THE GRACE OF GOD

Continued

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND LEGALISM

"8 For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and that [salvation] is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as the result of works, that no one should boast."
(Eph. 2:8-9 ERS)
This legalism sees all men under law and interprets the Christian life as under law, contrary to Romans 6:14:
"For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for you are not under the law, but under grace." (Rom. 6:14).
In chapter 7 of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul discusses the Christian's relationship to the law. This discussion actually began with the statement in Rom. 6:14
("you are not under law, but under grace.")
which raised the question in Rom. 6:15
("What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?")
and its answer in Rom. 6:16 through 6:23.
Then Paul says that the Christian is not under law because he has died with Christ to the law (Rom. 7:1-6). And then Paul discusses the experience of the one under law. For the Christian to be under law is for him to be under the dominion of the law and to be a slave of the law (Rom. 7:25b); this slavery to the law would be equivalent to an idolatry of the law which is basically what legalism is. The Christian becomes entrapped in this legalism when he believes the legalistic teaching that a Christian's relationship to God depends upon his submission to the law and he has accepted the legalistic claim that the law is the way to be delivered from the dominion of sin. But the law does not deliver from the dominion and slavery of sin, but rather the passions of sin are aroused or energized by the law.
"While we were in the flesh, our sinful passions,
aroused by the law, were at work in our members
to bear fruit to death."
(Rom. 7:5 ERS)
The law is not thereby sin (Rom. 7:7), but sin finding opportunity in the commandment "Thou shalt not covet" works all kinds of covetousness (Rom. 7:7-8). The law, instead of delivering from the dominion of sin, leads instead to the enslavement to sin (7:14, 25b). Instead of leading to life, as legalism promises, the commandment leads to death (7:10). Sin uses the commandment as an opportunity to come alive or active (7:9, 11). The man under law wants to do what is right, but he cannot do it (7:18). Thus legalism leads to the moral dilemma: the contradiction between what man is and what he ought to be (7:19). The end is defeat and despair.

The man in Romans 7:7-24 is the Christian under law. This is not where the Christian should be -- he is not under law (Rom. 6:14) because he is dead to the law ( Rom. 7:4, 6). The Christian life depicted in Romans 7 is an abnormal (or subnormal) Christian life; there is no mention of the Holy Spirit in Rom. 7:7-24; the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit. Such defeat and despair are not characteristic of the normal Christian life depicted in Romans 8 and elsewhere in the New Testament.

Most Reformed theologians interpreted chapter 7 of Romans as the normal Christian life. And they said that because the Christian after conversion still has a sinful nature, he will have an unending struggle with indwelling sin. His sinful nature (which is subject to sin) is in constant warfare with his new nature (which is subject to God's law). Even though he wants to keep God's law, he finds himself being compelled by his sinful nature to do the very things he hates. Although justified (declared righteous through the imputed merits or righteousness of Christ) and thus assured of salvation, there is still no deliverance from his sinful nature until he dies. He will finally be delivered from his sinful nature when he will be raised from the dead in the last day with an incorruptible body completely free from the presence of the sinful nature. Thus most Reformed theologians interpreted the 7th chapter of Romans as the normal Christian life.

Although most Reformed Christian theologians interpet this struggle of Romans chapter 7 as the normal Christian life, some other Reformed theologians teach the suppression of the works of the flesh (sinful nature) by the power of the Holy Spirit as Spirit-empowered law-keeping. Other Christian theologians reject this interpretation of the Romans 7 as the normal Christian experience and teach a second work of grace that eradicates the sinful nature from the Christian, delivering him from the Romans 7 experience, But in either case the Christian is still left under the law as a rule and standard of life and the "walk in the Spirit" is interpreted as nothing more than Spirit-empowered law-keeping. According to this teaching, the Holy Spirit is given to the Christian to empower him to keep the law and to make him morally perfect, conforming to the divine standard given in the law. This legalistic interpretation of the Christian life is the source of many of the psychological problems that Christians have today.

