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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2, 6, 9-11
The Bible is a book of mystery, containing at least five main mysteries — God, the universe, man, the church, and the future. Any thoughtful person would be puzzled by these five mysteries. Many have wondered, “Does God exist? Who is God? What are God’s attributes?” The universe is a mystery, for its dimensions are immeasurable. Man is a mystery in more than one sense. Corporately, human beings throughout the earth are busy doing various things, but very few know the real meaning, the purpose, of human existence. Individually, each person is a mystery. Even husbands and wives do not understand one another, nor do parents understand their children. The church is a mystery as well, especially in its definition and purpose. Finally, the future of the universe, mankind, the church, and even God is a mystery. The answer to all these mysteries is in the Bible. The Bible reveals the mystery of God, the mystery of the universe, the mystery of man, the mystery of the church, and the mystery of the future. Within the Bible, Romans 8 is the mystery of all the mysteries, for it particularly unveils and explains these five mysteries.
Romans 8:3 says that God, referring to the Father, sent His Son. Furthermore, Romans 8 mentions the Spirit in at least ten verses (vv. 2, 5, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 23, 26, 27). Thus, this chapter reveals the Triune God. However, Romans 8 is not a doctrinal chapter but an experiential chapter. It speaks not about the doctrine of the Trinity but about the Trinity in the experience of the Christian life. God is triune to be experienced by us. We are able to experience God because He is triune as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Romans 8 reveals that the Triune God is dispensed into the tripartite man. In other words, the Triune God is imparted into the three parts of our being. Verse 10 says, “If Christ is in you...the spirit is life.” Verse 6 says, “The mind set on the spirit is life.” Our mind is the leading part of our soul. Verse 11 says, “He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” Thus, our spirit, soul, and body all receive the divine life. This is the infusion of the Triune God into the three parts of man.
Romans 8 also reveals that the Spirit is all-inclusive. Verses 9 and 11 mention the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead. These are not three separate Spirits but three aspects of the one Spirit. Eventually, at the end of the Bible the Spirit becomes sevenfold. Revelation 4:5 and 5:6 mention the seven Spirits of God, which are seven lamps of fire burning before the throne and the seven eyes of the Lamb. God the Spirit is one and also seven. Like the Triune God, the all-inclusive Spirit is a mystery that our mind cannot fully comprehend. Nevertheless, we need to know the various aspects of the Spirit for our experience.
There are many riches in Romans 8. When we read the Bible, we should not take any verse for granted. Romans 8:2 mentions the law of the Spirit of life, which is not the Mosaic law or any written law but a natural law, a natural power that works automatically. The law of gravity is an example of a natural law. According to our perception, it is our standing that keeps us firmly on the earth, but it is actually gravity that keeps people fixed to the globe on every side. Almost two thousand years ago, before the development of science, the apostle Paul received a revelation from God of the law of the Spirit of life and was able to describe it in scientific terms. Within us is the powerful law of the Spirit of life.
According to New Testament Greek, the English word of in phrases such as the law of the Spirit of life indicates apposition. This means that the nouns are identical, referring to one another. Accordingly, the law is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the law. Similarly, the Spirit is life, and life is the Spirit. In the same principle, the phrases the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead indicate that the Spirit is God, Christ, and the resurrecting One. Altogether, four persons and two things are in apposition in Romans 8:2, 9, and 11 — God, Christ, the Spirit, the resurrecting One, the law, and life. We must see that the Spirit is God, Christ, the resurrecting One, the law, and life. Furthermore, because the resurrecting One is resurrection itself, the Spirit is resurrection. The reality of resurrection is the Spirit. The Lord said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Thus, resurrection and life are a person, and now this person is the Spirit. Moreover, today this person is also a law — the law of the Spirit of life.
The law of the Spirit of life, which is uniquely revealed in Romans 8, is nothing less than the Triune God in motion. When the Triune God moves within us, He is the law of the Spirit of life. The Triune God works in us not by accident or activity but as a law. Once electricity is installed in a building, it works as a law, not by activity or accident. When the people in a building need light, they do not need to petition the power plant. Instead, they need only to switch on the light. Some Christians believe that in order to receive the Spirit, they must fast and pray for a long time. They hope that God will suddenly send a great outpouring of the Spirit, as He did at Pentecost. However, today the Spirit functions according to a law. We do not need to pray that God will have mercy to send the Spirit. As long as we have believed in the Lord and called on His name, the Triune God as the heavenly “electricity” has been installed in us and works automatically and powerfully as the law of the Spirit of life.
We should not think that we have many problems. As believers, we have problems only when we do not apply the law of the Spirit of life. If I try to move and work in a building without applying electricity, I will have trouble. This is like the regrettable situation of many Christians today. Those who know the law of the Spirit of life are much blessed. If I know about electricity, I will not worry about anything when I go into a building. As long as the electricity is installed in a building, the electricity will work automatically as a law to provide light, sound, air conditioning, and many other things. As such a law, the all-inclusive Spirit is life to every believer.
