This again brings us to the law of life. In the previous message we pointed out that the law of life is just Christ Himself. The Christ who indwells our spirit is our life. What then is the law of life? It is life functioning. A law is an unchanging, automatic regulation. Whenever you throw an object into the air, the object will fall to the ground. This is the law of gravity which is an unchanging, automatic law.
Every life has its own law. I have often used the illustration of a peach tree. If you have a peach tree in your back yard, there is no need for you to worry that it might bring forth watermelons, or to say, “I love the form and beauty of peaches. I don’t want this tree to bring forth melons. Since I’m concerned that the fruit of this tree might not have the form of a peach, I’ll make some peach molds, put them on the branches of the tree, and command the tree to fit into this pattern and not to change its form.” To do this would be ridiculous. But this is exactly what Christianity does. The ministers and teachers in Christianity make molds, put them on people, and charge them to live in a certain way. This is foolish. If you did this to a peach tree and the peach tree could talk, it would say, “Take your molds away from me. I don’t need any outward regulations. I have a living regulation by which I grow and bring forth fruit in the shape of peaches. The life will form the shape of the fruit.” This is a law. Every year the peach tree produces fruit with a peach shape. The same is true of an apple tree. The apple life has the apple law. As an apple tree grows, it spontaneously produces fruit in the shape of apples. This is the result of the regulation of the law in the life of an apple tree. This matter, however, is missed by Christianity.
Both in Jeremiah 31:33 and 34 and in Hebrews 8:10 and 11 we are told that we do not need anyone to teach us. If you would attempt to teach a peach tree to bring forth peaches, the tree would say, “No one is as stupid as you are. You can’t teach me. Besides, I don’t need your teaching.” Since coming to this country, especially during the first two years I was here, I told people wherever I went that they did not need to be taught. I said, “You don’t need teaching because you have life in you, and life needs no teaching.” Tell me, who taught you to breathe? Did you attend a breathing school and graduate from it? No mother teaches her children to breathe, for breathing is a matter of life. In like manner, no one instructs an apple tree to bring forth apples, because producing apples is the function of the life of an apple tree. When the apple tree functions, apples are produced. During my first two years in this country, I was burdened to tell people wherever I went that they should drop their teachings and let life work. Without one exception, I was rejected in every place. Many came to me with their Bibles, saying, “Brother Lee, in your message you said that we don’t need any teaching. Isn’t the word teaching found in the Scriptures?” I did not care to argue with them. I simply said, “If you like teaching, you may have it. But I don’t like teaching—I like life. Praise the Lord that I have life and that life is growing within me. If you like the teaching, go to the dead letters.” In some places I even boldly told people, “You are as dead as a door nail. The teachings have killed you. Because you are filled to the brim with teachings, you are dead.”
We have seen that Christ is in us. This Christ equals life, and this life has its law of life. Thus, within us, we have Christ, the life, and the law. The very Christ who indwells our spirit is life, and this life has a law. In Jeremiah 31:33 the Lord says, “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts.” But Hebrews 8:10, which is a quotation of Jeremiah 31:33, says, “I will impart my laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them.” Notice that the law in Jeremiah 31:33 becomes the laws in Hebrews 8:10. Furthermore, in 8:10 the word mind is used instead of inward parts, indicating that the mind is one of the inward parts. The inward parts include at least the mind, the emotion, and the will. What is the reason for these changes? Jeremiah 31:33 and Hebrews 8:10 say that God imparts His law, or laws, into either our inward parts or our minds, and that He inscribes His law, or laws, upon our heart. The heart is composed of the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience. Hebrews 8:10 does not say that God imparts His laws into our hearts and inscribes them on our mind. No, it says that God imparts His laws into our mind and inscribes them on our hearts. This means that Christ has firstly come into our spirit. This Christ is the law which must spread into our mind. The spreading of the indwelling law into our mind is the imparting of this law into our inward parts. This law must also spread into our emotion and will. By spreading into our inward parts, the one law becomes many laws. Whenever we give this law the opportunity, it will spread within us. This spreading is the imparting, and the imparting is the inscribing. Thus, the Lord imparts His law into our inward parts and inscribes it on our hearts. As the Lord continues to spread, impart, and inscribe, Christ’s image will be expressed in our soul, and we shall be conformed to the image of God’s Firstborn Son.