The Law of righteousness is the power of God

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:2).

In Paul’s description of the Law of God he isn’t portraying only a list of dos and don’ts for a good grade in Bible class. He isn’t describing a scientific or spiritual treatise of all the aspects of some law in legal-ese. Paul is being extremely practical by stating it simply with the best clarification he can muster. This he does as he forges new territory into the workings of the human psyche regarding the effect of the mystery of sin/Satan, and the effect of the mystery of divine holiness, upon the human will.

To Paul, law has immutable authority; law has omnipresent dominion and everlasting power. “Know ye not, brethren,… how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?” (Rom. 7:1). “The Law” is law and has influence; it has power to guilt, to shame, to control. It is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12). “Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” (Rom. 7:8-11).

Here we see two opposing laws—sin and righteousness, Satan using his sword of sin and God using His sword of righteousness, “the Law”.

The immutable law of gravity is the classic example of the immutable, omnipresent power of laws. Gravity can be boiled down into a formula of relationship between force and matter. F = Gm1m2/r2 (Gravitational Force equals a Gravity constant times the mass of two objects multiplied, divided by the square of their distance from each other). But, gravity is obviously more than words and math. It is more than an intellectual pursuit. It is a real force that creates collisions and beautiful swaths of gigantic artistry in the cosmos, as well as on Earth. Likewise, the law of sin and the law of righteousness are not simply formulas of words written by apostles, theologians, and pastors. Rather, the laws of sin and righteousness are the foundational forces in relationships of all forms, personal, interpersonal, family, human society, reaching all the way to the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, the best interpretation of Romans 8:2 comes by relating the law of sin to the force that sin puts upon the human soul, upon the human mind and heart. We can do the same for the Law of God. By substituting for “law” the word “power”, as in “power of God”, “power of righteousness”, “power of sin and death” we can begin to open our understanding to what the spiritual forces are all about. We see the power in the soul that is behind the true Law of God, and if the Law of God isn't an active principle in the soul to cut through the self-orientation and to bring to light the hidden things of darkness, then sin is the active principle in the soul.

Thus Romans 7:22 through 8:4 read,

“For I delight in the [power] of God after the inward man:

But I see another [power] in my members, warring against the [power] of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the [power] of sin which is in my members.…

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For the [power] of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the [power] of sin and death.

For what the [power of righteousness] could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

That the righteousness of the [power of righteousness] might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 7:22,23,25-8:4).

The powerful old man is dead through the power of repentance and the almighty “power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14), “the power of the Highest” (Luke 1:35), “Power” (Matt. 26:64) Himself, and we are freed from the old power of sin, enabling us to obey God's powerful right hand of His righteousness. “Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me.” (Isa. 27:5)