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We now come to see the ninth main point in the knowledge of life — the three lives and four laws. This is a truth of extreme importance in the Bible. If we want to clearly know the condition of our inner spiritual life, or if we desire to lead an overcoming life free from sins, a thorough understanding of this basic truth is necessary.
The three lives spoken of here are the three lives that are within every saved one — man’s life, Satan’s life, and God’s life.
Ordinarily, men think that there is only one life within man, that is, the human life, which is obtained from their parents. But the Bible shows that due to the fall of man, besides the human life, there is also in man the life of Satan. Therefore, Romans 7:18 and 20 say that in man, that is, in the flesh of man, there sin also dwells. Sin here refers to the life of Satan. This flesh, which contains the life of Satan, according to Galatians 5:17, continues to remain within man after he is saved and often lusts against the Spirit. Therefore, after a person is saved, he still has Satan’s life in him.
Moreover, John 3:36 says, “He who believes into the Son has eternal life.” First John 5:12 also says, “He who has the Son has the life,” that is, the life of God. This shows that one who believes into the Son of God and is saved has not only his own original human life and the life of Satan obtained through the fall but also the eternal life of God.
The Bible says that when God created Adam, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; thus, Adam obtained the created life of man. Then God put man in the garden of Eden before two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. According to the revelations given later in the Bible, the tree of life signifies God, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan, and Adam represents mankind. Hence, that day in the garden of Eden — that is, in the universe — a situation developed that involved three parties — man, God, and Satan.
Satan is the opponent of God, and the focus of his struggling with God is man. Both Satan and God wanted man. God desired man for the accomplishment of His will, whereas Satan wanted man for the fulfillment of his evil desire. The method of both Satan and God in gaining man was through life. God’s intention was for man to eat the fruit of the tree of life and thus obtain His uncreated life and be united with Him. However, Satan enticed man to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thus causing man to obtain his fallen life and be mixed with him.
On that day Adam, deceived as he was by Satan, ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Henceforth, Satan’s life entered into man, causing him to become corrupted. Thus, besides his own original created life, man also obtained the fallen life of Satan.
In the New Testament time God put His life in His Son to be manifested among men so that by believing in His Son and receiving Him, man may obtain His life. Thus, besides our original created human life and the life of Satan obtained through the fall, we also obtain the life of God.
Therefore, the three lives within us who are saved are obtained through creation, the fall, and salvation, respectively. Coming forth from the creating hands of God, we obtained the created human life. Passing through Adam, we became fallen and obtained the fallen life of Satan. Getting into Christ, we are saved and obtain the uncreated life of God.
According to scriptural revelations, the three different lives of man, Satan, and God entered respectively into our soul, body, and human spirit — the three parts of our being. When God formed man from the dust of the ground, He breathed into him the breath of life, and “man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). This means that the human life obtained through creation is in man’s soul. When man was enticed by Satan and fell, he ingested into his body the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which signifies Satan. Therefore, the life of Satan obtained by man through the fall is in the human body. When man receives the Lord Jesus as Savior and is saved, the Spirit of God, bringing with Him the life of God, enters into the human spirit. Hence, the life of God obtained by man through salvation is in the human spirit. Thus, a person who is saved has the life of God in his spirit, the human life in his soul, and the life of Satan in his body.
In order to understand more clearly the three parts wherein the three lives are located, we will spend a little time to discuss the consciousness of these three parts. The body, our outermost, physical part, is visible and touchable; it includes all the members of our body and has the five senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching in order to contact the physical world. Therefore, the consciousness of the body is called the worldly sense or physical sense.
The spirit, our innermost and deepest part, includes the conscience, intuition, and fellowship. The conscience is the organ for distinguishing right and wrong; and, according to the principle of right and wrong, it causes us to sense what is right and accepted in the eyes of God and what is wrong and rejected in the eyes of God. The intuition enables us to sense the will of God directly, without the need of anything as a means. The fellowship part enables us to communicate and fellowship with God. Although it is the fellowship part that causes us to contact God, yet it is both the conscience and the intuition that cause us to sense God and spiritual matters, that is, to contact the spiritual world. The sense of these two parts is the sense in the spirit; hence, it is called the spiritual sense, or the sense of God.