Legalism has either of two psychological effects on the person in bondage to the law. He becomes either self-righteous or afflicted with a guilt complex.

  1. This self-righteousness is a special form of pride which is the chief by-product of idolatry (Psa. 40:4). It is most often connected with the externalization and detailed extensions of the law. It expresses itself in the attitude of the Pharisees who keep the minutiae of the law but overlook the spirit of the law (Matt. 15:1-19). Also the legalist is not only self-righteous but sits in judgment on others who do not conform to the law and has little place for mercy. He becomes like the god he acknowledges and worships -- the law. When he is shown mercy, he does not in turn show mercy to those in his debt (Matt. 18:23-35).
  2. The other psychological effect of legalism is a guilt complex. If the legalist does not become self-righteous, then he usually becomes afflicted with a guilt complex. This psychological effect is most often connected with the quantitization of the law. Since he cannot know the precise amount of merit attached to each good deed or how much he has acquired, a legalist has no certainty. In addition, no matter how well he has lived, it is always possible for him to slip into a terrible sin whose demerit will outweigh all his merit. As a result of this uncertainty the legalist is led to look constantly within himself to see whether he measures up to the divine standard, the law, which he has chosen as his ultimate criterion. If he believes himself constantly falling short of this standard, he will develop a guilt complex.

    This second psychological effect of legalism is the most common among Christians who have been misled into legalism. Because of the intense desire placed by God in the believer to please God, the Christian entrapped in legalism internalizes the law, applying it not only to external actions but to every thought and motive as well as to every word and deed. Because of the sin resulting from legalism (legalism itself is sin -- the sin of idolatry of the law), the guilt accompanying this sin is added to all the imagined guilt of the evil thoughts and motives resulting from close, detailed introspection. The result is often a very intense guilt complex bordering on the neurotic. Because of the widespread legalistic teaching in Christian churches, it is not surprising that so many Christians are afflicted with such guilt complexes.

The moral and ethical result of legalism is the moral dilemma: the contradiction between what man is and what he ought to be. Since man falls short of the ideal of moral perfection, the standard of righteousness, the law, he is faced with the disparity between the real and the ideal self, between what he is and what he ought to be. The Christian statement of this dilemma is given classic expression by the Apostle Paul in his famous analysis of the experience of the man under law in Romans chapter 7 --
"The good that I would, I do not.
And the evil which I would not, that I do." (Rom. 7:19)
This predicament has led the legalistic theologians to conclude that sin is intrinic to human nature. Rabbinic Judaism, for example, developed the theory of the evil nature or "yetzer hara." Augustine used the doctrine of original sin (originale peccatum) or inherited inborn sinful nature to explain why men always fall short of the divine standard. But this doctrinal expedient of the sinful nature is unnecessary since the moral dilemma can be explained by the fact that a false god always betrays its worshippers into the very opposite of what they expected from the false god (Isa. 44:9, 10; 45:16, 17, 20, 21). The man under law, who practically deifies the law (Rom. 7:22, 25) and looks to it to save him from sin and give him life (Rom. 7:10), finds that the law cannot save him, but on the contrary he discovers that the law arouses sin and becomes the opportunity for sin which results in death ( Rom. 7:5, 8-11).

And not only that, but also since death (primarily spiritual death) leads to sin (Rom. 5:12d ERS), the man under law is practically in spiritual death (the law separates him from God), and sin is the result of that death. This is what the Apostle Paul concludes at the end of his discussion of the legalistic struggle in Romans 7.

