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Hebrews 8:10-12 speaks of the covenant between God and His people in the New Testament: “For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me. And they shall by no means each teach his fellow citizen and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all will know Me from the little one to the great one among them. For I will be propitious to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins I shall by no means remember anymore.” The Lord has made a covenant with us. In this covenant there is no need for others to teach us to know the Lord, because we will all know Him, even the least among us.
In human terms a covenant is an agreement or a contract. The Lord is so willing to be our God and to have a relationship with us that He has made a covenant, that is, a contract, an agreement, with us. Whatever is written in a contract is certain. Once a contract is made or an agreement is signed, there is no margin for any change and no possibility of any choice.
God, the faithful, almighty One, has signed a contract with us. The center of this contract, or covenant, is the law of life. Every contract needs to have certain terms, without which there can be no contract. In the divine contract made and signed by God, there is only one term, one condition: God has said that He will put His own law into us. He does not ask us to keep any kind of terms or conditions on our side. According to this one term, He said that He will be God to us and we will be a people to Him. This one term, this one condition, makes the new covenant a very brief and simple contract. In contrast, a business contract may contain term after term, condition after condition, each with many sub-terms and sub-conditions. However, the new covenant is a divine contract with one simple term, indicated in this statement: “I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me.” Actually, this one term is all-inclusive.
However, although it may seem that God has made a simple contract with only one term, God Himself is not simple. Hence, the contract made by God, in reality, is not simple, because in the one term everything is included. God comes into us all-inclusively as life to us, and this life is the law mentioned in the divine contract. In fact, God Himself is the law within us, but not directly. He is life to us directly, and this life works within us as a law. This life has the function of regulating; it works within us all the time to regulate us.
We need to be impressed that God, the all-inclusive Lord, has come into us to be our life and that with this life there is a function, a law, that continually regulates us according to its nature and element. Included in this life are the divine nature, the human nature with the human living, death and the effectiveness of death, resurrection and the power of resurrection, glorification, ascension, and enthronement. Furthermore, in this life there is the headship, lordship, power, and authority. All these things are the elements of the divine life with its law.
Before the incarnation, in the Triune God there were only the three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. If at that stage the Spirit of God had come down to man, within the Spirit there would have been only one element, the element of divinity, because the Spirit of God was only God Himself. One day the Son of God was incarnated to be a man. This means that the Son of God came into man to put man upon Himself. In this man He lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, passing through the experiences of the human life. After living the human life, He entered into death, remained in death for three days, and then entered into resurrection, in which He was glorified (Luke 24:26, 46). He was just like a seed that dies when it is sown into the earth but subsequently grows up and blossoms. The blossoming of the seed is its glorification. By His resurrection Jesus was glorified. In His resurrection and glorification, Jesus ascended to the heavens and was enthroned as the Lord and Christ to receive the headship and the lordship (Acts 2:36; Eph. 1:19-22). Then on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down upon man (Acts 2:1-4, 33). At this stage the Holy Spirit of God came down upon man not with only one element but with a number of additional elements, including the human nature, the human living, the all-inclusive death with its effectiveness, and the resurrection with its power, as well as glorification, ascension, enthronement, the lordship, and the headship. This is the Holy Spirit who is within us today. This Spirit is the Spirit of the One who, as the embodiment of the Triune God, was mingled with man, passed through human living, died, resurrected, entered into ascension, and was enthroned and given the lordship and the headship.
The One who is now dwelling within us is God the Father in God the Son, who is also God the Spirit (John 14:10-11, 16-20; 2 Cor. 3:17). This indwelling One is the all-inclusive Christ. Because He is man as well as God, He has not only the divine nature but also the human nature. He knows the human life and has the element of human living. Now this One is life within us, and this life works in us as a regulating law not in a miraculous way but in a very ordinary way, even in a very human way.
The record of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels shows that although He performed some miracles, He mainly walked, lived, acted, and worked in a very human way. Sometimes He was thirsty (John 4:6-7; 19:28), sometimes He was hungry (Luke 4:2), and sometimes He even became angry (Mark 3:5). Today Christ, who is the Lord, the almighty God, and the all-inclusive Head, is living within us as life, working and moving in us in a gentle, quiet, normal, and human way.
Although He is gentle, He is also very powerful. Regardless of how much we quarrel with Him, we can never overcome Him. He is steadfast and can never be subdued by us. On the contrary, He is always gently and patiently subduing us. If we will not be subdued by Him today, He will wait until tomorrow, and if we will not be subdued tomorrow, He will wait for the following day. Once He has given us an order, we cannot convince Him to change it. He gives us an order gently and quietly yet firmly, without wavering, even though we may argue with Him. His patience is unlimited, and He can wait until eternity. No one can convince Him or debate with Him.
