In the last chapter we have seen the three lives and four laws. Now we shall especially see the law of life, which is also the law of the Spirit of life mentioned in the last chapter. Of the four laws, only the law of life is the natural capability of the life of God, enabling us to live out the life of God quite naturally; therefore, if we want to touch the way of life, we must have clear knowledge concerning the law of life.
In the whole Bible, only the following five portions can be said to mention the law of life directly or indirectly:
A. Romans 8:2, “the law of the Spirit of life...”
The law of the Spirit of life mentioned here is the law of life. The Spirit, from which this law comes, contains life, or it may be said that it is life; therefore, the law is a law of the Spirit, and it is also the law of life.
B. Hebrews 8:10, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”
C. Hebrews 10:16, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws on their heart, and upon their mind also will I write them.”
The above two passages in Hebrews 8 and 10 mention firstly “put,” and then “write,” and both speak of the mind and the heart; thus, both speak of the same thing. They are quoted from Jeremiah 31:33.
D. Jeremiah 31:33, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
E. Ezekiel 36:25-28, “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them...and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
These few verses speak of at least five things: (1) cleansing with clean water, (2) giving us a new heart, (3) giving us a new spirit, (4) taking away our stony heart and giving us a heart of flesh, and (5) putting the Spirit of God within us. The result of these five combined together is that we are caused to walk in the statutes of God and to keep and do His ordinances. We shall be His people, and He shall be our God. This means that the Holy Spirit within us gives us new strength to do the will of God and to please God, so that God can be our God and we can be God’s people. Thus, the result mentioned here is the same as the result mentioned in Jeremiah 31:33.
If we wish to speak of the origin of the law of life, we must begin from regeneration, for regeneration is the receiving of God’s life into our spirit. Once we are regenerated, we have the life of God in our spirit; and once we have the life of God, we naturally have the law of life which comes from the life of God.
When speaking of regeneration, we must begin with the creation of man. When man was created by the hand of God, he had only a good and upright human life; he did not have the divine and eternal life of God. Yet when God created man, His central purpose was to blend His life into man, to be united with man, and to reach the goal of the oneness of God and man. Therefore, when God created man, in addition to the body and soul of man, He especially created a spirit for man. This spirit is the organ by which man receives the life of God. When we use this spirit to contact God, who is a Spirit, we then can receive His life and become united with Him, thus fulfilling the central purpose of God.
But before man received the life of God, he fell. The most essential factor of the fall of man was not just that it caused him to commit sin and offend God, but that it caused his spirit to become deadened, or that it brought death to the organ by which man receives the life of God. To say that the spirit is dead does not mean that the spirit is nonexistent, but that it has lost its function to fellowship with God and has become separated from God; thus, man could no longer fellowship with God. Henceforth, man was unable to use his spirit to contact God and thereby receive His life.
At this time, man had needs on two sides: on one hand, because of the fall, he needed God to deal with the sin he committed; on the other hand, he needed God even more to regenerate him by giving life to his dead spirit, so that he might receive God’s life and fulfill God’s central purpose in creating man.