One of the biggest steps of the divine process is resurrection. This chapter stresses resurrection very much. Let us read verse 11: “But if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from among the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ Jesus from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who indwells you.” Here it mentions the Spirit of the Resurrector, not the Spirit of the Creator. In Genesis 1 the Spirit was the Spirit of the Creator, but in Romans 8 the Spirit is the Spirit of the Resurrector. He resurrected Jesus, the One who became flesh and who died on the cross. He was resurrected from among the dead by the very God who is now the Resurrector. He is not merely the creating One, but the resurrecting One. And His Spirit, the Spirit of this resurrecting One, dwells in you. If He dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from among the dead will also give life to your mortal body through His Spirit who indwells you. This verse stresses the resurrecting God, not the creating God. So resurrection is here, and no doubt between incarnation and resurrection, crucifixion is also included. Since Jesus was resurrected from among the dead, it means crucifixion was there. The Lord Jesus entered into crucifixion, yet He came out of that, not by Himself but by the resurrecting God. God raised Him from among the dead. So there is incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.
If you go on to the end of chapter eight, you have the ascension. This resurrected One today is at the right hand of God in the heavens (v. 34). Why did Paul write chapter eight in this way? It is because he likes to bring in all these aspects to let us know that in Romans 8 God is not so simple. He is no longer merely God without being processed. No, He is now rather the very God processed through incarnation, through crucifixion, through resurrection, and now into ascension.
Not only can you see the steps of this process, you can also see the different persons in this process. First, the chapter says, “the Spirit of God”; then it says, “the Spirit of Christ”; then it says, “Christ in you.” Finally, it also says that the Spirit who is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ and Christ Himself now indwells you. You have to see all these complications. Romans 8 is altogether not a simple chapter. It is a compound chapter. It is not easy to read this chapter with a proper understanding because you need more spiritual vocabulary, and you need more spiritual experiences. If you don’t have the experiences, you don’t have the new words. You don’t have the vocabulary. So when you read, you cannot get into this chapter. This is why this chapter has remained somewhat closed for centuries. Christians could only touch it a little bit because they had a limited vocabulary. They could understand it only to a certain extent.
But by the Lord’s mercy, in these meetings many things have been dug out of Romans. We see that the law of the Spirit of life is just God Himself, and not merely God without a process, but God who has gone through a complicated process. Now He is not merely God, and neither is He merely the Spirit. He is no more merely the Son of God. Today He is the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit of Christ. And He is Christ. Furthermore, He is the indwelling Christ. You need to see this! Such a God, a processed God, a processed Triune God being God Himself, being the Spirit, being Christ, being the One indwelling you, is the law. He Himself is the law. Such a One in Romans 8 is no more a photo, a picture. He is a living Person. He’s not just the living God in Genesis 1, but the living God in Romans 8 after being processed. All of the Trinity is here. Such a One is this law. The first law is a picture of God, but the fourth law is not a picture, but is His very being. It is not His original being, but His processed being. What is the difference between the original God in Genesis and the processed God in Romans 8? The difference is too big! In the original God, there was no human nature, no crucifixion, no victory, no condemnation on the Devil. But in this processed God a lot of things are included which were not in the original God. Now all the ingredients are in the processed God, and such a God is the very law within you.
The law is such a God. Such a God has entered us and has become not only our life but our law. An apple tree has a life, and the life is the law of the apple tree. We do have this processed God in us as our life, and this life is the law. The law of the Spirit of life is the Spirit and is life. It doesn’t mean that the law is one thing and that the Spirit is another thing and that the life is still another thing. Many times we have illustrated with the current of electricity. The current of electricity is just electricity itself. You cannot have something as the current and another thing as the electricity. No! These two are one thing. In like manner, the law is the Spirit and the law is life. And the law is God, the processed God. Have you ever considered who is the Spirit who indwells you? The Spirit who indwells you is just the processed Triune God. Some have opposed our saying that Christ is the Spirit, saying that this messes up the glorified Person of the Lord Jesus who is the Son of God. But I would say, even in a stronger way, that Christ is not only the Spirit, but He is the Spirit as the Triune God. This Spirit is indwelling you. He is God. He is man. He is the Father. He is the Son. He is the Spirit. He has within Him the human nature and crucifixion and resurrection and ascension and the defeat of Satan and the condemnation of sin! Such a One is now indwelling you! This is the law that is right in you. But today the poor Christians don’t apply this law. They have this law within them but they don’t realize it, and they don’t apply it. They don’t use it. Instead they are praying for other things. This is foolish! Now you can see why, in Romans 8, Paul’s writing is altogether not simple. It is compound and complicated. In a sense Paul covered nearly all the crucial matters in the whole Bible in this one chapter. Isn’t this wonderful? How then can this chapter be simple? It is impossible! I believe now you can see that the law in Romans 8 is just God Himself, and this God is no longer merely the creating God. He is now the all-inclusive processed God.