THE LIFE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS (3)
[p. 36] THE LIFE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS (3)
Romans 6: 1 - 23; Romans 8: 1 - 14
JT Romans 6 contemplates baptism, which is the basis of what is said in the chapter, so that in it believers are viewed in the wilderness, and the truth is worked out from that standpoint; instead of the things coming through Christ to us, they are seen as “in Christ”; and we are in Christ. The first feature stressed is newness of life in the saints as baptised. This is obligatory. We are not, therefore, to carry on as before, as in the flesh; but as having come into christianity, we are expressive of newness before the eyes of men; and then this new manner of walk, bearing Godward, works out in righteousness and holiness unto eternal life. So that, generally, chapter 6 is life in relation to light; whereas chapter 8 is life in relation to the Spirit.
APT There is much use, in chapter 6, of the prepositions ‘to’ and ‘unto’. Would you say something as to that?
JT It shows that the teaching is progressive that is, the believer is moving in relation to certain objectives. Illustrative of this, we have, “As many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death” (verse 3). Christ Himself is the primary thought, and then His death. We are baptised to “the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, (Matthew 28: 19), and we are baptised also to the death of Christ; and so we have, “For in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God” (verse 10). And so, among other things, we have our fruit unto holiness. It is said, “So now yield your members in bondage to righteousness unto holiness” (verse 19). And again, “But now, having got your [p. 37] freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end eternal life” (verse 22). So that it is all prospective and progressive.
JD Do you understand from the verses, “We who have died to sin, how shall we still live in it? Are you ignorant that we, as many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death?” (verses 2, 3), that baptism, in its teaching, has entered the soul as light?
JT Yes; and the soul is set in movement by it. In chapter 5, things have come to us from the divine side. Now we commit ourselves voluntarily, as the eunuch did, to baptism to Christ, and the sequence is that His death must be involved. We are not baptised to a man here on earth, like Mohammed, but to Christ as having died and risen; and as baptised to Him we are baptised unto His death. Baptism is stressed, involving burial with Him. This must eventuate in change of life. There must be newness, because christianity is not simply an addition to religion in this world; it is a wholly new thing; there had been nothing like it — “newness of life”.
CAM You were speaking of moving in light; would you say that this governed the position of Israel after the Red Sea and until they received the Spirit, in type? What you said about life in relation to light, in this chapter, and the Spirit in chapter 8, is striking, and I wondered whether it would apply to the journey of the Israelites.
JT It does. The types help in the elucidation of this; they had light as they passed through the Red Sea; and then we come to Sinai, where the covenant was inaugurated. Well, this has to be settled in Romans. Chapter 7 deals with it; so we have another Husband. Our relation with the Lord, in this sense, is a great help in this matter of life. The new Husband strengthens our position in life. We are “to [p. 38] another, who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God” (verse 4). So that God is clearly in mind, and the question of the law at Sinai is adjusted by the truth in Romans 7. In the types, chapter 8 begins properly with the brazen serpent. In general, the journey from Egypt to Canaan is divided into two parts: the first is in connection with the cloud and tabernacle — the latter starting at Sinai — that is, light in an objective sense; the second from Beer, the well to which Israel sang (a type of the Spirit), to the Jordan. The latter is not simply life on the principle of light, but life by the Spirit. The Israelites, in type, had received the Spirit, as seen in the springing well. It is said that whoever looked at the brazen serpent lived. The well, as a type, made that a practical thing, so that they moved steadily from that point onward; hence, “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, Romans 8: 14. That comes out in the typical journey after Beer; Numbers 21.
CAM Do you connect light with the cloud? It was a new order of things for the people after the Red Sea until they drank of the well.
JT Yes; the cloud was there even before the Red Sea, but it went through, and it became intelligible, and it became associated with the tabernacle, according to Exodus so it was light. The movement of the tabernacle, or cloud, was a guide for them, but after the springing well (the Spirit subjectively), the tabernacle is hardly alluded to. Henceforth it is a question of the power of the Spirit in us; “the Spirit life on account of righteousness”.
