The Spirit is the crucial element of the phrase “the law of the Spirit of life.” “The Spirit of life” means that the Spirit is life and that life is the Spirit. The Spirit being the consummated God means that the Spirit is of God. God Himself is also Spirit (John 4:24). The Spirit is the essence of God, and He is also the consummation of God.
The law of the Spirit of life is not a law in letters, like the Ten Commandments, regulating us concerning good and evil. The law of the Spirit of life is like a natural law in physics. If you throw something into the air, it will drop to the ground. This is the law of gravity. The law of gravity is not a commandment in letters but a natural force, a natural law, which operates according to a principle. Romans 8:2-3 has two kinds of laws. The first law in verse 2 is the natural law. The second law in verse 3 is the written law, the law of Moses. Because of the weakness of our flesh, the written law had no possibility of doing anything for us, but the law of the Spirit of life as a natural law is just the divine life.
The vegetable life, the animal life, and the human life all have their own law. A life does not only have a law; a life is a law. When a tree is small, it may be hard to discern what kind of tree it is. As a tree grows, the kind of tree that it is becomes manifest. The almond tree will bring forth almonds, and the peach tree will bring forth peaches. The growth, shape, and fruit of each of these two trees is regulated by its own law. The almond life or peach life is the law.
The Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God is a law. He is life, so He also is a law. In verse 2 the Spirit is first in significance, life is second, and the law is last. However, in Romans 8 when life is applied, the law is first. In Romans 8:2 “the law” is the subject of the sentence and “has freed” is the predicate. The law of the Spirit of life has freed us from the law of sin and of death. This is not the law of Moses but the strongest natural law. It is the strongest law, because it is not merely God but the processed Triune God.
Before His process in eternity past (John 1:1), God was “raw,” having only divinity. Through incarnation, the first step of His process, humanity was added to Him. After incarnation He is of two elements, divinity and humanity. Then He went to the cross and went through an all-inclusive death. The element of His death was then added to Him. Three days after His crucifixion, He entered into resurrection; thus, another element, resurrection, was also added to Him. Divinity, humanity, crucifixion, and resurrection all are the elements of the processed Triune God. As the “raw God,” He was life only to Himself, but as the processed God, the “cooked God,” He can be life to us. In resurrection He is the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed God to be life to us. This Spirit is called the Spirit of life. As the Spirit of life, He does not only have a law; He is a law. Today, it is this law that works in us.
The next crucial verse in Romans 8 is verse 10, which says, “And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of righteousness.” In this verse, Christ is mentioned instead of the Spirit because the consummated Spirit is actually Christ Himself. When this Christ who is the life-giving Spirit is in us, our spirit becomes life.
In the initial stage of salvation, the inmost part of our being, our spirit, is made life. The other parts of our being are not yet life. Romans 8:6, another crucial verse, says, “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” From our spirit, the Spirit who is life spreads into our mind whenever our mind is set on the spirit. Our daily condition should be that our mind is on the spirit. We must be such a people who always have our mind on nothing but the spirit. In order to live, we must have our mind on something. Our mind on the spirit is life. This is transformation.
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