The soul, which is situated between the spirit and the body, is our inner, psychological part and includes the mind, emotion, and will. The mind is the organ for thinking and considering; the emotion is the organ for pleasure, anger, sorrow, and joy; and the will is the organ for formulating opinions and making decisions. Although the soul consists of three parts, only two — the mind and the emotion — have consciousness. The sense of the mind is based on rationalization, whereas the sense of the emotion is based on likes and dislikes. The two senses in our soul enable us to sense man’s psychological part, that is, man’s ego or self, and to contact the psychological world; hence, they are called psychological senses or self-consciousness. Ordinarily, man’s consciousness refers to the sense of likes and dislikes in the emotion of the soul. Although this sense can be affected by the mind of the soul, the five senses of the body, and the conscience of the spirit, or even slightly affected by the intuition of the spirit, as in the case of a spiritual man, yet it is mainly constituted of the sense of likes and dislikes in the emotion of the soul.
Since each of the three different lives that we obtained within us has its own origin and dwells separately in one of the three different parts of our being, then the nature of these three lives and their respective conditions within us must also be different and rather complicated. Immediately after man was created in the hands of God, in God’s eyes he was “very good” (Gen. 1:31) and “upright” (Eccl. 7:29). Therefore, the created life of man was originally good and upright; not only was it without sin but also without the knowledge of sin and the consciousness of shame; it was innocent and simple. After the fall God caused man to have the sense of shame. This sense has a twofold function: on one hand, it proves that we have sin, and on the other hand, it hinders us from committing sin. If a person does not have a sense of shame, he is apt to commit sin at will. The more sense of shame anyone has, the more he will be kept from committing sins. We have a saying that women ought not to be shameless. One who is void of the sense of shame is surely a person of the lowest class.
After Adam sinned and fell, man not only offended God in behavior, which resulted in a sinful situation, but, worse still, he was poisoned by Satan in life, which caused his life to become defiled and corrupted. For example, suppose I instruct my children at home not to play with a blackboard eraser. After I leave home, due to their curiosity, they play with the eraser; and then upon my return I find that they have done wrong. This wrongdoing is merely a violation of the family regulation; nothing has gotten into them. Suppose, however, I leave a bottle of poisonous medicine at home and tell the children, “Don’t ever drink this.” After I leave home, they find that the bottle is fun to play with — and, alas, they drink the poisonous medicine. At this point, they have not only disobeyed my order and violated the family regulation, but, worse still, something poisonous has gotten into them. This is what happened when Adam ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Not only had he disobeyed God’s prohibition, but he also had taken Satan’s life into himself. Henceforth, man became inwardly complicated; he not only had the original upright and good life of man but also the evil and corrupted life of Satan.
Satan’s life, filled as it is with all kinds of sins, contains the seed of all corruption and factors of evil. Satan lives within man and causes him to have lusts (John 8:44) and commit sins (1 John 3:8). Therefore, his life is the root of sins, which causes man to live out sin. The various sins committed by man are derived from the life of Satan or the life of the devil within him. Ever since this devilish life entered into man, though at times he is still able to live out a little human goodness according to his human life, he lives out the devilish evils most of the time according to the devilish life. Sometimes man can be very gentle; he can really act like a man and give forth the savor of a true man. But at other times, when he loses his temper, he is really like a devil and full of the devilish odor. When man indulges in drunkenness and carousing, visiting prostitutes, gambling, and committing various sins, he bears a devilish appearance and is full of devilish odor. It is not of his own will that man lives out the devilish life; rather, it is the life of the devil within that tricks him and thus causes him to become a devilish man and lead the life of a mixture of man and devil.
This is the actual inner condition of the people of the world today. Due to the fact that man has the lives both of man and of Satan, one good in nature and the other evil, he has the desire, on one hand, to be good and upright, and on the other hand, he has an inclination toward corruption and evil. Hence, throughout the generations, philosophers engaged in the studies of human nature have advocated two different thoughts: one, that man is good in nature, and the other, that the nature of man is evil. Actually, we have both these natures within us, because we have within us both the life of good and the life of evil.
But, thank the Lord, today we who are saved not only have the lives of man and the devil but also the life of God. Just as Satan, through his corruption, injected his life into us and caused us to be united with him, gained by him, and possessed of all the evils of his nature; so also God, through His deliverance, puts His life into us and causes us to be united with Him, gained by Him, and possessed of all the divine goodness of His nature. Therefore, just as the crucial point of the fall was life, so also the crucial point of salvation is life. When we come to the Lord’s table, we break the bread of life first, and then we drink the cup of remission. This signifies that when we experience the Lord’s salvation, although first we receive the blood and then the life, yet in His salvation the main figure is the bread, which signifies life. The cup, which signifies the blood, is secondary. Hence, first we take the bread and then the cup.
