Freed to Live by the Spirit
The chains of law and sin are gone, and in Jesus we live free by the Spirit.
Devotional Credit: Abide Above by Miles Stanford
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Today’s devotional by Miles Stanford draws us into the heart of Paul’s teaching in Romans 6 and 7. He reminds us that freedom from sin and freedom from the law are both essential realities for the believer. On the cross, Jesus accomplished our liberty. In daily life, this liberty is expressed by the Holy Spirit living in us. The cross is not only about forgiveness but also about our release from the dominion of Adamic sin and the grip of Adamic law.
Stanford emphasizes that ministers and teachers who want to truly establish believers must point them to these central truths. The law cannot impart life, and it cannot shape us into righteousness. Only grace, flowing from our union with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection, can do this. Satan resists such teaching because it unveils the freedom God has given us, a freedom that cannot be maintained by striving under law but only by resting in the life of Jesus within.
The message is clear: if God declares us dead to sin and discharged from the law, then that is our reality. We are no longer bound to the law as a means of righteousness, for righteousness has already been fulfilled in Jesus. We now live as God’s free children, new creations, indwelt by His Spirit, conformed into the image of His Son not by law but by the Spirit’s transforming work.
Stanford concludes with a simple truth worth remembering: law cannot give life, nor can it govern life that has already been given. We have been discharged from the law so that we may live freely in the Spirit. Life is no longer about rules pressed upon us from the outside, but about the indwelling Spirit shaping us from the inside.
Journal Entry – Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture
My child, I have set you free from the law of sin and death. You have died with Jesus, and in His death you are released from the old dominion that once held you captive. You are not under law but under grace. You are free to live in the liberty of My Spirit.
Do not return to what no longer binds you. The law cannot give you life, for eternal life is found only in My Son. You are a new creation, created in righteousness and true holiness. Walk not as one trying to achieve, but as one who has already received. Rest in the truth that you are dead to sin, alive to Me, and discharged from the law.
Your longing to be conformed to the image of Jesus is not a striving of your flesh but the sure work of My Spirit within you. I began this good work, and I will carry it on to completion. Do not measure yourself by rules, but by the truth that Christ is your life. In Him, you live freely, fully, and fruitfully, apart from the old demands that could never give life.
Scripture References: Romans 6:6-11, Romans 6:14, Romans 7:4-6, Galatians 2:19-21, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:18, 2 Corinthians 3:6, Ephesians 4:24, Philippians 1:6, Colossians 3:3-4, John 10:10.
Real-Life Analogy
Imagine carrying a heavy padlock around your wrist, always weighing you down. For years you try key after key, hoping one will free you. Then one day you discover the lock has already been cut open, and you were dragging around an empty clasp. The burden was gone long ago, but you did not realize it. That is what living under law is like for a believer. The lock has already been broken at the cross, and the Spirit now invites us to walk freely.
When I come across moments where I feel pressured to perform, measure up, or keep some inner rule, I can pause and say, “Lord, I trust You to live Your life in me right now, free from law and full of grace.” That changes the moment from striving to resting in His sufficiency.
Prayer of Confidence
Lord, I thank You that in Jesus I have died to sin and the law, and I now live in freedom by Your Spirit. I rejoice that I am no longer bound to the demands of law, for I have received life in Christ Himself. Thank You that I am free to walk in newness of life, not by my striving, but by Your Spirit within me. Today I rest in Your finished work and trust You to express Your life through me.