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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:22; 1 Cor. 3:12a; Rev. 21:19a
In the previous chapter we spoke of eating Christ as the tree of life in the form of food. This is revealed in full from the very beginning of the Bible, through the whole content of the Bible, to the end of the Bible. The Bible begins with the tree of life, it continues with the tree of life, and it closes with the tree of life. The tree of life is nothing less than God in Christ presenting Himself to us as life in the form of food. We must not forget the phrase good for food...the tree of life in Genesis 2:9. In the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus presented Himself to people as the bread of life. John 6:35 says, “Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst,” and in 6:57 He said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” At the end of the Bible there is also the tree of life (Rev. 22:2). The tree of life is our portion for eternity. For eternity we will be feeding on Jesus Christ as the tree of life. It is clear that the Bible is a book of eating. It is not a cookbook or a manual but a table, a feast. Whenever we come to the Bible, we come to the table, the feast, for eating. Hallelujah, Jesus is the table, and Jesus is the feast! We come to Jesus, and we feed on Jesus.
If we pay our attention to the Bible, we will see that the two ends of the Bible correspond one with the other; they reflect each other. At the beginning of the Bible there is a garden (Gen. 2:8), and at the end of the Bible there is a city (Rev. 21:10). At the beginning of the Bible there are the tree of life and a river (Gen. 2:9-10), and at the end of the Bible there are also the tree of life and a river (Rev. 22:1-2). At the beginning of the Bible there are gold, bdellium (a kind of pearl), and precious stones (Gen. 2:11-12), and at the end of the Bible there are also gold, pearls, and precious stones (Rev. 21:18-21). Lastly, at the beginning of the Bible there is a bride (Gen. 2:22). God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (v. 18). At the end of the Bible there is also a bride (Rev. 21:2, 9). By this we can see that the two ends of the Bible reflect each other. The Bible has been in our hands for many years, but we may never have seen this. There are many wonderful, marvelous things in the Bible, but regardless of how many times we have read Genesis 2 and Revelation 21 and 22, we may not have seen these matters.
The beginning of the Bible shows us God’s plan, God’s “blueprint.” In a book on construction, there is a blueprint at the beginning of the book and a photograph of a completed building at the end. Likewise, in this divine book of God’s construction, there is a “blueprint” at the beginning, and at the end there is a “photograph” of God’s building. In between the two ends there is a process. The process of any kind of construction is not simple. After Genesis 2, in the very first verse of chapter 3, the subtle one, the serpent, came in. This serpent continues throughout the whole Bible up until Revelation 20. In the process of the divine construction, there has always been the trouble caused by this subtle one. In between Genesis 1 and 2 and Revelation 21 and 22 is the process of construction with all the distractions, all the frustrations, from the serpent. This process is a story of the subtlety of the serpent. Just before the last two chapters of the Bible, however, this serpent is cast out (20:10). He crept in from the first verse of Genesis 3, and he is cast out in the twentieth chapter of Revelation. This view covers the whole Bible. Today we are in the process of construction. The little serpent is here all the time, but the seed of the woman, Christ, has bruised the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Praise the Lord! Regardless of how subtle the serpent is, his head has been bruised. Now he is a defeated foe who has already been cast down (Rev. 12:9).
At the two ends of the Bible there is no difference in the tree of life or the river of living water. However, the garden at the beginning of the Bible becomes a city at the end. A garden is something natural without any building. A city, however, is not natural; it is something built. In the garden the gold, pearl, and precious stones were individual pieces, but in the city the gold, pearl, and precious stones are all built into one entity. In the city there are no longer only the pieces but the building. With the bride in Genesis 2 and Revelation 21 there is also a difference. The bride in Genesis 2 is a type of the church, whereas the city, the New Jerusalem, is the fulfillment of the bride.
Both ends of the Bible contain many figures. These are not merely printed words; they are pictures. Therefore, we have to see their meaning. Adam was a man made of clay, the dust of the ground, but God put him in front of the tree of life. Beside the tree of life there was the flowing river, and in the flow of the river there was not clay but gold, pearl, and precious stones. Eventually, at the end of Genesis 2 there is a woman as a bride, not born but built by God. This picture is very meaningful. We need the whole Bible to tell us what it signifies.
