Jeremiah 31:33 is a most basic verse in the Scriptures: “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law in their inward parts and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” In order to have God as our God and to be a people to God, we must realize and understand the matter of law, because it is based on law that God is God to us and we are a people to God. If we are not clear about this matter, the relationship between us and God cannot be right as God requires. Therefore, we must understand the law that God puts in our inward parts and writes in our hearts.
Jeremiah 31:33 is quoted twice in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 8:10 says, “For this is the covenant which I will covenant with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will inscribe them; and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to Me.” In Jeremiah’s prophecy law is singular, but here in the quotation it becomes laws. In other words, when this law was prophesied in the Old Testament time, it was one law, but when this law is applied in the New Testament time, it becomes a number of laws. This is because although the law is one, when we apply it to our experience, it becomes several laws by spreading into our various inward parts. Also, in the quotation here the word mind is used instead of inward parts in Jeremiah’s prophecy, proving that the mind is one of the inward parts. This quotation in Hebrews also says that first God will impart His laws into our mind, and then He will inscribe them upon our hearts. Hebrews 10:16, a second quotation of Jeremiah’s prophecy, says, “This is the covenant which I will covenant with them after those days, says the Lord: I will impart My laws upon their hearts, and upon their mind I will inscribe them.” In this verse the heart is mentioned first and the mind second. Therefore, by comparing the one prophecy in Jeremiah 31:33 and the two quotations in Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16, we can see at least three changes. First, lawis changed to laws; second, inward parts is changed to mind; and third, in 8:10 the mind is first and the heart is second, but in 10:16 the heart is first and the mind is second. Moreover, both the prophecy and the two quotations indicate that first the law must be put into us, and then it must be written on us.
These three verses tell us that the relationship between God and us is based on the matter of law. For us, the New Testament believers, the law is not the law of letters written outside of us on stone tablets; rather, it is a law that is put into us and written on our hearts. Since this law is something put into our inward parts and written on our hearts, this law must be something of life and in the Spirit. If not, how could this law be put into our inward parts and written on our hearts? Hence, this law must be the law of life. Today the relationship between God and us is based on this inward law of life in the Spirit.
In Romans 8:2 this law is clearly mentioned as “the law of the Spirit of life.” The law, the Spirit, and life, composed together, are the law of the Spirit of life. This is the law prophesied by Jeremiah and referred to by the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews. This law is the law of the Spirit of life so that it can be put into our inward parts and written on our hearts. Furthermore, this law is also “in Christ Jesus.”
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is not simple, for it involves five items: the law, the Spirit, life, Christ, and Jesus. These five items are very profound. In order to understand them and then to minister them, we must spend much time to look into the relevant passages in the Scriptures. The first question we need to ask is, What is Christ Jesus? When the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, says, “The law of the Spirit of life...in Christ Jesus,” his emphasis is on what Christ Jesus is, that is, on His person, rather than on what He does. Therefore, we need to know what Christ Jesus is.
Christ Jesus is the God-man; He is the Triune God mingled with man. We know that Christ is the Son of God (John 20:31). However, in Isaiah 9:6 we are clearly told that the Son is called Eternal Father. Thus, the Son is the Father. Then in 2 Corinthians 3:17 we are also clearly told that the Lord (4:5), who is the Son of God, is the Spirit. From these verses we see that the Son is called the Father and that the Son, who is the Lord, is the Spirit. These are the three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—of the one God. Furthermore, God is Spirit (John 4:24). Hence, the Spirit is the substance, the essence, of God, and the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the persons of this one God.
One day the Son was incarnated to be a man, and He lived and walked on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. Eventually, He was crucified on the cross, and after three days He was raised from the dead both spiritually and physically. He showed His disciples His hands and feet, indicating that after His resurrection He still bears a physical body with flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). Forty days later He was taken up; He ascended to the third heaven before the eyes of the disciples, and from that time until He comes back, He is in heaven with the human nature and the human body (Acts 1:9-11). We can be certain of this because Stephen saw Him as the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God in the heavens (7:56), indicating that He is still there as a man. Moreover, the Scriptures tell us clearly that when He comes back, He will still be the Son of Man (Matt. 26:64). This shows clearly that the Triune God was incarnated as a man and mingled with man, and He will remain a God-man forever. Therefore, today He is different from what He was before the incarnation. Before the incarnation He was merely the Triune God in His divinity, but after the incarnation He is the Triune God mingled with man. From the time of His incarnation He has never been separated from man. Now He is the Triune God-man.
After the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the Triune God-man came down on the day of Pentecost to present Himself to us that we may receive and accept Him as our Savior, our Lord, our God, our life, and our everything. However, although we may have received Him years ago, we may not have realized that this One who is the Savior, the Lord, and God, and who is life and everything to us, is not only the Triune God but also a man. He still has the experiences of man, the nature of man, and the body of man. The teachings of the modernists, who say that Christ never resurrected, are devilish, and we must have nothing to do with them. The Bible tells us clearly that Christ died, and three days later He resurrected from the dead, both spiritually and physically (1 Cor. 15:3-4). Today He is still a man. He is the Triune God as well as a man, and He will be such for eternity. This is the very Savior in whom we believe and whom we have received.