Romans 8:2 says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and of death.” In our experience, we may find that the law of the Spirit of life does not always work as effectively as Paul indicates in this verse. The reason for this is that we want the law of life to overcome certain things such as our temper, but we may not give the law of life opportunity to do whatever it chooses in us. Because we hate our temper, we want the law of life to overcome it. Therefore, we assign the law of life to do this task. But we should not assign the law of life to do specific things and then prevent this law from doing other things. On the contrary, we must give this law the opportunity to work in any way it desires. Although the law of the Spirit of life is one, it governs thousands of items. For example, it will govern the way we cut our hair and the way we live at home.
If we do not cooperate with the law of the Spirit of life within us, we shall immediately be deadened. Death is more ugly in the eyes of God than sin is. Death is abominable to God; He hates it. Gossiping may not be sinful, but because it is a matter that brings in death, it is abominable in the eyes of God. It is an insult to the living God. Day after day, we insult the living God who indwells us. Because so many Christians are deadened within, it is impossible for them to have continual experiences of life.
In order to experience life as the Spirit living in us, we need to come to the source of life, God, the Lord, under the cleansing of the redeeming blood of Christ with an open heart and spirit. If we remain open to Him all the time and are willing for all the insulation to be removed, the current of the divine electricity will flow within us. In this way we shall receive grace. As Hebrews 4:16 says, we should “come forward with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for timely help.” Grace comes from the throne of grace. Therefore, in order to have grace, we must contact the throne of grace. If we do this, grace will flow within us, and we shall be filled with grace. Eventually, grace will be active as the Spirit, and the Spirit will live in us as life. Then we shall reign in life over death.
The only thing that can subdue death is the uncreated life of God. Our life, the created life, cannot withstand death. However, death cannot hold the divine life signified by the Lord’s bones, which were not broken when He was on the cross. The fact that the soldiers did not break the Lord’s legs indicates that His uncreated life cannot be broken. Any form of created life, vegetable, animal, or human, can be damaged by death. But the unique uncreated life cannot be damaged by it.
Just as light swallows darkness, so the uncreated life swallows death. Darkness can only be overcome by light. We should not try to cast out darkness, but we should simply turn on the light. As soon as the light comes on, darkness vanishes. In the same principle, whenever the uncreated life comes in, death disappears. Death is afraid of the uncreated life. In order to reign in life, we need the abundance of grace and the living Spirit. As long as we have the divine life, every trace of death will vanish.
We should not try to overcome our temper, our shopping, nor our gossiping. Rather, we should simply open our being to God and allow His grace to flow through us and to fill us. This flowing grace will be active as the Spirit who will be life in us. This life will then subdue death and swallow it up. This is what it means to reign in life over death.