10; Rom_7:13, is at the same time the power of (eternal) death (καὶ τοῦ θανάτου), that is meant. The two are one power, and both genitives are genitives of the subject, so that sin and death are regarded as ruling over the man.(2.) Since the νόμος τ. ἁμ. κ. τ. θαν. cannot be the Mosaic law, so neither can the contrasted ΝΌΜΟς Τ. ΠΝ. Τῆς ΖΩῆς be the Christian plan of salvation, like νόμος πίστ. in Rom_3:27, but it must be an inward power in the man by which the law of sin and death is rendered powerless. It is not, however, the νόμος τοῦ νοός (which had become strengthened through Christ), as, following older expositors, Morus, Köllner, and Schrader think; because, on the one hand, ΝΟῦς and ΠΝΕῦΜΑ are specifically different, and if Paul had meant the law of the ΝΟῦς, he must have so designated it, as in Rom_7:23; and, on the other hand, there would result the utterly paradoxical idea, that the law of reason (and not the divine principle of the ΠΝΕῦΜΑ) makes man morally free. The ΤῸ ΠΝΕῦΜΑ Τῆς ΖΩῆς is rather the Holy Spirit, who, working inwardly in the Christian (Rom_8:5), procures to him eternal life (comp. 2Co_3:6); and ὁ νόμος τοῦ πνεύματος τῆς ζωής is the ethically regulative government exercised by the πνεῦμα (not the Spirit Himself, as Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Maier, and Th. Schott understand it, but His ruling power).

ἘΝ Χ. Ἰ.] On account of ver 3, to be connected neither with Τῆς ΖΩῆς (Luther, Beza, and others, including Böhme, Klee, Ewald, and Hofmann), nor with ΤΟῦ ΠΝΕΎΜ. (Flatt; Tholuck: the sphere, in which the Spirit of life operates), nor with ΝΌΜΟς (Semler, Reiche), nor with Ὁ ΝΌΜ. Τ. ΠΝ. Τ. Ζ. (Calvin, Köllner, Glöckler, Krehl, and others), but with ἨΛΕΥΘΈΡΩΣΕ. So Theodoret, Erasmus, Melancthon, Vatablus, and others, including Rückert, Olshausen, de Wette, Fritzsche, Reithmayr, Maier, Philippi, and Bisping. In Christ, the law of the Spirit has made us free; for out of Christ this emancipating activity could not occur (comp. Joh_8:36); but in the fellowship of life with Him, in the being and living in Him (Rom_8:1), the deliverance which has taken place has its causal ground. The view which takes it of the objective basis that is laid down in the appearance and work of Christ, is unsuitable, because the discourse treats of the subjective ethical efficacy of the Spirit, which has the εἶναι ἐν Χριστῷ as the necessary correlative.

ἨΛΕΥΘ.] aorist. For it is a historical act, which resulted from the effusion of the Spirit in the heart. The progressive sanctification is the further development and consequence of this act.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 8:2 . There is no condemnation, for all ground for it has been removed. “The law of the spirit of the life which is in Christ Jesus made me [thee] free from the law of sin and death.” It is subjection to the law of sin and death which involves condemnation; emancipation from it leaves no place for condemnation. For the meaning of “the law” see on Rom 7:23 . The spirit which brings to the believer the life which is in Christ Jesus brings with it also the Divine law for the believer’s life; but it is now, as Paul says in Gal 3:21 , a “ νόμος ὁ δυνάμενος ζωοποιῆσαι ,” not an impotent law written on tables of stone, and hence righteousness comes by it; it proves more than a match for the authority exercised over man by the forces of sin and death. Paul would not have called the Divine law (even as a series of statutes) a law of sin and death, though he says τὸ γράμμα ἀποκτείνει ; Sin and Death are conceived objectively as powers which impose their own law on unredeemed men.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 2. It is strange that Paul should speak of the law of the Spirit. Are these two expressions not contradictory? We shall not understand the phrase unless we bear in mind what has been said (Rom 3:27, Rom 7:21, etc.) of the general sense which the word law often takes in Paul’s writings: a controlling power imposing itself on the will, or, as in the case before us, appropriating the very will. The complement τῆς ζωῆς, of life, may be understood as the genitive of cause: “The Spirit which proceeds from the life (that of Jesus Himself);” or as the gen. of effect: “The Spirit which produces life (in the believer).” But is it possible wholly to sever these two relations? If the Spirit produces spiritual life in the believer’s heart, is it not because he is the breath of the living and glorified Christ? He takes of that which belongs to Jesus, Joh 16:15, and communicates it to us.

The clause: in Jesus Christ, is connected by several commentators with the verb hath made free: “The Spirit of life made us free as soon as we entered into communion with Jesus Christ.” But in this sense would not Paul rather have said in him, ἐν αὐτῷ, simply referring to the in Christ Jesus of the previous verse? It is therefore more natural to make the clause dependent on the immediately preceding phrase: the law of the Spirit of life. The only question is what article is to be understood, to serve as the link of this clause. Should it be ὁ, relating to νόμος, the law, or τοῦ, referring to πνεύματος, the Spirit, or finally τῆς, referring to ζωῆς, life? The first connection, that adopted by Calvin, seems to us the preferable one. The apostle has no special reason for recalling here that life or the Spirit are given in Jesus Christ, which is understood otherwise of itself. But it is important for him to remind us that, in opposition to the reign of the letter, which made us slaves, the reign of the Spirit of life, which sets us free, was inaugurated in Jesus Christ. The absence of the article ὁ before the clause ἐν Χ. ᾿Ι. arises from the fact that the latter is regarded as forming only one and the same idea with the phrase on which it depends.

Instead of the pronoun μέ, me, read by the T. R. with the majority of the Mss., there is found in the Sinaït. and the Vatic., as well as in two Greco-Latins, σέ, thee: “hath made thee free.” This reading must be very ancient, for it is found so early as in the Peshitto and Tertullian. It has been admitted by Tischendorf in his eighth edition. But it is nevertheless very improbable. Why the sudden appearance of the second person at the very close of this argument? This σέ has evidently arisen, as Meyer thinks, from the repetition of the last syllable of ἠλευθέρωσε. The μέ, me, is the continuation of the form of expression which the apostle had used throughout the whole of the second part of chap. 7. Indeed, the figure used by him in Rom 8:23-24, that of a prisoner calling for help, with the cry: “Who shall deliver me?” still continues and reaches its close in our verse, as is seen by the choice of the term ἠλευθέρωσε, hath made free. Our Rom 8:2 is the true answer to this cry of distress, Rom 8:23. It is the breath of life communicated in Jesus to the justified Christian which causes the chains of sin and death to fall from him.

