Quote:
Originally Posted by KSA
Paul, let the jury judge. 
I would only add that I did not tell that the tree of knowledge is the law (even though it is an idea worth considering). I used an example with the law to show you how Satan uses something good to bring in death. Now your verse: "letter kills, but the Spirit gives". Paul is not saying here that the law is the letter, and not the Spirit. In Rom. 7:14 Paul says that the law is spiritual, i.e. of the Spirit! But if we take the law by letter, not by the Spirit, the letter kills us. To take the law by letter is to come to the law for outward rules and miss Christ. Christ told Pharisees that they search the Scripture to find life, but miss Him of whom the law and the prophets testify.
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The word "letter" in 2 Corinthians 3:6 refers to the law. When the law is compared to the Holy Spirit, the former kills because it does not have the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life" (John 6:63). Other than the Holy Spirit, nothing can give life to man. God's life is within the Holy Spirit. Our physical world was formed initially through the brooding of the Holy Spirit. The birth of the Lord Jesus and God becoming a man were done through the Holy Spirit. According to the revelation of the Bible, everything that has life and gives life is of the Holy Spirit. The law is only according to the letter; it is not of the Holy Spirit. This is why it is dead.
Not only does the Old Testament contain "letters" (i.e., the law) that kill, the New Testament also has its "letters." The Old Testament emphasizes the law. The Bible tells us that this law is of God; it is holy and spiritual. But the fact that the Holy Spirit is not within it means that it, like all other literature in the world, has become the letter that kills. Although many truths, commands, exhortations, and teachings in the New Testament are of God and are influential to man's conduct and morality, apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, they are just the letter that kills.