Paul has made the point in his letter to the Roman church that faith was always what God wanted most from his people. People were never justified by law-keeping but simply by trusting in God. This, he argues, is not a ‘new covenant’ thing. So, what is new about the new covenant? The new thing is the gift of the Holy Spirit. People under the Old Covenant were given the law to guide them, but they tended to lack the will to be guided. Now, however, under the New Covenant, we are given the Holy Spirit to empower us to live the kind of life envisaged by the law. So, Paul says in 7:6: “We serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” It would be a tragedy, therefore, if we continued to live in the old way of the written code given that we now have access to a better way of living. You have an ‘access-all-areas’ pass to the fullness of a relationship with God. It was paid for by Jesus at a cost. Why settle for less when Jesus has given you access to more? Every Christian, by definition, has been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is how Jesus comes into our hearts. But often we don’t access the fullness of this experience. The person of God is within you by his Spirit. Learn how to live by the Spirit. The more you listen to and heed the voice and promptings of the Spirit the more empowered you will be. Make sure you access all the areas of relational connection and transformation that Jesus has opened up for you. Start the conversation with him now.
Do as I have suggested.
Read Jeremiah 31:33-34 and Galatians 5:16-17 in the light of Romans 8:5-11