The Spirit is not only life and the law of the Spirit of life, but He is also God (v. 9). We need to see that God in Romans 8 includes more than God in Genesis 1. In Genesis 1:1 God did not have the human nature, for He had not yet become a man or lived a human life, nor had He passed through death and entered into resurrection and ascension. In Genesis 1 God was merely God, but in Romans 8 He is both God and man, and He has been fully processed through incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. Traditional systematic theology says that God is ever the same, that God never changes from eternity to eternity. It is true that God in His essence never changes. However, God in His economy did undergo a change when He became a man (John 1:1, 14; cf. Isa. 9:6; Matt. 1:23). Incarnation surely was a change. In resurrection God in Christ underwent another change — He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). God took one step in incarnation to become a man, and He took a second step in resurrection to become a life-giving Spirit. Because God has been processed, the Spirit of God is all-inclusive.
Romans 8 also mentions the Spirit of Christ (v. 9). This title contains a marvelous revelation. In Greek Christ means “anointed One.” As God’s anointed One, Christ was appointed by God to do a great work. In order to accomplish God’s eternal purpose, Christ died on the cross to cleanse us from our sins, redeem us, and terminate the entire old creation. Then He resurrected to germinate God’s selected people with the divine life. The Spirit of Christ includes all these accomplishments.
The Spirit in Romans 8 is also the Spirit of the resurrecting One. As the resurrecting One, the Spirit is resurrection. Today He is within us continually resurrecting us. He has resurrected our spirit, and now He is resurrecting our mind, emotion, will, and body by infusing us with the divine life. This infusion may be compared to an injection used to administer medicine, which provides immediate and effective care. Many Christians today trust in teaching to enable them to have proper human relationships. No matter how much we are taught to be a good husband, wife, son, daughter, or roommate, we cannot do it by our natural strength. What we need is not teaching but the infusion of the Spirit. When we contact the Lord, even simply by calling on His name, we receive an infusion of life into our being. As a result, we do not need to make up our mind to be a good person. Rather, a proper living will spontaneously be produced by the life that has been infused into us. The proper Christian life is a matter not of doing but of living.
The life that the Spirit infuses into us is God Himself. Likewise, the Spirit and the law of the Spirit of life are God Himself. The mystery in the entire universe is that the Triune God is working Himself into us. What we need is not religion or teaching but the Triune God infusing us with Himself as life. We need to realize that God’s intention and His economy are not to teach, change, or improve us but to infuse Himself into us as life day by day.
God’s work of infusing us with Himself as our life is carried out by the all-inclusive Spirit, who indwells us. The root of the word indwell is related to the word for house. Therefore, to indwell means to reside in. In Greek the expression indwelling is even stronger than dwells in. Paul first says that the Spirit of God dwells in us (vv. 9, 11a), but he ends by saying that the Spirit indwells us (v. 11b). A living person, the all-inclusive Spirit, who is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of the resurrecting One, indwells us.
A wedding or engagement ring is a sign to others that the wearer is not available but is fully occupied by another person. The Bible reveals that the indwelling Spirit is such a “ring” to us, indicating to the enemy and all others that we belong to God and are occupied by Him. Paul says, “I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2). To be betrothed is to be engaged. Because we have been engaged to Christ, we have received the indwelling Spirit as an engagement ring. In Luke 15 when the prodigal son came home, the father gave him a robe, sandals, and a ring (v. 22). The ring signifies the sealing Spirit. Ephesians 1:13 says that once we believe in the Lord, we receive the Spirit as a seal, which, like an engagement ring, indicates that we belong to God. Thus, we are occupied and sealed, marked out, by the indwelling Spirit.
The Triune God has been installed within us. We do not need to try to behave properly or improve our conduct; instead, we only need to take care of the indwelling Spirit, who is God, Christ, the automatically functioning law of the Spirit of life, our life, and our life supply. The indwelling Spirit wants to supply us with God as our life; He desires to constantly infuse us with God. The Spirit of the resurrecting One is within us, resurrecting us with the divine life, which is God Himself. We do not need to change ourselves, because if we allow the all-inclusive Spirit to infuse us with God as life, we will spontaneously be transformed, resurrected, and renewed.
In order to receive the infusion of life from the Spirit, we need only to be open, just as a switch must be on to allow electricity to flow through a circuit. We should always be “switched on.” For this reason, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Unceasingly pray.” Throughout the day we must have our mouth, heart, spirit, and entire being open, calling on the Lord in every place (1 Cor. 1:2). If we keep ourselves open, we will receive the injection, transfusion, and supplying of the Spirit, who is God, Christ, the resurrecting One, the law of the Spirit of life, the life, and the life supply. We will be continually resurrected, renewed, transformed, and sanctified. This is the genuine Christian life according to Romans 8.
We need to realize that the all-inclusive Spirit is within us. We do not need to fast and pray or babble incoherently and hope that God will mercifully send the Spirit. God’s way is simple, normal, and practical. At the moment we repented, believed in the Lord, and called on His name, the indwelling Spirit was installed within us. Now we can “switch on” simply by calling on the Lord. Even if we call softly from a believing heart, we will receive an infusion of God as life from the indwelling Spirit. When we thus experience God as the all-inclusive Spirit, this proves that God is real, true, experiential, and practical.
We do not need to make up our minds or strive to improve ourselves. We need to forget about all such religious things and simply say, “Lord, I thank You that You have been installed in me as the all-inclusive Spirit, who is God, Christ, the resurrecting One, life, and the law of the Spirit of life, so that I can enjoy and experience You. Keep me calling on You, breathing You in, and always open to You.” When we pray in this way, the life supply will be infused into our being, and we will experience, enjoy, and grow with Christ.
