In this lesson we want to see the sense of the spirit and knowing the spirit. The spirit here refers to our spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God, so it is the mingled spirit. We again want to refer to Romans 8:2 and 6. Verse 2 speaks of the law of the Spirit of life, and verse 6 says that the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.
In these two verses there are four main things we need to pay attention to. In verse 2 we have to pay attention to the words "life" and "law." Then in verse 6 we have to pay attention to the words "peace" and "death." In order to know the sense of the spirit, we must know these four things: law, life, peace, and death. Actually, the sense of the spirit is realized through these four things.
We saw in the previous lesson that "the Spirit of life" actually means that the Spirit is life. What is life? Life is the Spirit, so the Spirit is called the Spirit of life. This life is not our physical life or our soulish life but the very divine life, the life of God, the eternal, uncreated life, which has been imparted into our spirit to be our life.
Within every genuine Christian there are three lives: the physical life, the psychological life, and the spiritual, divine life. Three different Greek words are used for these three lives: bios—the physical life, psuche—the soulish life, and zoe—the spiritual life. What we are talking about in these lessons is zoe, which is the divine life, the eternal life, the life of God, becoming our spiritual life. This life is the Spirit of God Himself.
We have to stress here that the life we are talking about is the content of the Spirit, and the Spirit belongs to this life. Many Christians consider eternal life as a kind of eternal, blessed situation or environment. To them it is a place where they will go to enjoy good things for eternity. This is absolutely wrong. We must stress that the divine life is a person, who is the very Spirit Himself.
When many refer to life, they do not know that there are three different Greek words for life. They think that life refers to our life. Among many Christians the matter of life is very ambiguous. The Gospel of John says that when we believe into the Lord Jesus, we receive eternal life (3:16, 36a). This life is a person, and this person today is the Spirit. Life is the content of this person, and this person belongs to this life.
Here we need to use Romans 8:6b, which says that the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. This indicates that the Spirit is the source of life, and life is the issue of the Spirit. In other words, this life is altogether one with the Spirit. This life cannot be separated from the Spirit. The Spirit is the container and this life is the content; the Spirit is the source and this life is the issue.