Now we need to discover from Romans 8 what are the elements within the law of the Spirit of life. Verse 2 indicates that both the Spirit and life are components or elements or ingredients of this law. “In Christ Jesus” is also another element. Paul was very specific in his writing here. He did not say “in Jesus” or “in Jesus Christ” or “in the Lord.” He said, “In Christ Jesus.” Some might argue that the phrase “in Christ Jesus” is not an adjective phrase modifying law but an adverbial phrase modifying freed. In a sense this is correct, but in the Greek it is difficult for the translators to say definitely whether such a phrase modifies the noun, law, or whether it works as an adverb to modify the verb, freed. Actually, there is no need to argue, because eventually it is the same thing. Eventually, it is in Christ Jesus. If the law is not in Christ Jesus, how could the law free you in Christ Jesus? If the law can do something for you in Christ Jesus, that means the law itself is in Christ Jesus.
Verse 3 also includes some marvelous elements contained in the law of the Spirit of life. First, the law even includes the element of dealing with impossibility. Impossibility is dealt with by the law. This means the impossibility of the law of letters. The law was impossible because it was weak through the flesh. So here is another element, the weakness through the flesh. Then there is the element of God, which is the biggest element in this verse. Also there is the Son of God and the likeness of the flesh. This is not only the incarnation, but a kind of form, or likeness, of the fallen flesh. Even the elements of sin and condemnation and sin condemned in the flesh are included here. Of course, some of these elements are positive, and some are negative. Some are dealing elements, and some are elements dealt with. Many elements are revealed in this chapter, but all of them are components of the law of the Spirit of life. Either on the positive side or on the negative side there are many items indicated and implied in this chapter. God is implied. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are implied. God’s creation and man’s fall are implied. Man’s flesh and sin are implied. Incarnation, death, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are implied. Even the interceding Spirit and interceding Christ are included. We have to realize these items and to know how this law works within us scientifically.
For example, as Christians we have realized that our flesh is very sinful and very bad. So after we were saved, we have been seeking how to overcome this bothering and entangling matter within us. We may have read a number of books telling us to do this and to do that to overcome. I tried many of these ways and eventually I found that none of them worked. Some have said that the way to deal with our flesh is by the cross. Since the flesh has been crucified, we need to reckon ourselves dead and to bear the cross. This means to remain on the cross. In The Imitation of Christ, the writer stresses bearing the cross. Madame Guyon also stressed the matter of the cross. She said we needed to kiss the cross. She said that God gives me the cross and the cross gives me God. Forty to forty-five years ago I practiced all these things, but I discovered they do not work. I found to bear the cross as taught in that book, The Imitation of Christ, is just to commit a kind of suicide. Even to “kiss the cross” is somewhat in the same category.
Then you may ask, What does work? The law in Romans 8 works. How does it work? It just works. When you let it work, it works. Then you would ask, How do you let it work? These kinds of questions are altogether from the fallen mentality, wanting to know how? how? how? The light from this chapter has not been seen for hundreds of years. Paul not only saw the light, but he wrote such a chapter. Although some may have experienced these things through the years, mostly they experienced them by accident. For example, electricity already existed before Thomas Edison discovered some of the laws related to it. But it existed mainly in the form of lightning, and it occurred accidentally. But eventually Thomas Edison and others discovered laws concerning electricity. If you keep those laws, it works. In like manner, some Christians in the past may have touched the law of the Spirit of life in a proper way, causing it to work. But this does not mean they had this law in their understanding. It came by way of accident, and it also went by way of accident. Paul was different; he saw the light. The law worked within Paul, not by accident, but by law.
We all have to contact the Lord, to fellowship with Him, to touch Him. Sometimes in the past we may have touched Him in an accidental way. Still we touched Him, and something happened. Through the centuries Christians who have experienced these things have encouraged us to have a time with God. But the problem is this: when we get in touch with God and with this law by spending some time with God, right away we make up our mind to do things, and then we are out of the touch with the Lord. In our prayer time we are in, but out of our prayer time we are out. The more you are in touch with the Lord without asking Him to do something for you, without deciding to do something for Him, without attempting to please Him, there will be a kind of automatic working within you to eliminate the sinful flesh. The negative things within you will be reduced and eliminated. It is not that you overcome something or that you kill something, but there is an automatic killing. While you remain in the touch with the Lord, the law of the Spirit of life works.
Sometimes certain “pious” Christians like James in the New Testament may say that we should not be hearers only but also doers. They would encourage us to pray that the Lord would help us to do what we have heard. I believe that most of us have prayed this kind of prayer. But do you realize such doers are committing a kind of spiritual suicide. In the Lord’s recovery you have been hearing a lot of things. Have you been doers? If you have been doing, mostly you have been committing a kind of suicide. You kill yourself, and you kill others. The more you like to be a doer, the more you become a killer. Forget about doing, but stay in touch with the Lord. There the law which has been installed into your being will automatically and scientifically work to kill all the germs and even to deal with that particular germ that you are bothered about. We all have experienced this kind of thing, but the problem is that we do not remain in this kind of touch with the Lord. The most spiritual person is the one who remains in the touch with the Lord the most.