JD How far has baptism to do with state? “We who have died to sin” (not sins) “how shall we still live in it? Are you ignorant that we, as many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death?” (verses 2, 3). Is that light in the soul as to the sinful [p. 39] state?
JT It is a question of sin as a principle in the world. Baptism implies that we have died to sin (verse 2). Then verse 10 says, “For in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God. So also ye, reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (verses 10, 11). That is sin viewed objectively as in the world; not yet a principle operating in the believer. That comes up after Sinai. It is in the believer, dealt with in chapter 7. But we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin as a principle dominating the world. The world’s principles and influences are in mind. Believers are not obliged to set them aside in the sense of reforming the world, but to regard themselves as dead to them. We “reckon” thus.
ANW Would you make chapter 6 objective, therefore; and chapter 8, subjective?
JT Quite so. It is a question of light in chapter 6, so that sin is an objective thing to which you die. It cannot be sin in you. That we are delivered from by the Spirit; as to the judicial side, of course, it is by the death of Christ; but the actual putting to death is by the Spirit. “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (chapter 8: 13), whereas chapter 6 is objective, and eventuates in righteousness and holiness unto eternal life. But it must not be assumed that these features of the truth are independent of each other or experienced separately; they run collaterally in the history of the soul.
ANW It must have been objective to the Lord for Him to die to sin. There cannot be any such thing in Him.
JS Was it intelligence on the part of the Ethiopian eunuch to desire baptism?
JT Clearly; it developed in his mind out of what the chapter he was reading taught; Philip instructed him, beginning there: he “announced the glad tidings of Jesus to him”, Acts 8: 35. “His life is taken from the earth” — Christ’s life is no longer here.
AR As to what you have been saying about chapter 6, is the movement directed through the tabernacle up to the springing well?
JT Yes; that is the principle of Numbers 9 and 10; the cloud guided the people. The cloud covered the tabernacle, and when it rose from the tent then the children of Israel journeyed. You do not get that after Numbers 21. Of course, the cloud and tabernacle were there, but they are not mentioned in this connection. The people are reported as moving of themselves after they sang to the well. They went straight forward; whereas, before, they were wandering. They were in a bad state, but the serpent of brass was lifted upon a pole so all could see it, and as many as looked lived; that is, the principle of life was in the look. In the antitype it is a question of faith — faith and life simultaneously, you might say, in the look. That is the principle, but the life seen there, acquired through looking at the brazen serpent, really involves the Spirit — the springing well. The well was active and the people sing, “Rise up, well! Sing unto it”, Numbers 21: 17. There is feeling about it. And from that point onward they moved definitely in the direction of the land of promise. That is simple enough — it is to me, and I think it ought to be simple and understood by every one of us. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. No other person has the right to claim sonship but those.
AAT I was just trying to get at this thought of newness of life in walking and how it is demonstrated by the believer.
JT Well, it is one of the most interesting things we can look at, because it is preceded immediately by the resurrection of Christ; by the glory of the
[p. 41] Father raising Him — one of the finest and most weighty statements in the Scriptures; “... even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”. The glory here is the shining out of what God is; clearly, it would be, for He has infinite affection for the Son, and this would be active as the Father took Him out of death. And so the passage goes on: “So we also should walk in newness of life”. Well, to be simple about this, we may be sure that when the epistle was read in the assembly at Rome, the spiritual would ask the reader to stop a little at this point to ponder the greatness of the statement and its bearing on the believer’s walk. The raising of Christ by the glory of the Father is made to enter into this matter of our walk — that it should be in newness of life.
JS Is it in principle seen in the eunuch, after he came out of death, he went on his way rejoicing?
