In this chapter the burden is the function of the law of life, or the scientific working of the law of life. We have to see how the law of life works in a scientific way. Even in such an ancient time, two thousand years ago, this scientific word, law, was used by the apostle Paul. The goal of modern science is mostly just to find out the natural law of certain things. For example, the earth has the greatest attracting power, and eventually the law of gravity was discovered. Today even elementary students know about the law of gravity. All scientific studies are studies of natural laws. Is it not a wonder that two thousand years ago such a writer as Paul used the word law in this way? He did not use it in the way of the Ten Commandments but in the way of a scientific principle.
In Romans 8 the law of the Spirit of life refers to a scientific law. It is used in the same way in chapter 7, where Paul indicates that there is a law in his flesh that always tends to sin, that works to sin (v. 23). In the last chapter we saw that Romans 8 actually is on this scientific law. It is talking about the law. You should not pick up any word or any point other than the law as the subject of this chapter. Romans 8 is a chapter on the law of the Spirit of life. The term the law of the Spirit of life is mentioned only once, but then in the definition it is not mentioned. This indicates that whatever chapter 8 talks about is a description, or an explanation, of this law. This is somewhat like Genesis 1. The first verse mentions God’s creating, and then the rest of the chapter is a definition, an explanation, a description, of God’s creation. In like manner, the entire chapter of Romans 8 is a definition, description, explanation, and presentation of this law. Whatever is mentioned after verse 2 is something related to the law. It is a little part of the law. By this you can see that it is altogether right to say that the law of the Spirit of life is nothing less than the Triune God processed and dwelling in us. The Triune God is this law, and this Triune God is the One who has been processed and who is now indwelling us. Processed indicates that something happened; indwelling indicates that something is still going on. The Triune God who has been processed and who is now dwelling in us is Himself the law.
Before God became incarnated, He could not come into us. He was nothing less than God—He was the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He was the Triune God. Even in Genesis 1 the pronoun used for God is not only in singular number but also in plural number—Our image. This indicates that the very God who created the universe was triune. Even before the creation began, there was a kind of counsel or consideration between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. “Let Us make man.” God said this to Himself. But at that point He had no way to come into man. Furthermore, He could work only by activities; He could not work by law. To work by activity is one thing, and to work by law is another thing. Today so many automatic things work by law. For example, a water sprinkler works not by activity but by law. Many lamps also work not by activity but by law. Certain lamps automatically come on when it becomes dark. This is a working by law, not by activity.
Our stomach digests food not by activity but by law. There is no need for us to ask our stomach to digest food and to tell it to stop when it is finished. No, digestion in the stomach works by law. Why does it work by law? Because life is there. Why do the sprinklers and the lamps work by law? Because the power is there through a governing principle that has been set up.
Before God was incarnated, He did a lot of things among men by activity. When God came to Abraham, that was an activity. When God was sitting there with Abraham and eating with him, that was an activity (Gen. 18). But today God is no longer working in the way of activity, because He has installed Himself into us as the life and as the power. When I pray, I sometimes like to pray that the Lord would come to visit us and grant us a gracious visitation. Although this is a very good prayer, it is altogether according to the Old Testament. Many times after praying in this way, I was rebuked by the Lord. It seemed that He said to me, “I am here. Don’t you know that I am here? I have been installed into you.” Once electricity has been installed into a building, there is no need to consider and hope that the electricity will come again tomorrow to visit. No, it is permanently installed into the building. Once installed, it continues to operate according to law. In his Epistles Paul tells us clearly that since the time we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him, He has come into us. Using a modern term, He has been installed into us. Even He has been born into us. From the time of that birth, the Triune God no longer works on us, in us, and with us merely by activity; He also works by law.
Romans 8 uses this term the law of the Spirit of life to describe how the Triune God, after having been processed and having been installed into us, has become a law in us. He becomes something automatic. He becomes not only something organic but also something automatic. Whatever this processed and installed and indwelling God does in us, with us, and on us is the function of the law. Our God is no more an objective worker, working by activities outside of us and beyond us. Our God today has become a subjective law working all the time within us not by activities but by law. This working is altogether scientific. The law always works in a scientific way. If you work by duty, that is not scientific; if you work by law, that is scientific. How wonderful that our God today has become a law within us—an automatic principle!
The circulation of your blood is according to law. It is not an activity. While I am acting and moving, blood is circulating within me. The circulation of the blood is a law. The best medical doctor is one who is the best scientific student of all the principles and laws of the human body. The law of cancer has not yet been discovered. If you could find the law of cancer, you might get a Nobel Prize. Surely there must be a law related to cancer. I use these illustrations to help you realize that in the Bible at least one chapter talks about such a law. It speaks of such a law being the Triune God, the processed God, the installed God, and the indwelling God. Wonderful! Dear saints, you must see this. If you see this, it will save you to the uttermost. This is a kind of foundation to help us go on to see the scientific function of this automatic law.
