8.84 The law was given on Mt Sinai but the Spirit was given from heaven

In the Old Covenant, Moses went up to Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments to be given to Israel. In our New Covenant, Jesus went up to heaven and received the Holy Spirit to be given to His Church. Can you see the contrast? The Holy Spirit and the law are opposites. The Ten Commandments was the focus of the Old Covenant while the Holy Spirit is the key to our New Covenant.

In the Old Testament, their lives revolved around the law. The law was cold and impersonal. God gave the law through Moses. But in the New Covenant, our lives revolve around the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is alive and personal; He is God. Jesus didn’t give us laws; He gave us His own Spirit.

The disciples were told not to even go out to fulfill the great commission, until they had received empowerment from the Holy Spirit. That tells us how important the Holy Spirit is. The book of Acts is about the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the disciples. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were led by the Holy Spirit, and they demonstrated the power and fruit of the Holy Spirit.

The law was given to Israel to show their unrighteousness while the Spirit has been given to the Church as a seal of our righteousness in Christ (Acts 2:38; 2 Cor 1:21; Eph 1:13, 4:30).

The Holy Spirit was not given to help you fulfill the law. He was given because Jesus has fulfilled the law. I repeat: the Holy Spirit was not given to help you fulfill the law. He was given because Jesus has fulfilled the law. He was given so that Jesus could live in you and through you. He was given so that the nature of Christ can be manifested as fruit of the Spirit. That is better than you trying to fulfill the law by your own ability.

So how do we live in the New Covenant? We have been delivered from the law written on stones – the ministry of death. We no longer live in the oldness of the law, but in the newness of the Spirit.

(Romans 7:6)
But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

We no longer live under the demands of the law, but we live by the promptings and empowerment of the Spirit. When we walk according to the Spirit, the righteous requirements of the law will be fulfilled in us (Rom 8:4).