“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law,” Gal. 5:18

Many suppose that unless they hold people accountable by their rules, regulations, and law preaching, there can be no motivation to holy living. Such thinking is anti-Christ, because it presumes that somehow the Spirit of Christ in His people is not a sufficient rule of life. It is also anti-biblical in that the Spirit of God Himself declares that those that HE leads ‘are NOT under the Law.’ This is not lawlessness, but those for whom the LORD Jesus has paid their sin debt, are justified freely by His shed blood, and therefore no longer under the curse, condemnation, or dictates of the law of God. Rather, now all who have Christ as their Redeemer and Righteousness have the very Spirit of Christ in them as their rule of life. This being so, there is an ongoing life of conflict within the believing sinner. The flesh does not change, nor will it. ^“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5:17)

Yet, how mighty is the Spirit of Christ to ensure that all whom the Father chose, and the Son redeemed and justified, are kept in Him and continue to follow HIM, as sheep do their shepherd, ^“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

This then is the answer to modern day ‘Judaizers’ who continue to insist that the person and work of Christ alone are not sufficient for faith and practice. Yet, how firmly the Scriptures denounce such thinking as a perversion of the Gospel, and a message that can only bring condemnation to any who believe that they can mix the work of Christ and His Spirit with their own. ^“Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.” (Gal. 4:21-31)