The Glad Tidings

“Dead to the Law.”

Many seem to fancy that “dead to the law” means the same as that the law is dead. Not by any means. The law must be in full force, else no one could be dead by means of it. How does a man become dead to the law?—By receiving its full penalty, which is death. He is dead, but the law which put him to death is still as ready as ever to put to death another criminal. Suppose, now, that the man who was executed for gross crimes should, by some miraculous power, come to life again, would he not still be dead to the law?—Certainly; nothing that he had done could be mentioned to him by the law; but if he should again commit crimes, the law would again execute him, but as another man. We say now that I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. By the body of Christ I am raised from the death which I have suffered by the law because of my sin, and now I walk “in newness of life,” a life unto God. Like Saul of old, I am by the Spirit of God “turned into another man.” 1 Samuel 10:6. GTI 83.1

This is the Christian’s experience. That this is the case is shown by what follows. GTI 84.1