Have you ever spent some time in Romans 8 to find out how many activities there are on God’s side and how many activities there are on our side? Actually, this chapter does not stress how much God does, but rather it stresses how much we do.
We need to consider some of the problems in Romans 8, but first we must spend some time to lay a foundation so that we may be enabled, or qualified, not to solve the problem but at least to understand the problem. Understanding the problem sometimes is harder than solving the problem. The best students are those who know how to question and how to find out the problems. The foundation we need to lay in order to understand further problems is to see what are the doings on our side and what are the doings on God’s side in Romans 8.
Some might say first of all that the law of the Spirit of life has freed me. Whose doing is this? Verse 2 does not say that God does this. Then you may say that it is the Spirit’s doing. But neither does verse 2 say that the Spirit has freed us. Rather, it is a kind of law—the law of life. The law here means a kind of law of nature, not the law of the Ten Commandments. For example, gravity is a law by nature. No doubt, such a law by nature was first set up by God, and God still operates it. It is the natural law of gravity. Once a law is set, there is the need of the one who set the law to operate it. Gravity is a law. Who is operating it? No doubt, it is God Himself. Do you believe that whenever the law of gravity operates, it needs God to operate it again and again and again? No. The law is there. But whether this law operates or not does not depend upon God’s side. It depends upon our side. Whenever we would fulfill the requirement of that law, that law works.
Electricity is another example. It has been installed into this building. If you need heating, you do not need to telephone the power plant asking them to operate the electricity. You just need to fulfill the requirement. When you fulfill the requirement, the power operates. Is this your doing or the power plant’s doing? If this room is dark and we need light, do I need to kneel down and pray that God would send the light? Even if I prayed for my whole life, the light would never come. But if I just fulfill the little requirement of turning on the switch, light comes. Whose doing is this? Surely this is our doing. But do not say that this is altogether your doing. Before your doing, some work had been done already. Some installation had been made already. Some operating was taking place far away in the power plant. If there had never been an installation and there was no power in the power plant, an operator in the power plant could turn on the switch a thousand times, but nothing would happen. On the one hand, this is my doing because I switched on the light. But on the other hand, this is my doing plus the installation with the operation. I could not do the installation, nor could I do the operation of the power plant. This is a kind of cooperation. My switching on the switch is a kind of cooperation with the installation and the operation in the power plant.
In traditional theology there are two schools: the Calvinist school and the Arminian school. The Calvinist school would say that everything is done by God. You can do nothing. The Arminian school would say that you have to do everything. If you do not do anything, nothing will happen.
Paul, though, says, “Work out your own salvation” (Phil. 2:12). Apparently, this is altogether against Martin Luther’s teaching. Salvation should be by faith, not by works. Yet Paul says to work out your own salvation. What is this? This is just switching on. To work out your salvation is to switch on. God has installed something, and God is still operating something, but you need to switch on. Romans 8:2 says, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” But who is this “me”? It is the switching “me.” It does not mean that the law of the Spirit of life frees every believer with no qualification. At least the one in Romans 7 was not freed; he was still struggling there. Until Paul reached chapter 8, the law had no way to work out something. The law had been set up, and the law was still under God’s operation, yet it needed Paul’s switching on. Over fifty years ago I heard messages and I read books on this verse concerning the matter of the law of the Spirit of life. But no one ever told me that this law does not work without certain activities on the believers’ side. Actually, Romans 8 is a definition of how the law of the Spirit of life is working. The subject of Romans 8 is the freeing of the law of the Spirit of life. But just by verse 2, you do not know how the law of the Spirit of life works. So from verse 3 onward, nearly the entire chapter is a definition of how the law of the Spirit of life operates. The law of the Spirit of life does not free everyone. Many Christians today have not been freed. The law of the Spirit of life only frees the believers who fulfill all the doings in this chapter.
The first point is that we have to walk according to the spirit. This walking according to the spirit is on our side; actually, this is our switching on. When we walk according to the spirit, we switch on, and the law works. The law of the Spirit of life never works until we walk according to the spirit. The second point must be in verse 5, which says that we need to mind the things of the Spirit. The third item of our doing in this chapter is to put to death the practices of our mortal body (v. 13). The fourth item is to be led by the Spirit of God (v. 14). According to our natural concept, we always consider that this is a verse concerning the spiritual leading. Actually, this is not a verse concerning the spiritual leading; it is a verse concerning our being led. It does not say, “As many as the Spirit leads.” This verse does not talk about the Spirit’s leading; it talks about our being led. There is a big difference. It is not the Spirit leading you; it is you being led by Him.