We must beware of following several commentators in applying the phrase: the law of sin and of death, to the law of Moses. Paul has just called the latter the law of God, and has declared that he took pleasure in it after the inward man; this would not be the time to abuse it in this fashion. The true explanation follows from Rom 8:23, where he has spoken of the law which is in his members, and which renders him the captive of sin. The word law is therefore still used here in that general sense in which we have just seen it taken in the beginning of the verse. The apostle deliberately contrasts law with law, that is to say here: power with power.

The two combined terms, sin and death, form the antithesis to life; for the latter includes the notions of holiness and resurrection. Death is the state of separation from God in which sin involves us, but with the understanding that physical death is the transition to eternal death. The two words: sin and death, control the following development down to Rom 8:11. And first: deliverance from sin, Rom 8:3-4.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_8:2

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, etc. This verse assigns the reason why there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ, as is evident from the use of for, with which the verse commences.

The law of the Spirit is here opposed to the law of sin and death, mentioned in the other clause of the verse. The interpretation of the one phrase, therefore, must decide that of the other. There are three different views which may be taken of the verse.

1. The word law may be used here, as it is in the Rom_8:21, Rom_8:23, of Romans 7, for a directing power; and Spirit, by metonymy, for that which the Spirit produces, i.e. sanctified affections; and the words of life may mean, producing life. The sense would then be, The power of the renewed principle which tends to life, has delivered me from the power of sin which tends to death. In other words, The law of the mind has delivered me from the law of sin which is in the members. So Beza and many others.

2. The word law is taken in nearly the same sense; but Spirit of life is understood to mean the Holy Spirit, considered as the author of life. The sense then is, The power of the life-giving Spirit has delivered me from the dominion of the law of sin and death in my members. So Calvin, and others: Legem Spiritus improprie vocat Dei Spiritum, qui animas nostras Christi sanguine aspergit, non tantum ut a peccati labe emundet quoad reatum; sed in veram puritatem sanctificet. The objection to this interpretation, that it seems to refer our freedom from condemnation to our regeneration, he proposes to meet by saying that Paul does not state the cause, but the method of our deliverance from guilt: Negat Paulus externa legis doctrina id nos consequi, sed dum Spiritu Dei renovamur, simul etiam justificari gratuita venia, ne peccati maledictio in nos amplius recumbat. Perinde ergo valet haec sententia acsi dixisset Paulus, regenerationis gratiam ab imputatione justitiae nunquam disjungi.

3. According to the third view, the law of the Spirit of life is the gospel, i.e. the law of which the life-giving Spirit is the author. Of course, the other member of the verse, instead of describing the corrupt principle in men, means the law of God, which, as Paul had taught in Romans 7, is incidentally the cause of sin and death. The sense of the passage then is, The gospel has delivered me from the law. So Witsius, etc.

This last seems decidedly to be preferred, for the following reasons:

1. Although the two former interpretations are consistent with Pauls use of the word law, neither of them so well suits the context, because neither assigns the reason why believers are not exposed to condemnation. Paul asserts that those who are in Christ are restored to the divine favor. Why? Because they are sanctified? No; but because they have been freed from the law and its demands, and introduced into a state of grace.

2. It is not true that believers are delivered from the law of sin in their members. If the terms law of the Spirit, and law of sin, are to be understood of the good and evil principle in the Christian, how can it be said that by the former he is, in this life, delivered from the latter? This would be in direct contradiction to Romans 7 and to experience.

3. The terms here used may naturally be so understood, because the word law, in its general sense, as rule, is applicable and is applied to the gospel, Rom_3:27, especially when standing in antithesis to the law of works. The gospel is called the law of the Spirit, because he is its author: see the phrase ministration of the Spirit, 2Co_3:8. In the other member of the verse the law is called the law of sin and death, because productive of sin and death. This is no more than what Paul had said expressly of the law in the preceding chapter, Rom_8:5, Rom_8:13, etc. And in 2Co_3:6, the law is said to kill: it is called the διακονία τοῦ θανάτου, (the ministration of death,) and the διακονία τῆς κατακρίσεως (ministration of condemnation.) There the same contrast between the διακονία τοῦ θανάτου and the διακονία τοῦ πνεύματος is presented, as here between the νόμος τοῦ θανάτου and the νόμος τοῦ πνεύματος.

4. This interpretation alone assigns an adequate ground for the declaration of the preceding verse. That declaration, the result of all that Paul had yet proved, is that believers, and believers only, are perfectly safe; and the reason assigned is the sum of all the argument from the commencement of the epistle. They are not under the law, but under grace; the law of the Spirit has freed them from the old law of works.

5. The next verse favors, if it does not absolutely demand, this interpretation. It gives the reason why believers are thus freed from the law, viz. it was insufficient for their salvation, it was weak through the flesh.

6. The use of the aorist ἡλευθέρωσε, which shows that the freedom spoken of is an accomplished fact, confirms this interpretation. Deliverance from the law of sin in the members is a gradual process; deliverance from the law is effected once for all; and with regard to the believer, it is a fact accomplished.

The words ἐν Χριστῷ, in Christ, may be connected with the immediately preceding words τῆς ζωῆς, the life which is in Christ; or with ὁ νόμος κ. τ. λ., the law of the spirit which is in Christ. As, however, the connecting article (τῆς or ὁ), which is necessary at least definitely to indicate either of those constructions, is wanting, the words in question are generally connected with the following verb, ἡλευθέρωσε, in Christ freed me; that is, it was in him, and therefore through him, that this deliverance was effected. The meaning of this verse, therefore, in connection with the preceding, is, There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ, because they have been freed in him by the gospel of the life-giving Spirit, from that law which, although good in itself, is, through our corruption, the source of sin and death. Being thus free from the curse of the law, and from the obligation to fulfill its demands, as the condition of life, and consequently freed from a legal spirit, their sins are gratuitously pardoned for Christs sake; they are made partakers of the Spirit of God, are transformed more and more into his image, and God is pledged to preserve them unto eternal life.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which mortifieth the old man, and quickeneth the new man.

For Christ’s sanctification being imputed unto us, perfecteth our sanctification which is begun in us.

