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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2; Heb. 8:10; 10:16; Jer. 31:33
In this chapter we need to be further enlightened concerning life and the details concerning the law of life. In the previous chapter we saw that there are four different laws related to us. Three laws are within us, and one law is outside of us. We have the law of good, the law of sin, and the law of life, that is, the law of the Spirit of life. Romans 7 speaks of the law of good and the law of sin in us, and chapter 8 speaks of the law of the Spirit of life within us. The law of good is in the mind, which is a part of the soul. The law of sin in lusts is in the members of our body; therefore, we call the lusts the fleshly lusts. The law of the Spirit of life is in our spirit.
In our being we have three parts, three lives, and three laws. In addition, three things happened to us. Our three parts are the spirit, the soul, and the body. Within each part there is a life. In the soul we have the human life, in the body we have the devilish life, and in the spirit we have the divine life, the life of God. Creation brought the human life to us, the fall brought a pitiful life to us, and regeneration brought the divine life to us. With each life there is a law. With the human life there is the law of the human life, with the devilish life there is the law of the devilish life, and with the divine life there is the law of the divine life. Simply stated, the law of the human life is the law of good, the law of the devilish life is the law of evil, and the law of the divine life is the law of the Spirit of life. We need to live by the third life, the divine life, according to the third law, the law of the Spirit of life.
Besides these three laws within us, there is another law outside of us and above us, which is the Mosaic law, the law of God, the law in letters. Whenever we hear the law of God outside of us, the law of good in our human life within our soul corresponds to it and answers to what the law of God demands. The law of God demands that we honor our parents, and the law of good in our human life right away corresponds with the law of God. We have the intention, the desire, to obey and honor our parents. However, the trouble is that whenever the law of good in our human life answers the law of God, there is another law, a stronger law, the law of evil, which comes in to intervene, to frustrate and fight against the law of good. Then we are defeated by the law of evil, and the law of God, due to the weakness of the human life, can accomplish nothing.
Praise the Lord, Christ Himself comes into us to be the third life! With this third life there is the strongest law. There is no longer a need for us to exercise or apply the law of good. We need to give that up and forget about it. We must realize that we now have a third law, the strongest law, the law of the divine life, and we must live by the divine life according to the law of this life. All these laws are dealt with in Romans 7 and 8.
To understand a matter in theory is one thing, but to know how to apply it and practice it is another thing. Many who have the teaching of these things do not know how to apply it. The law of Moses says that we must obey and honor our parents, love our neighbors, be humble and patient, and do as much good as we can. When we hear these laws, we may say Amen, as the people of Israel did to Moses in Exodus 19:8. However, to say Amen to the law is not the proper experience of a person who has been regenerated. To say “Amen, although I am not able to do it” is not the Christian way of speaking. To speak in this way is to stay on Mount Sinai and not come to Mount Zion. Rather, we should say, “Law of Moses, you have many things to say to me, but I am through with you; I have nothing to do with you. You are my former husband, and I now have died to you.”
A husband may come to his wife and say, “Dear wife, please cook a big meal for me. I am very hungry!” However, if the wife has died, she cannot answer him; she is finished. In the same way, Romans 7:1-6 teaches that we are dead to the law, and we no longer live to the law. Rather, we are resurrected in Christ, by Christ, and through Christ, and now in Christ we live to Christ. We have left the law; we have nothing to do with the law, but we have everything to do with Christ. Moses is through; we know nothing more of him. Today, however, it seems that many Christians know too much about Moses. Whenever the law says, “Do something for me,” they say Amen, not from the spirit but from the soul, in the soulish life in the mind.
After Christians are regenerated, they are tempted many times to say Amen to many good things. They may study spiritual books in their morning watch and say Amen to them. However, many spiritual books are just like the law of Moses, demanding us to do this and that. The natural, soulish life is very willing to answer this kind of demand, but we are dead to the outward law of God. We are finished and through with the other laws, and we are resurrected in Christ. Now we live in Christ and to Christ. Our living is responsible to God; we are no longer responsible to the law. We forget about all the other laws, but there is one law we remember well, that is, the law of the Spirit of life. We forget about the outward law of God, the law of good, and the law of sin. Now the only law left is the law of the Spirit of life.
