They don’t realize that Satan also had his incarnation. In Genesis 3 he entered into humanity, into mankind. From that day, he became a law in man to work out many evil things. When you lie, do you need Satan’s inspiration? Or when you lie, do you need a demon to possess you? You don’t need to go to school to learn to lie or to steal. As long as you live, you simply lie. In a sense you are just an embodiment of a lie. In other words, you are just Satan. Because Satan has incarnated himself into mankind, making himself one with mankind, he became this law. Once he became this law within man, he could rest. He didn’t need to come to inspire someone to lie or to kill or to steal something. He has simply become such a law within man to do these things. Even as gravity is a powerful law outside of you, so there is a powerful law within you, the law of sin and of death. You have to realize this is just Satan, the incarnated Satan. In Romans 7 and 8 there is the hint that sin and the law of sin and death are interchangeable terms or synonyms. Sometimes, especially in chapter seven, it seems it should say the law of sin and of death, but it only says sin. Romans 7:20 says, “But if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that do it but sin that dwells in me.” Actually, it should say the law of sin. But in verse 23 it speaks of “the law of sin which is in my members.” This indicates that these terms, sin and the law of sin, are synonyms.
Now we come to the top of the high mountain—what is sin? What is the definition of sin? Before we answer this, I must point out in a simple way that the major function of the law of the Spirit of life is to free us from sin. Romans 1:1 to 5:11 deals with sins such as stealing, hatred, fornication, and other sinful things. These are not sin; these are sins. Then from 5:12, Romans begins to deal with sin. Verse 12 says that “sin entered into the world.” Sin came into the world in somewhat the same way that grace and truth came. According to John 1 the law was given, but grace came. Grace came with Jesus Christ. Then we may say that sin came with Satan. Of course, Romans doesn’t say this in a direct way, but according to the entire teaching of the Bible we may infer this. Sin came. Grace is just God for our enjoyment. In the same principle, sin is just Satan for our destruction. When grace came with the Lord Jesus, that was God coming to be our enjoyment, and the result was life. Satan came into us as sin for our destruction that we might have death. Death means destruction. Satan became sin in us, not outside of us, for our destruction that we may have death. Whatever fallen man does in the eyes of God is sin. Whether he gives a gift to someone, or whether he steals from someone, it is sin. Whatever the fallen human beings do is for sin and destruction. There is no life, just destruction. This is because Satan is in the fallen human nature. Satan in you is not merely a spirit. Satan in you is a law of sin and of death.
Even as death is versus life, so sin is versus the Spirit. God within us is the law of the Spirit of life, and Satan within us is the law of sin and of death. Sin is versus the Spirit, and death is versus life. Whatever you do as a fallen man, the result, the issue, is destruction and death.
Most Christians today have never received this kind of revelation. They think sin is simply to lose their temper or to hate people or to be jealous. They would never consider that their loving people by themselves might be sin. To be freed from the law of sin and of death is not merely to be freed from the so-called sinful things. It is to free you from the law and from a kind of life that works from within you not by activity but by law. There is also a positive life within us that works not by activity, but by the natural spiritual principles. This law frees us from that other law which also works according to set up principles. We need to see such a vision!
Because there is such a law which is called the law of sin and of death which is Satan himself incarnated to be the evil spirit dwelling within us, there is no possibility for the law of letters to be effectual. Let us read Romans 8:3: “For, the law being impossible in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Verse 1 says there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Verse 2 begins with the word “for” to tell us why there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. It is because the law of the Spirit of life has freed us from the law of sin and of death. Verse 3 then begins with another “for.” Verse 3 tells us why such a law came into us in verse 2. It is because something negative was there already. The law of the Spirit of life comes to us to free us because there is impossibility with the law. Verse 2 gives us the fact that there is a positive law working within us, and verse 3 explains to us why such a positive law has been given to us. It is because there is impossibility with the law. Does this mean that the law is bad? The law is not bad. According to chapter seven, the law is holy and the law is spiritual. Even the law is given by God. But there is the impossibility with the law because it was weak through the flesh.
The grammatical construction of this verse is very important. For example, we have to find out what the phrase, “in that,” modifies. Otherwise, we could not understand this verse adequately. The main clause in this sentence is “God...condemned sin in the flesh.” The subordinate clause is “the law being impossible.” We may consider the rest of the words and phrases as modifiers of these two clauses. These two clauses are then connected by the conjunction “for.” We need to spend more time to get into the proper grammatical understanding of this verse; otherwise, we cannot understand what this verse is talking about. Don’t think this is a small thing. Through the centuries this verse has puzzled people. Even Martin Luther made a mistake to say that the phrase “concerning sin” modifies “God condemned sin.” This means God condemned sin concerning sin. But some of the later writers such as Dean Alford corrected this mistake. They pointed out that this phrase “concerning sin” does not go with the last clause, but with the first clause, “God condemned.” In the next message we need to spend more time to get into this verse.