When the life of God enters into us, we become more complicated within than the worldly people. We have the upright life of man, the evil life of Satan, and the divinely good life of God. This means that we have man, Satan, and God. The tripartite situation of man, God, and Satan, which existed on that day in the garden of Eden, exists also in us today. We can say that inside of us is a miniature garden of Eden with man, God, and Satan — all three — there. Therefore, Satan’s struggle with God for man in the garden of Eden is also occurring in us today. Satan moves within us today, desiring that we cooperate with him so that he can fulfill his evil intention of possessing us; God also moves within us, desiring that we cooperate with Him to accomplish His good pleasure. If we live according to the life of Satan within us, we will live out the evils of Satan and thus enable him to fulfill his evil intention upon us. If we live according to the life of God within us, we will live out the divine goodness of God and thus enable Him to accomplish His good pleasure in us. Although sometimes it seems that we can be independent and live neither according to the life of Satan nor according to the life of God but only according to our human life, actually, we cannot be independent; either we live according to the life of God, or we live according to the life of Satan.
Consequently, a Christian can act as three different kinds of persons and live three different kinds of lives. A brother who is very affable in the morning really looks like a man; at noon, when he gets angry with his wife, he resembles a demon; and at night, when in his prayer time he feels that he has wronged his wife and confesses both before God and to his wife, he appears like God. Thus, within one day he acts like three different persons, living out three different conditions. In the morning he is affable as a man, at noon he loses his temper as a demon, and at night, after dealing with sin, he manifests the likeness of God. Within one day, man, the devil, and God are all manifested in his living. The reason he can act in such a way is that within him there are the lives of all three — man, the devil, and God. When he lives according to the life of man, he is like a man; when he walks according to the devilish life, he is like the devil; and when he acts according to the life of God, he manifests the likeness of God. Whichever life we live in accordance with, regardless of the life, that life determines what we will live out.
Hence, we must see clearly that within a person who is saved there are three different lives — the created life of man, the fallen life of Satan, and the uncreated life of God. Though we have all three lives within us, yet we obtain them at three different junctures due to three different occurrences. First, at the time of creation and through creation we obtained the created life of man. Second, during the fall, due to our contact with Satan and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we obtained the fallen life of Satan. Third, at the time of our salvation, because we believed in the Son of God and received Him, we obtained the uncreated life of God. Due to the fact that these three events — creation, fall, and salvation — occurred in us, we obtained the three lives of man, Satan, and God, each life differing from the others in nature. Having seen and known this, we can then be clear regarding the way of life. Since the three different lives of man, Satan, and God exist in us concurrently, according to which one should we live? The life of man? The life of God? Or the life of Satan? The life that we live in accordance with is the life that we will live out. Herein lies the way of life.
Each of the three lives within us who are saved has a law. Therefore, there are not only three lives within us but also three laws that belong to the three lives. Besides these, there is the law of God outside of us. Therefore, within and without us, there are all together four laws. This is revealed to us in Romans 7 and 8.
The central theme of Romans 7 and 8 is law. Earlier, in 6:14, the apostle Paul says, “Sin will not lord it over you, for you are not under the law.” The only reason sin cannot lord it over us is that we are not under the law. Therefore, in order to explain the statement that we are “not under the law,” Paul continues to speak about law in chapters 7 and 8. Chapter 7 begins by saying, “Or are you ignorant, brothers (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law lords it over the man as long as he lives?” Again, “But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held” (v. 6). Later, he says, “I did not know sin except through the law” (v. 7). Again, “I delight in the law of God according to the inner man” (v. 22). All of these refer to the law of the Old Testament. Finally, he says, “But I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members” (v. 23). And again Paul says, “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin” (v. 25). Then in chapter 8 he says, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death” (v. 2). In these words the apostle speaks all together about four different laws that are related to us personally.