"21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right,
evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man,
23 but I see in my members another law at war
with the law of my mind and taking me captive
to the law of sin which is in my members."
(Rom. 7:21-23 ERS)
There are three laws presented here in this passage.
  1. The first law is the law of sin (verse 21). Since sin is not what the man under law wants to do, he concludes that sin must dwell in the members of his body rather than in his real inner self (Rom. 7:17-20).
  2. The second law is the law of God (verse 22) which the man under law delights in, which he agrees with his mind is right, good and holy (Rom. 7:12, 16), the law of the mind.
  3. The third law is the "another law" (heteros -- another of a different kind; compare this word with allos -- another of the same kind) -- a law different from the first two laws but warring against the law of the mind -- the law of God -- and bringing the man under law into captivity to the law of sin. What is this third law? In the next verse we get a clue.
    "Wretched man that I am!
    Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:24)
    The law of death is this third law, this other law. And this is confirmed in Romans 8:2 which says,
    "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
    has set me free from the law of sin and death."
    The law of death brings the man under law into captivity to the law of sin. Death leads to sin; all have sinned because of death (Rom. 5:12d ERS).
    "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law"
    (I Cor. 15:55).
No sinful nature is necessary to explain the moral delimma; the man under law sins because he is spiritually dead; the law separates him from God. For the Christian to place himself under the law is practically like placing himself in spiritual death; it has the same results -- sin. For the Christian to be under law, the law has taken the place of the Holy Spirit; the law thus separates the Christian from God. Romans chapter 7 is not the normal Christian life; it is the struggle of the man under law, entrapped in the bondage of legalism. And if the Christian falls into this legalism, there is deliverance.
"Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 7:25a).

There are three steps for deliverance from legalism that may be found in Romans 7:25b through 8:4:

"7:25b So then, I myself am a slave to the law of God with my mind,
but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin."
8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
8:3 For what the law could not do,
in that it is weakened through the flesh,
God Himself, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh,
8:4 in order that the righteous acts of law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (ERS)
Step 1 - The recognition that legalism is the problem (Rom. 7:25b).
"So then, on the one hand, I myself with my mind am a slave to the law of God,
but on the other hand, with my flesh to the law of sin." ERS
To be delivered from legalism one must recognize that he himself is a slave to the law and a slave to the law of sin, that is, that he is under the law and sin has dominion over him ( Rom. 6:14).
Step 2 - Deliverance from condemnation (Rom. 8:1).
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." NAS
God delivers from legalism through His word of unconditional love which says that there is no condemnation to those in Christ. This is a word of grace and places the Christian back under grace. Legalism conditions God's love by our sins. God says that His love is unconditioned by our sins. Therefore God does not condemn us for our failure under the law but delivers us from under law and places us back under grace. For in His love God delivers us from sin and death (Rom. 8:2) and thus from wrath which is condemnation.
Step 3 - Deliverance from sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." NAS
Paul hhas set him and his readers free from "the law of sin and [the law] of death." Paul, like other New Testament writers, uses the Greek word nomos (usually translated "law") in several different ways. The following are some of them.
  1. The first 5 books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch (Matt. 12:5; Luke 2:23-24; 16:16; 24:44; Rom. 3:21b).
  2. The whole Old Testament (Rom.3:19 referring to the passages quoted in Rom.3:10-18 which are not just from the Pentateuch; John 10:34, quoting Psa. 82:6; I Cor. 14:21, quoting Isa. 28:11)
  3. The Mosaic covenant that God made with the children of Israel (Exodus 24:1-12; Rom. 2:12; 3:19; 4:13-14; Gal. 3:17-18).
  4. The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue (Exodus 20:1-17; Deut. 5:6-21; Matt. 5:18), sometimes improperly called the moral law.
  5. All the commandments of God, ceremonial as well as the Ten Commandments; all statutes and ordinances of the law of Moses (Luke 2:22; John 7:23).
  6. Teaching, instruction, guidance (Rom. 2:17, 18, 20, 23, 26); compare this with the meaning of the Hebrew word Torah which has the same meaning. As such it is that content of God's revelation (the Word of the Lord, Deut. 5:5; Psa. 119:43, 160) which makes clear man's relationship to God and to his fellow man. It provides guidance for man's actions in his relationship to God and to his fellow man.
  7. Any commandment regulating conduct (Rom. 7:7, 8-9).
  8. A principle or power of action (Rom. 3:27; 7:21, 23, 25; 8:2).
This last use is the way Paul uses it here in this verse ( Rom. 8:2). The Greeks and the Romans believed that the law had the power to force compliance with the law (Cicero, Laws, II, 8-10). In their view, the law was a principle or power of action which could by its action bring about what the law prescribed; it was not merely a description of or prescription for some action; the law made the action occur. This is the sense in which Paul speaks of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" and of "the law of sin" and of "the law of death." These are not merely descriptions of how the Spirit or death or sin acts; they are powers that act and bring about certain actions. Thus the law of the Spirit of life is the power of the Spirit of God acting to make one alive, and thus freeing from the law or power of action of death and of sin. The law of death is power of death acting to make one dead. The law of sin is the power of sin acting to make one sin.

