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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:2, 6
Prayer: Lord, we need You. We need You Yourself every hour. Lord, anoint us with Your presence. Anoint the speaking and the listening with Your presence. Lord, apart from You we have nothing and we are nothing. Lord, we trust in You. Come in to meet our need. Amen.
In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship concerning Romans 8.
Romans 8:2, one of the most crucial verses in chapter 8, says, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” The main topic in this verse is not the Spirit of life but the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Although a law is not a person, the law of the Spirit of life here is personified. The law of the Spirit of life frees us from the law of sin and of death.
The phrase the law of the Spirit of life is composed of three things: the law, the Spirit, and life. The law of the Spirit means that the law is the Spirit. Other phrases with a similar grammatical construction are the life of God and the light of God. The two nouns in such phrases are in apposition to one another. The life of God means the life is God, and the light of God means the light is God. When the Bible says the Spirit of God or the Son of God, it does not mean that the Son and God are two separate persons or that the Spirit and God are two separate persons. The phrase the Son of God means the Son is God. In the same way, the Spirit of God means that the Spirit is God.
The law of the Spirit means the law is the Spirit. Likewise, the Spirit of life means the Spirit is life. The law is the Spirit, and the Spirit is life. All three nouns in this phrase are in apposition to one another. They do not refer to three separate things; rather, they are three aspects of one thing. Three things are compounded together as one.
The Spirit today is a compound Spirit typified by the compound ointment in Exodus 30, which was compounded with four spices and olive oil (vv. 22-25). This ointment typifies the all-inclusive, compound, indwelling, life-giving Spirit. Without such types in the Old Testament it would be difficult to understand the different aspects of the one Spirit in the New Testament. The Spirit today is not only the compound Spirit but also the consummated Spirit. The consummated Spirit is the very consummation of the Triune God.
In order to understand the Bible, we must learn many new biblical terms. According to biblical theology, many new terms such as God’s New Testament economy have been introduced in the recent years. When I studied the Bible as a young man, I was warned by books I read not to invent any new terms in order to avoid heresy. However, I often received new light, which caused me to realize the need of new terms. Language develops according to the development of human culture. The words vitamin and computer are new terms that were invented to express some development in human culture. Theology today also needs some new terms because some new discoveries have been made. Therefore, I invented a number of new terms. There are many new terms in our theology. Brother Nee invented some, and over the past thirty years I invented more.
The subject of Romans 8 is the Triune God in His Divine Trinity dispensed into the tripartite man. In the entire Bible, only Romans 8 speaks about this very crucial subject. In verses 9 through 11 the terms the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ are used interchangeably. This proves that the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ are all one. Romans 8:9-11 reveals the Triune God.
Verse 10 says clearly that when Christ is in us, our spirit is life. In this verse there is also a comparison between our spirit and our body. Our body is dead, but our spirit is life. Concerning the body, the adjective dead is used, but concerning the spirit, the noun life is used. Our spirit is not just living or made alive, but our spirit is life itself. When the Triune God embodied in Christ came into us, our spirit became life. It not only was made alive but also became life itself.
Verse 6 shows that when the mind, the main part of our soul, is set on our spirit, it also becomes life. Then regarding our body, verse 11 says that if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from among the dead indwells us, He will also give life to our mortal body. To be mortal means to be dying. The Spirit who indwells us will also give life to our dying body. Eventually, our dying body will also be life. These three verses show us that each of the three parts of our tripartite being become life. Our spirit has been made life; our mind, which is the main part of the soul, becomes life; and even our dying body also will be life.
In order to experience Christ as our spiritual life, we must know Romans 8 according to its subject: the Triune God in His Divine Trinity dispensed into the tripartite man. Christ first came into us to make our spirit life. Hallelujah! This is regeneration, and it occurs in an instant. Some say that three minutes is too short a time for someone to be regenerated. Actually, three minutes could be too long. When electricity is installed in a building, the electricians prepare the wiring inside, and these wires are connected to a long wire that runs from the power plant to the building. Once the installation is complete, all that is needed is to turn on the switch. It is the same in preaching the gospel. The preparation of the wiring is our presentation of the gospel to our gospel friend. You may say, “Sir, you were created by God as a vessel to contain Him. You are empty now without Him. God would like to come into you. Today He is Spirit. He is right here. If you open your mouth and say, ‘O Lord Jesus,’ believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, He will get inside of you.” Once he follows you to say “O Lord Jesus,” he will be instantly regenerated. This is according to the truth of the gospel. In the denominations it may take three months or longer to regenerate one person. Then to baptize him may take an even longer time.
Before going out to preach the gospel, we must be full of faith, believing in a thorough way. We must pray, exercising our faith with full assurance. Then when we go out, we have the divine electricity to impart Christ to people. This is not the mere preaching of the gospel but the impartation of Christ into people. Like the electrician who brings the electrical line into the building, we bring Christ into the lost ones.
The impartation of Christ into people for their regeneration is typified by the Lord imparting His resurrection life into the body of a widow’s dead son (Luke 7:11-17). This was not the fact of regeneration, but it may be considered as a type of regeneration — the imparting of life into a dead person. The cases of Lazarus in John 11 and the dying child in John 4 indicate that fallen human beings are not only sinful but also dead. They need the impartation of life. When we go out to visit people with the gospel, our speaking of Christ is to impart life to them. We have to believe that we are not going merely to preach but to impart the living Christ who is life into people.
Immediately after we baptize someone, we need to give him a good message concerning the two spirits. We need to tell him that when we were regenerated in our spirit, our spirit was made life (Rom. 8:10). The regenerating Spirit who is life came into our spirit, becoming one with our regenerated spirit and making our spirit life. These two spirits have become one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). This is not too deep for him. Such fellowship is the ABCs of the Christian life. Due to the shortage of today’s Christianity, we may think that these things are too deep and mysterious. This is a mistaken concept. We simply need to learn how to speak these things. We must learn to appreciate the ability of the new ones. Their spirit was touched by us when we preached the gospel to them; otherwise, they would not have let us baptize them in their bathtub. It is not a small thing for a person to go to his or her bathtub to be baptized. We have to exercise our faith with full assurance.
When we preach the gospel in a proper way, our preaching is out of our experience of life. As we are preaching the gospel, we know with full assurance that Christ is in our spirit and that our spirit is life. Furthermore, when we are speaking Christ to sinners, our mind is definitely set on our spirit, and our mind is also life. We may be weak or sick in our mortal body, but when we speak Christ in the way of imparting Him into people, not only are our spirit and our mind life, but also our dying body is life.
Our experience of life is quite mysterious because our God is altogether a mystery. This mysterious One is now within us, making us a mystery. We are a mystery. Since we have this mysterious God within us, we should not think that we are so weak, unable to overcome sin such as our bad temper. The more we say we cannot overcome, the more we cannot overcome. Regardless of our present situation, we always have to believe that we are able to overcome all kinds of situations. We must believe in all the positive things of Christ and not believe in defeat. The mysterious God operates by faith. Whenever we preach the gospel, we must exercise our spirit of faith (2 Cor. 4:13).
D. L. Moody said that the greatest miracle in the whole universe is regeneration. I agree with him. One moment someone may be a notorious sinner, and the next moment he may become a saint. The gospel we preach is powerful and dynamic. It is not mere doctrine in word. When we go to preach the gospel to others in a dynamic way, we are experiencing Christ, the Triune God, and life. To experience life is to experience the very Triune God dispensing Himself into our tripartite being. When we experience this dispensing, our spirit is life, our mind is life, and our body is also life.
