“For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.” (Gal. 2:19) Through God’s grace, we are freed from the tyranny of a perfect law to which we could never measure up. God’s grace is shown in what His Son Jesus Christ has done for us—what the law could never do (Rom. 8:3-4). The law could not save nor coerce us to obey, for the problem was within us. The law could show us that we were unfit, but it could not make us fit. The law could point out our weaknesses, but it could not make us strong. For this, we needed a new power.  The law could not change who we are. But what the law could not do, God did (Rom. 8:4)! Now we are the servants of Christ because we are motivated by a power greater than external obedience to a law code. We are dead to the law, but notice that Paul tells us what the objective in this is: that we might live to God. We are not freed from the law to live a life of carnal lawlessness, but we are freed in the power of the Spirit to do that which the law could never give us the power to do: live our lives for God. “For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.” (Rom. 14:8). 

            The way of life to which God has called us is the way of giving ourselves totally to Him in consecration. We live for Him because we are perfect now in His eyes. He has brought us near in Jesus Christ to be a pleasing aroma before Him in love. His grace toward us has as its goal the creation of a “new heart” and a “new spirit”— in the words of Ezekiel the prophet (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26). Things have changed so that we can offer our bodies as living sacrifices to Him who has called us (Rom. 12:1-2). Our death to the law was so that we might be “married to another”, Jesus our Lord, and that the union of our spirits with His could produce spiritual fruit to His glory (Rom. 7:4). 

            So let us never think that anyone could die to the law and then live for self. When we die to the law we die to self. “And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” (2 Cor. 5:15). We are no longer trying to save ourselves by our own actions, but now we are free to live a life of love toward God in appreciation for all His grace and love toward us. He is the one we seek to please, and the desire of our heart is to please Him in all that we do. The life of liberty is vastly different from the life of legalism, primarily in this way: the legalist is trying to win the favor of God, while the one set free by love is rejoicing in the favor of God all the days of His life. When we rejoice in Him, and give ourselves to Him, we please Him, and the “righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:4). 

Bryan Dunaway

Grace and Peace Ministries

www.gandpministries.org