Walking according to the Spirit is evidence that Jesus fulfilled the Law for you.

Romans 8:4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. In this verse Paul informed them of the reason God sent His Son, namely, to release us from the Law so we could walk/live according to the Spirit. I hope you can see that Paul was still building on the idea that through Christ, God released us from the Law so we could bear fruit for God’s glory. Jesus had to come in the flesh (meaning with a mortal body) in order to fulfill what the Law required of flesh, namely, righteousness and death as the wages of sin. We also see who Jesus fulfilled the requirement of the Law for. Was it for everyone? No. It was only for those who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. What is it to walk according to the flesh? This describes those who think they can choose the good thing without the work of the Spirit of God. It is those who are trying to obtain righteousness by the Law. In other words, they don’t need faith, they simply need to do the right thing according to what the Law requires. We find later in Romans 9:31-32 that he had His Jewish brothers and sisters in mind. For he wrote, “But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works.” What encouragement can we draw from Rom. 8:4? God has already fulfilled righteousness for us through Christ. Now we are free to live to love according to the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Loving with Jesus is the sum total of the Law of God. Rejoice today that you are free from the Law’s requirements of the flesh, and that you are free to live by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the way, truth, and the life. By the grace of God, we walk according to the Spirit. We don’t walk according to the Spirit in our own strength, but by abiding in Jesus, receiving from Him the strength and grace to walk in faith and to live love. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com