Scripture Reading: Jer. 31:31-34
In this message I would like to give a brief further word on the new covenant, focusing on the inner law as the center, the centrality, of the new covenant.
According to the principle of the Bible, a covenant should never be annulled. This is especially true of a covenant enacted by God. Like the sun, the moon, and the stars, the new covenant will remain forever (31:35-37; 32:40; 33:20-26).
The center, the centrality, of the new covenant is the inner law of life. Jeremiah 31:33a says, "This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law within them and write it upon their hearts." This law is not an outward law but an inward law. In its essence, this law refers to the divine life, and the divine life is nothing less than the life-giving Spirit, the all-inclusive Christ, and the processed and consummated God. These three are one. The life-giving Spirit is the reality and realization of the all-inclusive Christ, and the all-inclusive Christ is the embodiment of the consummated God. Thus, this inner law, remaining in our being all the time, reminds us that the very processed and consummated Triune God — the Spirit, the Son, and the Father — is with us all the time. We may say that the law is with us. But this law is the divine life, and the divine life is the processed and consummated Triune God — the marvelous source as the Father, the wonderful element as the Son, and the excellent essence as the Spirit. This is the center, the content, and the reality of the new covenant.
As we consider the essence of the inner law of life, we see that this law has another aspect, that is, its function. This law functions. The function of the inner law refers to the divine capacity. In this law there is the divine capacity, and the divine capacity is almighty. This divine capacity can do everything in us for the fulfillment of God's purpose. There is not a positive thing concerning the carrying out of God's economy that this divine capacity is unable to do. According to its life, the law of the new covenant is the Triune God, and according to its function, it is the divine capacity.
The divine capacity of the inner law of life can live God. This capacity can also cause the believers in Christ to be constituted with God. Because the believers are constituted with God, they as a corporate people are God's expression. Although the believers are constituted with God, there is still a distinction between them and God. God remains God with the Godhead, and we, the believers, are made the same as God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. This means that except for the Godhead, we are exactly the same as God. Since we are the same as God in life and in nature, we become His increase, His enlargement, as His fullness to express Him. This is the highest aspect of the capacity of the inner law of life.
Another aspect of this capacity is related to the Body of Christ. In addition to causing us to be constituted with God, the capacity of the inner law constitutes us to be the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 5:30). This means that the divine life has the capacity to make us the Body of Christ. Furthermore, this capacity has all the abilities of all the functions of the Body. I hope that we all will be deeply impressed with the centrality and function of the inner law of life.
The central line of the divine revelation is to unveil God's economy with His dispensing. God's dispensing is simply to put Himself into us as the inner law of life. On the one hand, we have the divine life, which is the Triune God. On the other hand, we have the divine capacity. By this capacity we have the ability not only to know God but also to live God and even to be constituted with God. What a capacity! Furthermore, this capacity can constitute us to be the members of the Body of Christ, including all kinds of functions: those of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers — the joints of the rich supply — and those of every part of the Body that functions in its measure (Eph. 4:11, 16). In essence the inner law of life is God in Christ as the Spirit, and in function this law has the capacity to constitute us with God and to constitute us the members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions, all kinds of abilities. I am happy, and even excited, to see this law operating in the saints in the Lord's recovery. Hallelujah for this wonderful law of life!