The law of the Spirit of life is not a small matter. In the vegetable and animal kingdoms there are many different lives. With every life there is a law, and all the riches, the contents, of each kind of life are included in the law of that life. Within a small flower seed or a grain of wheat there is a life. When we bury this little seed within the earth, something grows out of the seed. We may say that this is something of life, but in actuality it is something according to the law of that life. There is no need to help the seed to produce something. If we put the seed of a red flower into the earth and let it grow, to be sure, it will grow to be a red flower. There is no need to care for the flower’s color. It will not grow up to be white or black, because there is a law in the flower life. In the same way, if we have chicken eggs, there is no need to worry that ducks will hatch from them, because there is a law in the chicken life that regulates it. The reality, the riches, and the content of a certain kind of life are in the law of that life.
We do not need to say to a peach tree, “Little tree, let me teach you. At a certain time you have to put forth green leaves. After this you have to bring forth the right flowers, and then you have to bring forth a certain kind of fruit of a certain size.” There is no need to teach a peach tree to bring forth peaches, because there is a law of life in that plant. In the same way, there is a law in our fallen human life. There is no need for anyone to teach us to lie or to commit sins. We have an evil life with an evil law of sin.
I found this matter to be true with children. My wife and I were devout Christians. When we were young, we were afraid that our children would be influenced by evil things, so we tried our best to keep them at home, away from any evil contact. When our child was a little over one year old, we would tell him not to put his hand into the water basin. However, sometimes when we were absent, he would put his hand into the water. When we came back, he would shake his head to deny it. Before he was able to speak Chinese, he was able to speak lies. He lied without speaking any kind of language. We never taught him how to lie, and we did not know from whom he learned it. By this we found that there is a law of sin within the human life. As long as we have a human life, we know how to sin. There are many teachers, tutors, and professors of mathematics, but who teaches people to lie? On the whole earth there has never been an elementary school of sin, a high school of sin, or a university of sin. However, everyone still knows how to sin because everyone has a human life with a law of sin.
We praise the Lord that today we have another law, the law of the divine life. We have a law of the strongest, highest life, the life on the highest plane. With this life there is the strongest, highest law. To know the law of this life is wonderful. To be a victorious, spiritual Christian, we need to know the law of the divine life.
In addition to Romans 8:2, the law of life is mentioned in Hebrews 8:10, which says, “This is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me.” According to these laws inscribed in our heart, God is God to us, and we are a people to Him. Verse 16 of chapter 10 is similar, saying that God will impart His laws upon our heart and inscribe them upon our mind. God imparts His laws in our mind and inscribes them in our heart simply by His being life to us. When God comes into us as life to us, His life has the divine law. Because God’s life is within us, the divine law is in our heart and in our mind.
Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16 are quotations from Jeremiah 31:33, which says, “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law in their inward parts and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” In Hebrews, laws is plural in number, but in Jeremiah, law is singular. On the one hand, it is one law, but on the other hand, it is many laws that are put within us and written upon our heart. This law is, or these laws are, the very law of the divine life. We have the divine life within us, and with this divine life there is the law of life. We can never exhaust how rich the divine life is, and all the riches of the divine life are in the law of this life.
As we have seen, a law is the spontaneous, automatic, regulating power of a life, which constantly regulates in order to bring forth all the riches of that life. The more the law regulates, the more the riches of the life are brought forth. If we keep a seed on a table, it has no chance to grow. This means there is no opportunity for the law of this life to regulate. However, if we put this little seed into the earth and water it, it will have much opportunity to grow, and the very law within this life will have the opportunity to regulate. The more the law regulates, the more the riches, the contents, of the life will be brought forth. Whether or not life grows absolutely depends on the regulating of its law. When the law regulates, the life grows; when the law does not regulate, the life does not grow.
