FOUR LAWS
The Three Laws of the Three Lives
As we have seen, with any kind of life, there is always a law. Therefore, with these three lives there are three laws. With the human life there is the law of the human life, with the devilish life there is the evil law of the devilish life, and with the divine life there is the divine law of the divine life. A law is a natural force. As we have illustrated before, after we eat a meal, the law of digestion operates, and when we throw something into the air, the law of gravity makes it fall again. A prominent, significant law of the cat life is to catch mice, while the law of the dog life makes dogs bark. We never hear a cat barking, but there is no need to teach a dog to bark because to bark is something of the dog life. If we bring new hatchlings to a pool of water, some of them will jump into the water, while others will be frightened by the water. Those who jump into the water are little ducks, and those who are frightened away from the water are little chickens. There is no need to teach the ducks to jump into the water and the chickens to run away. They will jump in or they will run away because there is a law with their life. Where there is a life, there is always a law of that life.
In order to experience the divine life, we must know that we have three lives and three laws within us. We are not simple persons. We are very complicated persons because we were created, we became fallen, and we were regenerated. This is the reason why day by day we experience different things contradicting one another. Day by day there is always a conflict within us because we have three different lives with three different laws.
Sometimes when the gospel is preached, we hear that if we receive Jesus Christ, we will have full peace. On the one hand, we do have peace, but on the other hand, after we receive Christ, we have more contradiction within. Before we receive Christ as our Savior, we may not have a feeling of contradiction or conflict, but after we receive the Lord, we often have a contradicting and fighting within. This is because we have an additional life and an additional law. The more lives with more laws we have, the more complications we have. Every Christian is not simple; he is a complicated person. We can never be simple, because we were created, fallen, and regenerated. We have three lives with three laws.
The Law of God
Besides these three laws within us, there is another law, the law of God, which tells us to do certain things and not to do certain things. Therefore, Christians have three lives and four laws. By being three kinds of children—human children, devilish children, and divine children—we have three lives, and with each life there is a law. In addition to the three subjective laws of the three lives within us, we also have the objective law of God outside of us and above us, telling us what is right and wrong, what is good and evil, what we ought to do and what we ought not to do.
(Basic Principles of the Experience of Life, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
