Because the highest law, the law of the divine life, is operating within us, there is no need for us to strive to overcome negative things. Instead of striving, we should simply allow the law of life to work within us. However, we need to see that this law works only as the divine life grows.
Let us once again use a peach tree as an illustration. If for some reason a peach tree is not allowed to grow, the law of the peach tree will not work. But if the peach tree is watered and fertilized, it will grow, and as it grows, the law within it will work spontaneously. Through the working of the peach-tree law, the tree will automatically produce peaches.
The principle is the same with the working of the highest law, the law of the Spirit of life. The essence of this law is the Holy Spirit and the divine life. It is not the law of letters; it is the law of the Spirit. Likewise, it is not the law of knowledge; it is the law of life. Hence, this law is the law of the Spirit of life. Although this law is now within us, the operation of this law depends upon the growth of the divine life. How marvelous that we have such a law as the first of the divine provisions revealed in Romans 8!
Many of us who were Christians for years before we came into the church life in the Lord’s recovery can testify that we never heard that in the New Testament there is a law called the law of the Spirit of life and that this law is working within us. We need proper teaching regarding this law working in us. Furthermore, we need an unveiling, a disclosure, of the fact that within us as Christians there is such a divine, profound, and mysterious law.
If we had only doctrine and teachings and not the experience of the law of the Spirit of life working in us, then to us God’s salvation would become a religion or a system of ethics similar to the ethical teachings of Confucius. Confucius could teach ethics, but he could not impart into others the law of the Spirit of life. What we need is not ethical teachings, but the inward working of this divine law. Husbandmen and gardeners know that it is not necessary to teach plants and trees to grow. Living plants do not take “classes” and then after a period of time have a “graduation.” Instead of teaching plants and trees, gardeners fertilize them, water them, and kill the bugs that destroy them. Gardeners do anything necessary to protect the trees and help them grow. Then as the plants and trees grow, the law within them will work automatically.
When I came to this country, I began to tell the Lord’s people that we need the living Christ, not doctrine or theology. We need the divine life, and in this life there is the divine law. Our need today is not for more doctrine; our need is for the marvelous divine provision of the law of life. May we all realize that we have this divine law within us.
We can understand more concerning the working of the law of the divine life by considering how the natural law of the human life works in a baby. There is no need, for example, to teach an infant not to eat things that taste bitter. If something bitter is placed into a baby’s mouth, the baby will automatically try to spit it out. However, the baby will spontaneously drink what is pleasing to the taste. In either case, there is no need for teaching, for the human life in the baby operates automatically according to its law. In the physical life of a child is the law of human life. As soon as a child is born, this law begins to operate. The principle is the same with the divine life that we received through regeneration.
We have emphasized the fact that in the divine life there is a divine law and that this law works automatically. Suppose someone repents and believes in the Lord Jesus. The next day he may begin to realize that there is something living within him that does not agree with certain things. This new believer has not been taught to refrain from those things. But through regeneration he has received the divine life with the divine law, and this law is now working within him. As a result of the working of the divine law, this new believer has the feeling that he should no longer do certain things. This is the operation of the law of life on the negative side. On the positive side, this new believer can now receive the rich provisions of the divine life to live the Christian life. The law of life is the first provision in the divine life for us to live a proper daily Christian life.