Every life works by the regulation of its law. The same is true with the divine life within us. Romans 8:2 says that the law of the Spirit of life has freed us. The regulating of the law of the divine life sets us free from the law of sin and of death. With every life there is a law to bring forth all the riches of that life by its regulation. With the divine life within us, there is the need for the regulating of the divine law. If we stop the regulating of the law, we stop the work, the growing, of life.
There is no need to try to do good. We need to forget about all the old laws — the outward law of God in doctrine, the law of good, and the law of sin — and live by the third life, the divine life. With this divine life there is the strongest law, but it needs the opportunity. A seed has a life within it and a law in its life, but if we keep this seed in our pocket, it will have no opportunity to work. A seed needs a certain circumstance, environment, and opportunity. To put a seed into the earth and water it gives it the opportunity it needs. As Christians, there is no need to try to do good, but there is the need to give the opportunity to the law of the divine life. We have the responsibility of giving the opportunity, the spiritual environment, to the law of the divine life. If we do not give the divine law of the divine life the opportunity to regulate, it can do nothing.
What is the way to give this divine law the proper opportunity and environment? We Christians, the chosen and redeemed persons, are called to love the Lord. If we love the Lord, the Lord as life within us has the opportunity to work. The parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23 clearly tells us that in our whole human being, the heart is the earth into which the seed of life has been sown. There is the need of our heart as the earth. The parable of the sower speaks of four different kinds of hearts, only one of which is the good earth. Whether or not the Lord as life within us can grow depends very much on the condition of our heart.
What is the condition of our heart? In 1938 I was working for the Lord in Beijing, the old capital of China. In those days I met a sister who truly loved the Lord very much, but her heart was not the good earth for the Lord. The more she loved the Lord, the more the law of life could not work within her. This was because she did not know the proper way to love the Lord. She thought that since she loved the Lord, she needed to do many things for the Lord. Therefore, she gave up her family, her husband, and her children, and from early in the morning to late at night she worked for the Lord. Sometimes when she came to the meeting, she was so tired from working that she fell asleep. It was hard for anyone to help her because she thought that she loved the Lord the most. From a certain point of view she did love the Lord the most, but she loved the Lord in a wrong way.
In order to let the Lord grow in us and let the divine law work within us, we must love the Lord, but we must also stop ourselves from trying to do anything. The more we love the Lord, the more we want to do something for the Lord. However, the more we love the Lord, the more we need to stop ourselves. This is not easy. When we do not love the Lord, we do not care about the work of the Lord, and we do not do anything for the Lord. But when we love the Lord, we do, work, and act much for the Lord.
The problem with many Christians is that they simply do not love the Lord; their heart does not come to the Lord, so nothing in them follows. However, once we love the Lord, our heart comes, and everything else follows. When some brothers do not love the Lord, they give up the work, the service, and the concerns of the Lord, and they have nothing to do with the church, but when they love the Lord, their heart comes to the church, and many things follow, including opinions, activities, and other matters. This is the reason why in the Scriptures we often see the Lord stirring up the heart of His saints to love Him on the one hand, and turning away many other things on the other hand. The Lord simply desires to have our heart, so He rejects everything else. He may say to us, “Simply come with your heart. Never come with anything else.”
We need to love the Lord in the way of stopping every kind of doing. If we love the Lord with our heart yet try to do many things, we spoil the environment for the divine law to work something out. The most precious heart is a heart that loves the Lord very much yet stops everything else. Here is a great lesson.
Are we able to absolutely stop ourselves while we love the Lord? The trouble is that when we do not love the Lord, we have nothing to do; we forget about everything. But when we love the Lord, our heart comes and everything else follows. The Lord is truly bothered by this “everything.” Because the Lord is bothered very much by our loving, we may even say that it is better not to love the Lord. The more we love the Lord, the more we bother Him. We may compare this to certain wives. The more they love their husband, the more their husband is bothered. Such a wife may say, “I love you, so please take this cup of milk,” but the husband may not want it. Many husbands are bothered very much by this kind of love. Some say, “I wish that my wife did not love me in this way. Then I would be released.”