First is the law of God (7:22, 25), that is, the law of the Old Testament, which tells forth all of God’s requirements upon us. Second, the law of our mind (v. 23), which is in our mind, causes us to desire to do good; therefore, it may also be called the law of good in our mind. Third, the law of sin which is in our members (v. 23) causes us to sin. Because the function of this law in us that causes us to sin is manifested in the members of our body, it is called the law of sin which is in our members. Fourth, the law of the Spirit of life (8:2) causes us to live in the life of God. The Spirit from which this law is derived is the Spirit of life, a mingled spirit composed of the Spirit of God, the life of God, and our human spirit. Therefore, it is called “the law of the Spirit of life.” Furthermore, since this Spirit contains life, belongs to life, and is life, the law of this Spirit is called “the law of life.” Concerning the four laws, one is outside of us — the law of God, and the other three are inside of us — the law of good in our mind, the law of sin in our body, and the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit.
The origin of each of the four laws differs. The law of God, written on stone tablets, was given by God to men through Moses during Old Testament times. The other three laws are derived from the three lives that we mentioned earlier. We know that with every life there is a law. Although a law may not always be derived from a life, a life always has a law. Since we have three different lives within us, we have three laws corresponding to the three different lives.
The law of good in our mind is derived from the good created life, which was obtained not at the time of our salvation but at the time of birth. It is a natural endowment in God’s creation, not a gift in God’s salvation. Before we were saved, there was frequently in our mind and thought a natural inclination or desire to do good, to honor our parents, to be benevolent to men, or to be remorseful, hoping to reform ourselves and determining to go upward. These thoughts of doing good and going upward are derived from the law of good in our mind. They also prove that, even before we were saved, this law of good was already within us.
Based on Romans 7:18 (“I know that in me...nothing good dwells”), some people conclude that either before we were saved or after we are saved there is no good thing within us; therefore, the law of good, which is in our mind, cannot be derived from our original created life, much less exist before we were saved. However, if we read Romans 7:18 carefully, we see that this conclusion is inaccurate, for when Paul says that nothing good dwells in us, he is referring to the condition in our flesh. And the flesh spoken of here, according to the context of verses 21, 23, and 24, refers to our fallen and transmuted body. In our fallen and transmuted body, that is, in our flesh, nothing good dwells. This does not mean that there is nothing good at all in us fallen beings. On the contrary, we are told clearly later in the chapter that within us fallen beings there is a will that desires to do good and a law of good in our mind. Both the will and the mind are parts of our soul. Therefore, although there is nothing good in our fallen and transmuted body, there is an element of goodness in both the mind and will of our soul, even after the fall. This element of goodness naturally belongs to our good created life. Therefore, the law of good in our mind is of our original created life and existed before we were saved, even at our birth.
Some may say that our good created life, having been corrupted by Satan through the fall, has lost its element of goodness. This is also inaccurate. For example, adding a sour element into a glass of honey-water damages the sweet taste but does not eliminate the sweet element. Although man has been damaged by Satan, his element of goodness still remains. It is a fact that the element of goodness created in man has been corrupted by Satan and has thus become incurable, but we cannot say that it has been corrupted to the point of nonexistence. If you smash a glass, it will disintegrate into pieces, but its element still remains. A piece of gold bar may be thrown into a filthy pool, but the element of gold still exists. Although our honor to parents, brotherly love, loyalty, sincerity, propriety, morality, modesty, and sense of shame are rather impure and mixed, yet these elements are genuine. Therefore, we can conclude that although our good elements have been defiled, they still remain after the destruction; though they are very weak, still they remain. It is for this reason that the Chinese sages and philosophers have discovered that within man there are some “illustrious virtues,” and “innate consciousness,” etc., and have concluded that the nature of man is good. The discovery of these philosophers concerning human nature is indeed right, because within us fallen beings there is still the element of goodness and the law that naturally causes us to desire to do good.
The law of sin in the members is derived from the fallen and evil life of Satan. We have said before that due to Adam’s fall through sinning — eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — Satan’s life entered into man. Within this life of Satan there is contained a law of evil, that is, the law of sin in our members. Since the life of Satan is evil, the law that is derived from his life naturally causes man to sin and do evil.
The law of the Spirit of life is derived from the Spirit of life that is in our spirit and is from the uncreated divine life of God. When we received the Lord and were saved, the Spirit of God together with the life of God entered into our spirit and mingled with our spirit to become the Spirit of life. In this life of the Spirit of life there is contained a law that is the law of the Spirit of life, or the law of life.