In the next verse ( Rom. 8:3), Paul says that the law of God is unable to make righteous; it does not have that power of action. And, as Paul says in Gal. 3:21, righteousness is not by the law because the law cannot make alive; the law does not have that power action either.
The law or the power of action of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus frees us from the law or the power of action of sin and of death. Since death leads to sin, the Spirit delivers from sin by giving us life in Christ which is deliverance from death. The law is not able to do this; it is through the death of Christ ( Rom. 8:3) who put an end to sin's reign over us ("condemn sin in the flesh") by his death for us (Rom. 6:6-10). The result is that the righteous acts of the law are fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Rom. 8:4). To walk after the flesh is to try to do the righteous acts of the law by human effort ("the flesh"). The believer must not do it that way. By walking after the Spirit, he will fulfill the righteous acts of the law. He will love God with his heart, soul, and mind, with his whole being, and he will love his neighbor as he loves himself. Love fulfills the law.

"8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another;
for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
9 The commandments,
'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill,
You shall not steal, You shall not covet,'
and any other commandment, are summed up in the sentence,
'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor;
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
(Rom. 13:8-10).
The interpretation of Romans 7 as the Christian struggle with the sinful nature is a legalistic misinterpretation. This misinterpretation considers the normal Christian life as under law and the sinful nature as the explanation why the Christian cannot keep the law and has this struggle. The flesh is considered to be the sinful nature.

But the sinful nature is not needed to explain the struggle and defeat in Romans 7; the Christian life cannot be live by the law any more than he can he be saved by the law. The law cannot produce righteousness because it cannot make alive.

"Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not;
for if a law had been given which could make alive,
then righteousness would indeed be by the law." (Gal. 3:21)
Only a real personal relationship to God through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit can produce righteousness, that is, the right relationship to God and to his fellow man. The law cannot make alive to God; that is, the law cannot produce a real personal relationship to God of love and trust in God. To try to live the Christian life by the law separates and isolates the Christian from God (spiritual death) and the attempt by human self-effort (the flesh) to live up to standard of the law results in failure and sin. As right and good is the law, God did not give it as a means of salvation nor as the way to live the Christian life by it. So all attempts to do so will fail, as Romans 7 shows. The sinful nature is not the cause of this failure but the wrong use of the law. Romans 7 shows what happens when the law is used wrongly. The solution to this problem is not to try harder, but to abandon this wrong use of the law. And to turn to God's way of the Christian life; that is, to walk according to Spirit (by faith), and not according to the flesh (human self-effort) ( Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:25).

The Protestant Reformers rejected the teaching that grace is given by the sacraments to enable the will of man to earn his salvation by meritorious works and taught that salvation is by grace through faith and that the grace of God regenerated the believer, giving to him a new nature, by which he can do good works, but not to earn salvation and eternal life (Christ had earned this for them by His active obedience), but to show that they are saved and regenerated. The believer can receive by faith the gift of eternal life earned by Christ's active obedience because the believer has received a new nature which makes it possible for him to believe. According to their teaching, the believer has two natures, a sinful nature and a new nature, and the experience recorded in Romans 7 was interpreted as the struggle between these two natures. This legalistic explanation of salvation and of the Christian life leaves the believer under the law, and under the dominion of sin ( Rom. 6:14). And this legalistic explanation of Romans 7 also leaves the believer under law with no deliverance from this struggle, contrary to the clear teaching of Scirpture that there is deliverance:

