Concerning the matter of life, Romans first says in 5:10 that we will be saved in the life of God’s Son, and in 5:17 it says that we will reign in life. Then in 6:4 it says that we have died and have been buried with Christ that we may walk in newness of life. Now life has become a living in newness. You can speak a great deal about death, burial, and resurrection, which are all mentioned in Romans 6, but they are all matters outside of you and have nothing to do with you unless you are in Christ’s life. It is only when you are in this life that death, burial, and resurrection can become your subjective experience. Therefore, many people have told others strongly, “You have died with Christ, you have been buried with Christ, and you have resurrected with Christ,” and they were able to make others understand these matters. Eventually, however, because what they taught were mere doctrines, those who listened to them did not experience death, burial, or resurrection. You need to bring people into Christ as life. Once they live in this life, then spontaneously they will die, be buried, and be resurrected. The reality of death, burial, and resurrection is in life. One must live in Christ as life to have the experience of death, burial, and resurrection in reality.
In chapter seven, once again the spirit is mentioned. It says that today we should serve the Lord in newness of spirit (v. 6). Chapter six mentions the newness of life, while chapter seven mentions the newness of spirit. These two chapters are a good match. Chapter six concerns our living, while chapter seven concerns our service. Our living should be in newness of life, while our service should be in newness of spirit. I hope, brothers and sisters, that you can remember these two kinds of newness: one is newness of life and the other is newness of spirit. Newness of spirit is for our service, whereas newness of life is for our living. There should be no oldness in either our service and in our living. Concerning our living, we should have the newness of life instead of the oldness of the flesh. Concerning our service, we should have the newness of spirit instead of the oldness of law and letter.
I strongly feel that the brothers who minister the word must see clearly that they need to speak more about these matters. They should release messages to show people what the oldness of the flesh, the newness of life in our living, the oldness of letter, and the newness in spirit in our service are. For example, a month ago a brother, while having fellowship with the Lord, may have touched the matter of humility under the enlightening of the Lord. That day when he came out from his fellowship with the Lord and went to contact people, the humility seen in him was his newness in life. However, one month has passed since then, and he has not learned anything new. It is the same humility every day. The humility he has this month is the same as the humility he had a month ago. Let me tell you, a month ago his humility was in newness of life, but today his humility is no longer in newness of life. To have newness in life, one must live daily in fellowship with the Lord. Only this kind of humility is in newness of life, as the manna that is new every day. Sometimes when you meet certain brothers and sisters, you feel that they are good and faultless, yet they look so old. It is true that they are humble, but they are old, and there is no freshness in them. This is because they do not live in life.
It is the same way with our service. Whenever we live in spirit, our service will be fresh. It is carried out not according to old rules or old practices.
Now we come to chapter eight. The utterance in this chapter is very interesting because it joins the Spirit and life together. Verse 2 says “the Spirit of life.” The Chinese Union Version renders this term into “the Spirit who gives life,” as if life and the Spirit are two entities. Actually it is not so. Life belongs to this Spirit, and this Spirit is a Spirit of life; the two are one. Life is the Spirit, and the Spirit is life.
Prior to chapter five, the book of Romans tells us that Christ is our Redeemer; in other words, Christ is our redemption. Then in the last half of chapter five it shows us that this Christ who became our redemption is our life. Now in chapter eight it shows us this life is the Spirit. Therefore, this book still follows the basic thought of the four Gospels. This Christ who came to be our redemption is our life, and in the end this life is the Spirit. This can be proven when we read on from 8:2. Verses 9 to 11 clearly show us that this Spirit who dwells in us is Christ Himself. Therefore, after all, like the Gospel of John, the book of Romans speaks about the story of the Spirit entering into man’s spirit. I say again, this is the essence, the life, the soul, of Romans. Ultimately, Romans shows us that the Christ on the cross has become the Christ in us, that the objective Christ has become the subjective Christ, and that the Christ who accomplished redemption and who became our Savior has come into us as the Spirit of life.
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