JT Yes; picture yourself in Rome with all its imperial glory — there could be nothing new in it; it was the same glory as in Nimrod’s kingdom and all the great kingdoms that came down in history. There was nothing new, simply the world’s glory built up; you would see Caesar’s palace and all those glories people used to come to see, but they afforded nothing new. The apostle Paul himself alludes to Caesar and his servants; some of them, through the mercy of God, being converted. You might suggest an extended consideration of this subject of the Father’s glory before proceeding with the reading of the letter, which evidently Phoebe had brought. And she might tell the brethren that Paul had spoken to them in the East about that; and that this great fact entered into the first day of the week — the raising of Christ by the glory of the Father. It shines down through the ages — the inaugurating of the first day of the week; the holy surroundings of the sepulchre which radiated with glory as the Father took the [p. 42] Son out of the grave. Think of what it meant! The Father and the Son were there together. In the light of all this it is clear enough that believers must change; they must accept death to the world which crucified Christ, whom the Father just raised by His glory. Every christian in Rome must clearly see that his life must be different. As walking in the light of this chapter, he will not go to court, nor join in any worldly affair. He now reckons himself dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is the basis for the “walk in newness of life”. Accepting it, the saints in Rome would exhibit a wholly new order of things — walk and ways in which the Father’s glory radiate.
JHE Do you see that walk in Enoch?
JT Yes; he walked with God. God would not walk with Enoch if he were not in accord with Him.
CAM The word ‘patron’ is used in connection with Phoebe, as if she had acquired something of this remarkable characteristic.
JT She acquired this among the saints where she resided, and evidently came under the apostle’s notice in a very special way. He is very complimentary, as has been remarked, in his commendation of her. She would be one of those possibly who had access to society where she lives; but she was now moving about among the brethren, radiating the glory of heaven. She reflected the character of the assembly, corresponding with the “woman of worth” of Proverbs 31. The apostle’s commendation of Phoebe indicates that she walked in newness of life. She would, perhaps, visit the sisters in Rome, and one might ask her to go and see some of the shops in the metropolis. Oh, she would say, I have not time for that! People sometimes go to the shops as a sort of pleasure or holiday. Phoebe would not do that. And one could mention many other things that a sister walking in newness of life would object to.
[p. 43] Paul, in mentioning Phoebe, mentions others also commendable. From his salutations it is clear that they walked in newness of life, and thus they afford an array of glory. There is glory shining in every one of these salutations. We may be sure that Phoebe would specially make the acquaintance of those saluted by the apostle. Thus we can visualise how the truth worked out in Rome; especially how newness of life was exemplified.
RWS Is the truth here specially strengthened in verse 5: “For if we are become identified with him in the likeness of his death”? The footnote is, “’grown up with’ and so thoroughly one”.
JT Yes. It is the idea of thorough identification with Christ in His death. The likeness of it is baptism. “So also we shall be of his resurrection”. This latter is future, but the point is the present; that we are identified with the Lord Jesus in His death, the expression being baptism.
ABP Is there in it the suggestion that we arrive at a true concept of what sin is as having been dealt with in the death of Christ, and in that way, something of the glory of the Father, which was exercised in raising Christ, is also toward us to bring us into the power of walking in newness of life?
JT Yes. Colossians goes further than this. It says, “In which ye have been also raised with him”, chapter 2: 12. That is baptism in relation to the faith of the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. Romans does not say we are raised with Him, but that “we shall be of his resurrection”; that is, the likeness goes through; complete identification in life. Colossian doctrine is that we are raised with Christ through the faith of the operation of God, and quickened with Him; but here it does not go that far; the apostle is considering for the saints as in the wilderness, not the full thought of our place [p. 44] above; thus we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (verse 11).
ANW Is that not the answer to the “old man” in verse 6: “... knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him”?