"24 O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body this death?
25a I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
(Rom. 7:24-25a KJV)

John Wesley (1703-1791) in the 18th century recognized that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, and he put forth the teaching that there was a second work of grace (the first work of grace was conversion), which he called entire santification, that would eradicate the sinful nature, cleansing from inbred sin and enabling those experiencing this work of grace to live without conscious or deliberate sin (Christian Perfection). But his explanation of this deliverance as the eradication of the sinful nature assumes that the struggle of Roman 7 is caused by the sinful nature. This assumption is wrong; the cause of the struggle is not the sinful nature, but being under law. According to Rom. 6:14

("For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for you are not under the law, but under grace."),
sin has dominion over the believer when he is under the law and the deliverance from the dominion of sin is to be under grace. The grace of God, God's love in action, delivers the believer from the dominion and slavery of sin by placing the believer back under the grace of God. God does this by not condemning the believer who is in Christ Jesus.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."
(Rom. 8:1).
Under the law, the law condemns those who sin; the law does not deliver those under the law from the dominion of sin. But God does not condemn them but by grace places them back under grace and delivers them from the dominion of sin ("the law of sin") and of death ("the law of death") by the operation of the Spirit ("the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus").
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has set you free from the law of sin and of death." (Rom. 8:2).
The law separates the believer who is under law from God; this is practically the same as spiritual death. Thus the believer under law sins because he is practically spiritually dead. For the Christian to place himself under law is like placing oneself in spiritual death; the law has taken the place of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and it has the same results as spiritual death -- it produces sin.

Wesley, while recognizing that there was deliverance from the Roman 7 experience, misunderstood that deliverance as an eradication of the sinful nature. He did not recognize that the cause of the Roman 7 experience was being under the law, not the sinful nature. And he did not recognize this cause because his explanation of the need for salvation was legalistic (all men are under the law and have sinned by transgressing that law) as was the explanation of Augustine and of the Prostestant Reformers. And his explanation of salvation was also legalistic: he believed that the passive obedience of Christ's death paid the penalty of men's sin (transgression of the law) and the active obedience of Christ's good works earned for us eternal life which is imputed to our account when we believe. Also his concept of Christian Perfection and Holiness was also a legalistic misinterpretation of the Christian Life as sinless perfection.

The views of Augustine and Calvinism, as well as Welsey's, totally depersonalize salvation, grace and faith. The Biblical view, on the other hand, is totally personal and dynamic; the grace of God is God's love in action to bring man into a personal relationship with God Himself and faith is man choosing to enter into that personal relationship. Spiritual and eternal life is this personal relationship between God and man, where the grace of God is God's side of the relationship and faith is man's side of the relationship. God initiates the personal relationship and a man must choose to enter into that personal relationship by faith, receiving God's gift of salvation and trusting God and His love. Salvation is not a monergism, where God does all that is needed to earn salvation, nor is it a synergism, where God's act of grace enables the will of man to earn salvation. This personal relationship has nothing to do with earning something by meritorious works. Neither is the grace of God an enabling of the will of man to do meritorious works, nor is the faith of man a meritorious work. Grace and faith are just the two sides of the personal relationship between God and man; grace is God's side initiating and sustaining the relationship and faith is man's side in response to God's grace.

The Christian life is the continuation of this personal relationship where the believer walks by faith and acts upon the basis of God's sustaining grace and the personal guidance and empowering of the Holy Spirit. Grace and faith are relational concepts and are not just properties of either God or man. The grace of God is God acting in His love toward man and faith is man choosing to trust God and His love. Because of their underlying legalism, the views of Augustine and the Protestant Reformers, as well as Welsey's, have obscured and distorted this Biblical view of salvation and of the Christian life.