A preventing of an objection: seeing that the virtue of the spirit which is in us, is so weak, how may we gather thereby, that there is no condemnation to them that have that virtue? because saith he, that virtue of the quickening spirit which is so weak in us, is most perfect and most mighty in Christ, and being imputed unto us which believe, causeth us to be so accounted of, as though there were no relics of corruption, and death in us. Therefore hitherto Paul disputed of remission of sins, and imputation of fulfilling the Law, and also of sanctification which is begun in us: but now he speaketh of the perfect imputation of Christ’s manhood, which part was necessarily required to the full appeasing of our consciences: for our sins are defaced by the blood of Christ, and the guiltiness of our corruption is covered with the imputation of Christ’s obedience: and the corruption itself (which the Apostle calleth sinful sin) is healed in us by little and little, by the gift of sanctification, but yet it lacketh besides that another remedy, to wit, the perfect sanctification of Christ’s own flesh, which also is to us imputed.

The power and authority of the spirit, against which is set the tyranny of sin.

To wit, absolutely and perfectly.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free--rather, "freed me"--referring to the time of his conversion, when first he believed.

from the law of sin and death--It is the Holy Ghost who is here called "the Spirit of life," as opening up in the souls of believers a fountain of spiritual life (see on Joh 7:38-39); just as He is called "the Spirit of truth," as "guiding them into all truth" (Joh 16:13), and "the Spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord" (Isa 11:2), as the inspirer of these qualities. And He is called "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," because it is as members of Christ that He takes up His abode in believers, who in consequence of this have one life with their Head. And as the word "law" here has the same meaning as in Rom 7:23, namely, "an inward principle of action, operating with the fixedness and regularity of a law," it thus appears that "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" here means, "that new principle of action which the Spirit of Christ has opened up within us--the law of our new being." This "sets us free," as soon as it takes possession of our inner man, "from the law of sin and death" that is, from the enslaving power of that corrupt principle which carries death in its bosom. The "strong man armed" is overpowered by the "stronger than he"; the weaker principle is dethroned and expelled by the more powerful; the principle of spiritual life prevails against and brings into captivity the principle of spiritual death--"leading captivity captive." If this be the apostle's meaning, the whole verse is to this effect: That the triumph of believers over their inward corruption, through the power of Christ's Spirit in them, proves them to be in Christ Jesus, and as such absolved from condemnation. But this is now explained more fully.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. For the law of the Spirit of life] The Gospel of the grace of Christ, which is not only a law or rule of life, but affords that sovereign energy by which guilt is removed from the conscience, the power of sin broken, and its polluting influence removed from the heart. The law was a spirit of death, by which those who were under it were bound down, because of their sin, to condemnation and death. The Gospel proclaims Jesus the Saviour; and what the law bound unto death, IT looses unto life eternal. And thus the apostle says, whether of himself or the man whom he is still personating, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Most people allow that St. Paul is here speaking of his own state; and this state is so totally different from that described in the preceding chapter, that it is absolutely impossible that they should have been the state of the same being, at one and the same time. No creature could possibly be carnal, sold under sin, brought into captivity to the law of sin and death; and at the same time be made free from that law of sin and death, by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus! Until the most palpable absurdities and contradictions can be reconciled, these two opposite states can never exist in the same person at the same time.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. For the law of the Spirit of life, etc. This is a confirmation of the former sentence; and that it may be understood, the meaning of the words must be noticed. Using a language not strictly correct, by the law of the Spirit he designates the Spirit of God, who sprinkles our souls with the blood of Christ, not only to cleanse us from the stain of sin with respect to its guilt, but also to sanctify us that we may be really purified. He adds that it is life-giving, (for the genitive case, after the manner of the Hebrew, is to be taken as an adjective,) it hence follows, that they who detain man in the letter of the law, expose him to death. On the other hand, he gives the name of the law of sin and death to the dominion of the flesh and to the tyranny of death, which thence follows: the law of God is set as it were in the middle, which by teaching righteousness cannot confer it, but on the contrary binds us with the strongest chains in bondage to sin and to death.

The meaning then is, — that the law of God condemns men, and that this happens, because as long as they remain under the bond of the law, they are oppressed with the bondage of sin, and are thus exposed to death; but that the Spirit of Christ, while it abolishes the law of sin in us by destroying the prevailing desires of the flesh, does at the same time deliver us from the peril of death. If any one objects and says, that then pardon, by which our transgressions are buried, depends on regeneration; to this it may be easily answered, that the reason is not here assigned by Paul, but that the manner only is specified, in which we are delivered from guilt; and Paul denies that we obtain deliverance by the external teaching of the law, but intimates that when we are renewed by the Spirit of God, we are at the same time justified by a gratuitous pardon, that the curse of sin may no longer abide on us. The sentence then has the same meaning, as though Paul had said, that the grace of regeneration is never disjoined from the imputation of righteousness.

I dare not, with some, take the law of sin and death for the law of God, because it seems a harsh expression. For though by increasing sin it generates death, yet Paul before turned aside designedly from this invidious language. At the same time I no more agree in opinion with those who explain the law of sin as being the lust of the flesh, as though Paul had said, that he had become the conqueror of it. But it will appear very evident shortly, as I think, that he speaks of a gratuitous absolution, which brings to us tranquillizing peace with God. I prefer retaining the word law, rather than with Erasmus to render it right or power: for Paul did not without reason allude to the law of God.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(2) A statement of the great antithesis, of which the rest of the section is a development, between the law of the Spirit of life and the law of sin and of death.

The law of the Spirit of life.—A phrase defining more fully the mode in which the union with Christ becomes operative in the believer. It begins by imparting to him the Spirit of Christ; this Spirit creates within him a law; and the result of that law is life—that perfect spiritual vitality which includes within itself the pledge of immortality.

The Spirit.—That is, the Spirit of Christ, as in Rom_8:9, which is hardly as yet conceived of as a distinct personality, but representing the continued action and influence which the ascended Saviour exercises upon the believer.

In Christ Jesus.—These words are best taken with “hath made” (rather, made, when it was imparted to me) “me free.” The law of the Spirit of life, in Christ (i.e., operating through my union with Christ), made me free from the law of sin and of death.

