According to the Bible what is the Spirit of the law and what is the Letter of the law?

When the Bible speaks of the letter of the law, it is referring to the law as given to Moses. It is written out and has no mercy, makes no allowances. It puts men in bondage to it, all it can do is condemn.

However, the letter of the law is based on the two principles of love God and love others as yourself. If you live in the spirit of these two precepts, you will fulfill the law and more. You do not have to condemn but can have mercy as you would want for yourself; you can extend it to others.

Having trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are dead to the letter of the law. It has no more power to condemn us as we pay the ultimate penalty in Christ’s atonement for us. Hence, we are instructed that now no longer in bondage to the letter, we should live by the spirit of the law.

Romans 7:6 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.

Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

2 Corinthians 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Matthew 22:36-40 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? ³⁷Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ³⁸This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Mark 12:33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

We do not need to be told what is right and wrong. What is right is what glorifies God, and what you would want done to you; what is wrong is what brings disdain upon God’s name, and what you would not want done to you.

The Old Testament represents the letter of the law, the New the spirit.