The reference above is from John 6:63. Jesus tells His peeps in this chapter why He has come; because He is life and He wants to give them life. This truth explains a lot in Romans 7 and 8.
Romans 7 is basically Paul’s thought on the law, its purpose and function, and its work to show the depths of human depravity and lack of moral, intellectual, and spiritual good. In this chapter Paul uses the pronoun “I” 32 times in describing his attempt to fulfill the law in his own strength and zeal for the truth of the law, seeing as how he describes it as being holy, just, and good (v. 12). Paul tells us time and again the importance and goodness of the law and he tells us time and again how he attempted to walk in it. The summation of all this comes to us at the end of this chapter in verse 24, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” The bulk of chapter 7 is depressing.
As he proceeds however, he gives thanks to God for Jesus Christ. Chapter eight then is Paul’s joy and understanding of the person and work of Christ to fulfill the law and to send us help in walking it out. In John 16:13 Jesus tells us that the Spirit of truth, when He comes, will guide us into all truth and help us in it. This is Paul’s realization in chapter 8 of Romans. Previously he had addressed the law as it pertained to him (the pronoun “I” listed 32 times) but in chapter 8 he addresses the law through a different filter, no longer his own self but the Spirit of Christ dwelling within him. There are 20 references to the “Spirit” in chapter 8 with which the chapter progresses into a more optimistic hope and joy in walking out the law that so burdened him when he had set himself up beside it in chapter 7. But now, in chapter 8, he is renewed, refreshed and invigorated by the law of the Spirit of Christ working in him to enable him to walk in the law (8:1). The summation of this chapter, much different from the end of chapter 7, is encouraging and uplifting. Verse 37 states, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerers through Him who loved us.”
What a wonderful and encouraging thought: the Spirit helps us. In what the law was able to do in showing us our need for it but inable to do in helping us attain it, the Holy Spirit is able to do in us by showing us the truth of it and helping us to walk in it, if indeed we are sons of God and have His Spirit in us. The difference between the law and the Spirit is this; the law, though it is good for life and living, brings death because none can bear its implications while the Spirit, highlighting the work of Jesus to fulfill the law, gives us power to walk in it, if we remain in Him and bear His fruit (John 15).
Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us – eternal life. 1 John 2:24,25
Thank you Holy Spirit for helping me. Thank you for your meekness in teaching me and encouraging me. Thank you for conviction, repentence, and renewal in Jesus Christ, in His body and in His blood. Thank you for revealing to me all things that the Father has in the Son and the Son in the Father. Help me to step into the interaction of the Holy Trinity, the intimacy of three in one and you in me. I love you, I want to know you. Teach me today to walk with you, to know your person and to know your work. Amen.