From the law of sin and death.—The direct contrast to the foregoing. Not here the law of Moses, but the power of sin, the corrupt element in our nature, acting upon the soul, and itself erecting a kind of law, saying, “Thou shalt,” where the law of God says “Thou shalt not;” and “Thou shalt not,” where the law of God says “Thou shalt.” The effect of this reign of sin is death—spiritual death—bearing in itself the pledge of eternal death.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. For the law, &c.] What is this law? We take it to be a phrase by way of paradox, meaning the institute, or procedure, of the Gospel of Grace. Cp. “the law of faith,” Rom_3:27. It is the Divine Rule of Justification, (which alone, as the whole previous reasoning shews, removes “all condemnation,”) and is thus “a law” in the sense of “fixed process.” But also it is here “the law of the Spirit,” because its necessary sequel (indeed we may say its final cause as regards man) is the impartation of the Holy Spirit, (see Joh_7:39,) of whose influences so much is now to be said. And He is here specially “the Spirit of Life,” because He is the Agent who first leads the soul to believe in the Propitiation (see 1Pe_1:2), and so to escape sentence of “death;” and who then animates it with the energies of the new life. Lastly, this whole process is “in Christ Jesus,” who is the meritorious Cause of Justification, the Head of the Justified, and the Giver of the Spirit.—The sum of the meaning thus is that the deliverance from doom is by faith in the Justifying Merit of Christ, which faith is attended, as well as produced, by the influences of the Holy Spirit, given through and by Christ.

hath made me free] An aorist in the Gr.; probably referring to the definite past fact of the delivering Work. The phrase thus refers to Justification rather than Sanctification, which is a present process, not a past event.—“Me:”—there is another reading “thee;” but “me” is certainly right. The word is an echo from ch. 7, Cp. Gal_2:17-21, where the Apostle similarly turns from the plural of general truth to the singular of his own appropriation of it.—“Free:”—i.e. in respect of condemnation—not in respect of influence; which indeed (see next note) would be an alien idea here. He is here summing up the whole previous argument of the Epistle.

the law of sin and death] i.e. the Law, which, as regards man apart from Christ, is invariably linked with sin, as evoking it, and with death, as thus, in the nature of things, calling it down on the sinner. In other words it is the Divine Law, (instanced in that of Moses,) which, as a Covenant, is by its very holiness the sinner’s doom. The word “law” is (though not at first sight) used in the sense of a fixed process in both parts of the verse: the “new covenant” is linked, by the chain of cause and effect, with the Spirit of Life; the “old covenant,” with sin and death.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,.... These words are of difficult interpretation. They may be understood of the Gospel revealing and declaring deliverance from the law of Moses; wherefore there can be "no condemnation", Rom 8:1, by it. The Gospel may be designed by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"; which may be called a law, not as succeeding the law of works, by which that is abrogated; nor as requiring conditions to be performed, or as enjoining duties to be observed, or as delivering out threatenings in case of disobedience; but as it is a doctrine, order, and chain of truths, as the Hebrew word signifies, and which is sometimes used for the Gospel, Isa 2:3 as is, Rom 3:27. It may be called the law, or doctrine "of the Spirit", because the Spirit is the author of it, and makes it powerful and effectual to the good of souls; by it the Spirit of God is conveyed into the heart; and the substance of it are spiritual things: and the "law of the Spirit of life", because it discovers the way of life and salvation by Christ; is the means of quickening dead sinners; of working faith in them, by which they live on Christ, and of reviving drooping saints; and also it affords spiritual food, for the support of life: and this may be said to be "in Christ", or by him, inasmuch as it comes from, and is concerning him; he is the sum, the substance, and subject matter of it:

the law of sin and death may intend the law of Moses, called "the law of sin"; not as if it was sinful, or commanded or encouraged sin, for it severely prohibits it; but because by it, through the corruption of man's nature, sin is irritated, and made to abound; it is the strength of sin, and by it is the knowledge of it: and it may be called "the law of death", because it threatened with death, in case of disobedience; it sentences and adjudges transgressors to death; and when it is attended with power, it strikes dead all a man's hopes of life, by obedience to it; it leaves persons dead as it finds them, and gives no life, nor hopes of it; by it none can live, or be justified: now, though Christ is the author of deliverance from it, yet the Gospel is the means of revealing and declaring this deliverance; which designs not an exemption from obedience to it, but freedom from the curse and condemnation of it; and this sense well agrees with Rom 8:1; likewise the words are capable of being understood of the power and efficacy of the Spirit of God, in delivering regenerate persons from the dominion and tyranny of sin; and which may be considered as a reason why they "walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit", Rom 8:1, "life" may well be ascribed to the Spirit of God, or be called the Spirit of life, because he has life in himself as the Father and Son have; and is the author of life to others, of natural life to all men as creatures, and of spiritual life to the people of God in regeneration; and is a quickening spirit to them afterwards, as he will be to the dead bodies of the saints in the resurrection: by "the law" of the Spirit may be meant, the energy and power of the Spirit in conversion; which work requires power, and a man has no power of himself to effect it; but there is a power in the Spirit, which works irresistibly, though not by any force or compulsion to the will, but it moves upon it sweetly, powerfully, and effectually: and all this may be said to be "in Christ": the life which the Spirit is the author and giver of, is in Christ as the head of his people, the proper repository of all grace, and the fountain of life; the Spirit himself is in him, both as God and as man, and as Mediator, hence the saints receive him and his gifts and graces from him; and the law of the Spirit, or his power and efficacy in working, is "in" or "by" Christ, through his sufferings and death, and in consequence of his mediation: now this powerful and quickening efficacy of the Spirit delivers regenerate persons from the force and tyranny of sin, called here "the law of sin and death"; a "law of sin", because it has power and dominion over unregenerate persons, its throne is in the heart of man, and its laws are many and powerful; and "the law of death", because its reign is tyrannical, barbarous and cruel, it is unto death: and from its governing influence, and tyrannical power, does the Spirit of God free his people in regeneration; not from the being of sin; nor from the rage of it, and disturbance it gives; nor from such power of it, but that they may fall into sin; but so as that sin does not properly reign over them, nor legally, nor universally, or so as to bring a death on their graces, and their persons into condemnation. Once more, those words may be understood of the holiness of Christ's human nature, as a branch of our justification, and freedom from the guilt of sin, and condemnation by it: for as "the law of sin and death" may design inherent corruption, and the force and power of it in the saints; so the opposite to it, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ", may mean the purity and holiness of his human nature. That Christ's human nature is pure and holy is certain, from express texts of Scripture, from its union to the Son of God, from the ends and purposes of its assumption, from the inefficacy of Satan's temptations, and from the whole course of his life and conversation; for though he was in the likeness of sinful flesh, was reckoned a sinner by men, was attended with infirmities, the effects of sin, though not sinful, had all the sins of his people imputed to him, and endured afflictions, and at last death; yet his nature was pure and untainted: for he did not descend from Adam by ordinary generation; and though made of a woman, yet the flesh he took of her was sanctified by the Holy Ghost; his body was prepared by God, and curiously wrought by the Spirit, from whom his whole human nature received a fulness of habitual holiness: and this may be called "the Spirit of life" in him, because he is a quickening Spirit in regeneration, justification, and the resurrection from the dead; "the law" of it, because the holiness of his nature lies in, arises from, and is conformable to a law that is within him, written on his heart; and because, together with his obedience and death, it has a force, power, and authority, to free from condemnation; for this is not a mere necessary qualification of him to be the Mediator, or what renders his obedience, sacrifice, and intercession, efficacious and valuable, or is merely exemplary to us, but is what is imputed to us, as a part of our justification. The law requires a holy nature of us, we have not one, Christ assumed one for us, and so is the end of the law, or answers the requirement of the law in this respect, as well as in all others: and hence, though sanctification begun in us, does not free us from the being of sin, and all its force and power, yet perfect sanctification in Christ frees from all condemnation by it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Ver. 2. For the law of the Spirit] That is, Christ revived and risen hath justified me. {See Trapp on "Rom 4:25"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the law - The word “law” here means that “rule, command, or influence” which “the Spirit of life” produces. That exerts a control which is here called a law, for a law often means anything by which we are ruled or governed; see the notes at Rom 7:21, Rom 7:23. Of the Spirit. I see no reason to doubt here that this refers to the Holy Spirit. Evidently, at the close of Rom 8:1, the word has this reference. The phrase “the Spirit of life” then means the Holy Spirit producing or giving life; that is, giving peace, joy, activity, salvation; in opposition to the law spoken of in Rom. 7 that produced death and condemnation.

