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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2a, 6, 9-11
I. The divine life — Rom. 8:2a:
А. The Spirit of life.
B. In Christ Jesus.
II. Dispensed into our spirit — v. 10:
А. Christ in you.
B. The spirit being life.
III. Dispensed into our mind — v. 6b:
А. The mind set on the spirit.
B. The mind being life.
IV. Dispensed into our body — v. 11:
А. Through God’s indwelling Spirit.
B. To give life to our mortal body.
V. The dispensing of the Triune God — vv. 9-10a:
А. God.
B. The Spirit of God.
C. The Spirit of Christ.
D. Christ.
Romans 8 reveals the divine life dispensed into the three parts of man. Verse 2a speaks of the law of the Spirit of life. Verse 6b says that the mind set on the spirit is life. Verse 10 says that if Christ is in us, the body is dead, but the spirit is life. Then verse 11 says that the Spirit of the One who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to our mortal body through His Spirit who indwells us. Thus, verse 2 speaks of the divine life, verse 10 says that our spirit is life, verse 6 says that our mind can be life, and verse 11 says that even our body may be given life. Verse 8 speaks of God, verse 9 of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, and verse 10 of Christ. We need to read these verses to the saints to show them that the Triune God is dispensed into the three parts of man. While we are reading, it is always profitable to point out the crucial points in every verse.
Romans 8:2 speaks of the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life is a phrase of apposition and actually means that the Spirit is life. In the Bible there are a number of phrases like this. The Spirit of God means that the Spirit is God; the life of God means that the life is God; the Spirit of Christ means that the Spirit is Christ; and the love of God means that love is God.
Of course, we know that if there is no Spirit of God, surely there is no life. Life is the Spirit. In Revelation 22:1 there is a picture of the river of water of life, and that river is the Spirit. This river flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. This shows how God in Christ as the Spirit flows Himself into His redeemed people to be their life and life supply. The river is the flow of life; it is life in motion.
This is like the current of electricity. Actually, the current itself is electricity. It is not something separate from electricity; it is electricity itself in motion. When electricity flows and is in motion, that is the current of electricity. The current of electricity can be compared to the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life means that the Spirit is life. The Spirit is life in motion, the Triune God in motion.
This life is of the Spirit and is also in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:2 speaks of the Spirit of life freeing us in Christ Jesus. The phrase in Christ Jesus is profound. I believe that this phrase will need eternity for us to understand adequately. Today we understand a little. But when we enter into eternity, we will be freed from so many limitations, and then we will realize what it means to be in Christ Jesus.
In giving such a message, you have to define who Christ is and who Jesus is. The constituents of these two titles are profound. We have a life that is in Christ Jesus. The life is in such a One who is not only God and the Spirit but who is also Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus, this wonderful person, is constituted with many excellent elements. He is the One who has divinity and humanity, who has passed through so many processes, and who has accomplished so much. The life we are enjoying today is a life in such a realm and sphere. This realm and this sphere are an unlimited person, Christ Jesus.
In Romans 8:2 the Spirit of life frees us in Christ Jesus, not in Jesus Christ. The life is in Christ, and it traces back from Christ to Jesus. We need to let the saints know that in Christ Jesus is not an empty term. If it were an empty term, Paul would not use it. Surely this means a lot. We must tell the saints that the very divine life today is not only of the Spirit but is also in such a marvelous, unlimited person as its realm, its sphere.
Such a divine life is first dispensed into our spirit. Romans 8:10 says that since Christ is in us, our spirit is life. This is because Christ Himself is this life, and this life is in our spirit. Therefore, our spirit is life. This is a very strong point. Verse 10 does not say that since Christ is in us, the life is in us. Instead, it says that our spirit is life. Today our regenerated spirit is life.
The contrast presented in verse 10 is very interesting. It says that if Christ is in you, your body is dead. It does not say that your body is death. The opposite of being dead is being living. Based upon this, it would seem that verse 10 should say that our body is dead and our spirit is living. But here Paul makes the contrast different. He says that our body is dead and our spirit is life. Since Christ is in our spirit, our spirit is not only living but also life.