Therefore, we must see clearly that when we were saved, God did not put the law of good in us; rather, He put the law of life in us. God’s purpose in us is life, not goodness. When God saves us, He puts the law of life in us. The law of good is not given through God’s salvation, but through His creation. The element of doing good that is in us is inherent. But when God saves us, He puts His life in us. In this life there is contained a law of life, the law of the Spirit of life. This law is obtained at the time of our salvation and is derived from God’s salvation of life.
Therefore, concerning the origin of these four laws, we can say that the law of God, derived from God, is of God; the law of good in the mind, derived from the life of man, is of man; the law of sin in the members, derived from Satan’s life, is of Satan; and the law of the Spirit of life, derived from the Spirit of life, is of the spirit.
In order to have a precise knowledge of the four laws, we must be clear about their respective locations.
The law of God is written on tablets of stone; hence, it is outside of us.
The law of good is in our mind, that is, in our soul. Since the life of doing good is in our soul, the law that is derived from this life is also, of course, in our soul. The function of this law is especially manifested in the mind of our soul; hence, this law is called “of the mind.” Therefore, in our soul we have the life of man, the law of good that is derived from such a life, and the good human nature.
The law of sin is in our members, that is, in our body. During man’s fall he took the fruit of the tree of knowledge into his body; hence, the evil life of Satan entered into our human body. Thus, the law of sin, derived from the life of Satan, is also in our body. Since this law is in our body and the body is composed of the members, this law is in our members. Thus, in our body we have Satan, the life of Satan, the law of sin that is derived from the life of Satan, and the evil nature of Satan. Due to the fact that Satan and his evil things entered into our body and mixed with it, it was transmuted and became the corrupted flesh.
The law of the Spirit of life is in our spirit. Since the Spirit of life together with the life of God dwells in our spirit, the law derived from the Spirit of life is also in our spirit. This law is derived from the Spirit of God and is in our spirit; therefore, not only is its origin Spirit but its location is spirit. Hence it is entirely of the spirit; it is neither of the body nor of the soul. Thus, in our spirit we have God, the life of God, the law derived from the Spirit of God’s life, and His nature of life.
What are the nature and function of these four laws outside and inside of us? The law of God is composed of the statutes of God, and its nature is holy, righteous, and good. This law, being outside of us, enables us to know what God condemns and what He justifies; it requires us to reject what God condemns and do what God justifies in order to comply with God’s holy, righteous, and good statutes.
The law of good in our mind, derived from our created, human life of good, contains the good human nature and exactly fits the nature of the law of God outside of us. This law creates in us, that is, in our mind, the desire to do good. Especially when the law of God outside of us requires us to be good, this law of good in us gives us the inclination toward doing good. Therefore, the mind in us delights in obeying the law of God outside of us. This is what the apostle Paul says, “With the mind I myself serve the law of God” (Rom. 7:25).
The law of sin in our members, derived from the evil and fallen life of Satan in our flesh, contains the evil nature of Satan. The evil life of Satan is the “evil” that is present in our flesh and the “sin” that dwells within us (vv. 21, 20). The law that comes out of this evil life causes us to sin, because it is a “law of sin.” This law displays from our flesh its natural power to do evil and wars against the law of good in our mind. When the law of good in our mind gives us the desire to do good, this law of sin rises to war against it and brings us into captivity (v. 23). Hence, not only are we unable to fulfill our desire to do good or to satisfy the good requirement of God’s law; on the contrary, we obey the law of sin in our members, committing all kinds of sins and obtaining death, just as described in Romans 7:21-24. Therefore, we sin not of our own choice nor of our own volition; rather, it is the law of sin that motivates us from within.
Hence, we can see here that within us fallen beings there are two contradicting laws. One is derived from the created life of good and works in the mind of our soul, giving us the desire to do good. The other is derived from the fallen, evil life of Satan and works in the members of our body, causing us to commit sin. These two opposite laws, doing contradictory works in our mind and in our members, war against one another within us. The result is that the law of sin usually overcomes the law of good; hence, we fail to do the good that we desire and are forced to do the evil that we do not want to do. This is what the Chinese call the war between reason and lust. Reason is the element of doing good, inherent in our created life; lust is the sin that dwells in our fallen body, or the evil that is in our flesh. Although reason is partly derived from our human conscience, it works in our mind; hence, the goodness resulting from the outworking of “reason” is either derived from or passes through the intellect. Although lust is related to our fallen human nature, it works in the members of our body; hence, the evil, which is the outworking of lust, is derived from the lust. For this reason one who is strong in intellect is more capable of doing good, whereas one who is more passionate easily does evil. In other words, all the good done by men either originates from or passes through the intellect in the mind, whereas all the evil done by men is the outworking of the lusts in the members. When the reason in our mind gains the position of advantage, it causes man to do good; when the lust in the members gains the superior position, it causes man to do evil.