In Christ Jesus - Under the Christian religion; or sent by Christ to apply his work to people. Joh 16:7-14. The Spirit is sent by Christ; his influence is a part of the Christian scheme; and his power accomplishes what the Law could not do.

Hath made me free - That is, has delivered me from the predominating influence and control of sin. He cannot mean that he was perfect, for the whole tenor of his reasoning is opposed to that. But the design, the tendency, and the spirit of the gospel was to produce this freedom from what the Law could not deliver; and he was now brought under the general power of this scheme. In the former state he was under a most bitter and galling bondage; Rom 7:7-11. Now, he was brought under the influence of a scheme which contemplated freedom, and which produced it.

The law of sin and death - The controlling influence of sin, leading to death and condemnation; Rom 7:5-11.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus. That is, the new law, by which the Holy Ghost, or the spirit of life is given, hath delivered me from the law of sin and of death: that is, from the slavery of sin, that causeth death: though some think that the law of Moses may be here called the law of death, and of sin, because it occasionally brought death upon such as transgressed the known law. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The law of the Spirit of life; some understand hereby the doctrine of the gospel, which is called the law of the Spirit of life, because it is the ministry of the Spirit and of life. Others understand the efficacy and power of that grace and holiness, wherewith the living and quickening Spirit of God hath filled the human nature of Christ. Others rather understand a regenerating and working the new and heavenly life in the soul, with great power and efficacy.

In Christ Jesus; i.e. which was poured out upon him, and doth still reside in him after a very eminent manner: see Isa 11:2; Luk 4:1. Or, in Christ Jesus, is as much as by Christ Jesus, it is he that gives and conveys this Spirit, how, when and to whom he pleases.

Hath made me free from the law of sin: by sin here he aims chiefly at original sin; he doth not say, that those who are in Christ are simply and absolutely delivered from sin, but from the law of sin; i.e. the power, dominion, and tyranny thereof.

And death; i.e. from sin that is deadly, or of a deadly nature; as the Spirit of life is the living Spirit, so sin and death is no more, say some, than deadly sin. Others take death to be distinct from sin, and think he speaks of a double deliverance; and then by death they understand eternal or the second death: see Rev 20:6. The sense of the whole is this: That the mighty power of the renewing and quickening Spirit did free the apostle, and does free all believers, from the command and rule of sin, so that it does not reign over them, as formerly it did; and being thus freed from the power of sin, they are also freed from the power of death and eternal condemnation. So it seems as a proof of the foregoing proposition, That there is no condemnation to them, &c.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Law—The ruling force. (See note on Rom_7:23.)

Spirit of life— The Divine Spirit, the inspirer and giver of eternal life. Law… death. (See note on Rom_7:23.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free (not hath made me; the aorist refers to the time when the Christian became possessed of the Spirit of life in Christ) from the law of sin and death. Here is a distinct contrast to the state described in vers. 14, 23 of Ro 7, and a realization of what was yearned for in ver. 24, "the law of sin and of death" being evidently "the law of sin in the members" previously spoken of. The egw , before in captivity to this law, is now freed from it. And how? Not by its becoming a different egw ; not by a change of the constituent elements of human nature; but by the introduction of a new law the law of the Spirit of life which has emancipated the egw from its old unwelcome thraldom. In virtue of this new law, introduced into my being, I am now free to give my entire allegiance to the law of God. Nomov , be it observed, is here again used in a sense different from its usual one, and we thus have a still further nomov , in addition to those defined in the note after Rom_7:25. The designation of this new law is in marked opposition to that in which the egw was before said to be held; we have life in opposition to death, and the Spirit in opposition to the flesh, as well as freedom in opposition to captivity. The Spirit is, in fact, the Divine Spirit, taking possession of what is spiritual (now at length brought into view) in the inward man, making him partaker in the Divine life, and able to serve God freely. The expressions used bring out strikingly one essential distinction between Law and Gospel, viz. that the principle of the former is to control and discipline conduct by requirements and threats; but of the latter to introduce into man"s inner being a new principle of life, whence right conduct may spontaneously flow. Coercion is the principle of the one; inspiration of the other. An illustration may be found in the treatment of disease on the one hand by attempted repression of specific ailments, and on the other by imparting a new vitality to the system, which may of itself dispel disease. It is shown next how this new state of freedom has been brought about. First, by what God in Christ has done for us apart from ourselves; the subjective condition in ourselves being introduced at the end of ver. 4, toiv mh , etc.

For a new law the law of the Spirit of life is introduced into their being, by virtue of which they are freed from their old state of bondage to the law of sin and death.

"The Spirit of life.

