Nee/Lee — Hamartology
b9 — The Knowledge of Life
Three Lives: Human, Satan’s, God’s
There are three different lives within every saved person — man’s created life, Satan’s fallen life, and God’s uncreated life. These three lives dwell respectively in our soul, our body, and our spirit. (interpreted from Ch. 9)
Nee distinguishes three lives coexisting in the redeemed Christian:
- Human life: The natural life (nephesh/psyche), obtained at birth, dwelling in the soul (mind, emotion, will). Originally good in God’s creation.
- Satan’s life: The corrupted life, obtained through Adam’s fall (eating the tree of knowledge), dwelling in the body/flesh. This is evil and defiled.
- God’s life: The uncreated, eternal life (zoe), obtained through salvation (faith in Christ), dwelling in the spirit. This is the manifestation of God’s nature.
Interpretation: Hamartology in Nee’s system is the doctrine of the second life — Satan’s life indwelling our bodies as the consequence of Adam’s fall.
Satan’s Life: Poisoning, Not Mere Transgression
What happened that day in the Garden of Eden? Not only did Adam break God’s command; but what was worse, he was poisoned inwardly. Adam not only committed a sin in behavior, but ingested Satan’s life into himself. (…) Henceforth Satan’s life, filled with all kinds of sins, contains the seed of all corruption and factors of evil, has embedded itself in man. (interpreted from Ch. 9)
The core is that sin is not primarily behavioral transgression, but inward poisoning:
Satan’s life, filled as it is with all kinds of sins, contains the seed of all corruption and factors of evil. Satan lives within man and causes him to have lusts (John 8:44) and commit sins (1 John 3:8). Therefore, his life is the root of sins, which causes man to live out sin. (Ch. 9, p. 3248–3251)
Although at times he is still able to live out a little human goodness according to his human life, he lives out the devilish evils most of the time according to the devilish life. Sometimes man can be very gentle; he can really act like a man and give forth the savor of a true man. But other times, when he loses his temper, he is really like a devil and full of the devilish odor. (Ch. 9, p. 3258–3263)
Interpretation: Sin is not something we do from free will, but something Satan’s life within us produces. It is an indwelling malevolent presence (satanic life), not merely behavioral transgression.
Four Laws: Internal Warfare
Nee describes four laws operating in/upon us (drawn from Rom. 7–8):
Each of the three lives within us who are saved has a law. Therefore, there are not only three lives within us, but also three laws which belong to the three lives. Besides these, there is the law of God outside of us. Therefore, within and without us, there are all together four laws. (Ch. 9, p. 3366–3371)
- Law of God (external, written on stone): God’s requirements, holy, righteous, good.
- Law of good in the mind (in the soul): Derived from our good human life. Desires to do good.
- Law of sin in the members (in the flesh): Derived from Satan’s life. Causes us to sin.
- Law of the Spirit of life (in the spirit): Derived from God’s life. Enables us to live God’s life.
Within us fallen beings there are two contradicting laws. One is derived from the created life of good and works in the mind of our soul, giving us the desire to do good. The other is derived from the fallen, evil life of Satan and works in the members of our body, causing us to commit sin. These two opposite laws, doing contradictory works in our mind and in our members, war against one another within us. (Ch. 9, p. 3593–3602)
Interpretation: Hamartology encompasses not only the reality of sin, but the lawful structure of sin — a law of sin functioning operatively in the flesh.
Flesh-Spirit Conflict
We sin not of our own choice nor of our own volition; rather it is the law of sin which motivates us from within. (Ch. 9, p. 3590–3592)
The law of sin in our members operates just as the law of good in our mind. They war against each other. When the law of good in our mind gives us the desire to do good, this law of sin rises to war against it and brings us into captivity (Rom. 7:23). Hence, not only are we unable to fulfill our desire to do good or to satisfy the good requirement of God’s law; on the contrary, we obey the law of sin in our members, committing all kinds of sins and obtaining death. (Ch. 9, p. 3586–3589)
Core: The flesh (satanic life) possesses a law (operative regularity) warring against our rational desire to do good. This is not weakness or laziness; it is an enemy power.
This is the actual inner condition of the people of the world today. Due to the fact that man has the lives both of man and of Satan, one good in nature and the other evil, he has the desire on one hand to be good and upright, and on the other hand he has an inclination toward corruption and evil. (Ch. 9, p. 3268–3280)
The Minority Good in the Fallen Human
Satan’s life, filled with all kinds of sins, contains the seed of all corruption. (…) But, thank the Lord, today we who are saved not only have the lives of man and the devil, but also the life of God. (Ch. 9)
Nee stresses that the law of good (derived from our good human nature) has not entirely vanished, even after the fall:
Although man’s created good life has been corrupted by Satan, the element of goodness has not completely disappeared. For example, although honey mixed with a sour element loses its sweet taste, the sweet element itself does not disappear. Although man has been damaged by Satan, his element of goodness still remains. It is a fact that the element of goodness created in man has been corrupted by Satan and thus become incurable; but we cannot say that it has been corrupted to the point of non-existence. (Ch. 9, p. 3464–3472)
This explains why even non-Christians are capable of certain virtues, but remain always under the dominion of the law of sin.
Interpretation: Hamartology acknowledges sin as totality (law of sin predominates), yet denies that human goodness is utterly extinct — only corrupted and subjugated.