In the initial stage of God’s full salvation, the stage of regeneration, we experienced the sanctification of the Spirit and thus repented unto God. Furthermore, we experienced the dispositional sanctification of the Spirit and were justified. Moreover, when we repented and believed in the Lord, the Spirit brought God’s life into us, causing us to be regenerated and enabling us to experience the Spirit’s renewing work in us. In the progressing stage, as we further experience and enjoy the Spirit as the reality of Christ, the Spirit works in us, on us, and for us in many ways.
First, we want to see the Spirit’s freeing us by His law of life from the law of sin and of death. In Romans 8:2 Paul said, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” In this verse law does not denote a commandment but a principle that operates automatically and spontaneously, a natural regulation, a constant and unchanging rule. Every kind of life has its innate law. Therefore, as long as a particular life exists and is free, it can naturally develop its characteristics and manifest its abilities. Such natural characteristics and innate capabilities in a life constitute the law of that life.
The life of God is the highest life. Thus, the characteristics and capabilities of the divine life are the highest and most surpassing. Because these highest and surpassing characteristics and capabilities constitute the law of the life of God, this law naturally is the highest and most surpassing. Since by regeneration we have received the life of God, we have naturally received from the life of God the highest and most surpassing law of this life.
In Romans 8:2 Paul spoke not merely of the law of life but of the law of the Spirit of life. Both the Spirit and life are related to the working of this law. Life is the contents and issue of the Spirit, and the Spirit is the ultimate and consummate manifestation of the Triune God. This Triune God, after going through different processes to become the indwelling, life-giving Spirit, dwells in us as the law of the Spirit of life. This law works in us to deliver us from the working of the law of sin in our flesh and enables us to know God and gain God and thereby live Him out. This law of the Spirit of life is the spontaneous power of the Spirit of life. Such a spontaneous law works automatically under the condition that fulfills its requirements. As far as we, the believers in Christ, are concerned, this law has been installed in us. The book of Romans shows us that the requirements we must fulfill in order that the law of the Spirit of life may work are: (1) to walk according to the spirit (8:4); (2) to mind the things of the Spirit—to set the mind on the spirit (vv. 5-6); (3) to put to death by the Spirit the practices of the body (v. 13); (4) to be led by the Spirit of God as sons of God (v. 14); (5) to cry to the Father in the spirit of sonship (v. 15); (6) to witness that we are the children of God (v. 16); and (7) to groan for the full sonship, the redemption of our body (v. 23).
The major function of the processed Triune God in indwelling our spirit as the law of the Spirit of life is to free us completely from Satan, who dwells in our fallen nature as the law of sin and of death (Rom. 7:23-25). The law of sin, the power to commit sin that arises spontaneously in man, causes man to become a slave of sin (John 8:34). Thus, man is helpless, is controlled and manipulated by sin, and does many things against his own will. The law of death, the natural power that causes man to become weak, to wither up, and to age and die, dwells in man and causes every part of man to enter into decay and death. When we fulfill the aforementioned requirements by walking according to the spirit and setting our mind on the spirit, the law of the Spirit of life sets us free continuously from the law of sin and of death.
As the law of the Spirit of life works in this way, the Spirit dispenses the Triune God with all His divine riches into our entire tripartite being. Eventually, this dispensing will become our spiritual constitution. We will be constituted of the divine elements through the dispensing work of the Spirit.
(Truth Lessons, Level 2, Vol. 4, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)