What interest we always feel in life! Among things earthly, the main distinction, to our minds, is that between the living and the lifeless. Among the snows of Alpine heights, the blue gentian flower is welcome to the eye of the mountaineer. Amid the hot wastes of the sandy deserts, sweet is the oasis of green shrubs and shady palm trees which spring up around the solitary fountain. The child loves to watch the butterfly fluttering from bush to bush, the lizard peeping out and darting in among the heather and the ling of the common, the dragon-fly weaving graceful dances over the sunny waters of the secluded peel. Who does not and a calm delight in marking the grayling leap from the silvery brook, the heron lift itself in slow flight from the reedy banks of the tidal river, the hawk circle in the blue sky, the antlered deer bound into the lake and fleet through the glades of the forest? Amidst the loneliness of the ocean, what a relief to the mariner to witness the gambol of the sea-monster, or even to hear the cry of the wild storm-bird! And, to the thoughtful mind, how far deeper the interest felt in the more complex, the more varied the moral life of men! Whether in the mountain or the plain, by the sea, in the well-tilled fields, or in the busy city where myriads throng and jostle, wherever human life meets the eye and ear, we feel ourselves in the presence of God"s greatest works. Here is the spiritual realm; here the moral conflict; here the probation, the discipline, which regard eternity. For the interest of the life of man lies not in its picturesque or its pathetic aspect, but in the working of great principles, to issues dear to the very heart of God. The life of the body engrosses indeed much of men"s energies and cares. Yet we all feel that it is the higher life. the soul-life that is of supreme moment and deathless interest to man. There is a life of the spirit, which multitudes may disregard, but which to the Creator, and to all enlightened minds, seems the one great end for which worlds were made and man was fashioned. It is the office of religion to summon men"s attention to this life, precious, beautiful, and immortal; to tell men that, unless they live this life, they live in vain; to assure them that the privileges and the probation of earth have a view to this higher conscious, spiritual existence and growth, And Christianity comes to men, telling them of a Divine Saviour, in whom "was life," and who came "that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly;" telling them of a spiritual agency provided by God to awaken them from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; telling them of the presence and the power among men of "the Spirit of life." It is the spiritual life, enkindled and sustained by this Divine Spirit, which is the aim and the reward of a Father"s pity and a Saviour"s love. Contrasting with that death from which it is a deliverance, it is a preparation for that eternity which is the infinite scope for its development. Consisting in the exercise and growth of the highest and noblest powers with which the Creator has endowed mankind, amidst the circumstances which Providence has arranged for their manifestation, it brings the dependent being to share the Divine nature, and fits it to inherit the heavenly kingdom.

I THE APOSTLE SPEAKS OF THE LIVING SPIRIT the Spirit in whom is life. God is spoken of in the Scriptures as "the living God." The Holy Spirit is a living Agent; not merely conscious, but energetic. He has knowledge: "The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." He works the work of God in the material world: "By his Spirit God hath garnished the heavens;" "Thou sendest forth thy Spirit; they are created." He is the Author of our conscious being: "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." He is the universal Presence of omniscient Deity: "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?" He is the power that raised the Redeemer, who was "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." He is the Divine Force of life to Christ"s followers: "He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." In so much of nature as is accessible to our observation, life springs from life. So is it in the spiritual realm. The Holy Ghost is spoken of as the Source and Importer of the new and holy life; because he himself possesses, in infinite fulness, that which we receive according to measure. We recognize the presence of the Spirit of God in all God"s works and methods, in what are called nature and nature"s laws. But not simply the lower life the highest and the best also is his; his also is the life which is emphatically Divine. The Spirit of God is, accordingly, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of holiness, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of life. Far from being merely contemplative, the Spirit of God is emphatically energetic. His omnipresence and universal activity bear witness to the justice and, the beauty of the designation applied to him Spirit of life.

II THE LIVING SPIRIT IS ALSO THE LIFE-IMPARTING SPIRIT. In the Nicene Creed, which has been in use in Christian Churches for fifteen hundred years, the Holy Ghost is termed "the Lord and Giver of life." Not only is life in him; it is from him. Wherever we observe the signs of spiritual life, we are justified in attributing them to the Divine influences. That life from the dead should result from the outpouring of the Spirit appears to have been constantly taught by the Hebrew prophets: "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses;" and again, "The Spirit shall be poured upon us from on high. and the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest." And when our Lord Jesus taught the great truths of his kingdom, he expressly referred to this same Divine agency the new life which was to be distinctive of his subjects. Using figurative language, drawn from the history of the bodily life, he said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God;" "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Examples of spiritual death are too common all around. A person may have abundance of life and health and strength of body, he may even be alive intellectually; yet he may be as dead in the sight of God. If there be in him no interest in the Divine presence, no reverence for the Divine Law, no submission to the Divine Word, no devotion to the Divine service, no faith in the Divine promises, the man is dead "dead in trespasses and sins;" there is "no life in him." A most striking picture of the condition of dead souls is given by the prophet who records the vision of the valley of dry bones: "There was no life in them." On the other hand, what is meant by spiritual life? A truly living Christian is alive to the presence and favour of God, is under the constraint of the love of Christ, delights in the Divine Word, and treasures up its precepts and its promises, is obedient to the commands of Jesus the Lord, and is devoted, gratefully and joyfully, to his service and glory. The things of earth, which are everything to the worldly, have comparatively little interest for such, except as they are connected with Christ"s kingdom. They "have purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." That a great change has passed over those who were spiritually dead, but are now "alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord," cannot be questioned. No change in condition, from beggary to opulence, from a dunghill to a throne, can for a moment be compared with this change. This is indeed "the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" the "new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." No explanation of this change is reasonable and sufficient which does not refer it to the Spirit of God. To those spiritually awakened, brought to newness of life, the words of the apostle may be addressed: "Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." If we can say, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren," we shall certainly be found forward to acknowledge, "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." It is by the grace and energy of the Holy Spirit that human souls are born anew, are born from above. That this scriptural teaching is most reasonable seems as plain as can be. If we believe in the existence of human spirits, we must acknowledge their influence over our nature and character. The uprightness and magnanimity of a father, the tenderness and unselfishness of a mother, the ennobling and inspiring influence of a true friend, have all "told" upon us, and helped to make us what we are that is good. Is it credible that we owe so much to human spirits, and yet owe nothing to him who is "the Father of the spirits of all flesh in whom is all moral excellence, and whose benevolence is equal to his holiness? Do we behold his handywork in the vaulted heavens and the verdant earth; and shall we not recognize his mighty working in the spiritual realm, and admire his grace and love in all that is pure in human character, true in human speech, and beautiful in human life? If it is the Spirit of God that "renews the face of the earth," that turns the winter into spring, calling forth life and beauty, fragrance and song, where sterility and death have reigned; surely it is not enthusiasm to attribute to "the Spirit of life" the transformation of the human soul, the enkindling of the spiritual vitality and energy, that mark the new creation! The Spirit of life does not act independently of means. The human soul is affected by power, in accordance with its own laws. In order to live unto God, a soul must have some knowledge of God and of God"s purposes, must be awakened to a sense of sin and. need, must understand and accept the gospel of Divine grace, must receive in faith the promises of pardon, of help, of guidance, of salvation. Now, the Holy Spirit of God acts in connection with these means; for he is the Spirit of truth, as well as of power. He takes of the things of Christ, and reveals them unto us. This is why we are especially encouraged to seek the influences of the Holy Spirit when we are using the means which Divine wisdom has appointed for the conversion of sinners. The Spirit works with the Word, brings the gospel home with power to the heart of the hearer, at once gives energy to the truth itself and to the appeal of the heavenly message, and enlightenment and quickening grace to the nature of the hearer. The Word, alone, is lifeless; the soul, alone, is dead; but the Spirit imparts efficacy to the Word, and, so, vitality to the soul. Thus God accompanies the Word "with the demonstration of the Spirit and with power." There is a shaking among the dry bones; the Spirit is breathed into them, and they live, they stand upon their feet, an exceeding great army. What encouragement this doctrine should give to all who are labouring for the salvation of souls! They may be very ignorant and very weak, for they are but human. But the work is to be effected, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. We do but comply with the directions of him who alike reveals the truth and imparts the Spirit. Yes, we may be assured that he will honour his own agency, that he will not forsake his own servants, that he will prosper his own work, and so glorify his own Name, and hasten his own kingdom.