Legalism is a temptation and an obstacle to the walk in the Spirit by faith. As good and right as the law is (Rom. 7:10), this law is not man's highest good, and observing the Ten Commandments is not man's righteousness. God Himself is man's highest good, and trust in and love for God is his righteousness. This love fulfills the law ( Rom. 13:8-10), which a legalistic living under the law does not do. Man's basic problem is not "Are you keeping the law?" but "Which god are you trusting?" Is it the true God or is it a false one? This is not just the problem of the non-Christian and the unbeliever but also the problem of the Christian. Many psychological problems that Christians have are the result of a divided loyalty. They are trying to hang onto the true God and a false god at the same time. This double-mindedness, this divided faith (James 1:7-8) makes a Christian psychologically and morally unstable and hinders his walk with the Lord.

And strange as it may seem, this is the situation behind the Romans 7 kind of experience of many Christians. As we observed above, the experience of Romans 7 is the experience of the man under law. And if a Christian is having this kind of experience, it is because he has placed himself under law which God says he is not under, for he is under grace ( Rom. 6:14). He is attempting to serve two masters at the same time: the law and the Holy Spirit. And this cannot be done (Gal. 5:18). It only creates psychological and moral problems: guilt on the inside and sin and failure on the outside. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Christian does not need to walk by the law but by the Spirit. The Christian's goal is not moral perfection but the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). The Apostle Paul's question in Galatians 3:3 is particularly relevant and right to the point:

"Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"

Paul's obvious answer to this rhetorical question is "No". For "as you... have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him" (Col. 2:6). By faith they have received Christ, so they walk in Him by faith in Him. This walk is not the striving for moral perfection. Moral perfection is perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law, and is contrary and opposed to the fruit of the Spirit and the righteousness of faith (Gal. 5:19-21). The weakness, if not the error, of most Christian preaching and teaching is that it is an exhortation of the Christian to perfection by the flesh, by the works of the law. Having begun in the Spirit, the Christian is urged to seek moral perfection. The Holy Spirit is brought into this kind of preaching, if at all, as the source of power to enable the Christian to keep the law, to come up to the standard of righteousness in the law. This Spirit-empowered law-keeping is not what Paul means when he speaks of "walking according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4; see also Gal. 5:16, 25). To walk by the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit, and if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law (Gal. 5:18). To walk according to the Spirit is to make all one's decisions with reference to the Holy Spirit as He personally guides, fills and empowers the believer. The walk in the Spirit is the moment by moment walk of faith and personal trust in the God who personally by His Holy Spirit reveals and communicates Himself along each step of that walk. The "normal" Christian life is this walk according to the Spirit; it is not a legalistic Spirit-empowered law-keeping, but a biblical Spirit-filled law-fulfillment by love (Rom. 8:4; 13:8-10).

Christian legalism not only ignores the clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is not under law ( Rom. 6:14), but also ignores the equally clear statements of the Scriptures that the Christian is dead to the law.

"Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law
through the body of Christ,
so that you may belong to another,
to him who has been raised from the dead
in order that we may bear fruit to God."
(Rom. 7:4)

"For I through the law died to the law,
that I might live to God." (Gal 2:19)

Not only is the Christian dead to sin but he is also dead to the law. Through Christ's death, the believer has died to sin and to the law, and now in the resurrected Christ he is alive to God.
"But now we are discharged from the law,
dead to that which held us captive,
so that we serve not under the old written code
but in the new life of the Spirit." (Rom. 7:6)
The Christian has passed from under the reign of death and sin unto reigning in life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 5:17). The law was the rule in the dispensation of death (II Cor. 3:6-7); the letter kills and the law condemns. The Holy Spirit is the rule of life in the new dispensation of life (II Cor. 3:17-18). Since the Spirit gives life (II Cor. 3:6), the dispensation of life is the dispensation of the Spirit (II Cor. 3:8), the Era of the Spirit. Since the Christian has passed from death to life, he has passed from the rule of the law to the rule of the Spirit. The law as the rule of Christian life has no place in the Era of the Spirit. And if the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit, legalism as an idolatry and misunderstanding of the law has no place in the Era of the Spirit either.