Spirit and Law

Paul’s teaching concerning the relation of the Spirit to law is often understood this way: The law sets out God’s demands for His people; we can’t keep those demands; the Spirit enables us to conform to the law.

That’s one way of putting it. It is the way that Jeremiah and Ezekiel put it – new hearts enable Israel to obey the Torah.

But that is not Paul’s characteristic way of putting it. More often, Paul says that we “keep in step” with the Spirit, rather than relying on the Spirit to “keep in step” with Torah.

Of course, by keeping up with the Spirit, we do fulfill what the law required all along (Romans 8:1-4). But the law is not the standard the Spirit enables us to reach. Rather, the Spirit (who is, of course, the Spirit of the Christ, the living Torah) has Himself become the standard.