III IT IS THE OFFICE OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE, NOT ONLY TO AWAKEN, BUT TO SUSTAIN LIFE. Life is not a thing which is perfected at once. The blossom of the spring is fair and fragrant; yet months must pass, and all seasonable influences must have play, before the luscious fruit shall be found, where the bloom of promise cheered the eye and roused the hope. The child, in his helplessness and speechlessness, must be nurtured and taught through long years before the infantile nature shall develop into that of the philosopher or the statesman. Life is a thing of progress, a thing of growth; has its own divinely appointed order and processes and laws. So is it with the spiritual life. It is no dishonour to the Divine Spirit that the work of renewal is not an instantaneous and perfect work, leaving nothing further to be done. The new birth is, as a birth, complete; but it is only the commencement of a new life. To be "born again" is to begin to live anew, with higher principles and purer motives and nobler aims. Here, upon earth, the path of the Christian is one of progress; he is introduced to the right way in order that he may follow it that he may make progress therein, year by year, and day by day. It is not the will, the plan, of God that there should be either pause or (far less) retrogression. Two things are needful first, growth, always; and secondly, revival, sometimes. It were to be wished. that young Christians were more conscious of the requirement of growth in the Divine life. To be brought into a right relation with God is the first step in the spiritual life; but it remains to learn God"s truth, to do God"s will, to serve Christ"s people, and to promote Christ"s cause. It will take the whole of life to fulfil the "high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Character and usefulness, these, to use ordinary language, are the great ends of life. They who fail here fail altogether. Coming to religious services, reading the Bible, prayer, fellowship, these are means to an end; and that end is that men may be more like Christ. Aspire to this; be not satisfied unless you are making progress in this direction; let the fruit be seen, which is the effect and the evidence of life. It is by the Spirit of life that this result is to be effected by the Spirit of life working in the heart, and changing the character into the likeness of the Lord, and assisting to conquer sin, to resist Satan, to acquire a character congenial and akin to Christ"s. This is the Holy Spirit"s choicest, holiest work; to foster and promote the spiritual life, that it may be growingly vigorous and fruitful, to the praise and glory of the ever-living God. And it is the office of the same Spirit to revive the life that is feeble and sluggish. If, by negligence and sloth, the Christian has become cold to spiritual realities, and is not living in constant communion with the Unseen, there is but one power that can reanimate the slumbering soul, that can again enkindle the dying flame of devotion, that can save from selfishness and worldliness, that can make a man truly live unto God. Revival presumes that life is already in existence, but is, as it were, in abeyance or in a dormant state. In the use of divinely appointed means this condition may be escaped, this mischief may be remedied; but the power that alone can accomplish this good work is the power of the Holy Spirit of God. It is the Spirit that awakens first to the sense of deadness, so to speak, and then leads to the employment of those means by which the soul can be reanimated and refreshed. A little reflection will show that only the same Spirit can perfect life in immortality. The life which is awakened by this Divine agency is a life which knows no death. The change which passes upon the body at its dissolution does not affect the spiritual life; for this, begun in time, is perfected in eternity. "The Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." In the resurrection of the Lord Jesus we have the pledge and earnest of a blessed immortality. "We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith;" "Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the Earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory;" "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The law of the Spirit - That is, the gospel. Hath freed me from the law of sin and death - That is, the Mosaic dispensation.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Spirit

Hitherto in Romans the Holy Spirit has been mentioned but once Rom 5:5 in this chapter He is mentioned nineteen times. Redemption is by blood and by power. (See Scofield "Exo 14:30").; Rom 3:21 to Rom 5:11; speaks of the redemptive price; Romans 8. of redemptive power.

sin Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 5:21").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, be meant the doctrine of the gospel, which is called the ministration of the Spirit, then the note is, that the gospel or new covenant is a law, that it is the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus, and that it sets the sincere Christian at liberty from the slavery of sin, and the condemning power of the law.

If by the law of the Spirit of life be understood a real and vital principle of regenerating grace, working a new and heavenly life in the soul with great power and efficacy; thence we learn,

1. That the holy and blessed Spirit of God is a spirit of life.

1. Essentially and formally in himself; as the Father hath life in himself, so the Spriit hath life in himself also.

And, 2. effectively or casually, with respect to us. He is a quickening or life-giving Spirit, being the original spring and frontal cause of that spiritual life which is in a gracious soul.

Learn, 2. That every person, before the Spirit of life takes hold of him, is under the law of sin and death.

Learn, 3. That such as are truly regenerate, are made free from the law of sin and death.