JT Yes, that is another cumulative thought. “... knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled”. He had already referred to sin: “We who have died to sin” (verse 2). But here it is that the body of sin might be annulled. In Colossians it is “the body of the flesh”, put off in the circumcision of Christ, going further; but it is the same idea, that the body — the totality, in each case — might be annulled. “That we should no longer serve sin”, is the end reached in Romans. It is carrying us through logically, as it were, in the mind. If sin comes up — something that would influence you — what are you going to do? Well, this is instruction. It is carried forward from the idea of baptism; to be morally logical, you cannot sin because of your identification with Christ in death, who has died to sin once for all.
JS Do you connect love with this operation of the Father?
JT It was the operation of love; hence the power of it over our souls.
ABP Is that the result of going through baptism experimentally; seeking to take on the full meaning of what baptism involves? We have to do with a sin-hating God. It is not the Father in that respect, is it?
JT No, except as regards the glory.
ABP Does that come in more on the side of newness of life? I mean, we have to do with God and with the requirements of His throne in regard to baptism. But we find the love of the Father radiating for us in relation to newness of life.
JT Just so; and then responsibility Godward [p. 45] as in the wilderness. That is the point He made in mount Sinai. We have to look at mount Sinai in two ways: that is, certain features are figurative of christianity; but legally it is against us; Colossians 2: 14. The latter is what Romans 7 deals with. But God is brought in before chapter 7 showing what the wilderness was. “I am Jehovah” — God constantly pressed that upon them — that He was God. Now here we have, “So also ye, reckon yourselves dead to sin” (verse 11). “For in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all”. In the types the death of Christ was constantly before the people: in the Red Sea, and every moment in the tabernacle. In the sacrifices offered it was constantly before them, and then there is the positive side: “For in that he has died, he has died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God”. His movements in life are towards God. Christ has led the way to God. So that verse 11 says, “So also ye, reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. That is a fixed position giving us power in our souls to move in the current of His mind toward God, the tabernacle being involved. That is for the wilderness position. The truth works this out. So throughout this chapter you have the thought of God. “Yield yourselves to God as alive from among the dead, and your members instruments of righteousness to God” (verse 13). Having God before us, we are worshipful, and, at the same time, we are acquiring wealth. In the types in Exodus, from chapter 19 to chapter 24, we see God coming more and more before the people; in severity at first, so that they learn to fear Him; and then He invites them up to be with Him. As they are above He shows His pleasure in them: they are called “nobles”. They saw God and ate and drank. Chapter 25 is based on this, Jehovah expressing His desire that Israel should make Him a sanctuary, that He might dwell among them. That [p. 46] is the blessed culmination of the immediate preceding history. Thus we learn in the typical teaching of Exodus how our God leads us along with Himself, culminating in our becoming, by the Spirit, His habitation. Chapter 20 is the assertion of His rights over us, and He speaks of His lovers — which should touch our hearts. Every true believer wishes to be among the lovers of God. Chapter 25 assumes that the people are lovers of Jehovah: He is not asking them if they have gold, silver, etc.; the thought is that at this juncture they possess such wealth — also that they have love, for what is needed is to be a heave-offering prompted by the heart.
JTJr So you think that when the apostle alluded to “the Israel of God” he would have that in mind — what Israel became to God in the wilderness?
JT That is right — not simply Israel, but Israel of God. He is really stressing that they are His people, a peculiar people. What will He not do for them!
AR Is that why Moses leads the people to meet God in chapter 19?
JT Quite so; first they are to be there to realise the terrors of Sinai; the consequences of a broken law — Romans showing how the death and resurrection of Christ delivers us from them all. God is telling them He abhors sin.
