Jesus said, Take heed HOW you hear. Now hearing is the same as reading. He is saying be careful how you interpret the Word. You can either 'hear' it from the law = letter; death; --
or you can hear it from the spirit = grace= life, spiritual.
It is not the written 'words' themselves which are the letter. It is how they are taken or understood. If they are taken as law, carnal, then it is the letter and brings only death.
This natural body of flesh which we are in, was placed upon mankind AFTER they sinned by becoming carnal; fleshly; taking up law instead of grace.
Before that, they were the glorious, immortal cherubs in Ez. 28, in the Garden of Eden.
But after they 'ate' of the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil = law' then God placed them into darkness, coats of human skin and made them naked.
Now this body is the same as that law, or death. As long as one abides in the 'flesh' serving the carnal desires and trying to serve God by Law, then they are DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS.
So this body is the body of sin and death. (Romans 7)
Oh wretched man that I (man under law) am. Who shall deliver me from this BODY OF DEATH AND SIN?
Jesus is the only one who can. Romans 8-there is therefore NOW no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the FLESH but after the Spirit.
See, even right now, IF we are in Christ Jesus (watch out you yahweh folks)---we are not under condemnation or the body of sin.
We were delivered from that BODY of death and sin, only by walking in the Spirit. We are actually still living in that same old dead body. That is why we must keep it 'killed' or crucifing it daily and living after the Spirit.
Jesus said we are dead in trespasses and sins, BEFORE He comes into our lives. But then He gives us new life, from the Spirit, the Holy Ghost.
Anyone who does not have the baptism of the Holy Ghost is STILL in that same old dead condition.
Only IN Jesus are we free from that body of death.
When Jesus sets us completely free at the resurrection, then we will again be given a body of life, the glorified body. That is when we will be completely delivered from this body of death.
Jesus also had that body of death; But He kept it under subjection and never sinned. So at His resurrection, He was delivered from the old body and given a new body.
Now that body is spirit. It is life. It is light. We have that light still in an earthern vessel. But if we walk in the flesh, the letter ( carnal, natural)----- we are still dead. If we 'hear' spiritual, if we interpret the Word Spiritual, then we are alive. We are in the spirit of life; not the letter of death.
Jo