The Letter, the Spirit, and the Life of the Law

The mystery of the Trinity is a thing of beauty to me. I could spend hours thinking on only that. That may seem odd to some but I believe that God places certain sensitivities on the heart of each person – this just happens to be the area of my sensitivity. This sensitivity alters my perspective in the Word in that throughout all of Scripture the Trinity radiates with their oneness and perfection in practically every passage. Recently as I meditated on the concept of the Law the Trinity too emerged from this age old institution.

Psalm 119:18-20 “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.”

What initially peaked my interest in this topic of the Law were Paul’s words to the Corinthians. “He has made us competent ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). This verse confounded me because I never viewed anything that emitted from the mouth of God as bringing death. But here, this verse clearly stated that the letter killed. But was not the letter part of the Law? And did not King David and King Solomon so eloquently speak in the Spirit concerning the life giving aspects of the Law?

Proverbs 7:2 “Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.”

Proverbs 6:23 “For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life.”

Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

And then it occurred to me, as it always does when meditating on the oneness of the Trinity, how empty they become when one attempts to remove any aspect of God’s existence in His three persons. I thought of what God would look like to me were He only the Father, with no Spirit and no Son and the thought frightened me to my very core. How cold, alone, and dispassionate He would become. But this is not my God. Since my view of the Trinity entails the view of the Father as the source and head then any attempt to see God without this person would simply become ethereal and unsubstantial. Therefore I cannot analyze the Spirit and Son alone because without the Father they disappear. As I looked at and thought on the Law it began to shift apart into three aspects of ‘letter’, ‘spirit’, and ‘life’. If the letter is the Father without the Spirit and the Son then the Law would become cold, lonely and ineffective, devoid of life. But I do believe the letter reflects the Father in its precision, detail, and authority. The spirit of the Law reflects the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives birth and breathes power into the detail and authority of the Father to produce the absolute miracle of life – the Son – the fullness of Christ. The Son therefore reflects the life of the Law; the life that revives our very souls.

Psalm 19:7-9 “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.”

To view the law without the magnificence of the letter and to attempt only to view the spirit of the law leaves the law without foundation and support. The law becomes fluid and ethereal, without substance and man leaves himself with no choice but to resort to lawlessness. And so without the letter, the law disappears. But this is not how my God operates either. He is three in one; therefore He is absolutely full of life.

To focus on any one aspect of the Law without its counterparts is to strip it of its very essence and life. This is what the Pharisees and teachers of Jesus day had succeeded in doing to the Law. They had stripped the Spirit from the image of God and focused only on the letter, and it was killing them; they had killed the life of the Law. Today we tend to flush to the farther extreme in that we do not recognize the authority and commanding representation of God’s law and we loosely and liberally apply all His statutes, focusing only on the Spirit. We operate without substance and support, basing all our decisions and passions on the fluidity of emotion and it has turned us lawless.

Psalm 119:136 “Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed.”

And so what do we do? We must focus on the life of the Law – the Son – the fullness of Christ. For in focusing our efforts and attentions on Him we are forced to take into account both the letter and the spirit of the law. You see, without both the letter and the spirit intimately entwined in a dance of life, the Son does not exist. When our focus turns to the Son, the image of God radiates a fullness and cohesion not possible by any other means. The Law becomes alive; leaping off the pages of text and imprinting itself on our minds, infusing the very life of God into our beings. The covenant of the Old Testament transforms into the covenantal relationship of the New Testament.

What is the Law? It is letter (Father). It is spirit (Holy Spirit). It is LIFE (the Son of God)!