“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:2).
In this one verse two laws are mentioned. If we go back to Romans 7, we shall find two other laws, the law of good in the mind (v. 23) and the law of God (v. 25). Both the law of the Spirit of life and the law of sin and of death are mysterious.
To begin with, we know that the word law means not only commandments but also set-up principles. Gravity is a law, for example. So is the digestion of food. These are both laws of nature; they are not commandments. Paul uses the word law in both senses. When he speaks of the law of God in Romans 7:25, he is referring to Mosaic law, the Ten Commandments and all the ordinances. Exodus 20 gives us the Ten Commandments; the next three chapters list the ordinances. The ordinances are like small commandments; they with the Ten Commandments, which are the principles of God’s law, comprise what is called the law, not the law of nature, but the law of commandments.
The two laws in Romans 8:2 are not commandments but principles. These laws operate by nature. If we are human beings, born of parents of flesh and blood, certain laws operate within us, not by activities but by set-up principles. Paul referred to one of these laws in Romans 7:21: “I find then the law that, at my willing to do the good, the evil is present with me.” This law in our members is not a commandment but a principle. It is a law not of good but of evil.
While we are still very young, even before we start school, we spontaneously lie. No one commanded us to lie, but when the occasion arose, that is what we did. No one taught us to steal, but we helped ourselves to some candy. Then, when our mother asked if we had taken any, we quickly answered no. Was there a commandment, telling us to say no to our mother? We had no commandment; we were acting according to the law of evil within us. When we throw something into the air, we do not need to command it to come down; by itself it responds to the law of gravity and comes down. This is the way the law operates.
As those born of flesh and blood, we have the law of sin and of death operating in us. The blood is circulating in our body; even before my sentence is finished, the blood has already circulated a few times. Who commanded the blood to circulate? No one. The blood circulates according to a law of nature. So it is with the law of sin and of death.
But there is another law, a superior law! We have had a second birth. By the first birth we have the law of sin and of death. With the second birth we have the law of the Spirit of life. What a wonderful name this law has! It is not the law of good. It is not the law of ethics. It is not the law of morality. This law is the law of the Spirit of life.
What is meant by Spirit? What is meant by life? Both are mysteries. Spirit no doubt refers to the Spirit of God. Life must refer to the divine life.
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