SPIRIT OR LETTER
‘That we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.’
Romans 7:6
The man who lives by rule and by rote has not yet entered on the fullness of Christian freedom. Christianity is not a set of rules, but a set of principles. These principles have an endless capacity for adapting themselves to the exigencies of every person’s life. To adapt them to the peculiar and changing circumstances of your own life, you must exercise thought and trouble.
I. When the Jewish Church was in its infancy, God gave it rules for its guidance.—He gave it the Ten Commandments and the ceremonial law. ‘This do, and thou shalt live,’ was the command. Not that faith was unnecessary—Abraham was justified by faith before the law was given—the law was added ‘because of transgressions’ and as a help to the religious life, just as we give help to a little child to teach it to walk, or as we erect a scaffolding to a building to support it until it is finished. The outward expression of religious faith to a Jew, was obedience to a code of laws—laws were his ‘tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.’
II. The danger of law is that it is apt to become rigid and stereotyped.—The Jewish law had become so in the time of our Lord. The rich young man who came to our Lord and said, ‘What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?’ thought he was a model Jew, because he was not conscious of having broken any of the Commandments; but when the test of self-sacrifice was applied to him, ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come follow Me,’ ‘he went away sorrowful.’ He had kept the law, what more could be expected of him was implied in the question ‘What lack I yet?’ The Pharisees taught we may forgive seven times, but not more. We must do no manner of work on the Sabbath-day. It is better to hunger, or to let your beast perish, or a soul be lost, than to work or to travel one step farther than a Sabbath-day’s journey. So they regarded the day itself with superstitious reverence, rather than the spirit and intention for which the day was given. They kept it not ‘in the newness of spirit, but in the oldness of the letter.’
III. ‘But when the fullness of time was come, and God sent forth His Son,’ the letter gave way to the spirit.—Judaism, the child, grew into Christianity—into spiritual manhood. ‘Forgive not seven times, but seventy times seven.’ There is no limit to the number of times we should forgive a repentant brother. Forgiveness is not a limited rule, it is a ‘boundless spirit.’ ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’ The day itself was nothing, the spirit and intention for which the day was set apart was the point: to rest the body and to refresh the soul. It were better to transgress the letter of the Commandment than to leave these objects unattained.
—Rev. C. Rhodes Hall.
Illustration
‘It is in the spirit, and according to the principles taught by our Lord Himself, that we invite you to submit yourselves to the discipline of Lent. If a simple rule of life is a help to you, by all means use it. Still, in doing so, do not mistake the means for the end. “The heart knoweth his own bitterness.” Every earnest soul knows its own special weakness, and is conscious of its own besetting sin. The season of Lent is a time to wage war with this worst self of ours. If, in doing so, we find it necessary to deny ourselves this pleasure, or to abstain from that food or drink, remember they are only good in proportion as they serve towards the end you have in view. To refrain from indulging in unnecessary food and drink for its own sake is not religion. But if, in consequence, you are better in health and purer in mind, and have somewhat to give to them that need, that is the very spirit of Christianity.’

THE SINFULNESS OF SIN
‘That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.’
Romans 7:13
In the Bible we have three things:—
I. ‘Sin,’ the vicious principle in the breast.
II. ‘Trangression,’ the act by which that vicious principle shows itself.
III. ‘Iniquity,’ the violation of God’s law, which is committed both by the principle in the breast and by the act which is outward.
It makes but a very little difference, whether it be a thought, or a feeling, or an omission, or a word, or an act—it indicates equally a rebellious state of mind—it is a spot of treason in the midst of God’s government; and though it may be only, as man speaks, a little thing—that you have neglected an opportunity—that you have resisted a conviction—God views it, and it is, the rebellion of the creature and the treason of the subject.
IV. Every ‘sin’ which a man wilfully does is another and another step in advance towards the unpardonable state: and in all ‘sin’ there is a tendency to run faster, faster, as it makes progress. It may be an only just perceptible move down the incline to-day, but to-morrow the rushing abyss! To-day it may be only the grieving of the spirit, in a stifled conviction; but it will be resistance to-morrow! and it will be habit next day! and it will be the quenching of the Holy Ghost next day! and how rapidly the quenching of the Holy Ghost may be going round a man—the Spirit going and never returning, and the door finally and irrevocably shut! There is not a ‘sin’ which has not death bound up in it. So the Apostle traces it. A ‘sin’ leads to a habit; a habit leads to a godless state of mind; and the godless state of mind to death. ‘When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.’