Now we need to consider the law of good in our mind, the law of sin in our members, and the law of life in our spirit. In the garden of Eden there were two trees—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. In these two trees we see good, evil, and life. With each of these there is a law: the law of good, the law of evil, and the law of life. We are a miniature garden of Eden because the triangular situation involving God, man, and Satan is now within us. Furthermore, the law of good, the law of evil, and the law of life are all in us.
As far as persons are concerned, there are just three beings in the universe: the divine person, God; the evil person, Satan; and the human person, man. Each of these persons has a life. The divine person has the divine life, the human person has the human life, and the evil person has the evil life. Our human life does not come merely from our parents; it comes from God’s creation. Our human life was created when Adam was created, not when we were born of our parents.
After his creation, man fell. At the time of the fall, an evil life was injected into man’s body. As we have pointed out, in the fall not only did man do something wrong, but something evil entered into him. For example, if a child drinks poison, not only does he do something wrong, but something gets into him. By the fall the evil life of Satan came into man’s body, and now this evil life is in our flesh. Therefore, everyone, no matter whether he is a gentleman or a robber, has the human life, which is good, and the satanic life, which is evil. This is the reason that people can be both good and evil, both kind and devilish. No one likes to do evil things. But within us there is a person with a life that likes to do evil. Therefore, Paul said, “For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil I do not will, this I practice” (7:19). This means that it is no longer we who do certain things; rather, it is an evil person with an evil life within us who does those things.
Every human being is not only a son of Adam, but also a child of the Devil. In John 8:44 the Lord Jesus told the Jews, “You are of your father the devil, and it is your will to do the desires of your father.” Everyone has two fathers, a human father and Satan as a father. One day after I had given a message on this matter in Shanghai, a brother asked me to stop saying that we are children of Satan. Telling him that this did not originate with me, I referred him to 1 John 3:10, which speaks of “the children of the devil.” Since we are children of the Devil, then certainly the Devil must be our father. This was the reason the Lord Jesus said that the Jews were of their father the Devil. Therefore, all fallen human beings have two fathers, each with a different life, the human father with the human life and Satan as their father with the satanic life.
Praise the Lord that our history does not stop with the creation and the fall! We have been saved and regenerated, born again. When Nicodemus thought that being born again was to enter into his mother’s womb and to be born, the Lord Jesus answered that to be born again is to be born of the Spirit: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Thus, to be born again means to be born of God (John 1:13). Hallelujah, a third person, even God Himself, has been born in us! With this divine person we have the divine life.
The first person, the human person, is our being, our self. This person is in our soul, which is represented by our mind. The life of this person is primarily in the mind. The second person, the satanic person, is in our body, that is, in our flesh. But praise the Lord that the third person, the divine person, is in our spirit! As we all know, man has three parts: a spirit, a soul, and a body. In our soul we have the human person, in our body we have the satanic person, and in our spirit we have the divine person. How wonderful!
Christians are complicated. When I was young, I was taught that believers have two natures, an old nature and a new nature. Later I learned that this understanding is not adequate. Every genuine Christian has three persons with three lives. God, Satan, and the self are all in us. Sometimes these three persons fight with one another. It is impossible for them to be in harmony or have any fellowship.