Some people think that this kind of war is the same as the strife mentioned in Galatians 5. This is not accurate. Galatians 5 speaks about our flesh striving against the Spirit; this occurs only after we are saved and have obtained the Holy Spirit. But the war between the two laws is related to the war between the fallen, evil life of Satan and the created life of good, and this war exists even before we are saved. Therefore, this is an inner war existing before we are saved. It is also a war between good and evil existing in all worldly people.
This “Sin,” out from which came the law of sin, is the life of Satan and is therefore alive. “Sin,” shown capitalized, signifies that it is personified and is unique. In the universe there is only one God, and there is only one Sin. Sin is a special term and a unique object; Sin is another name for Satan. Therefore, Romans 5 through 8 says that Sin can reign over us, have dominion over us, cause us to be his slave in opposition to God, dwell in us, and overpower us, causing us to do the evil which we would not. The many sins outside of us are but the actions resulting from the working of the unique Sin within us. This unique Sin is the root and mother of all sins.
How does Sin cause us to sin outwardly? We have seen that Sin dwells in our body. However, it is the will, not the body, that is the motivating organ. The will, which belongs to the human soul, being controlled by Sin and obeying the orders of Sin, instigates the human body to commit sin. Hence, although Sin dwells in our body, its damaging work advances from the circumference to the center. With the body as the base, it projects forth the poison of sin, causing damage to our soul and spirit, until our whole being is corrupted. Therefore, Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things.” Romans 1 and Mark 7 also declare that there are all kinds of sins within man. These scriptures prove that man is completely corrupted by Sin within and is full of sins. Hence, in the soul of man today, his mind is evil, his emotion defiled, his will rebellious, and even his spirit darkened. These are the results of the work of Sin in man.
But we must thank the Lord, for in us who are saved there are not only the two laws of good and of evil, of man and of Satan; there is also the law of the Spirit of God’s life. Since this law is derived from the Spirit of God’s life, it comes from the uncreated, divine life of God. As far as the nature of being both divine and eternal is concerned, of all the so-called lives in the universe, only the life of God is life. (This has been discussed in detail in chapter 1, “What Is Life?”) Therefore, the nature of God’s life is life. Since the law of the Spirit of life is derived from the life of God, its nature is life, just as the nature of the life of God is life. It is not like the two previously mentioned laws that are either good or evil because of the life from which they are derived.
According to scriptural revelation, life and good are different. Here we have three main points: first, life is the nature of the life of God, whereas good is the nature of the life of man; second, life is good, but good is not necessarily life; and third, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden show that life and good are definitely different; life is neither good nor evil. Life, good, and evil are three different and independent things.
We should realize not only that life and good are not the same but that good differs from good. There is the good of God, and there is also the good of man. God’s good comes from the life of God and contains the nature of God’s life. Man’s good comes from the life of man and contains only man’s good nature. The good mentioned in Ephesians 2:10 and 2 Timothy 2:21 is the good that we live out through the life of God; hence, it is the good derived from the life of God and is God’s good. The good mentioned in Matthew 12:35; Romans 7:18-19, 21; and 9:11 is the good that we live out according to our own life; hence, it is the good derived from the life of man and is the good of man. The good derived from the life of man is but the good of man, without the nature of life or the element of God. Only the good of God derived from the life of God is not only good but also possesses the nature of life and God’s very element. Therefore, when we say that life and good are different, we mean that the life of God and the good of man are different. The good of man, derived from the life of man and containing nothing of the life nature of God, naturally differs from the life of God. However, since God’s good is derived from the life of God and contains the life nature of God, we cannot say that it differs from the life of God.
Thus, we see that the law of the Spirit of life containing the life nature of God can cause us to live out the life of God, that is, to live out the good of God.
