Many Christians, on the other hand, believe in a God who is triune with three separate persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Actually, eventually, ultimately, and consummately they believe in three Gods. This is tritheism. For more than forty years we have been fighting for the truth concerning the Trinity. We believe in the Trinity while many of them believe something which actually is tritheism. We believe the Son is the Father, and the Son is also the Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one because God is Spirit. The very God in John 4:24 not only indicates the Father, but also indicates the Son and the Spirit. The entire God is Spirit: God the Father is Spirit, God the Son is Spirit, and God the Spirit is Spirit. All Three are the Spirit. Because all Three are Spirit, it is surely right to say that Jesus Christ is the Spirit. Some, because of their ignorance and blindness and darkness, have considered that this kind of teaching is heretical. But this is the pure Word of God.
Romans 8 reveals to us that God is triune. But these are not three Gods, but one. The God of many Christians today is triune in three separate persons as three Gods. They have not seen that the Triune God has gone through a process. They only consider that God the Father so loved the world and sent His Son to save the world. The Son came to be born in a manger to be a man. This Son died on the cross for our sins, He was resurrected, and today He is in the heavens on the throne with the Father. And the Spirit has been sent down to work on us as the Son’s representative. To their realization these are three Gods separate one from another. A well-known painting shows an old father sitting, a young son standing, and the spirit soaring in the air as a dove. This is the so-called Triune God of many Christians. In their consideration there are three separate and distinct persons. This kind of teaching is a kind of drug, and I am a little concerned that this drug may yet remain in your subconsciousness. I have the assurance that what we have been teaching concerning the Trinity is absolutely from the pure Word of God without a bit of the traditional leaven. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, according to the revelation of the Scriptures, are not separate as three Gods, but one unique God. Such a clear and complete and perfect revelation of the Triune God includes the process of incarnation and of His becoming the life-giving Spirit and includes the indwelling. All this is in Romans 8. This is the God in whom we believe.
How marvelous that this complete and perfect God has been installed into us. He is now indwelling us in our spirit, and Romans 8 also indicates He will spread into our mind, and eventually He will saturate our body.
As we have mentioned in previous messages, there are four layers of life in chapter eight. First of all there is the Spirit of life (8:2). This means that the divine Spirit of God is life. Then after Christ comes into our spirit, our spirit is life (8:10). When we set our mind on the spirit, our mind is life (8:6). When we coordinate or cooperate with the indwelling Spirit to put to death the practices of our body our body also is life (8:13).
The very God who is triune and who has been processed and who has become the indwelling Spirit is firstly installed into our spirit. Then from our spirit He spreads into our mind, and from our mind He eventually saturates our body. The very God installed into us is the law of the Spirit of life. Today this God does everything for us, not by activity, but always by law. Let me illustrate once again what it means to do things by law. Suppose electricity had never been installed into this building. When we need power we might cry and beg to the general manager and to the power plant for power. Because we need heat and light we beg for mercy that he would send these things to us. It might be that the general manager would hear our pitiful prayer and send some power and heat and light to us. This is by activities. Later we would need to repeat the same thing. But once electricity has been installed into this building and all the systems have been put in, the power plant gives us heat, cooling, power, light, sound, and so forth not by activity, but by law. Because it is by law, you don’t need to pray or to fast or to cry. That would be foolish.
As a Christian I’m afraid that you have done this kind of foolish crying many times. For example, after you were saved you wanted to be a nice husband. After I got saved I wanted to be the best husband—meek, gentle, nice, slow, with no temper, always smiling. Not only did I make up my mind to do these things, but I also prayed concerning these things. It is so strange that if I didn’t make up my mind, I might be able to be gentle and meek and nice for several days. But once I made up my mind and prayed concerning these things, right away after praying I might lose my temper. It seems there was no answer to my crying and praying.
Once electricity is installed, if you need power, you should simply go to the switch. If you need light, you should simply turn on the switch. This is not a miracle. This is just an operation by law. Sometimes in our earnest and yet foolish prayer, we accidently pushed the right button and for several days we were such a nice husband. But it was not consistent because we didn’t know the secret. Many saints discovered through the Scriptures that praying is the secret, but they didn’t have such a clear light as we have seen today. Today we don’t need to grope in the darkness. We don’t need to cry. We just need to walk according to the spirit. That means we set our mind upon the spirit. When we walk according to the spirit, many wonderful doings are going on within us by the law. That is God working within us.
Romans 8:2 says that the law of the Spirit of life has freed us from the law of sin and of death. Without chapter seven of Romans it would be difficult for us to know about the law of sin and of death. Chapter eight does not explain such a law. But we have to remember that chapter eight is a continuation of chapter seven. In chapter seven Paul had already explained the law of sin and of death. When he writes chapter eight he simply refers back to the law of sin and of death explained in chapter seven.