Deeds of the Spirit
In Genesis 2:7 it states that, “Man became a living soul.” This living soul, called Adam, was incapable of expressing the image of God without first conceiving God’s Word and bringing it to maturity by the inspiration of the Spirit. God’s Word can be acted upon without inspiration, but it will not fulfill the Father’s intent without it being initiated by His Spirit in us. The Father’s intent is love which is expressed in a deed, but its not the deed that originates life but rather its intent. For an example, people may do good deeds without having good intentions. Unfortunately many deeds are done to establish one’s own sense of self righteousness rather than for the recipient’s benefit. The recipient might receive temporary relief, but a relationship is not established if the deed was not done from love. Basically, God is not pleased by our works but rather our intent within our works. Our government supplies assistance to the poorest among us yet there is no positive change in their life because there is no relationship developed. Relationships effect behavior. We love Him, because He first loved us (1 John 1:19). Our behavior (nature to do) is a result of our desire to have a relationship with the one effected by our deeds.
Love’s master plan sent His Son to die on a cross, forgiving our sins by paying for them himself and restoring His relationship with mankind, with the hope that in due season man would awaken to and respond to His love in the obedience of faith inspired by his restoration. Our heavenly Father is Love and Love is the purpose of Him giving us His Word. Therefore it is the Love of God that is to be experienced rather than just imitating a command. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love (1 John 4:8).
Man’s Purpose
In his created state, Adam’s life came from his exterior rather than his interior. Man exists because he is loved of his Creator, but God’s intention is for man to exist as “Love” which is the image of God. As long as the Word of God remains on the exterior, man remains a servant, and God’s word remains a law, but upon hearing the Word of God as a promise, the Word and His Spirit is received in the heart and man begins his development as a son. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people (Hebrews 8:10). Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:3 affirms such an inner work; Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. This is the word made flesh.
This transition from a servant to a son is only due to the redemptive work that was provided by Christ Jesus. Prior to that, man’s sin conscience kept him in fear of condemnation upon hearing God’s word. Therein he stopped his ears from hearing and closed his eyes from perceiving due to such fear. However, To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation (2Corinthians 5:19). In acknowledging our reconciliation, the fear is gone and our eyes and ears are now opened.
A servant can obey his master but he remains independent of knowing his intentions, therefore a servant must be told what to do, but a son having his father’s intent or nature within him knows what to do. A servant, being absent of knowing his master’s inspiration, observes the commandment through the flesh, but a son knows the intent of the commandment through the Spirit. We are to progress from the servitude of the law unto the leading of the Spirit. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Romans 8:14).
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10). Love is the intent of the law which cannot be fulfilled without the initiation of the Spirit. Being obedient to the law is not the same as fulfilling the law. Obedience is a container, love is the filler. Without the filler the container is pointless. A law needs a nature to be fulfilled, but a nature doesn’t need a law to live. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves (Romans 2:14). You cannot observe the law and be led by the spirit, but you can be led by the spirit and fulfill the law.
Paul strived to convince the Galatians of this important perspective in Galatians 5:18; But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Also Galatians 2:19 He bluntly declares; For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Paul counted himself dead to the law that he might be free to live by the spirit. Rom 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Rom 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.