We may read Romans 8:10, which says that our spirit is life, yet understand that either life is in our spirit or that our spirit is living. We read this verse in one way, but we realize it subconsciously in another way, in a natural way. We do not realize that our fallen spirit, after being regenerated with Christ, becomes life. It is not only living and does not only have life; it is life itself.
Paul did not use all these words and phrases in a light way. He wrote Romans just as an attorney would write a legal document. In Romans 8 every word, every phrase, every clause, and every sentence should have been thoroughly considered by Paul. Paul was very careful about the experience of life and about the truth. All the things in Romans 8 are greatly involved with life and truth. Paul says that since Christ is in us, our spirit is life. Now that we have been saved, we have a part of our being that is life itself.
We have to stress strongly that Christ is in us. Life is not good behavior. Life is Christ. Any kind of virtue is not life, regardless of how high or how excellent that virtue is. Life is a person. Life is Christ Himself, and Christ is in us. We have to stress this strongly. We can never overly stress this one thing — “Christ in you.” We are short of utterance to stress this one thing. In the whole universe nothing is greater than Christ being in us. Christ being in us is the greatest wonder, the wonder of wonders, in the whole universe. We need to impress the saints with who Christ is. He is both God and man, having both divinity and humanity. We have to stress again and again all the wonderful riches of Christ. Such a One is now in us.
We should not take Romans 8 for granted. It is not a small thing that Romans 8 was written and that this chapter is in the Bible. Without Romans 8, what would we do as Christians? We must stress the wonder of Christ being in us to impress ourselves and impress the saints.
Because Christ is in us, our spirit is life. Regeneration is a mingling work to mingle Christ with our spirit. Today Christ is life, and our spirit is also life. This is because our spirit has been made one with Christ, who is life. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Surely this one spirit comprises both Christ and our spirit, so both Christ and our spirit today are life. This is why we need to exercise our spirit. If we exercise our spirit, life will be infused into people because our spirit is life. If we exercise our spirit to minister to others, then our spirit will reach others as life.
Romans 8:6 says that the mind set on the spirit is life. Not only our spirit is life; even our mind can be life. But this mind must be set on the spirit. This means that this mind must be flooded, saturated, and infused with the spirit to become the mind of the spirit. Eventually, the spirit becomes the spirit of our mind. This is mentioned in Ephesians 4:23. Because our mind is set on the spirit, our spirit saturates our mind and makes our mind a mind of the spirit. Eventually, our spirit becomes the spirit of our mind. The renewing is by this spirit that saturates our mind. We always have to tell the saints that this spirit is the mingled spirit. It is our spirit mingled with Christ as the life-giving Spirit.
Because our mind is one with our spirit, connected, joined, saturated, and infused with our spirit, our mind is also life. Such a mind can function to minister life to others. By our natural mind we cannot minister life to others. This mind is not life. But when our mind is joined to our spirit and is saturated with our spirit that is life, our mind at this time also becomes life.
For this point we have to say that the mind set on the spirit means that the mind is joined to the spirit and is relying on the spirit. The spirit can be likened to the husband, and the mind to the wife. The mind as the wife should always rely upon the spirit as the husband. The mind should always depend upon the spirit. Just as the wife and the husband are really one couple, the mind and the spirit are really one unit. They are no longer separated.
Romans 1:28 speaks of the fallen mind as a disapproved mind, a reprobate mind. A reprobate mind is one that rejects God and that is rejected by God. It is a mind that disapproves of knowing God and is also disapproved by God. That was our original mind in its fallen state.
Romans 7 shows us that a saved person seeking to serve God uses his natural mind to keep the law and is defeated (vv. 23, 25). In chapter 7 the mind is no longer reprobate, but it is still independent. It is living like a widow, having the heart and desire to do things but without a husband to rely on. The mind in chapter 1 is a reprobate one, but the mind in chapter 7 is a seeking one, seeking after God and trying to please God but not relying on the spirit.
Romans 8 also mentions the mind, but the mind here is set on the spirit. Now the mind as the widow has married a new husband. It is not just a seeking mind but a married mind, a mind married to the spirit. Such a mind becomes one with the spirit, and because of this, such a mind also becomes life. The fourth place that talks about the mind in Romans is 12:2, which speaks of the renewing of the mind. Such a relying mind must be renewed. Thus, in Romans we see the reprobate mind, the seeking mind, the relying mind, and eventually the renewed mind. In order for us to have a renewed mind, we need the mind relying on, depending on, the spirit.