Moreover, all His riches are in His regulating. If we are regulated by Him, we will enjoy His riches, which include the riches of the divine nature, the riches of the beautiful, sanctified, and uplifted human nature, the riches of His beautiful human living and walk on the earth, and the riches of the killing power of His death. As we go along with His small regulating voice, something within will be killing us, putting us on the cross, because in that regulating there are the riches of the killing power of the cross. There are also the resurrection power, the element of glorification, and the ascension, enthronement, lordship, and headship.
In a relationship between a husband and a wife there can be friction, even when both are Christians and love the Lord. The husband’s will may be stubborn, and the wife may be unable to convince him to change. There may be nothing the wife can do, and no one may be able to help her. Nevertheless, Christ is living within her and is regulating her. Whenever she tries to argue with her husband, something within is regulating. While she is speaking to him, there is another One speaking to her, telling her that regardless of how her husband is, she must not argue. In this instance she needs the killing power of the cross to kill her argumentative self, her self-esteem, her pride, and her seeking to have the preeminence. When she is willing to go along with the inner regulating, her self is killed, and many times tears are shed. Nevertheless, at such times she experiences the resurrection power within, energizing and strengthening her to suffer under her husband and even to feel glorious in doing so.
As we cooperate with the inner regulating, we experience being not only transparent but also transcendent, far above all, and in the heavenlies. At times we sense that we are even enthroned with Christ and experience the headship and lordship of Christ. In our experience, however, two things are a problem to us. First, many teachings in Christianity distract us from the Lord’s inner working. Second, our natural thought and human concept are that the Lord’s working in us must be something extraordinary. This causes us not to pay attention to the Lord’s quiet working within us. We must forget about our human, natural thought and all the different teachings and take care of the Lord’s working, shining, and regulating within. Then all the riches of Christ will be ours. These riches will be interwoven with our entire being.
We should not consider this as being too deep or too high. Regardless of how long we have been saved, as long as we are Christians who are born again, the all-inclusive Christ dwells in us (Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5). The Spirit of such a Christ is full of the riches of the Triune God-man, including the divine nature, the human nature, human living, death with its effectiveness, resurrection with its power, glorification, ascension, enthronement, headship, and lordship. All these items are the elements of the wonderful Spirit who is now within us and who is working in us in a very natural, human, gentle, and quiet way. All that is needed is for us to cooperate with Him.
By the inner regulating of the law of life, we are able to know God. We do not need anyone to teach us. The inner regulating is sufficient for us to know God. Once a person is saved and begins to love God, he has the desire to please Him. He will often ask, “How can I know if this is what God likes, if it pleases Him? How can I know if it is something of Him?” As a young Christian, I had many questions like this. I even wondered whether or not I should wear a hat and what kind of clothes I should wear. I tried to get answers to my questions, but eventually no one could answer them. Nevertheless, the Lord within me was regulating me all the time.
A sister once testified that as a young girl, before she was saved, she liked to make the length of her skirts as short as possible in order to be modern. Then one day, after she was saved, she made a dress. Concerning the length of this dress, she bargained with the Lord. Although she would tell the Lord that she felt a certain length was all right, within her there was no peace. Rather, something was regulating her. Eventually, she said, “Lord, what length will satisfy You?” After praying in this way, she had peace.
This is the principle not only related to our clothing but also concerning many other things. Within us there is a measurement, a standard. No one else can give us the standard, but there is a standard within us. This standard is the living Christ. Moreover, the standard differs according to the degree of our love toward Him. The more we love Him, the more troublesome He will be to us. Conversely, the less we love Him, the less we will be troubled by Him. In other words, the more we love Him, the more He regulates us. There is no need for others to teach us, for we always know. This kind of knowledge is not outward but inward and deep; it is a sense and a consciousness, not an outward teaching, that is always with us.
All people, even those who are quiet, like to talk. However, while we believers are talking, there is something within us regulating us. Although no one can tell us how long we should talk, we have a standard within us. We know at what point we should stop. The problem, however, is that we are unwilling to go along with the gentle inner regulating. Instead, we hope that the Lord will speak to us like thunder and command us to stop. But the Lord never does that. He is very quiet and patient, telling us, “You have spoken enough.” We may ask Him to allow us to speak for another five minutes, but He still says, “It is enough.” It may be a considerable time before we actually stop our speaking. Because of our disobedience, He is grieved, and this makes us very sorrowful. In such a case we go to the Lord shamefully, asking Him to forgive us so that our fellowship with Him will be recovered through the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7, 9). If we go along with the inner regulating, our self, our natural life, will be killed. Such an experience of the killing work of the cross leads us into the experience of the power of resurrection. In resurrection we experience many things of Christ, including His glorification, ascension, headship, and lordship.
In this chapter we have seen the law of life, which is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit with the elements of the divine nature, the human nature, human living, death, resurrection, glorification, ascension, and the headship and the lordship. We have the wonderful God within us as a living law that regulates us continually. By this law we are able to know God, to know what He likes and dislikes and what pleases Him and does not please Him. There is a living standard within us, which is the living God Himself, who is mingled with us. Our only need is to learn to know this One.