4. That it is by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that any soul is made free from the law of sin and death.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death.” One definition of “law” is a rule of action, which is pertinent in this verse, where. the Holy Spirit, the Author of life, has actually given you perfect freedom from all the power and influence of sin and death.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death . [From all that I have written, it is a just conclusion that, under Christ, we are so fully justified from sin that those who are in him shall stand uncondemned at the last judgment, since there is now no ground for their condemnation. For the gospel, or law, given by the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of life, has made me free from law (whether given by Moses or otherwise) which produces sin and death. Laws which can not be obeyed result in sin, and sin ends in death.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. For the law of the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life must be the Holy Spirit. The whole phrase is equivalent to the Gospel, which has been given to men by the agency of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has quickened us into a new life, and as we have died to the law and to sin, we are freed from them. Wesley says that the meaning is the “Gospel has freed us from the Mosaic law.” That the law of the Spirit of life describes the Gospel is shown by verse 3, which explains verse 2.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

2. ὁ γὰρ νόμος τ. πν. κ.τ.λ. The life in Christ Jesus is the new life of and in men, Christ’s life in them, their life in Christ. This life has its instrument or vehicle, as it were, in the new spirit that is in men, new, because the result of their spirit being in union with and invigorated by Christ’s Spirit (Rom 8:9). This new or renewed spirit has its own law regulating its true condition, just as the old spirit had (Rom 7:21): and this law is embodied in the life and character of Christ; its first utterance is justification by faith which at once liberates a man from the tyranny of sin and death and dictates a corresponding manner of life; cf. n. on Rom 6:16-23. It is very remarkable that S. Paul should use this word νόμος to express any condition of the new life: it at least shows how far he is from having worked out a complete technical vocabulary. “He is using ν. here in the sense of Torah which is very much wider than ν. as ordinarily interpreted.” J. H. A. Hart. In τ. πν. τ. ζ. there is a reference to Gen 2:7: this is a new creation; cf. 2Co 5:17.

ἐν Χρ. Ἰ. Closely with ζωῆς; the whole phrase describes the ‘new man.’

ἠλευθέρωσεν. Sc. as soon as it came into action. Cf. Rom 6:4; Rom 6:8; Rom 6:11.

ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου τ. ἁ. κ. τ. θ. Either (1) the law imposed by sin, cf. Rom 7:23; Rom 7:25, or (2) the law which gave sin its opportunity, cf. Rom 7:11. The first is more in accordance with usage in c. 7; yet it obliges us to take νόμος in a different sense from Rom 8:3.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2.] For (a reason why there is no condemnation) the law (norma, method = influence, as in ἕτερον νόμον, ch. 7:23,—used here perhaps for sharper contrast to the νόμος ἁμαρτ. below) of the Spirit of life (the Lord and Giver of life—life used in an incipient higher sense than ἔζων in ch. 7:9,—see below) freed me (aor., referring to the time of his conversion. There is no stronger proof to my mind of the identity of the speaker in the first person throughout with the Apostle himself, than this extension of that form of speaking into this chapter: nothing more clearly shews, that there he was describing a really existing state within himself, but insulating, and as it were exaggerating it (as so often), to bring out more clearly the glorious deliverance to follow. If σε be read, the address is a general one to the reader, leading on to the ἡμῖν below: and the foregoing argument does not apply) in Jesus Christ (I follow the more regular grammatical arrangement in taking ἐν χρ. Ἰης. with the verb. Thus also Thol. and De Wette.

It may be taken (notwithstanding the absence of the art., at which indeed only tiros will stumble) with ζωῆς, as Luther, which seems to suit ch. 6:23,—or with τοῦπν. τ. ζ., as Piscator and Flatt,—or with ὁ νόμ. τ. π. τ. ζ., as Calv.) from the law of sin (7:25) and death (death again here bears a higher meaning than in ch. 7. We are now on higher ground:—κατάκριμα having been mentioned, which is the punishment of sin, death now involves that, and is not only temporal misery, but eternal ruin also.

This ‘law of the Spirit of life’ having freed him from the law of sin and death, so that he serves another master, all claim of sin on him is at an end—he is acquitted, and there is no condemnation for him).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. ὁ νόμος τοῦ Πνεύματος = the authority exercised by the Spirit We have had the same somewhat free use of νόμος in the last chapter, esp. in ver. 23 ὁ νόμος τοῦ νοός, ὁ νόμος τῆς ἁμαρτίας: it is no longer a ‘code’ but an authority producing regulated action such as would be produced by a code.

τοῦ Πνεύματος τῆς ζωῆς. The gen. expresses the ‘effect wrought’ (Gif.), but it also expresses more: the Spirit brings life because it essentially is life.

ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ goes with ἠλευθέρωσε: the authority of the Spirit operating through the union with Christ, freed me, &c. For the phrase itself see on ch. 6:11

ἠλευθέρωσέ με. A small group of important authorities (א B F G m Pesh., Tert. 1/2 vel potius 2/2 Chrys. codd.) has ἠλευθέρωσέν σε. The combination of א B with Latin and Syriac authorities shows that this reading must be extremely early, going back to the time before the Western text diverged from the main body. Still it can hardly be right, as the second person is nowhere suggested in the context, and it is more probable that σε is only a mechanical repetition of the last syllable of ἠλευθέρωσε (χε). Dr. Hort suggests the omission of both pronouns (ἡμᾶς also being found), and although the evidence for this is confined to some MSS. of Arm. (to which Dr. Hort would add ‘perhaps’ the commentary of Origen as represented by Rufinus, but this is not certain), it was a very general tendency among scribes to supply an object to verbs originally without one. We do not expect a return to first pers. sing. after τοῖς ἐν Χ. Ἰ., and the scanty evidence for omission may be to some extent paralleled, e.g. by that for the omission of εὑρηκέναι in 4:1, for εἴ γε in 5:6, or for χάρις τῷ Θεῷ in 7:25. But we should hardly be justified in doing more than placing με in brackets.

ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου τῆς ἁμαρτίας καὶ τοῦ θανάτου = the authority exercised by Sin and ending in Death: see on 7:23, and on ὁ νόμ. τ. πνεύμ. above.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The law of the Spirit of life [ο νομος του πνευματος της ζωης] . The law, the regulative principle; the Spirit, the divine Spirit who inspires the law (compare Rom 7:14). Of life, proceeding from the life of Jesus and producing and imparting life. Compare Joh 16:15.

In Christ Jesus. Construe with hath made me free. Compare Joh 8:36.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.