First our spirit becomes life, and then our mind becomes life. This means that the divine life has spread from within our spirit into our soul to saturate our mind. Here we need to tell the saints that our mind actually represents our soul. It is not too much to say that the mind here is our soul. The mind here is the soul because it is the main part of our soul. When our mind is really married to our spirit, set on our spirit, relying on our spirit to be one with our spirit, such a mind becomes life.
Romans 8:11 says that the Spirit of the very God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead gives life to our mortal body, our dying body, through the Spirit who indwells us. The word mortal in this verse implies not only the thought of death but also the thought of weakness. A mortal body is a weakened body, a dying body. Romans 7 calls our fallen body the body of this death (v. 24). Even such a weakened, dying, mortal body, a body of death, can be given life.
Thus far, we can see that the divine life mentioned in Romans 8:2 is imparted, or dispensed, into our spirit in verse 10 and spreads into our mind in verse 6. Then it is dispensed into our mortal body in verse 11. Thus, the divine life is dispensed into all three parts of our being.
This dispensing of life into our mortal body is through the indwelling Spirit. Without the Spirit indwelling us, life cannot be dispensed from the center of our being to the circumference of our being. Our spirit is our center, and our body is our circumference. So the divine life first is dispensed into the center, and from the center it spreads to the circumference. Then our body is enlivened through the indwelling Spirit.
We have covered this already, but when we give this lesson, we need to dwell upon this point. Very few Christians realize that the divine life can even be dispensed into our body. We should give the saints some illustrations of this. Sometimes after work in the evening, we are worn out and weakened and do not think we can attend the meeting. But if we would exercise our spirit to pray and contact the Lord, this will allow the indwelling Spirit to move in us. Spontaneously, the divine life will be dispensed into our weakened body, and our weakened body will be vitalized. Then we will have the physical strength to go to the meeting. This is a proof that life can be dispensed into our weakened body.
Brother Watchman Nee practiced this. He had a very troublesome heart that was always weakening his body. Many times while he was speaking, the trouble came. He no doubt at that juncture exercised his spirit to let the indwelling Spirit vitalize, or enliven, his weakened body so that his body did not frustrate or delay his ministry. He surely experienced the divine life being dispensed from his spirit into his weakened body. We can also give testimonies of our own experiences in this matter. Our weakened, dying, or sick body can be vitalized by the divine life through the indwelling Spirit.
The final thing we need to stress in this message is the dispensing of the Triune God. We need to say repeatedly that in Romans 8 there is the dispensing of the Triune God. In verses 8 through 10 four titles are interchangeably used: God, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ. God is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself. Without God being the Spirit, God could not reach us. In order for electricity to reach a building, it has to become a current. The current of electricity is the reaching of electricity. In like manner, the Spirit of God is God’s reaching us.
Also, for God to reach us and for the Spirit of God to reach us, He has to be the Spirit of Christ. This is because with Christ there are two main things: humanity and redemption. The Spirit of God has to be the Spirit of Christ because there is the need of humanity and redemption. His incarnation gave Him humanity, and His crucifixion accomplished redemption. Through humanity and redemption the Spirit became the reaching Spirit. The Spirit of God is now the Spirit of Christ with humanity and redemption for reaching us.
We should not read all these verses and take them for granted. We must say, “Lord, open our eyes. We must see something.” Romans 8 shows us the dispensing of the Triune God as the divine life into the three parts of man. Eventually, verse 11 says that the God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead gives life to our mortal body through the indwelling Spirit. This verse gives us a full picture of the Triune God dispensing life into our being from the center to the circumference. This dispensing comes from these four titles: God, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ.
Romans 8:9-11 gives us a full picture of the dispensing of the Triune God for the purpose of imparting Himself into us as the divine life. First, He dispenses Himself into our spirit; then He spreads to our mind; and finally, He reaches our mortal body. Then our whole being is saturated with the divine life. Actually, this divine life is the dispensing Triune God Himself. We must be very clear about what life is. In the previous lesson we saw the dispensing function of the Triune God issuing in the sense of life. In this lesson we have seen the divine life dispensed into the three parts of man.