In verse 15 is the fifth item; that is, you have to cry. That is your doing. You have to learn to cry. We have the spirit of sonship in which we cry, “Abba, Father!” To cry is to switch on. Whenever you cry, “O Father! Abba, Father!” that is to switch on. Learn to cry. This is not a bad cry; this is a good cry. This is a benign cry. We Christians have to have a kind of benign cry. Learn to cry, “O Lord Jesus! O Father! O Abba, Father!” Today’s Christians are dead because they are too silent. Learn to cry. Suppose I visited your home; could I hear a crying in your home? We all have to learn to cry. Have you ever considered that to cry is to switch on? Are you in darkness? Cry! Are you weak? Are you short of power? Cry! Sisters, would you keep your face, or would you lose your face to cry? I have seen many sisters who would just keep their face in order to be nice. They would not cry; they prefer to be weak. Simply to think about the situation never helps you; you need to cry.
Verse 16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” With this portion we have a little problem. According to this sentence, who witnesses first: the Spirit or our spirit? How could the Spirit witness with our spirit if He witnesses first? When it says that the Spirit witnesses with our spirit, it indicates that our spirit is witnessing already. When our spirit is witnessing, the Spirit witnesses with our spirit. In other words, if your spirit does not witness, neither does the Spirit witness. Why does verse 16 not say that our spirit witnesses with the Spirit? It is because the main stress here is that our spirit has to work. Our spirit has to take the initiative.
Verse 23 gives the next item. Have you ever realized that to groan is to switch on? Do you practice this? We all have to learn to groan. These are the seven items of the doings that could be found from Romans 8. We have to walk according to the spirit, to mind the things of the Spirit, to put to death the practices of the mortal body, to be led, to cry, to witness, and finally, to groan. You have to do these seven things. Try to practice these every day. If you are afraid of offending someone, you had better close your doors and windows and then do the crying and the groaning. You will see what a switching on you will experience.
What are the doings on God’s side or on the Spirit’s side? There are not so many from His side. First, verse 11 says that He will give life to our mortal body. Second, as we are being led, the Spirit leads us. Third, the Spirit witnesses. When we witness, He witnesses. Fourth, when we groan, He intercedes. Actually, our groaning is His interceding. When you are groaning to the Lord, that is the Spirit in you interceding. He is not interceding with a clear word but just with a kind of groaning. That is the interceding of the Spirit. So God gives life, the Spirit leads, the Spirit witnesses, and the Spirit intercedes.
Do you realize that the four doings on God’s side depend upon the doing from our side? God’s doing depends upon our doing. If we do not do something, He would not do anything. He would never give life to our mortal body unless we put to death the practices of our body. His giving life depends upon our putting to death. We have to take the initiative. It is the same in principle with His leading. If you would not be led by Him, He would not lead. You have to see this. If you would not witness, neither would He. His witnessing depends upon your spirit’s witnessing. It is even the more with the Spirit’s intercession. His interceding is altogether dependent upon our groaning.
This means that the doings on God’s side actually are His operation, and the doings on our side are our switching on. When we switch on, His operation works. I believe this is more than clear. In the last chapter I pointed out that Romans 8 has two spirits and three facts. First, we have been regenerated; second, the Spirit is indwelling us; third, the two spirits are mingled as one. These are the three facts. And of course the two spirits are the divine Spirit and our human spirit. You have to realize that these two spirits with the three facts, altogether five matters, take care of the installation and the operation. On the other hand, our doings, the seven doings that we have covered in this chapter, are switchings. By them we switch on. Whenever we would walk according to the spirit, the operation goes on. Whenever we would set our mind on the spirit, the operation goes on. Whenever we would put to death the practices of our body, whenever we would be led, whenever we would cry, whenever we would witness, and whenever we would groan, the operation goes on. We must see that it is not our doing that is waiting for His operation. His operation is waiting for our doing. It is not our switching on that is waiting for the installation. Neither is it our switching on that is waiting for the operation of the power plant. Actually, the installation and the operation are both waiting for our switching on. Are we waiting for God, or is God waiting for us? It is God who is waiting for us. He has regenerated us, He is now indwelling us, and He has mingled His Spirit with ours. Everything has been installed, and the operation is going on. What is short is our doings, our switching on.
We have the regeneration, and we have the indwelling. We also have the mingling. All these are matters of the installation. Excellent! Wonderful! What an installation! What an operation! The operation is still going on. The indwelling is here. The indwelling never ceases, and the indwelling never has a “selah.” You may say that you are waiting for God, but God is right here and has been waiting for two thousand years already. The installation has been done, and the operation is in progress. They are all here waiting for you to switch on by walking according to the spirit, by setting the mind on the spirit, by killing the practices of the body, by being led by Him, by crying, by witnessing, by groaning.
