Fulfilling God's Law (from the book “Strength for Today”)(Protestant/Evangelical Caucus)

Grace to You.org ^ | 1997 | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

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“In order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).

If the Holy Spirit resides within us, we will be able to fulfill the demands of God’s law.

Augustine once said, “Grace was given, in order that the law might be fulfilled.” When God saves us He, by His Spirit, creates within us the ability to obey His perfect law. Because we now live “according to the Spirit”—walking by the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit—we are able to do the righteous things God’s law requires.

Isn’t it wonderful that the Lord no longer expects His law to be lived out only by means of an external code of ethics? Now holiness, righteousness, and obedience to the law are internal, the products of the indwelling Holy Spirit (see Ezek. 11:19-20).

God’s salvation is more than a spiritual transaction by which He imputed Christ’s righteousness to us. It is more than a forensic action by which He judicially declared us righteous. As great and vital as those doctrines are, they were not applied to us apart from God’s planting His Spirit within our hearts and enabling our lives to manifest the Spirit’s fruit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23).

We need to remind ourselves regularly that God’s purpose for us after He redeemed us was that we might live a holy life filled with good works (Eph. 2:10; Titus 2:14). Whenever you are disobedient to God’s will and purpose, you are quenching the Holy Spirit and fighting against yourself and what you know is right. Such disobedience makes about as much sense as the person who holds his breath for no reason and therefore makes his lungs resist their natural function. The believer who disobeys, especially one who persists in a sin, prevents the Spirit from naturally leading him along the path of holiness.

We are not perfect after our salvation—that won’t happen until glorification (1 John 3:2-3)—but the Holy Spirit will empower us to live in ways pleasing to God, which is the kind of righteousness that fulfills His law.

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank the Lord that you don’t have to meet the demands of the law solely by your own strength.

For Further Study

Read Romans 6.

What happened to your old self at the time of your conversion? How must that affect the way you live?

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Read Romans 6.

In order to be indwelling, Romans 6 should be internalized by memorizing it word for word, and its sense meditated on day by day, that it might be reflected in every phase of one's life:

"But what saith it?" ("it" being the righteousness of Romans 6, which is of faith) "The spoken word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the sayings of The Faith, which we preach;" (Rom. 10:8)

(Remember, the Romans then had not the completed canon of scripture which we do now, but they had fragments of it, and with this letter, the contents could be committed to heart, bearing within it the saving gospel, which we would do well to memorize and rehearse. Fahrenheit 451 will soon be coming for the Bible. Be part of a Talking Book.)

Is it not better that the real substance of God's heart from His life-changing Word be woven into our being, much more so than some arguable virtue presumed invoked and embedded in a sliver of baked flour paste or dram of grape juice?