In the previous chapter we saw that Jeremiah 31:33 speaks of one law, whereas Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16 speak of many laws. We also saw that Jeremiah says that God will put His law into our inward parts and write His law in our hearts. Therefore, in this chapter we will address two questions: Why does the one law become the many laws, and why does the Lord speak of both putting and writing? These questions and their answers have much to do with our experiences as Christians.
When we were regenerated, the Lord Jesus came into us as the law of life. Because both the Lord and the law of life are life (John 11:25; Col. 3:4), we can say that the Lord Himself is the law of life. When Christ came into us, the law of life was put into us. We now have the law of life within us. Now as regenerated ones, we need the law to be written into our inward parts in our daily, moment-by-moment Christian experiences. While it is true that the law of life was put into us at the time of our regeneration, if we do not have the proper experiences, we will not have the law of life written into us.
When the law was put into us at our regeneration, it was merely one law. However, when we experience this law in our Christian life, it becomes laws. Although there is only one law of life, this one law has many aspects, or items. Every characteristic of God’s character and nature is an item of this law. This is true also with the Old Testament law. On the one hand, there was the law as a whole; on the other hand, this one law was itemized into ten commandments, or laws. Hence, the one law of Moses consisted of ten laws. When the law was given, it was given as the law. However, the children of Israel experienced this one law item by item, that is, as laws. It is the same with us. In our experience, the one law of life becomes many laws. When we were regenerated, Christ came into us as life, which life is the law. This was our experience of the law being put into us. When we began to experience this law following our regeneration, we found that this law has many items, including holiness, righteousness, love, faithfulness, and patience. As we have more and more experiences, the law that was put into us at regeneration is gradually written into us item by item. The word write in Jeremiah 31:33 is rendered inscribe in Hebrews. This means that as we experience this divine law, all of its items are worked into our being in an intrinsic way. Through this process of inscribing, something of God’s character is mingled with and even woven into our character. This is what it means for the law of life with its many laws to be written into us.
In the prophecy of Jeremiah the law was singular in number. However, when the writer of Hebrews speaks of the law in our experience, he describes it as being plural in number. In Jeremiah the law of life was prophesied, but only in the New Testament age is it experienced. In this experience, the one law becomes many laws. If we go along with this law when it regulates us with regard to the holiness of God, the holiness of God will be woven into our being. Similarly, if we cooperate with this law when it regulates us with respect to God’s righteousness, the justice and righteousness of God will be mingled with our character. Then our character, being, and inward parts (our mind, emotion, and will) will be transformed not only in appearance but also in nature.
God in Christ as the Spirit is life to us. This means that the very Triune God is life to us. This Triune God, who is life to us, works within us as a law. The main function of law is to regulate people. When someone is without law, they are without regulation or ruling. On the other hand, when someone is lawful, that is an indication that they are regulated and ruled by law. The law of life works constantly within us, regulating us tenderly, softly, delicately, and subtly, but by no means weakly. If we love the Lord, we will be willing to go along with this regulating and yield to God. The way to yield to God is to go along with the inner regulating. If we do not go along with the inner regulating, this indicates that our yielding to the Lord is not genuine.
By going along with the regulating of the law of life and yielding to God, we will experience Christ as life and grow in life. Not only so, our cooperating with the law of life will cause us to increase in function. The more we cooperate and grow in life, the more our function will be manifested. The manifestation of our function depends upon our growth. We see this in the physical realm. The more a child grows, the more his or her function is manifested. We cannot reasonably expect a child of two years to have a mature human function because he or she has not had enough growth in the physical life. Both our growth and the manifestation of our spiritual function thus depend upon our cooperation with the inner regulating. Be assured that if you do not go along with this inner regulating, although you may attend the meetings, pray frequently, read the Scriptures, and accumulate much Christian knowledge, you will not grow in the spiritual life. You may have many things, but you will not have the growth in life. The growth in life depends absolutely upon our going along with the inner regulation of the Triune God within us as the law of life.
Suppose that I am a man who likes to joke. Even though joking is not sinful or evil, the inner law will surely regulate me from joking. However, because I know that joking is not sinful, it is very easy for me to neglect the inward regulating. If this is my case, I must be assured that my growth in life will be very limited. If I take care of the sense and feeling of the inner regulating whenever I try to joke, I will have to stop joking. As a result of my obedience, I will have much growth in life.
The standard of the inner regulating is much higher than the standard of good and evil. Generally speaking, we Christians do not take care of the inner regulating. Instead, we take care of the standard of good and evil. According to our way of thinking, while we may not speak lies because speaking lies is evil, we are quite comfortable joking because joking is not evil. What is the standard of our daily living? Most of us must admit that the standard we use for our daily living is that of good and evil. We simply take care of the standard of good and evil and pay little attention to the inner regulating of the law of life. As long as a thing is good, regardless of how the law of life is regulating inwardly, we do it. This proves that we live and walk according to the standard of good and evil instead of according to the inner regulating of the law of life; instead of living by the tree of life, we actually live according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
I must testify that in my experience, the reason I do not speak lies is not because speaking lies is evil; I do not speak lies because the inner regulating does not allow me to do so. I do not care about the standard of good and evil. Rather, I pay full attention to the inner regulation. There is a big difference between these two things. If we can differentiate between these two things, we will know the way to experience Christ as life. Conversely, if we do not know the difference between good and evil and the inner regulation of the law of life, we will not know how to experience Christ as life. We may know how to differentiate between good and evil, but we may not know how to experience Christ as our life. The experience of Christ as our life is not in the knowledge of good and evil; it is in the inner regulation of the law of life.
We can illustrate the experience of the inner regulation with a brother getting his hair cut. Let us say that he wants to have his hair cut like a movie star. Even though such a haircut is not evil, if he does not experience the inward regulating within him, that is probably an indication that he is not regenerated. If he is really regenerated by God and has the Triune God within him as his life, there will be some inward regulation that restricts him from getting such a haircut. This inward regulation is not the knowledge of good and evil. Rather, it is one of the many items of the one law of life—the holiness of God. To get such a worldly haircut is against the holy, sanctified, and separated nature of God. If we go along with the inner regulating, there will be many things that, quite apart from the standard of good and evil, we will not be allowed to do. The inner regulating is the working of the divine life according to God’s divine characteristics. As such, it is altogether higher and deeper than the standard of good and evil.
If you live and walk merely according to the standard of good and evil, at most you will be a good man; you will never be able to be transformed into a God-man. A good man is quite different from a God-man. A God-man is a man who has God living within him and regulating him as life. A God-man takes care of this inward regulating. The more he take cares of it, the more he is transformed by God into a God-man. There are many good men in this world, but we Christians were not called by God to be good men; God predestinated us to be God-men. We become God-men by allowing God to live within us, by allowing Him to regulate us all the time, and by going along with His inner regulating. Only in this way will we be transformed.