In this building, many systems, at least seven, have been installed. Now they simply need our switching on. When we need the heat, we switch on, and the heat comes. When we need the air, we switch on, and the air comes. When we need the light, we switch on, and the light comes. All these things work by our switching on and by its operation. Light is here; power is here; sound is here; video is here. They just need a little switching on. This illustrates the law of the Spirit of life. When you have these seven switching ons, the indwelling will work. That is the law of the Spirit of life. There is a spiritual law by nature. When we fulfill the requirement, this law works. What are the requirements? Walk according to the spirit; set your mind on the spiritual things; put to death all the practices of the body; be led and cry; witness and groan. When we would do all these things, the indwelling works. And that is the working of the law of the Spirit of life. Now you can see that when the verse says, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus,” it is not an ordinary “me” but a “me” under the switching. The law is just the working element of this operation.
Now we need to spend a little time to see these seven doings. I am so thankful to Paul for putting these seven things in a very good sequence. First, he mentions walking. Walking is all-inclusive. It means to live, to have your being, to move, to act, to walk. This is your daily life. This is your living every hour. Walk according to the spirit. When I look at the situation of Christians today, my heart is broken. They know very little about all these matters in Romans 8. Most Christians simply use the Bible as a kind of religious book. They pick up some verses to give certain religious teachings and religious sermons to make people religious. God’s economy has no intention to make us religious persons. God’s intention is to make all His chosen people His sons. He makes them His sons so they can be members of the Body of Christ. What a difference between these two!
It is easy for Christians to pick up verses that speak of wives submitting to their husbands, of husbands loving their wives, of being patient, of being kind, of being humble. But hardly any Christians pick up the points that we are covering in Romans 8. In Romans 8, in a sense there is no humility; there is no kindness; there are no husbands loving their wives; there are no wives submitting themselves to their husbands; there is no human behavior; there are no ethics; there is no good conduct. What is there? The law of the Spirit of life. There are two spirits working, based upon three facts. We have to thank the Lord that at this end time He has recovered these things from Romans 8 among us. What a blessing that we could hear such things! What a blessing to hear that we need to walk, to have our daily life, to live, to move, to act, to have our being, according to the spirit! What a great thing! What a privilege! What a blessing that we can walk according to the spirit!
If you talked to most Christians today about walking according to the spirit, they would think that you mean to behave yourself by the inspiration of the “Holy Ghost.” If you then told them that we do not need an inspiration, that we have the indwelling, they would probably consider that you are heretical. But Hallelujah, I do not need any inspiration! The indwelling is within me. He is waiting for me. If I just walk according to the spirit, the indwelling works. It is hard for us to tell what this spirit is. Of course, we have to see that it is the mingled spirit. It is your spirit mingled by and with the Spirit of God. We have a wonderful spirit. The Father is in the Son, the Son is the Spirit, and the Spirit is now in our spirit. We have such a wonderful spirit. We can walk according to such a spirit.
As we walk according to the spirit, surely we would spontaneously set our mind on the spirit. We would think about Him. We would meditate, we would muse, upon the spiritual things. We have the best help to set our mind on the spirit, that is, the Bible. And the best means is to pray-read. Whenever we pray-read the Bible, our mind is set on the spirit.
It will then be so spontaneous for you to put to death every practice of your body. When you walk according to the spirit and you set your mind on the spirit, minding the spiritual things, every time the practice of the body comes up, you will spontaneously kill it. When you kill it, life comes in. When you kill it, life is imparted.
Spontaneously, you would be led by the Spirit. When you walk according to the spirit, set your mind on the spirit, and put to death the practices of the body, you are led. You are under the leading of the Spirit. The Spirit’s indwelling works.
Then all the time you would cry either, “Lord Jesus!” or “Abba, Father!” It would be a kind of spontaneous thing. Then you would witness. Whenever you would open your mouth to say something about the Spirit, the Spirit would witness with you. Whenever you witness, He cooperates with you and confirms your witnessing.
