When the Holy Spirit Leaves the Building

2 Corinthians 3:6 He made us able to be servants of a new agreement from himself to his people. It is not an agreement of written laws, but it is of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

Question: what’s the difference between following the rules and following Jesus? Why is it that we can’t even seem to obey the road rules and yet following Jesus changes everything?

Throughout human history, people have sought to overcome evil – both the evil perpetrated by others and the evil that inevitably rises up out of the darker recesses of our own hearts.

And pretty much throughout history, they’ve failed. We’ve tried all sorts of things: different forms of government from tyranny to democracy; different economic orders from communism to capitalism; even a bunch of religions including Christianity. None of them have worked. And there’s a reason for that. None of them were ever meant to!

2 Corinthians 3:6 He made us able to be servants of a new agreement from himself to his people. It is not an agreement of written laws, but it is of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

In other words, laws won’t do it. They only bring failure, death. But the Spirit – God the Holy Spirit – gives life. That’s why stale, legalistic religion has never given freedom and life – and what’s more, never will!

As pop star Bono of U2 put it, religion is what you’re left with after the Holy Spirit’s left the building.

The power in what God’s done is that He sent Jesus to die to pay for our sin, to rise again to give us a new life, and His Holy Spirit to breathe His life into us in a way that following the rules can never do.

The law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.