Let us read Hebrews 8:10 again: “I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them.” This verse shows the difference between the new covenant and the old. In the old covenant the law was placed outside of man and written on tables of stone. In the new covenant the law is put inside of man and inscribed upon his heart. That which was placed outside of man and written upon tables of stone must be of the letter (2 Cor. 3:6). In that case, what is the law that can be put inside of us and inscribed upon our hearts? And what is the nature of this law? From God’s Word we see that the law which can be imparted into us and inscribed upon the heart is not the law of letters, but the law of life. Not every law is necessarily of life, but every life must have a law. The law which God imparted into us comes from the life which God imparted into us. Since we have the life of God, we must also have the law of God’s life. God came into the world in His Son, and the Son of God enters into man through the Spirit. The Spirit causes man to have life. This life has its function in man, and this function is the law of life we are referring to here. In other words, this law of life comes from the Spirit. This is what is mentioned in Romans 8:2: “the law of the Spirit of life.” Note that this law is singular. In the old covenant there were many laws, but in the new covenant there is not the first law, the second, the third, and the last. In the new covenant there is only one law, the law of life. This is the new covenant.
Here we must point out that the nature of the law of life is that it has a spontaneous function. For example, your ears can spontaneously hear—there is no need to regulate them with effort. Likewise, with the eyes, there is no need to make special effort to regulate them. The eyes see spontaneously. With the tongue you need not use your strength to regulate it. When it tastes anything bad, you spontaneously spit it out; when it tastes anything good, you spontaneously swallow it. If the ears cannot hear, the eyes cannot see, and the tongue cannot taste properly, it is due either to some physical illness or the absence of life. What God has imparted into us is life, and this life has a law; God has not put some kind of regulations or letters into us, but something living. It is the law of life; it is something spontaneous.
The following example will illustrate the point. Suppose you say to a dead peach tree, “You should have green leaves, you should have pink flowers, and in due time you should bear peaches.” You may speak to it in this manner from the beginning of the year to the end, but you will be speaking in vain and asking in vain, for it is dead—it does not have life. If, however, your peach tree is living, you need not say anything. Spontaneously it will bud, grow leaves, blossom, and eventually bear fruit. This is the law of life. This law has its spontaneous function.
Since what God has imparted into us is life, the law of the life must also be there. It must have its spontaneous function. This law will spontaneously live out the life in us, and this life will naturally bring forth the content of this life through the law. Moreover, this life will manifest God’s wisdom and all that He is through this law. As long as we do not hinder it, it will spontaneously come forth.
Jeremiah 31:33 says, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it.” In order to understand what the inward parts are, we must consider the composition of the heart. The heart we are considering here is not the biological heart, but the heart referred to in the Scriptures and known in the experience of many who belong to the Lord. According to the scriptural record, the heart includes several parts. We shall now consider them one by one.
(1) The heart includes the conscience. We see this in Hebrews 10:22 which says, “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience....” First John 3:20 says, “If our heart condemns us....” To condemn is the function of the conscience, and we see from these verses that the conscience is within the system of the heart. For this reason we say that the heart includes the conscience.
(2) The heart includes the mind. In Matthew 9:4 we read: “Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts?” Mark 2:6 speaks of reasoning in the heart; Luke 1:51 speaks of the imagination of the heart; and Luke 24:38 of the questionings of the heart. Understanding also takes place in the heart (Matt. 13:15). Mary kept certain sayings and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19), and according to Hebrews 4:12, thoughts are in the heart. From these verses we can see clearly that the heart includes the mind.
(3) The heart includes the will. Acts 11:23 has this phrase: “with purpose of heart”; Romans 6:17 mentions having “obeyed out from the heart”; 2 Corinthians 9:7 says that one can purpose in his heart; and Hebrews 4:12 speaks of the “intents of the heart.” These verses show us clearly that the heart includes the will.
(4) The heart also includes the emotion. Genesis 45:26 says that “Jacob’s heart fainted.” Luke 24:32 says, “did not our heart burn within us?” John 14:1 says, “Let not your heart be troubled”; and in 16:22 it says, “your heart will rejoice.” These verses indicate clearly that the heart includes the emotion.
Although we dare not say that the conscience is the heart, that the mind is the heart, that the will is the heart, or that the emotion is the heart, we can say that the heart includes the conscience, the mind, the will, and the emotion. The heart controls the conscience, the mind, the will, and the emotion, and is the totality of these four aspects of our being. Later, when we mention the specific parts of the heart, we will refer to them as the conscience of the heart, the mind of the heart, the will of the heart, and the emotion of the heart.
From this we can see that the inward parts mentioned in Jeremiah 31:33 include at least the four parts of the heart: the conscience, the mind, the will, and the emotion.