Moreover, these three different laws within us differ also in their degree of strength. We know that laws vary in strength according to the degree of strength of the objects of their respective origins. The law of good is derived from the life of man, and the life of man is the weakest; hence, the strength to do good of the law of good is also the weakest. The law of sin is derived from the stronger life of Satan; hence, this law’s power of sinning is stronger than the power of doing good of the law of good; it not only disables us from doing good, but it causes us to commit sin and do evil. The law of the Spirit of life is derived from the strongest life, the life of God; hence, the power of this law is also the strongest; it not only keeps us from obeying the law of sin to commit sin but also enables us to obey itself and live out the life of God naturally.
Philosophers throughout generations have advocated various ways of cultivating morality or improving behavior. In fact, what they have advocated is a working through human intellect, self-will, and self-effort on the already corrupted body and soul in order to restore or reactivate the original good in man. All this cannot overcome the natural power of the law of sin. The strength of man is limited, whereas the power of the law is enduring; man’s striving is a self-exertion, whereas the power of law is spontaneous. Man, by using his own effort, may be able to sustain himself for a while, but once his strength is exhausted, the power of law manifests itself again. Therefore, God’s way of deliverance is not to work on our outward body by dealing with the Sin that surrounds us, nor to work on the soul, which is between our body and our spirit, by strengthening our will to do good. But it is in our center, that is, in our spirit, that God adds into us a new element, which brings with it a mighty power of life. Then He advances from our center to the circumference, penetrating through all the parts of our being, by using one law to subdue another law to overcome the power of sinning in the law of sin. Moreover, we are enabled to live out the good required by the law of God, which we were unable to live out formerly through the law of good. And much more, through the life that is derived from the law of the Spirit of life, we are able to live out the life that God desires.
Therefore, the Bible shows that there are four laws related to us, one outside of us and three inside of us. The one outside of us is the law of God. Of the three that are inside of us, one is in our soul, one in our body, and one in our spirit. The law in our soul, derived from the created, good human life, is good and gives us the desire to do good; the law in our body, derived from the fallen, evil life of Satan, is evil and causes us to sin; the law in our spirit, derived from the uncreated, divine life of God, is divine and causes us to live out the divine life of God.
The law of God outside of us represents God in giving us the requirements of holiness, righteousness, and goodness. The law of good in our soul, upon touching the holy and good requirements of the law of God, desires and determines to fulfill the requirements. But the law of sin in our members, when it realizes that the law of good in our soul desires to fulfill the holy and good requirements of the law of God outside of us, will surely oppose, resist, and usually overcome the law of good in our soul. Thus, we are not only disabled from fulfilling God’s law, but instead, we violate the holy and good requirements of the law of God outside of us. This is because the law of sin in our body is stronger than the law of good in our soul. However, the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit is even stronger than the law of good in our soul. Therefore, if we turn to our spirit and live according to our spirit, the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit will deliver us from the law of sin in our body and cause us to live out the divine life of God. Thus, not only will we be able to fulfill the holy and good requirements of God, but we can meet the divine standard of God Himself.
For example, the outward law of God requires us not to be covetous. The law of good in our soul, upon touching this requirement of God’s law, desires to fulfill it and determines not to be covetous anymore. But at this time the law of sin in our body immediately rises in opposition, causing us to be inwardly covetous; thus, we are unable to fulfill the law of God that requires us not to be covetous. At this time, however much we will and determine, we cannot rid ourselves of a covetous heart. On the contrary, the more we will and strive to rid ourselves of covetousness, the more it grows within us. Whenever, due to the outward requirement of God’s law, the law of good in our soul desires to do good, the law of sin in our body will immediately cause evil to work in us and war against our thought of good. Furthermore, the law of good in our soul is no match for the law of sin in our body; in almost every encounter it loses to the law of sin in our body. But, praise the Lord, the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit is stronger than the law of sin in our body and is able to deliver us and set us free from the law of sin. If we would cease from our struggling and strife through the law of good in our soul, and walk instead according to the law of the Spirit of life, we should be delivered from the covetous desire motivated by the law of sin in our body. We would be enabled to fulfill the requirement of the outward law of God not to covet and live out the surpassing holiness of God.