After experiencing all these six items, we would realize what a poor situation there is among today’s Christians. Then we would come to the seventh item, groaning. We would not praise but groan. In a sense, the praising time is not today. We are expecting that day. Today is the groaning time. We do not know what to say, but we have a certain kind of sensation within us concerning God’s interest on the earth today. Oh, the kingdom of God! Oh, God’s interest! God’s testimony! The Lord’s recovery! You do not know what to say concerning these matters. So you groan. Your groaning then is exactly the indwelling Spirit’s interceding. It is not by a human word or a clear utterance. It is just a kind of unutterable groaning. Yet this unutterable groaning is the excellent interceding of the Spirit. This is the best intercession. This is the best prayer to carry out God’s economy on the earth today. If we are such persons experiencing all these seven items, surely the law of the Spirit of life is setting us free. If we practice all these seven items, the law of the Spirit of life truly works in us.
Now we need to consider Romans 8:15. There is a big problem here. “You have not received a spirit of slavery bringing you into fear again, but you have received a spirit of sonship in which we cry, Abba, Father!” Now let us read the parallel verse in Galatians 4:6: “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!” In Galatians 4:6 no doubt it is the Spirit who cries. This is a big problem. How could the Spirit of God cry to God, “Abba, Father!”? Most of the expositors consider that these two verses are parallel verses. But one of these verses says that we cry, Abba, Father! and the other says that the Spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit, cries, Abba, Father! Who cries? We or He? Because of the matter of mingling, we have to say both. These two verses strongly indicate that when we cry, the Holy Spirit cries. When the Holy Spirit cries, we have begun to cry already. The Spirit of the Son of God cries in our crying. Actually, these two cries are just one. Some Christians do not believe in the matter of mingling. But there is no other way to answer this question but by the matter of mingling.
You can never systematize such a spiritual reality. Some say that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Spirit is the Spirit. Yet Galatians 4:6 tells us that the Spirit of God, the third of the Godhead, becomes the Spirit of the second of the Godhead. Furthermore, this third of the Godhead cries to the first of the Godhead, “Abba, Father!” This testifies two things: first, that the Spirit of God today is one spirit with our spirit. Otherwise, how could it be that when we cry, He cries? It also testifies that the three of the Godhead can never be systematized into three distinct units.
The problem today with traditional theology is that they do not care for the experience. Their theological teachings are altogether doctrinal. But the Bible does not care for mere doctrinal teachings; the Bible cares for the experiential revelation. The Bible reveals to us the experience. All the good writers, whenever they come to the matter of Christian experience, say the same thing: in Christian experience, Christ is identical with the Spirit. You can never divide these two in your experience.
Not only can you not divide Christ from the Spirit, but you also should not separate the Holy Spirit from your spirit. Romans 8:4 says that we need to walk according to the spirit. According to what spirit shall we walk? It is not just according to the Holy Spirit or just according to the human spirit, but it is according to the mingled spirit. In like manner Romans 8:6 says that we need to set our mind on the spirit. What spirit is this? Again it must be the mingled spirit.
Even in the matter of being led by the Spirit as mentioned in verse 14, it is a matter of the human spirit with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit would never lead you apart from your spirit. He leads you when He is mingled with your spirit. He can never lead you unless your spirit is mingled by Him and with Him. What a subjective thing this is! By this you can see that few Christians today actually understand the Spirit’s leading because they do not know that they have a spirit. Even the more, they do not know that the Holy Spirit today is one with their spirit. How then could they know the Spirit’s leading? The leading Spirit today is not only in our spirit but also mingled with our spirit. It is such a mingled spirit who is leading us. Sometimes when people have problems, they think they need to go to a certain place and think about their problems for several days in order to solve them. Our experience tells us that the more we think concerning the problems, the more we get into the forest. We get into the thick woods because the leading is not there. Why? Because the Leader is not there. The Leader is in our spirit. Actually, this Leader makes our spirit a partnership of His leading. Forget about going to the mountain to think about something; turn to your spirit! Many of us could testify that regardless of the situation, when we would turn to our spirit, the sky is clear. This is to be led by the Spirit in and through and with our spirit. It is wonderful!
Then we would cry, “I am a son of God! He is my Father, and I am His son! He and I are one life! We are one nature! Wonderful! O Father!” Then we would witness and we would groan and He would intercede within us. When we are in such a groaning, in such an interceding, we are really one spirit with Him. We do not care for anything on this earth. We have no interest other than His. When we are in this kind of situation, the law of the Spirit of life works, setting us free. At that time no doubt we are actually sons of God, and we are members of Christ. Right away we are in the Body life. Now you see that the Lord could not have the Body life for centuries because there were no Christians who were in such a kind of situation—walking according to the spirit, setting the mind on the spirit, putting to death every practice of the body, being led all the time, crying, witnessing, and groaning. We must be such a person in such a living. Right away we will be in the Body of Christ in an actual way.
