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While we remain in touch with the Lord, staying in contact with Him, the law of life, the law of the Spirit of life, works automatically, spontaneously, and effortlessly—Phil. 2:12-13; Rom. 8:2, 4, 6, 13-16, 23; 1 Thes. 5:16-18:
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We must cease from our own struggling and striving—Gal. 2:20a; cf. Rom. 7:15-20:
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If we have not seen that sin is a law and that our will can never overcome this law, we are trapped in Romans 7; we will never arrive at Romans 8.
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Paul willed again and again, but the result was only repeated failure; the best that a man can do is to make resolutions—7:18.
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When sin is dormant within us, it is merely sin, but when it is aroused in us by our willing to do the good, it becomes “the evil”—v. 21.
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Instead of willing, we should set our mind on the spirit and walk according to the spirit—8:6, 4; Phil. 2:13.
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We must cooperate with the indwelling, installed, automatic, and inner operating God as the law of the Spirit of life by prayer and by having a spirit of dependence, calling upon the Lord and pray-reading His Word in order to maintain our fellowship with Him—Rom. 10:12-13; 1 Thes. 5:17; Eph. 6:17-18:
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The secret of experiencing Christ as the law of life is to be in Him, the One who empowers us to do all things, and the secret of being in Him is to be in our spirit—Phil. 4:13, 23.
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In order to live in our spirit, we must take time to behold the Lord, praying to fellowship with Jesus to bathe in His countenance, to be saturated with His beauty, and to radiate His excellence—2 Cor. 3:16, 18; cf. Matt. 14:23.
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The function of the law of life requires the growth in life, for the law of life functions only as it grows—Mark 4:3, 14, 26-29:
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Christ’s intercession on the throne motivates the life seed that He sowed into us at the time of resurrection—Heb. 7:25; Rom. 8:34.
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The firstborn Son is interceding for us so that the life He has sown into our spirit may be motivated to grow, develop, and saturate all our inward parts, until we are completely permeated with His glorified and uplifted being.
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While the divine life grows in us, the law of life functions to shape us, to conform us, to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God so that we may become His corporate expression; the law of life does not regulate us from doing wrong; it regulates the shape of life—vv. 2, 29:
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The indwelling prototype, the firstborn Son of God, automatically works in us as the law of life to conform us to His image, to “sonize” us; the Lord is working desperately to make every one of us the same as the firstborn Son.
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God’s way to mass reproduce this prototype is to work His living prototype, the firstborn Son, into our entire being; if we cooperate with and open up to this wonderful prototype, He will spread outward from our spirit into our soul.
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The firstborn Son is the prototype, the standard model, for the mass reproduction of the many sons of God, who are His many brothers to constitute His Body as the new man for the corporate reproduction and expression of the standard model, the firstborn Son of God—v. 29.
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The law of life does not primarily function in the negative sense of telling us what not to do; rather, while life grows, the law of life functions in the positive sense of shaping us, that is, conforming us to the image of Christ; through the function of the law of life, we all will become the mature sons of God, and God will have His universal, corporate expression.
Morning Nourishment
Rom. 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.
As the function of the law of life accomplishes metabolically the transformation of life for us, so the issue of the law of life is that we are transformed and conformed to the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29) and that Christ is formed in us. The transformation in life and the conformation to Christ depend upon the function of the law of life and are the issue of the work of the law of life….The regulating of the law of the divine life brings the riches of Christ into our life and forms Christ in our being. (Life-study of Hebrews, p. 421)
Today’s Reading
In Romans 8:3 and 4 God has passed through the processes so that there can be an issue—that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk according to the spirit. To cooperate with this law is to walk according to the spirit, and to walk according to the spirit is the way to cooperate with this working law. The law has been installed, but the law’s function and the law’s operation need your cooperation. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” p. 364)Christ makes His home in our heart by occupying our mind, will, emotion, and conscience. Paul prayed that the Father would grant us to be strengthened into our inner man, our spirit, that Christ would have the opportunity to make His home in our heart. We need to be strong to agree and cooperate with the Lord’s settling Himself in our heart by filling every part of our inner being with Himself. The Lord comes into our spirit when we believe in Him, but we need to give Him the permission to spread into our will, our emotion, and especially our mind. We need to give Him the freedom to take over our mind, emotion, and will. Otherwise, He will be confined by us in our spirit and will be unable to settle in our entire inner being to make His home in our heart. (CWWL, 1982, vol. 1, “The All-inclusive Indwelling Spirit,” p. 328)
God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us and make us the same as His firstborn Son. The firstborn Son of God is the standard model for God’s economy. This standard model has both divinity and humanity. Originally, He was the only begotten Son of God. As the only begotten Son of God, He was the embodiment of God, for all that is in the Godhead was embodied in Him (Col. 2:9). He was also the expression of God (Heb. 1:3). As the embodiment and expression of God, He became incarnated, bringing divinity into humanity and joining humanity to divinity. But before the incarnation, divinity had never been joined to humanity. Since the day of His incarnation, there was in this universe a wonderful person who was both human and divine. (Life-study of Hebrews, p. 427)
Our entire spiritual life before God cannot be accomplished by our own striving; neither can it be achieved by self-improvement with utmost effort; rather, it is the responsibility of the life of God, which we have already received into us. The life of God accompanied by the law of this life dwells in our spirit; if we live and act according to this law of life in our spirit, this law of life can very naturally regulate out from within us, item by item, all the content within the life of God. This will correspond very well with the demand of the external law of God, and even exceed it with no deficiency. Romans 8:4 speaks of this: “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.” (CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Knowledge of Life,” p. 104)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation,” ch. 5; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” ch. 2