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In Rom. 8: 2 we read of "the law of the spirit of life" which is in Christ Jesus, and
this "spirit" is expressed in other ways in this chapter, as "the spirit of adoption" as
contrasted with "the spirit of bondage", and "the spirit of Christ" without which we are
none of His. We have the spirit of "His Son" in association with "the adoption" in
Gal.iv.4,5.
In II Cor. 5: 16 the Apostle takes us into the realm of the new creation, and says:
"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more."
"They call us mad--well, if so, it is for God; or if we be soberminded, it is
for you. Our one constraining motive is Christ's love. Since He died for all, all
in His death died to sin, and therefore the reason of His death was that we may
not live to ourselves, but to Him Who died and rose again for us. From
henceforth then, we recognize no relation to Him which is not purely spiritual.
Your Jerusalem emissaries boast that they knew the living Christ; and in
consequence maintain their superiority to us. If we ever recognized any such
claim--if we ever relied on having seen the living Christ--we renounce all such
views from this moment. He who is in Christ is a new creation; the old things
passed away; lo! all things become new" (II Cor. 5: 13-17, Farrar).
The reader will not miss the fact that whereas II Cor. 3: and 4: speaks of the Old
and New Covenants, II Cor. 5: speaks of the old and new Creations. In both, the old
"passes away", in both there is a ministration, "a ministration of the Spirit" (II Cor. 3: 8),
"the ministration of reconciliation" (II Cor. 5: 18).
In these epistles to the Corinthians Paul has on three occasions adopted similar
arguments.
Creation.
The old passes away. Christ after the flesh known no more.
Adam.
In contrast, Christ is a life-giving Spirit.
Moses.
The Old Covenant passes away, Christ is the Spirit of the New.
While each passage has its own set of terms and proceeds along its own lines, there is
enough of similarity between them to demand attention.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3: 17). No proof is needed
to substantiate the statement "where the sun shines, there is light", and apparently the
statement "where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty" should be just as evidently true
to the believer. In the context the "Spirit" is opposed to the "letter", the New Covenant to
the Old, and consequently bring with them their associated categories "death" and "life".
In verse 7 the Apostle calls the Old Covenant "the ministration of death", and we might
have expected in the sequel the words "How shall not the ministration of life be rather
glorious?" in verse 8, but Paul uses the phrase "the ministration of the Spirit" because
"spirit" and "life" were synonymous. Life, light and liberty belong to each other as
surely as death, darkness and bondage belong to each other. The blessed deliverance
effected by the Gospel can be described as a passing from "death unto life" (John 5: 24),