Hearing His Voice #171

The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:6, NIV

God gave Israel a lot of instructions. We sometimes call them “religious traditions,” but the phrase “Thus says the Lord”—or something like it—appears so often throughout the law and the prophets that we can’t easily dismiss these instructions as the words of men. God Himself spoke them for the benefit of His people.

So what do we do with Paul’s statement that the letter of the law kills? How can something God inspired for our good actually produce death? Anyone with much experience trying to follow behavioral rules that go against human nature will understand. Hearing an external voice telling us what to do may in fact change our behavior for a time, but it doesn’t change our nature. It’s like putting bars around a criminal or painting a rundown house. The outward appearance conforms to a standard, but the inward condition remains as it was. As soon as the outward restraint is removed, the original state reappears. And it can no longer claim ignorance about right and wrong. That’s a recipe for guilt, shame, and ultimately, death.

Asking God simply for information is never enough. We must hear the voice that enables, the living voice that gets inside of us and changes our nature and prompts us from within. When our nature is transformed, we can do what comes naturally. Following God’s voice becomes a matter of being who we are in Him rather than attempting to do what we’ve heard from Him. There is no death in that. We live from hearts that have come alive and can do all that is planted within.

Honestly, Lord, my efforts to do what Your Word says have been frustrating. I can never quite seem to “get there.” Please transform me from within by Your Word. Help me be everything Your Word calls me to be.