Today’s Devotional: “Out with the Old — In with the New”

This was the Apostle Paul’s view when he wrote, “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 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.” (Romans 7:5-6)

The “oldness of the letter” refers to the law. It is what every human being without Christ (“in the flesh”), unsaved and suffering the guilt and punishment the law demands, is under, because no one is righteous and no one can perfectly keep God’s law. The law is still alive, working toward its purpose, which is to bring us the knowledge of sin and our guilt before a holy and righteous God (Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:24).

The law is the old way, and humanity no longer approaches and appeases God through it. The way now is through a “newness of spirit,” the Holy Spirit who brings new life and bears His fruit within the believer, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Therefore, the believer in Jesus Christ is no longer under the legal requirements of the law, the “oldness of the letter,” but is now under the “newness of spirit” and the forgiveness and grace it brings.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

So every believer is under the New Covenant through Jesus’s death on the cross, which fulfills what the Old Covenant never could: forgiveness of sin. Therefore, we are to put off the old and enter into the new.