It is easy to move from death to life or from life to death. In other words it is difficult not to move from one realm to another. For example, we can just as easily switch on an electric light as we can switch it off. It is the same with death and life. We can switch on to the spirit and be in life, or we can switch off and be in death.
Electricity is an excellent illustration of the Spirit of life. Electricity is invisible and cannot be thoroughly understood. The Spirit of life is the same. In order for us to apply electricity, it must be first installed in our home, and then we need to use a switch. Thank the Lord that the divine Spirit as the heavenly electricity has been installed in our spirit. No matter how we feel, both the Spirit, that is, the divine electricity, and the switch are in our spirit.
Life is in our spirit, and death is in our flesh. When Adam was in the garden, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge were both outside of him. But today these two trees are within us, the tree of life in our spirit and the tree of death in our flesh. In the Bible the term “flesh” denotes not only our corrupted body but also our entire fallen being. For this reason, the Bible calls a fallen person flesh (Rom. 3:20).
Romans 8:6 says, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” To set our mind on what we are is to set it on the flesh. To set our mind on the flesh does not mean merely to set it on our body; it means to set it on our being, our self. For example, someone may feel that in the past he was evil and now he may endeavor to be good. This is to set the mind on the flesh, on the hopeless self. Some Christians think that if they set their mind on worldly entertainments, they are minding the flesh. Certainly to set the mind on such things is to set it on the flesh. But this is not the only way to mind the flesh. Even in making up your mind to love your wife, you are setting your mind on the flesh in a subtle way. When we are tempted to make up our mind to do good, we need to pray, “Lord Jesus, be merciful to me. I can do nothing apart from You.” By praying in this way, we set our mind on the spirit, not on our poor self.
Furthermore, we should not set our mind on what might happen in the future. Let us leave the future with the Lord. Suppose, after he had been called by God, Abraham had asked the Lord to tell him where he should go the next day. The Lord might have said, “Abraham, be at peace and enjoy Me. Leave tomorrow with Me.” To rest in the Lord today and leave tomorrow with Him is to set the mind on the spirit.
Because many Christians do not see this, they often admonish others or advise them as to what they should do. This encourages people to set their mind on the flesh, and the result is death. In my early ministry, I not only advised others but also admonished myself. As a result, I was killed and so were the others.
Praise the Lord that the God of life is in our spirit! Although we may know this, we still need to learn how to live by the indwelling life-giving Spirit. The important thing is not how much knowledge we have but how much we live by Christ.
Let me tell you a story that helps to illustrate this. When I was young, most people in my hometown still used oil lamps; they did not have electricity. As a child, I used to clean the lamps, fill them with oil, and light them. Even after electricity had been installed in our home, I was still in the habit of using an oil lamp. Sometimes the others laughed at me when I began to light a lamp and then reminded me to simply use the light switch. Although something new, electricity, had been installed, I was not yet in the habit of using it.
The principle is the same in the Christian life. We have been raised and trained to live by ourselves. This is our habit. Even after the Lord Jesus has been installed in us, we continue the habit of living by ourselves. However, we need to develop a new habit, the habit of living by Christ. Because many saved ones do not have this new habit, Romans 7 is necessary. We need to see a vision that Christ as life is living in our spirit. Because He lives in us, we must drop not only the sinful things but also our old way of living. We need to turn from living by ourselves to living by Christ. This requires that we stay in the spirit and walk according to the spirit.
As soon as we lose touch with the spirit, we are cut off from life and are immediately in death. There is no need for death to enter in. For example, as soon as we turn off the lights in a room, we are in darkness. There is no need for darkness to come in. Just as switching off the lights puts us in darkness, so being separated from the spirit brings us into death. Even a thin strip of insulation can cut off the flow of electricity. In like manner, even something small can cut us off from the life in our spirit. Because we are in a triangular situation involving God as life in our spirit and Satan as death in our flesh, we need to develop the habit of staying in the spirit. Instead of making up our mind to do good, we should simply turn to our spirit and stay there with the living One. This habit is not easily developed, but it can be done.
Romans 6:11 tells us to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. However, the experience of this is in the spirit in Romans 8. When we are in our spirit with the Lord, we are automatically dead to sin and alive to God. If you try this reckoning without being in the spirit, you will find that the more you reckon, the more you are in death.
We have seen that to be cut off from the spirit is to be in death. For example, the reason you lose your temper is that there is already some insulation between you and your spirit. It is not that you lose your temper and then are cut off from the spirit; it is that you are cut off from the spirit and therefore lose your temper. If there is no insulation around your spirit, no negative thing will be able to overcome you. On the contrary, the divine life in your spirit will swallow up all death. Our experience confirms this. When we are in the spirit, the divine life within swallows up every negative thing. But when we are insulated and thereby cut off from the spirit, we are in death and cannot handle even the smallest problem.
God’s economy is not a matter of good or evil, right or wrong. Moreover, it is not a matter of ethics. According to ethical standards, we should do good and not evil. God’s economy, however, is altogether a matter of life or death. To be in life is to live out God, and to be in death is to live out Satan. We are a battlefield, and the universal battle between God and Satan is raging within us. The outcome of this battle is determined by where we set our mind. If we set our mind on the self and thereby are cut off from the spirit, Satan gains ground. But if we stay in the spirit and set our mind on the spirit, God gains the victory.
This is precisely what is portrayed in 8:13, where Paul says, “For if you live according to flesh, you are about to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” By the indwelling Spirit we must put to death the deeds of the old person. To do this is to live. Let us pray about this, practice it, and develop the habit of staying in the spirit. The more we develop this habit, the more living we shall be and the further we shall be from death.