Let's think a little about the place of the law (understand it in the sense of what we speak of as the “Ten Commandments”) in this new season that has arrived with the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Let's talk about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of every believing follower of Jesus.
How does Jesus describe it to us there in John 10? He will lead us with His voice.
Let's start with what is written there in Matt. 19.
“A man came to Him and said, 'Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?"
He said to him, "Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One who is good. But if you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments.”
“Which commandments do you mean?” he asked Him. Jesus said, “These: You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Jesus answered him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions.”
You see that this young man thought that he had kept the entire law, everything that is written in the “Ten Commandments.” Yet Jesus shows him that he actually did not understand the heart of what the “commandments” are actually about, namely, to love God above all else!
Let me ask you a few questions in this regard:
Have you ever discovered in your study of God’s Word, and specifically what the New Testament says about the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit is now spoken of as the “Law” in your life as a believer?
Have you, for example, also discovered that what we know as the “ten commandments” is described in this new season, for example in Galatians 3, as the “tutor to Christ”?
But then specifically in the lives of unbelievers!
The Holy Spirit is therefore going to use the “law” or “ten commandments”, as we know it, in the lives of unbelievers to make them aware of their sin and, as it were, lead them to Jesus as the Savior!
Do you understand what this means?
This means that God the Spirit uses what is written in the “Ten Commandments” to make every person who does not yet know Jesus and understand what He came to do for us aware that he or she is totally lost and sinful. Yes, that we as humans cannot satisfy God in any way.
The law (in the sense of the “Ten Commandments”) is going to make lost people aware that they need Jesus as Savior! Yes, that He also died for them and their sins, and that only those who believe in Him and trust in what He also did for them will be saved and will not be lost and go to hell!
When people then accept Jesus as Savior and Lord and believe that He also came to die for them and their sins, God’s Spirit comes to live in their lives, to be in and with them every day as God’s Spirit. Yes, then He Himself, as God the Spirit, will guide them and teach them exactly what God’s will and heart is for their lives and for every day.
Thus God becomes the Spirit, then Himself “the Law” in the life of every believer in this new season.
This is what God already promised in the Old Testament, in passages such as Ezek. 36, will happen.
Then listen with this “new” understanding to these well-known prophetic words:
“I will give you a new heart and a new spirit; I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and obey my judgments and do them.”
That is why Paul writes the following in Romans 7:6: “But now we have been released from the law, because we died and are no longer under the law by which we were bound. Now we can serve in the new dispensation of the Spirit, and not in the old dispensation of legal prescriptions.”
Finally, can I challenge you to think about this a little in the Lord’s presence?