Modern drugs such as antibiotics are a good illustration of the law of the Spirit of life. The pharmaceutical companies make the modern drugs in a scientific way. When you take a certain drug into you, it works in you scientifically. You have an illness because a certain kind of germ is in you, also working by a certain kind of law. Then you take an antibiotic with an element in it that works anti the law of the germ in you. The law of the Spirit of life is just the Triune God processed, installed, and now indwelling us. This dear One is the scientific drug with a lot of scientific elements that are anti the negative elements within us. These negative elements include the old nature, the flesh, sin, and Satan. After we were saved—forgiven by God of our sins and washed by His blood—we began to try our best to please God, but we found out that there were a lot of negative things within us. Then we wanted to overcome. We were taught many ways to overcome, but eventually none of the ways worked.
The way of deliverance, of rescue, is the law in you. The law of the Spirit of life with all the elements working scientifically is the way of deliverance.
Now we need to discover from Romans 8 the elements within the law of the Spirit of life. Verse 2 indicates that both the Spirit and life are components or elements or ingredients of this law. “In Christ Jesus” is another element. Paul was very specific in his writing here. He did not say “in Jesus” or “in Jesus Christ” or “in the Lord.” He said “in Christ Jesus.” Some might argue that the phrase in Christ Jesus is not an adjective phrase modifying law but an adverbial phrase modifying freed. In a sense this is correct, but in the Greek it is difficult for the translators to say definitely whether such a phrase modifies the noun, law, or whether it works as an adverb to modify the verb, freed. Actually, there is no need to argue, because eventually it is the same thing. Eventually, it is in Christ Jesus. If the law is not in Christ Jesus, how could the law free you in Christ Jesus? If the law can do something for you in Christ Jesus, that means the law itself is in Christ Jesus.
Verse 3 also includes some marvelous elements contained in the law of the Spirit of life. First, the law even includes the element of dealing with impossibility. Impossibility is dealt with by the law. This means the impossibility of the law of letters. The law was impossible because it was weak through the flesh. So here is another element, the weakness through the flesh. Then there is the element of God, which is the biggest element in this verse. Also there is the Son of God and the likeness of the flesh. This is not only the incarnation but a kind of form, or likeness, of the fallen flesh. Even the elements of sin and condemnation and sin condemned in the flesh are included here. Of course, some of these elements are positive, and some are negative. Some are dealing elements, and some are elements dealt with. Many elements are revealed in this chapter, but all of them are components of the law of the Spirit of life. Either on the positive side or on the negative side there are many items indicated and implied in this chapter. God is implied. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are implied. God’s creation and man’s fall are implied. Man’s flesh and sin are implied. Incarnation, death, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are implied. Even the interceding Spirit and interceding Christ are included. We have to realize these items and to know how this law works within us scientifically.
For example, as Christians, we have realized that our flesh is very sinful and very bad. So from the time we were saved, we have been seeking how to overcome this bothering and entangling matter within us. We may have read a number of books telling us to do this and to do that to overcome. I tried many of these ways, and eventually I found that none of them worked. Some have said that the way to deal with our flesh is by the cross. Since the flesh has been crucified, we need to reckon ourselves dead and to bear the cross. This means to remain on the cross. In The Imitation of Christ, the writer stresses bearing the cross. Madame Guyon also stressed the matter of the cross. She said that we need to kiss the cross. She said that God gives me the cross, and the cross gives me God. Forty to forty-five years ago I practiced all these things, but I discovered that they do not work. I found that to bear the cross as taught in the book The Imitation of Christ is just to commit a kind of suicide. Even to “kiss the cross” is somewhat in the same category.
Then you may ask, What does work? The law in Romans 8 works. How does it work? It just works. When you let it work, it works. Then you would ask, How do you let it work? These kinds of questions are altogether from the fallen mentality. The light from this chapter has not been seen for hundreds of years. Paul not only saw the light, but he wrote such a chapter. Although some may have experienced these things through the years, mostly they experienced them by accident. For example, electricity already existed before Thomas Edison discovered some of the laws related to it. But it existed mainly in the form of lightning, and it occurred accidentally. But eventually, Thomas Edison and others discovered laws concerning electricity. If you keep those laws, it works. In like manner, some Christians in the past may have touched the law of the Spirit of life in a proper way, causing it to work. But this does not mean that they had this law in their understanding. It came by way of accident, and it also went by way of accident. Paul was different; he saw the light. The law worked within Paul not by accident but by law.
