Let us consider the life of Satan and the law of sin in greater detail. When Adam took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he took something of that tree into his body. From that moment, something was added into the body, causing it to become flesh. We must realize that there is a difference between the body and the flesh. The body was the original creation of God (Gen. 2:7a), whereas the flesh is the body with Satan added into it (Rom. 8:3; 6:6). When Satan entered man’s body with his satanic life, man’s body became sinful. Because we have the life of Satan, we have the law of sin in our body. Romans 6:6 speaks of “the body of sin.” Our body is called the body of sin because sin dwells in the body. Hence, our body is the flesh. Romans 8:3 refers to the body of sin, the flesh, as “the flesh of sin.” The expressions the body of sin and the flesh of sin both denote the same thing.
This body of sin always works through the soul. When the soul is living, active, and in motion, the body of sin works. When, however, the soulish life is put to death, the body of sin is made “jobless,” for there is nothing left for it to do. This is essentially what Paul says in Romans 6:6. When our old man, the life of which is the soul-life, is crucified, the body of sin is annulled. Hence, when the soul-life is killed, there is nothing for the body of sin to do. Sin is not in the soul; it is in the body. But the body of sin works through the soul. If therefore the soul-life is dead, the body of sin has no way to operate. The more living and active our soul-life is, the more actively the body of sin will operate.
Let us use an illustration. Since people use their body when they gamble, only when their soul-life is killed will their gambling bodies cease gambling. If those gamblers were stripped of their soul-life, the sinful members of their bodies would no longer be able to gamble. Those members would no longer have the soul-life as their “employer” and would therefore be “jobless.” Romans 6:7 says, “For he who has died is justified from sin.” Some translations render the word justified as “freed.” The gamblers’ bodies will never be able to be freed from gambling until their soul-life, the life of the old man, has been put to death. Only when their soul-life has been put to death will their gambling body, their body of sin, be jobless.
We all desire to be delivered from the law of sin, but we may not know how to experience this deliverance. The law of God is outside of us and is objective to us. Everyone who has been stirred up by the Holy Spirit has the intention to live and act according to the law of God. However, in dealing with the law of sin, if we mind the law of God and try to use the law of good in our mind to overcome the law of sin, we will experience much trouble. Instead of actually doing good, we will only be able to try to do good and will inevitably fail. In order to be delivered from the law of sin, we must forget about the law of God and give up the law of good in our mind. We must simply pay attention to the law of the Spirit of life and go along with it. As long as we continue to contact the law of life, remain in fellowship with the Lord, and stay in His presence, the law of life will operate within us. This law is the most powerful of the three laws that are within us. This law releases us and sets us free from the law of sin.
The law of good in our mind can be likened to a broken-down automobile. If we drive such a car, we will experience much trouble and encounter many problems. The law of the Spirit of life in our spirit, on the other hand, is like a jetliner. If a jetliner is available for our transportation, there is no reason for us to depend on the broken-down car. The law of the Spirit of life is powerful. Rather than focusing on the law of God or struggling to keep the law of good that is in our mind, we should simply remain in fellowship with God and go along with the law of the Spirit of life within. If we do this, we will be transcendent over the law of sin and will at last gain the victory. This is the simple way to victory.
We can illustrate these four laws in our experience in the following way. One item of the law is that we must love our brother (1 John 4:21; John 13:34). Let us say that two brothers meet each other. The first brother knows that according to the law of God he should love the other brother. Within him there is the law of good, which corresponds to the law of God outside of him. According to this inner law, he tries to do good, please God, and keep God’s commandments. Therefore, when this brother sees the second brother, the law of good within him responds to the law of God outside of him, and he tells the Lord that he will love his brother. It is at that very moment that he will experience the law of sin rising up within him to fight against his keeping the law of God. As a result, he will be unable to love the brother. Inevitably, the law of sin will capture this brother. Although he intends to love his neighbor and keep the commandment of God, the result of his intention is inevitable defeat and capture by the law of sin. Eventually, he may do something evil to his brother even though it is not only against God’s law but also against his own intention, desire, and the law of good within him. I believe that we have had similar experiences.
Implied in Paul’s thought in Romans 7 and 8 is the thought that we should forget about the law of God, give up on the law of good within ourselves, and simply remain in fellowship with the Lord, for only our fellowship and contact with Him in our spirit will allow the strongest law, the law of life, to operate. When we follow the law of the Spirit of life and align ourselves with the divine life, we will love our neighbors even without intending to do so. Our love for them will be the result of the divine life being lived out through us. In other words, the law of life within our spirit will strengthen and energize us to love others.
Let us consider another illustration. There was once a man who was very proud. One day he came to a preacher to talk about his problem of pride. The preacher, who knew about the law of God and the law of good but nothing about the law of the Spirit of life, advised the man in this way: “Try your best to be humble. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” This bit of advice scared the proud man because within him the law of good had already been operating as he attempted to be humble. Nevertheless, he took the preacher’s advice and prayed to the Lord, “Lord, I wish to be humble. Help me to be humble.” The result of his prayer should be clear to all of us. The more we pray in such a way, the more proud we will be. Despite our prayers we cannot help but be proud. As a result of our proud thoughts we may be full of regret and tell the Lord, “O Lord, I am very evil. No matter how hard I try, I simply cannot be humble.” The apostle Paul has solved this problem for us. He tells us to simply remain in fellowship with God so that the law of the Spirit of life can operate. We need to forget about the law of God, give up on the law of doing good, and realize the fact that the divine life is within us. God is so near and dear to us. We must simply keep in contact with Him as the living and powerful law of the Spirit of life within us. Once we align ourselves with this law, we will be full of rest and satisfaction and will be humble automatically and unconsciously. Even if people admire us for our humility, we will not be aware of the fact that we are humble. The cause of our being humble in such an automatic and unconscious way will not be an act on our part but the life of Christ being lived out through us by the energizing of the law of life. Such a living corresponds absolutely with the law of God and fulfills the requirement of the law of God perfectly (Rom. 8:4). If we follow the Holy Spirit, we will be in line with the law of life, and we will naturally and automatically fulfill the requirements of the law of God.
I ask you all to practice this. Forget about the law of God and give up the law of good. Instead, always keep in contact with the Lord and go along with the law of the Spirit of life that is in your spirit. Then you will have a daily living that perfectly corresponds to the law of God and absolutely fulfills all its requirements.