Are we able to love the Lord on the one hand and be absolutely silent on the other hand? If we are, we will have a good heart for the life within us to work out something wonderful. The divine life is within us with a working law to constantly regulate us, but we often bother this law. We either do not cooperate with it, or we cooperate, but many matters follow to spoil our cooperation. We need to love the Lord in a calm, silent way, saying, “Lord, here I am. I love You, but I stop from all kinds of doing.” If we do this, we will be absolutely changed through the divine law of the divine life. The divine law will bring forth all the riches of the divine life by its working and regulating.
We are often too complicated. We may say, “I am clear that I am dead to the law. I am dead to Moses, and I have nothing to do with him. I forget about trying to do good.” However, whenever we have a sincere heart toward the Lord, right away we go back to Moses. Whenever we love the Lord by saying, “O Lord, I love You, so help me to be humble,” we immediately return to Moses. We are often unable to be silent. We simply cannot stop ourselves to give the divine law within us the opportunity to regulate us.
I recommend that you learn one lesson: Love the Lord, and stop. We should pray, “Lord, I love You, but Lord, I stop.” We do not stop loving, but we stop doing. The more we love the Lord, and the more we stop ourselves from every kind of doing, the more wonderful it is. Then we realize that there is a mighty working within us, which is the mighty regulating of the divine law. It is not easy not to commit any sins, but it is even more difficult not to do any good. Do not try to be proud, and do not try to be humble. Do not try to hate others, and do not try to love others. Do not try to do evil, and do not try to do good. It is easy to not try to do evil, but it is difficult to not try to do good. We often cannot stop.
Thirty years ago, the first time I went to Shanghai, I met a brother there. He loved the Lord very much, and no one could compare with him in this matter. In one sense, he loved the Lord too much. Whenever he came to the meeting, he would always pray because he loved the Lord. At the beginning he prayed, in the process of the meeting he prayed, and at the end he prayed. He had to pray because he loved the Lord. He could not stop from praying. To speak the truth, however, the Lord Himself was bothered by this, and all the brothers and sisters were bothered. Whenever he opened his mouth to pray, others would pray quietly for the Lord to stop him. Several times the responsible brothers made the decision to beg him not to pray anymore. They had a nice talk with him, saying, “Brother, we do appreciate that you love the Lord so much, and we do appreciate that your heart is right. However, you have to take care of the others. We beg you not to pray so much in the meeting.” The brother agreed to this, but the next time we came together, there was a short time of silence after a hymn, so he stood up to pray, “Lord, since no one will open his mouth, I have to pray.” After the meeting the responsible brothers again asked him not to do this, and he again agreed, but in the next meeting he prayed, “Lord, even though the responsible brothers told me not to, I still have to pray.” The more this brother loved the Lord, the more the whole meeting was bothered by him. No one could help him, and no one could stop him. He simply did not know how to stop himself from doing good, and he did not know how to give the inner life with the divine law the opportunity to bring forth something divine by its regulation. He occupied, utilized, and even usurped all the opportunities.
We need to forget about all the other laws. We need to learn, on the one hand, to love the Lord, and on the other hand, to stop from any kind of doing, trying, and working. If we learn this lesson, we will experience a mighty working and regulating of the divine law. If we quiet ourselves like a seed that lies quietly under the earth, the divine law will work out all the riches of the divine life. If we cooperate with the divine law of life in this way, this divine law will constantly expand from our spirit into our mind, emotion, will, and every part of our inward being. Then the inward parts of our entire being will be absolutely occupied by this divine life, which is the Lord Himself, through the mighty working of the divine law.
This is very simple, but we still may not understand the divine way to have the divine law work within us. I say again, we must forget about all the other laws, simply love the Lord, and stop ourselves from every kind of trying and working. Then the divine law of the divine life will have the full opportunity to regulate, to work, within us to the extent that all the riches and contents of the divine life will be brought forth. If we try this, we will have rest. We will see how wonderful the life we have is and how wonderful the working of the divine law within us is. I recommend to you this simple secret. Realize that you have such a divine law, forget about all the other laws, and simply love the Lord. We should pray, “Lord, I love You, so I stop myself from every kind of doing and trying.” Then we will give the opportunity to the divine law within us to work and regulate in us all the time.