Hence, we can see clearly that the outward law of God puts certain requirements upon us, and immediately the law of good in our soul desires to fulfill them. But the law of sin in our body between these two laws — the outward law of God and the law of good in our soul — obstructs and hinders us so that the law of good in our soul cannot fulfill the requirement of the outward law of God as it wishes. Just as our body surrounds our soul, so the law of sin in the body surrounds the law of good in our soul and is stronger than it. Therefore, it is very difficult for the law of good in our soul to overcome the law of sin in our body, to break through its surrounding and fulfill the requirement of the outward law of God. However, the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit is stronger than the other laws; hence, it can overcome the law of sin in our body and deliver us from the engulfing of that law, thus, more than enabling us to fully fulfill the requirement of God’s law.
We may use another illustration here to explain the relationship of these four laws to us. The outward law of God is like a respectable man proposing to us, whereas the law of good in our mind is like a virtuous lady saying yes to his proposal. However, the law of sin in our members is like a villain who always follows the lady and attempts to create trouble between her and that man. Whenever he observes this lady saying yes to the man’s proposal, he kidnaps her and compels her to act neither according to her own will nor her own wish. At this very moment the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit, which can be likened to an angel from heaven, rescues the lady from the villain and enables her to fulfill the man’s proposal; thus, her desire is fulfilled. Consequently, she discovers that this angel from heaven is in fact the One whom the man represented. Therefore, this angel, by causing her to fulfill the man’s proposal, actually enables her to fulfill his own desire.
From this illustration we see that although the outward law of God places requirements upon us, it cannot cause us to fulfill its requirements. The law of good in our mind desires to fulfill the requirements of the outward law of God, yet it has no strength to overcome the law of sin in our members. Moreover, the law of sin always opposes the law of good, and when it sees that the law of good is attempting to fulfill the requirement of the law of God, it will surely hinder and prevent it from fulfilling its wish. But the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit, our deliverance from God with the mighty power of the life of God, sets us free from the law of sin, thus enabling us to fulfill all the requirements of the law of God and live out the divine life of God. If we live according to this law of the Spirit of life, we will be delivered from the law of sin in our members and become a victorious Christian automatically.
At this point we can draw several conclusions: First, God’s deliverance differs from man’s reformation. First of all, the basis is different. Man’s reformation is based on the original good of man, whereas God’s deliverance is based on the life of God and the Spirit of God, that is, the Spirit of life. Next, the methods differ. Man’s reformation is by way of exerting human strength, inflicting harsh treatment on our body, and subduing the passions, thus bringing forth the good in man. God’s deliverance is by way of putting His Spirit and His life into our spirit, thus enlivening our spirit; then a renewing work begins from our spirit, renewing first the various parts of our spirit, then the different parts of our soul, and finally our physical body. Last, the results are different. The result of man’s reformation is but the highest human excellence; it cannot cause man to live out the divine standard of God’s nature. The consequence of God’s deliverance is that we become God-men, living out the divine life of God.
Second, God’s deliverance does not make us good men but life-men. There are all together three classes of man in the universe: God-men, good men, and evil men. God’s deliverance is not to make us evil men or good men, but life-men.
Third, we who have been delivered by God ought to live in God. God is life, and God’s deliverance is for us to become life-men. Life is God; to be a life-man is to be a God-man. To be such men we ought to live in God. But to live in God is a vague doctrine. If we want to live in God, we must live in the law of the Spirit of life. This requires us to live in spirit, for the law of the Spirit of life is in the spirit. This also requires us to live in the sense of life, for the sense of life is the sense of the law of the Spirit of life. If we obey the sense of life, we mind the spirit and live in the spirit. If we mind the spirit, we live in the law of the Spirit of life. When we live in the law of the Spirit of life, we live in God. Consequently, what we live out is God Himself. God is life; therefore, what we live out is life, and we become life-men.
Fourth, the goal of God’s deliverance is the unity of God and man. When we obey the law of the Spirit of life and live in God, God lives also in us, and He and we mingle in a practical way until the two are completely united as one.
There are two more points on the subjective side. First, we must touch the inner sense, which means to obey the inner feeling. Second, we must live in fellowship. Fellowship is the flowing of life. To live in fellowship is to live in the flowing of life. These two points enable us to experience life in a practical way. The purpose of this chapter on the three lives and four laws is to bring us to this point. If we touch the inner sense in a practical way and live in fellowship, we will automatically be able: (1) to be freed from sin, (2) to do the good works that we are unable to do, (3) to fulfill the law of God, and (4) to live out the life of God. Eventually, we can become God-men, manifesting the life of God. This is the goal of God’s salvation, and this also includes all matters pertaining to life.
