THE RICHES OF LIFE BEING IN THE LAW OF LIFE
The law of the Spirit of life is not a small matter. In the vegetable and animal kingdoms there are many different lives. With every life there is a law, and all the riches, the contents, of each kind of life are included in the law of that life. Within a small flower seed or a grain of wheat there is a life. When we bury this little seed within the earth, something grows out of the seed. We may say that this is something of life, but in actuality it is something according to the law of that life. There is no need to help the seed to produce something. If we put the seed of a red flower into the earth and let it grow, to be sure it will grow to be a red flower. There is no need to care for the flower’s color. It will not grow up to be white or black because there is a law in the flower life. In the same way, if we have chicken eggs, there is no need to worry that ducks will hatch from them, because there is a law in the chicken life which regulates it. The reality, the riches, and the content of a certain kind of life are in the law of that life.
We do not need to say to a peach tree, “Little tree, let me teach you. At a certain time, you have to put forth green leaves. After this you have to bring forth the right flowers, and then you have to bring forth a certain kind of fruit of a certain size.” There is no need to teach a peach tree to bring forth peaches because there is a law of life in that plant. In the same way, there is a law in our fallen human life. There is no need for anyone to teach us to lie or to commit sins. We have an evil life with an evil law of sin.
I found this matter to be true with children. My wife and I were devout Christians. When we were young, we were afraid that our children would be influenced by evil things, so we tried our best to keep them at home, away from any evil contact. When our child was a little over one year old, we would tell him not to put his hand into the water basin. However, sometimes when we were absent, he would put his hand into the water. When we came back, he would shake his head to deny it. Before he was able to speak Chinese, he was able to speak lies. He lied without speaking any kind of language. We never taught him how to lie, and we did not know from whom he learned it. By this we found that there is a law of sin within the human life. As long as we have a human life, we know how to sin. There are many teachers, tutors, and professors of mathematics, but who teaches people to lie? On the whole earth there has never been an elementary school of sin, a high school of sin, or a university of sin. However, everyone still knows how to sin because everyone has a human life with a law of sin.
We praise the Lord that today we have another law, the law of the divine life. We have a law of the strongest, highest life, the life on the highest plane. With this life there is the strongest, highest law. To know the law of this life is wonderful. To be a victorious, spiritual Christian, we need to know the law of the divine life.
In addition to Romans 8:2, the law of life is mentioned in Hebrews 8:10, which 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.” According to these laws inscribed in our heart, God is God to us, and we are a people to Him. Verse 16 of chapter ten is similar, saying that God will impart His laws upon our heart and inscribe them upon our mind. God imparts His laws in our mind and inscribes them in our heart simply by His being life to us. When God comes into us as life to us, His life has the divine law. Because God’s life is within us, the divine law is in our heart and in our mind.
Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16 are quotations from Jeremiah 31:33, which says, “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law within them and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” In Hebrews, laws is plural in number, while in Jeremiah, law is singular. On the one hand, it is one law, while on the other hand, it is many laws which are put within us and written upon our heart. This law is, or these laws are, the very law of the divine life. We have the divine life within us, and with this divine life there is the law of life. We can never exhaust how rich the divine life is, and all the riches of the divine life are in the law of this life.
(Basic Principles of the Experience of Life, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)