But at this point we should keep in mind what we began with as to God, that in all our exercises Godward, to love Him with all our heart, etc., we are acquiring wealth all the time. And so the ‘unto’, Romans 6: 19. In verse 18 we have, “Now, having got your freedom from sin, ye have become bondmen to righteousness”. That is another thing — bondmen to a principle. And also in verse 19, “Yield your members in bondage to righteousness unto holiness”; what we are acquiring, righteousness and holiness — what we urgently need; and not simply in an objective sense, but what we are developing into [p. 47] substantially. The chapter goes on to say, “When ye were bondmen of sin ye were free from righteousness”. They did not care anything at all about it. They were heathen and the question did not even come into their minds, and christendom has largely gone back to that. People have but little regard for righteousness. The apostle says, “Ye were free from righteousness. What fruit therefore had ye then in the things of which ye are now ashamed? for the end of them is death”. They were corrupt in the worst degree. “But now” (notice the words ‘then’ and ‘now’) “having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness”. Notice “your fruit”; not yet “fruit unto God”, but “your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”. That is the order, so we are built up in wealth and liberty through this process.
FNW Does not Psalm 105 go over this ground somewhat? It speaks about silver and gold; and not one of them stumbled. They had power to walk; then light in the cloud of fire by night; and the breaking forth of the water out of the rock. Possibly Romans 6 and 8 are included in that; the wealth, and the power to serve God.
JT Yes. They had “come out with great property”, Genesis 15: 14. That is to be remembered. I suppose it was not coordinated at the outset; this would take place at Sinai. And they were acquiring wealth all the time from the Red Sea to mount Sinai. This would especially include holiness, which is what God requires, because if He is to have a dwelling place, we must have righteousness and holiness; and then life. All was there (in type, at least), as set out in the items specified in Exodus 25.
JD One can see the great point with the apostle in verse 4, “... raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life”. In the light of this there is to be newness of life in every one of us.
JT The idea of the Father’s glory was soon to come up; it was involved in the Spirit’s coming in. He proceeded from the Father. The Lord Jesus received the Spirit from the Father and shed Him forth, and the glory at the sepulchre would surely be carried down; in type, the tabernacle becomes the home of it, as you might say. If it is to find a residence there must be practical righteousness, holiness and life.
AR I can thus understand how, in Exodus 25, the material for the tabernacle would be a heave-offering; it would suggest affection.
GVD Have you a practical word for us as to verse 17, “But have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which ye were instructed”?
JT That enters into what we have just said. They had obeyed from the heart. Chapter 5 says, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”. On our side, the Holy Spirit operates in connection with obedience. In Exodus 25, God uses the word ‘sanctuary’ as well as the word ‘dwelling’. The word ‘tabernacle’ here is ‘dwelling’, but ‘sanctuary’ implies holiness. Thus in Romans 6, “righteousness unto holiness”. We must have these things in order to make a sanctuary for God.
JS After Exodus 20, does Jehovah go on with the people on the basis of committal in the Hebrew servant, who said, “I love ...”?
JT The latter is chapter 21, but in chapter 20 you have the “ten words”, and then the two altars, and God saying, “In all places where I shall make my name to be remembered, I will come unto thee, and bless thee” (verse 24). That is chapter 20. It stands in relation to the law in connection with which God speaks of lovers. Then chapter 21 brings in one Lover, a supreme Lover. He has ascending love,
[p. 49] horizontal love, and descending love. That must be kept in our minds. The bondman is Christ. It is to teach us how to love in the wilderness. It enters into the glory of the tabernacle.
JD Did all that come in in connection with the form of teaching? “... have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching” (verse 17)?
JT Yes. We were speaking of teaching in John’s gospel. Paul makes much of it, indicating graded order in it. The school of Tyrannus suggests that. It is not mentioned for nothing. There is a curriculum in christianity. Paul, in serving at Corinth, calculated what the saints there needed. He says, “I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1 Corinthians 2: 2. We have to go through that course. It is “the form of teaching” given at Corinth.
ABP In John 6, the Lord says, “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life” (verse 63). In that chapter, He repeatedly says, “... and I will raise him up at the last day”. Does there not seem to be a suggestion in that, that He has great delight in raising up those who come into this life as hearing His words? I thought it would link on with the glory of the Father in this great act of raising Christ, and would suggest that those who go through, not turning back when the ministry becomes difficult, yield great joy to the heart of Christ.