We all have to contact the Lord, to fellowship with Him, to touch Him. Sometimes in the past we may have touched Him in an accidental way. Still we touched Him, and something happened. Through the centuries Christians who have experienced these things have encouraged us to have a time with God. But the problem is this: when we get in touch with God and with this law by spending some time with God, right away we make up our mind to do things, and then we are out of the touch with the Lord. In our prayer time we are in, but out of our prayer time we are out. The more you are in touch with the Lord without asking Him to do something for you, without deciding to do something for Him, without attempting to please Him, there will be a kind of automatic working within you to eliminate the sinful flesh. The negative things within you will be reduced and eliminated. It is not that you overcome something or that you kill something, but there is an automatic killing. While you remain in the touch with the Lord, the law of the Spirit of life works.
Sometimes certain “pious” Christians like James in the New Testament may say that we should not be hearers only but also doers. They would encourage us to pray that the Lord would help us to do what we have heard. I believe that most of us have prayed this kind of prayer. But do you realize that such doers are committing a kind of spiritual suicide? In the Lord’s recovery you have been hearing a lot of things. Have you been doers? If you have been doing, mostly you have been committing a kind of suicide. You kill yourself, and you kill others. The more you like to be a doer, the more you become a killer. Forget about doing, but stay in touch with the Lord. There the law that has been installed into your being will automatically and scientifically work to kill all the germs and even to deal with that particular germ that you are bothered about. We all have experienced this kind of thing, but the problem is that we do not remain in this kind of touch with the Lord. The most spiritual person is the one who remains in the touch with the Lord the most.
For almost fifty years I have been serving and teaching the saints, but I am afraid that some of the help that I rendered to them was not so genuine. The genuine help, the real help, is just to get the saints into the touch with the Lord that will let the automatic law work. As the law of the Spirit of life works in such a one, it will reduce his problem and solve his problem and kill some of his germs. This is the genuine help. Sometimes a medical doctor may not give you the genuine healing but just a kind of temporary soothing and comfort. Likewise, we sometimes feel that we have received some spiritual help, but several weeks later we are still sick. The real help is to get into this touch with the Lord that will cause the automatic law of the Spirit of life to operate within us. Actually, you cannot help others. Paul planted, but he could not give life. Apollos watered, but Apollos could not give growth. Only God could give growth. I may, in certain difficult problems, help you temporarily. But only the automatic working law can kill the real source. Only the law of the Spirit of life can reduce your natural life and deal with the real germ. This is the genuine help.
Many times I have used a married couple as an example, saying that the wife helps the husband to grow, and the husband helps the wife to grow. But actually, I doubt whether any wife has ever helped a husband to grow. At most she may help him to learn some patience. Actually, inside there is not much change. The genuine help is to bring a wife or a husband into the touch with the Lord. Then the law of the Spirit of life in Romans 8 automatically works scientifically. All the negative elements and the positive elements in the law will operate. Even though we may not know so many of the things within us, when this law works within us, it reduces and eliminates. It does away with the negative things. When your wife irritates you or provokes you, you will not need to gnash your teeth, because that ugly thing within you has been reduced and eliminated. Sometimes the reducing is not up to standard, and we need more time remaining in the touch with the Lord.
Through the years many so-called spiritual giants have encouraged people to contact the Lord, to fellowship with the Lord, to pray. But even they themselves did not get into the principle in a thorough way. They only enjoyed the result to some extent, so they encouraged people to practice certain things and to enjoy certain things. Today we do not need this kind of word. We just need to come into the touch with Him. We need to pray, “Lord, I just come to touch You. I have nothing to ask of You. I do not even like to ask You to do anything for me. I just like to remain in the touch with You. I do have some burden to pray for Your recovery, for Your interest, yet I do not like to do it. I just like to remain in this touch.” Your experience will confirm that if you practice this, you will experience a lot of killing, a lot of reducing, a lot of strengthening, a lot of resurrecting, a lot of rising up. What is this? This is the law working in you scientifically. This law includes the weakness of the law being killed already. The impossibility of the law is done away. There is no more impossibility. Rather, it is full of possibility. The righteous requirement of the law is spontaneously fulfilled in you. It is not that you are fulfilling the requirement but that the requirement is fulfilled in you. Furthermore, it is not just by accident and just according to mercy. It is a matter of the law. The electricity does not heat your room according to mercy but according to law.
Let us come back to this automatic law that works scientifically. Dear saints, just stay in the contact with Him. Something in you will spontaneously work in a scientific way to solve this problem for you and to deal with that thing for you. Although you may not know there was such a thing in you, that thing will have been dealt with. After you have stayed in this contact for a certain period of time, you will realize experientially that within you there has been a kind of clearing up, a kind of dealing, a kind of release, a kind of rising up, a kind of soaring in the air. This is the result of the scientific working of this automatic law. This is the very God who is now indwelling you and working, not as God but as a law. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me.
