Date: November 2, 1940Place: ShanghaiScripture Reading: Rom. 7:18—8:2
After a person is saved, he can have two different kinds of realizations about the new life he has received. He may regard this life as a power or as a law. There is a world of difference between these two kinds of realizations. Is the life that God has given us a power or a law? If a man does not have the proper realization of this subject, he may still live in sin and not be able to overcome. Before we became a Christian, we had no thought of doing good. But after we became a Christian, we began to strive to be good and practice good behavior. Disappointingly, however, we found ourselves powerless to do any good. Many people say, "Now that I am saved, I have the power to do good. Before I believed in the Lord, I did not have the power to do good. But now I can do good." But these ones frequently find themselves in Paul's condition in Romans 7: "For to will is present with me, but to work out the good is not" (v. 18). Every saved person has the life of the Lord in him, but when he tries to live according to the power of this life, he always fails. He becomes very bothered and even discouraged, thinking that God's life can do nothing more for him. But this kind of experience is abnormal and unnecessary.
We have to know that the life that God has given us is indeed powerful. But the life that has been given to us is not primarily for power. There is power in God's life, but this life has not been given to us primarily to be our power. Romans 8 shows us that God's life is given to us to be our law. It is one thing for life to be in us as a power, and it is another thing for life to be in us as a new law. There is a great difference between the two. If we only know God's life as a power without knowing it as a law, we will miss the greatest of all blessings. Paul's experience in Romans 7 was the experience of a saved person. He said that to will was present with him, but to work out the good was not. Many people who try to live by the power of life end in failure. The law of life is far superior to the power of life. God's life within us operates in the way of a law; it is not merely for the purpose of giving us some power. Once we realize that life operates within us as a law, it will be very easy for us to be free from sin, and it will be very easy for us to do God's will and please Him.
What is a law? A law is something that acts a certain way by itself. For example, my keys fall to the floor because there is the law of gravity. The law of gravity pulls the keys downward to the floor. The force of gravity operates irrespective of time and space. If I drop my keys here, they fall down. If I drop my keys in Tientsin, they fall down there as well. If I drop my keys in New York, they still fall down there. If I drop them today, they fall down. If I drop them tomorrow, they will still fall down. This is a law. The force of gravity is a natural law. It acts the same way all the time. The action of the law is something spontaneous; there is no need of human aid or motivation. I have been preaching and praying for twenty years. I never need to preach to the law of gravity or pray to it. If you let go of your keys, you do not have to worry whether or not they will fall down. Falling is a law. A law does not require any preaching, praying, human resolutions, or wishes; it is spontaneous.
Today many Christians make up their mind to do good. They take life as a power, and they want God's life to give them the power to do good. Whenever they think of God's life, they think of power. If they cannot do good, they think that they have not trusted enough in the power of God's life. This is a wrong concept, and it must be corrected. A Christian does not perform good by making resolutions. His doing good is the result of the operation of the inner law of life. Making up one's mind to not lie, to not lose one's temper, or to not get angry is not what the Christian faith is all about. This is not the grace of the New Testament. Anything we do by exercising the will is not part of our faith. Our faith consists of God's life operating within us through a law. This operation results in our being able to live out the Christian life.
Today's scientific inventions are simply the result of discovering the laws that exist in the universe and then applying these laws. This is what Christians should do today; they should discover the spiritual laws and apply these laws. Christians should not look for God's commandments in the Bible and try to carry these out by their will, nor even attempt to carry them out by the power of God's life. A Christian should discover the law of God's life and live by this law of life. This is the Christian life. Before I discovered this law of life, I often wondered why I sinned so easily and why it was so difficult to do good. I did not have to exert any strength to lose my temper, and I found it very difficult not to lose my temper. We only resolve to do good; we never resolve to do evil. But working out evil is easy, yet working out good is not. God's life is in us, yet the law of sin is also in us. The problem is that the law of sin is obvious, while the law of life is not obvious. I did not understand this. Later, I found out that our many resolutions were in the principle of Romans 7, and the result was nothing but failure. We failed because we did not know God's life enough. We only knew that there is power in this life; we did not realize that this life is a law. Once we realize that this life is a law, we will have patience as easily as we had temper. We will have humility as easily as we had pride. We will have love as easily as we had hatred. There is a new law within us — the law of the life of God. This law is very powerful. It is stronger than the law of sin; therefore, it can overcome the law of sin. Brothers and sisters, do you have such an experience? This should be our normal, daily experience.
If we can sin effortlessly through the law of sin, we can surely live righteously through the law of life. Yet in actual experience, many Christians do not believe that God is in us as a law. If I let go of my keys and at the same time try my best to push them downward, this means that I do not believe in the force of gravity. This is the way many people live their Christian life. They strive with the sweat of their whole body to do good. They struggle strenuously and forcefully to be a Christian, but they still fail. It is a hard thing to try to muster one's will to act spiritual. It is also a hard task to act serious out of fear of becoming unspiritual. Such performances are not the conduct of a genuine Christian. When I was in London, I asked Brother Sparks about a certain person. He told me that this person was too serious. He meant that he was propping himself up with his will; he was trying to maintain a spiritual façade. Once the façade falls, however, everything falls apart.
If anyone tries to solve his problem by the will and thinks that he can deal with his problems as long as he has a strong will, he will experience what Paul experienced in Romans 7:24: "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" All those who strive with their will find that they cannot make it. They cannot satisfy God's demand. Asking them to be totally obedient to God's will is like asking a fish to fly in the air or a bird to swim in the water. The fish and the bird have their own lives, and the laws of the two lives act differently. Swimming in the water is a law for fish, and flying in the air is a law for birds. If a fish tries to fly by its will or a bird tries to swim by its will, they will both be dead in five minutes. Man's will can only be made subject to the law of life; it can never be put above the law of life. Man can only satisfy God's demand by living according to the law of God's life; he cannot accomplish this by the power of his own will.
Paul preached life, and he also preached the law of life. God has not only given us life, He has given us the law of life. Believers should not only trust in life, but in the law of life. Being a Christian is not a strenuous exercise. There is no need to strive, to make up our mind, or to pretend to do good. All we have to do is let go and allow the law of the inner life to operate within us. We have to be clear that the life a Christian receives is a law. This law is not under the control of our will. On the contrary, the minute we stop exercising our will, this law will operate and do good in a spontaneous way. May the Lord open our eyes to see that the life we received is a law, and may we see the futility of man's will. May the Lord forbid us from doing His will by our own will, and may we trust in the law of His life, allowing this law to operate in us in a spontaneous way.
