What does it mean to be delivered from the Law and serve in newness of spirit?
It means the Law, an administration of death that held us, no longer governs the believer. Instead of serving by the oldness of the letter, the believer serves in a transformed spiritual life—the newness of spirit—entered by believing the Gospel, having begun in the Spirit through faith plus nothing, not by fleshly legalism.
Les teaches that we are delivered from the Law, which was an administration of death, and from the Law as that which held us. Now believers are to serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. This is the whole transformation of life in the realm of the spiritual, a new frame of thinking. Les asks how we get there, and answers: believe the Gospel. He connects this to Galatians 3:3, where having begun in the Spirit by Paul's Gospel through faith plus nothing, they were not to move into a deeper spiritual life by the flesh. The flesh wants legalism, the Law; it is part of the old Adamic nature to want to be under some kind of Law. Galatians 3:4-5 then asks whether they suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
More Questions
Why are believers delivered from the Law?
Believers are delivered from the Law so that they serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter.