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Scripture Reading: John 1:12-13; 14:16-17, 20, 23; 15:5b; Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 3:17a, 19b; 4:6; 1 John 4:13; 3:10a; Eph. 2:2; John 8:44; Matt. 16:23
“The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:2).
In this one verse two laws are mentioned. If we go back to Romans 7, we will find two other laws, the law of good in the mind (v. 23) and the law of God (v. 25). Both the law of the Spirit of life and the law of sin and of death are mysterious.
To begin with, we know that the word law means not only commandments but also set-up principles. Gravity is a law, for example. So is the digestion of food. These are both laws of nature; they are not commandments. Paul uses the word law in both senses. When he speaks of the law of God in Romans 7:25, he is referring to the Mosaic law, the Ten Commandments and all the ordinances. Exodus 20 gives us the Ten Commandments; the next three chapters list the ordinances. The ordinances are like small commandments; they with the Ten Commandments, which are the principles of God’s law, comprise what is called the law, not the law of nature but the law of commandments.
The two laws in Romans 8:2 are not commandments but principles. These laws operate by nature. If we are human beings, born of parents of flesh and blood, certain laws operate within us, not by activities but by set-up principles. Paul refers to one of these laws in Romans 7:21: “I find then the law with me who wills to do the good, that is, the evil is present with me.” This law in our members is not a commandment but a principle. It is a law not of good but of evil.
While we are still very young, even before we start school, we spontaneously lie. No one commanded us to lie, but when the occasion arose, that is what we did. No one taught us to steal, but we helped ourselves to some candy. Then, when our mother asked if we had taken any, we quickly answered no. Was there a commandment, telling us to say no to our mother? We had no commandment; we were acting according to the law of evil within us. When we throw something into the air, we do not need to command it to come down; by itself it responds to the law of gravity and comes down. This is the way the law operates.
As those born of flesh and blood, we have the law of sin and of death operating in us. The blood is circulating in our body; even before my sentence is finished, the blood has already circulated a few times. Who commanded the blood to circulate? No one. The blood circulates according to a law of nature. So it is with the law of sin and of death.
But there is another law, a superior law. We have had a second birth. By the first birth we have the law of sin and of death. With the second birth we have the law of the Spirit of life. What a wonderful name this law has! It is not the law of good. It is not the law of ethics. It is not the law of morality. This law is the law of the Spirit of life.
What is meant by Spirit? What is meant by life? Both are mysteries. Spirit no doubt refers to the Spirit of God. Life must refer to the divine life.
Every kind of life is not only governed by a law; every life is a law. The apple life is a law; the peach life is also a law. There is no need to command the peach tree to produce peaches. There is no need to explain to it how the peaches should look. If you do, the peach tree will reply, “Who are you? How can you be so foolish? I do not need to be told to produce peaches. I have a peach law within me. I do not need commandments. All I need is for you to allow me to live and grow. Water me. Give me the proper fertilizer. Then I will produce the peaches you want. I cannot bring forth peaches by making up my mind to do what my master has commanded me. I do not produce by activities; I bring forth peaches according to the law within me.”
When I was young, I saw an interesting scene of a cat catching a mouse. The mouse was running around very actively. When it suddenly saw the cat, it did not know what to do. The cat of course was happy to catch the mouse. Before finishing it off, he played with it for quite a while. He jumped around it and looked at it from different angles. Then he threw it into the air. He really enjoyed his “toy.” This scene illustrates the law that governs the cat and the law that governs the mouse. All life, whether animal, plant, or human, has a corresponding law. In fact, as we have said, every life is a law.
More than this, every living thing or person has a law because it or he is living. Actually, every living thing or person is a law. We are regulated by ourselves as a law. Why do we breathe? Who commanded us to breathe? Suppose we command a table to start breathing. It could not because it does not have the ability of life to breathe. We, on the other hand, right from the day of our birth, have been breathing without anyone’s commanding us to do so. This, and many other things, we do by law, not by activities, because of the life we have. As living persons, our life is a law.
Christians are complicated persons. A Christian has three lives. When Adam was in the garden of Eden before the fall, he had only one life, the human created life. After the fall another life entered into him, the satanic life. From then on, man began to behave in two ways. Sometimes he acted as a man, but other times as a devil. You may leave for work in the morning as a man and come back home at the end of the day a devil. Even within a minute you may change from one to the other. This is the result of having two lives within you.
Since every life has and even is a law, with these two lives there are two laws. In Romans 7 Paul describes these two laws. He tells us that in his mind he wanted to do the good (vv. 15-24). The man created by God was good, moral, and ethical. Love, humility, kindness, and all the other virtues were created by God. That is why man is ethical. However, when he fell, another life entered into him. This satanic life brought with it another law, the law that is called “the evil.” It is the law of sin, bringing in death; thus, in Romans 8:2 it is called the law of sin and of death. These two laws, the law of good and the law of sin and of death, are present in fallen man.
At the time of our salvation, we received a third life, the divine life. Now, though we are only one person, we have three lives. We have the good human life, the evil satanic life, and the spiritual divine life. With them we have the corresponding laws. How complicated we are!
Even when we are young, we often have the intention to do good. We want to love our parents and be kind to our brothers and sisters. This is the human law. However, it is not up to us. “To will is present with me, but to work out the good is not” (7:18). How things turn out is up to another law. “I do not do the good which I will; but the evil which I do not will, this I practice” (v. 19). Paul concludes that if he does what he does not will, it is no longer he that works it out but sin that dwells in him (v. 20). This indwelling sin acts contrary to our will. This is a law.
The third life, the divine life, is the strongest. Thus, its law is also the strongest. It is the law of the Spirit of life. Spirit here refers to God’s Spirit, and life to His divine life. We have a law operating in us, which is the strongest in the whole universe! This law of the Spirit of life has freed us from the law of sin and of death (8:2).
These two laws, the law of sin and of death and the law of the Spirit of life, are operating within us. Their work is according to law, not activity. The digestive processes work by law, not by activity, whenever we eat. Similarly, for a fallen person to sin is not merely by activities but by law. To sin is a matter of law. To be freed from sin is also by law, by a stronger law.
There are many different beings in the universe, but only three are vital. The first is God. The second is man. The third is Satan.
The Bible, it is often said, is a revelation of God. Surely this is true. But the Bible also reveals man. Without the Bible we do not know what man is. We may have read the great philosophers’ writings, but if we do not know the Bible, we still do not know what man is. We do not know where we came from or where we are going, we do not know where we are, we do not know what human life is, and we do not know the purpose of human life.
Philosophy does not have these answers. I have read the writings of some of the Chinese philosophers; to me they are foolish, not wise. Plato and Socrates are also philosophically foolish. Confucius, for example, said that if a man sins against heaven (that is, God), he has no way to be forgiven. Is this not foolish? The Bible strongly tells us that our sins may be forgiven.
If we want to know ourselves, we can find our biography in the Bible. Here we learn where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. We need to know these things so that we may fulfill our role in the universe.
Satan is the third vital figure in the universe. There are other secondary characters, like angels; but God, man, and Satan are the primary ones.
Over the years you may have heard a good many messages in the recovery. I wonder, however, if you young people realize what God’s eternal intention is for you. Christians, even though they are God’s saved and regenerated children, are for the most part unaware of what God’s intention is for them. You may be very familiar with the Bible yet still miss its central point. You may have heard what it is and thought that you saw it, but still you may not really have grasped it. Since I came to the United States, I might have given about three thousand messages along this line. I repeat it from different angles over and over again. Yet it bothers me that I see so few living daily according to this eternal intention.
God’s eternal intention is to enter into you and become your life. He wants to make you one with Him so that you may live Him. Eventually, He becomes your life, and you become His living. You may say that you already know this. You may think that it is simple. It is simple but not practical to you. It does not apply to your daily living.
Man was made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26). We will not consider the meaning of God’s image and likeness now, but we should notice that these words are spoken only in relation to man. All the other created things were to bring forth according to their kind (vv. 11, 12, 21, 24, 25). The cat is according to the cats’ kind; an apple is according to the apples’ kind. According to what kind is man? Man does not have his own kind. Man is according to the kind of God. He bears the image of God. We were not made in the image of a turtle or a monkey or a donkey. Even though we are fallen, we are nonetheless a man, bearing the image of God.
What is the image of God? The New Testament tells us that Christ is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). When He came and dwelt among men, He expressed love, kindness, mercy, grace, and light. For man to be created in the likeness of God means that he was created in the form of God’s virtues. The loving God created love in man. The merciful God created mercy in man. Man thus possesses mercy and love; he has all the virtues that God has.
Man’s love, however, is not the real love. Human love is like a glove. A glove has the likeness of a hand. Why is a glove made in this form? It is so that a real hand may get into it. The glove is intended to be the container of the hand. Human love is only the container for the divine love. This is true of all the human virtues. When there are gloves without hands, the gloves are empty. The gloves are not made for themselves; they are made for the hands. Human virtues are gloves; the divine virtues are the hand.
We need love, but our love is merely a container. The real love as the contents is the divine love. If we love someone by our own love, without having God’s love in it, our love is empty. In the teachings of Confucius the goal is to develop the created human virtues. When I used to preach the gospel in China, I would tell my hearers that they had only the glove without the hand and that now I was presenting the hand to them. Who is the hand? Christ! Confucius, for example, taught submission; a woman was to submit herself first to her father, then to her husband, and then to her son. This submission, I said, is a glove. Sometimes we may be able to succeed in it, but such submission is empty and false. We appear to submit, but actually we are gritting our teeth. Now I offer you the hand to fill your empty glove. Christ is the real submission.
I do not mean that Christians should have no regard for morality. Our behavior should be of the highest moral standard. We have not only the glove but also the hand. Our morality is higher and more practical. When Jesus Christ was living on this earth, His ethics were the highest. Whose ethics can exceed those of Jesus? These are the ethics we are living today. We have not only the glove but the hand in the glove. Surely the ethics or morality in the local churches exceed the common practice.
In our daily life, however, all too often we do not have this realization of the distinction between the hand and the glove. Many times these past few years I have had to make confession not of my failures or my hatred but of my love or my kindness. Many times I have loved without the love of Christ. I have loved as an elderly, experienced man. It is no longer easy for me to be irritated. When I was young and inexperienced, my temper could easily flare up. Now that I am close to eighty, the fire is quenched. I am not easily provoked. It is easy for me to be good. How I have come to hate my goodness! I have had to confess to the Lord, “Today from morning till evening I have been good to everyone without You. Forgive me. I have given message after message to the saints, charging them to live You, yet I myself have been a failure nearly the entire day. I have not lived You. I have lived myself. I have lived an elderly, experienced man. Forgive me, Lord Jesus.”
My younger brother has been here for many months now. He himself will agree that whenever he has come to see me, I have always treated him in a kindly way. Nonetheless, I have had to tell the Lord that I did not live Christ to my brother. Since he came, I believe that he has not gained much Christ through me; I have ministered very little Christ to him. I have treated him well and done many kind things for him. Yet I have repented to the Lord, “Lord, forgive me. May Your blood cleanse me that I have not lived You to my brother.”
In your daily realization you have no sense of how naturally good you are. If you tell a lie to a brother, your conscience will immediately prick you. How could you have lied to a brother? You may never have lied to a brother; you have done only good to him. Have you ever repented of the good you have done to a brother? If you receive the mercy to repent of doing good to others, you are very much graced by the Lord.
It would be helpful to pray-read the verses listed at the beginning of the chapter. John 1:12-13 tells us that we have been born of God. If we are born of someone, we surely have that one’s life and nature. Since we have been born of God, surely we have His life and nature. This is not to say that we are objects of worship. We are not the Godhead; only the Godhead is to be worshipped. We are the children of God, and we are like Him because we have His life and nature. God has been born into us. How marvelous this is!
John 14 tells us that the Spirit of reality is coming, not only to be with us but to be in us (vv. 16-17). In that day, that is, the day of resurrection, “you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (v. 20). Here is mingling. We are in Christ, and He is in us. This is not the realm of ethics or morality. Verse 23 has the same thought: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” To have the Father and the Son in us is not a doctrinal matter. It must be our daily realization and practice.
The next chapter (John 15) says that we are to abide in Him and He in us, “for apart from Me you can do nothing” (vv. 4-5). That we can abide in Christ and have Him abide in us indicates that we and He, the very God, are one. This is God’s eternal intention. In all that we do, we must check to see that we are abiding in Him. It is not simply a remembering of the fact. We must keep asking ourselves whether what we are doing at any given time is being done by our abiding in Him. If it is being done apart from Him, we must condemn it. In the eyes of the world what we are doing may be good, but if it is done apart from Christ, it is to be condemned. It is good for a wife to submit to her husband, but her submission must be by Christ’s abiding in her and her abiding in Him. Her submission, in other words, must be Christ. It must be the expression of Him.
If we see this, we will confess, “Lord, forgive me. In this whole day I have spent very little time to live You. I have not done wrong. I have been careful to do what is right and what is helpful to others. But my living has not been by abiding in You and having You abide in me.” To see this is to see the central vision of the apostle Paul’s completing ministry. His completing word is the mystery of God, which is Christ in you (Col. 1:25-27). Our life must be filled and saturated with Christ. Our living must be Christ Himself.
Romans 8:9-11 tells us that the Spirit dwells in us: “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”
First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” First, Romans tells us that the Spirit dwells in us. Then this verse tells us that we are one spirit with the Lord. Do we live a life that is one spirit with Him? Many times we must confess that we do not. To live one spirit with Him is far higher than to live ethically, to love others, or to be humble. It is Christ Himself lived out of us.
“That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17, 19). For Christ to make His home in our hearts that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God is other than devotion, piety, religion. It is not even spirituality. It is God, the Triune God, making home in our hearts and filling us. This “one God and Father of all...is over all and through all and in all” (4:6). He is not only above us and through us but also in us.
“In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13). There is Someone dwelling in us besides ourselves. It is the Spirit. The Spirit is the consummate manifestation of the Triune God. Hallelujah, the Triune God is in us!
“In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest” (3:10). Many Christians have been taught that Christ is seated on the throne at the right hand of God; He does not live in them, but He has sent His Representative to be in them. They do not believe that Christ Himself dwells in us. No doubt they also do not believe that Satan is in their nature. Notice that this verse calls some the children of the devil. Are they his adopted children? Did he simply find them on the street, take pity on them, and adopt them for his own? To be called the children of the devil means that such were born of Satan; his life and nature are in them. John 8:44 says, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.” The Jews might claim to have Abraham for their father, but their real father was the devil, the father of liars. They were born of him.
Ephesians 2:2 tells us that the ruler of the authority of the air “now is operating in the sons of disobedience.” Where is Satan today? He is not only in the air but also in fallen man, in our flesh. This was his counterplot.
Matthew 16:22-23 records that one day Peter was being kind and loving toward the Lord Jesus, telling Him, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” He was unaware that Satan was in him and that he was one with Satan. The Lord turned to him, calling him not Peter but Satan. Not only was the betraying Judas a devil (John 6:70); even the loving Peter became Satan.
These verses are enough to impress us that both Satan and God have wrought themselves into our being. Satan is in our flesh. God is in our spirit. In the next chapter we will see that Satan in our flesh is the law of sin and of death. God who has been processed and is now the Spirit dwelling in our spirit is the law of the Spirit of life. Both Satan and God are now within us as laws.
You may find this hard to believe. It no doubt differs from what you were taught in the past. I beg you to drop your religious background and consider the pure Word of God. If you reject what I have just shared with you, where do you put all these verses? The ruler of the authority of the air as the evil spirit is now operating in fallen man; before you were saved, Satan was working in this way in you (Eph. 2:2). Even after you are saved, Satan is still present. This is clear from the example of Peter. Although Peter received revelation concerning Christ in Matthew 16:16, he still expressed the natural man, who is one with Satan, in verse 23.
Praise the Lord that we have the highest law in our spirit, which has freed us from the evil law!