JT John 6 is that we might go down. Of course if we have gift from God we acquire distinction. But John 6 is for every one of the brethren; it is a difficult chapter, but it is most essential instruction. What is He going to raise up? Those of moral worth, according to what the teaching implies. The Lord went down; He was raised up. That He was a divine Person was involved, but also what He was morally; what He was to God as in testimony here. And that is most important, especially in John’s ministry.
[p. 50] How lowly the Lord was! And how many were going back when He was saying the greatest things He was unfolding eternal life, and asked the disciples, “Will ye also go away?” And Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”.
JTJr Is that the force of the mind coming into prominence in Romans 7 and 8? The thought of teaching involves the mind.
JT Yes. “So then I myself with the mind serve God’s law”, chapter 7: 25. To the Corinthians he said, “We have the mind of Christ”, reminding us that the natural mind is useless; we have to learn how to use our minds as divinely given to us, because the natural mind is corrupt. Hence the need of the renewing of our minds, to prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Chapter 7 brings in the idea of the mind, and in chapter 12 its renewal is spoken of.
ANW The reception is with the mind and obedience is from the heart.
JT There is in chapter 7 an allusion to the marriage bond which is seen, in type, in the wilderness. There is the thought of another husband in the antitypical sense. In the legal sense it is Judaism, which influenced, adversely, early Jewish christians, and we have to understand that we are “to be to another”. The old marriage bond has been abrogated through death, through believers being made dead through the body of Christ, “to be to another, who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God”. That is because the service of God must go on — not only the accrual of wealth to ourselves, but unto God. This implies that He is to be served “in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter”. All that enters into the matter of current, active life. So all our meetings, involving the service [p. 51] of God, are to be marked by renewal and consequent refreshment and vigour; thus in them we have life in the sense of serving God in newness of spirit.
APT In chapter 6, it is “dead to sin”. You would say that is a principle, a system of things? In chapter 7, it is “dead to the law”. Is the same idea carried out, but in relation to what was really good from God in that sense?
JT Yes; the old husband. The early Jewish christians were delivered from the Jewish system by the death and resurrection of Christ. That is how chapter 7 works out. The writer says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve God’s law; but with the flesh sin’s law” (verses 24, 25). So I am free now. I am in control of my mind; and that leads the way for chapter 8 where the Spirit has scope, “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death”. The Spirit comes in at once, affording liberty.
JHH Would the woman who had five husbands be an example of what you are saying?
JT Yes; it was not the law that was disturbing her, but the vicious life she lived, but now she would be to Another. She moves in life — the spring within, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
RWS Does the principle of life in chapter 6 lead into eternal life; and is the Spirit more life in activity in chapter 8?
JT Yes. The Spirit of life is the first phase mentioned in chapter 8; and verse 6 reads, “For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit life and peace”; and verse 10, “But if Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”; and in verse 13, “For if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live: for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. In this chapter active life by the Spirit is contemplated. Chapter 6 finishes the subject of eternal life. Generally progressive experience is contemplated but ending in eternal life. That great blessing is not opened up in Romans. It is a fixed blessing afforded — “the act of favour of God”. To the end of chapter 6 it is mentioned four times in the epistle.
JD Presented as an objective thought?
JT Yes. Other scriptures show that it is available to be entered into and enjoyed by the believer.
JD Would you say a word on the law of the Spirit of life?
JT The Spirit of life is the Holy Spirit; the “law” is clearly the principle governing it as over against “the law of sin and death”. “Law” is used here in the sense in which it is employed to express principles governing the universe. It is accepted by the mind and worked out experimentally. Paul says of it that it had set him free. So the law of the Spirit of life will certainly become operative in the believer as he gives it scope. It helps us to note that the truth immediately culminating in Romans 8 is extremely experimental; and it is also helpful to note, as already remarked, that the effect of the law of the Spirit of life is reached in an experimental way, as stated by the apostle of himself.