This figure signifies that man, as the dust of the ground, a piece of clay, needs to be transformed to become gold, pearl, and precious stone to be built together to become a bride. The bride at the end of the Bible is a city built with gold, pearls, and precious stones. What is needed for this is transformation. A piece of clay is not good for God’s building. The buildings of the enemy, Satan, are always with brick. The tower of Babel in Genesis 11 and the two cities of Pharaoh in Exodus 1 were built with bricks made of burnt clay (vv. 11, 14). Pharaoh charged the people of Israel to gather straw and burn clay into bricks. God’s building, however, is always with stone. God does not need anything muddy. God needs gold, pearls, and precious stones. In order to become these elements, we have to be transformed.
The way to be transformed is to take the tree of life into us, that is, to eat Christ. According to our experience, when we take Jesus into us as the tree of life, something within us starts to grow. When we take Jesus into us, we have a flow within. Now the tree of life is within us, and there is something flowing. We may have the intention to go somewhere, but something may flow within us, telling us, “Do not go. Rather, rise, pray, and get prepared for the meeting tonight.” We have such a flow within us. The more it flows, the more life we have, and the “muddy” things within are transformed into something golden. If we are still “muddy,” we need more flowing. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” there is a flow within us.
We receive the flowing not by teaching but by eating Jesus. When we eat Jesus, we have the river of life within. In John 6:57 Jesus said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me,” and in 7:38 He said, “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” In John 6 there is the eating, and in chapter 7 there is the flowing. When the tree of life gets into us, it becomes the river. This river flows within us, and this flow transforms us into gold, pearls, and precious stones. We all have to say, “Hallelujah for the transformation! We are not only regenerated, but we are also being transformed.”
We are not fully transformed yet. A brother may like to play basketball, but by transformation by the flowing of the life of Christ, his playing of basketball will cease. In Los Angeles in the past few years a number of hippies came to our meeting. Night after night one such person would come with long hair, a beard, and bare feet to sit on the front row. Another came wearing a dirty blanket-like garment. A dear saint warned me at that time that the church was in danger of becoming a “hippy church.” I told this one simply to wait; the Lord would work everything out. Still, after several days and weeks I did expect to see that the brother would put away that blanket. This was a real test to me. Hallelujah, after a few months he did put away his blanket. Moreover, the brother with the long hair was cleanly shaven. When he walked into the meeting like this, everyone shouted for joy. However, his feet were still bare. For several more weeks I was still under the test. I was tempted to give a message on dressing properly, but the Lord said within me, “Do not do it. Do not trust in teaching. Trust in Me. Trust in the flowing, the watering life, the transforming life.” After not too long, this brother put on a pair of good shoes. This was transformation. Praise the Lord, we do have a transforming life.
The Lord has burdened us with the revelation that teachings can never build up the church. Neither do gifts work. Only Christ as life can build the church. Teachings help us to realize that we need Christ as life, and good, proper teachings minister Christ to us as life. But teachings alone do not work. We all need Christ, not Christ in doctrine but the living Christ as the life-giving Spirit. The Christ who is the Spirit really works. Likewise, gifts are good, but gifts are a means, a utensil, to help people to have a realization of Christ. Gifts are not Christ. Gifts help us to take Christ, but if we substitute the gifts for Christ, we are wrong. We have to eat Christ. However, the tragedy today is that people pay attention to the gifts much more than to Christ. We all have to be turned from teachings to Christ, and we all have to be turned from gifts to Christ. Christ — and Christ alone — is the substance, the element, and all the ingredients of the spiritual food, so we have to take Christ.
Christ is the tree of life. The more we take Christ in, the more we have the flow within. If we say, “O Lord Jesus,” ten times, there will be the flow of the living water within us. Then we should pick up the Bible, open to any page, and pray-read a few verses. We should not merely exercise our mind to understand the Bible; we must exercise our spirit to pray the Bible. By praying, we take the Word; we eat the Word. I assure you that if you call on the Lord and pray-read like this in the morning, something will be flowing within you and watering you, and along with this flowing, there will be the nourishing, enlightening, strengthening, comforting, regulating, and saturating. This will cause you to be transformed. The church is built up by this transformation.
We are men of clay. Regardless of whether we are low class, middle class, or high class, whether we have a Ph.D. or have no education, we all are pieces of clay, not good for the building up of the church. We are “muddy.” Regardless of whether we are barbarian or Scythian, circumcision or uncircumcision, bond or free, great or small, whether we are hippies on the street or we wear a tie, we are still pieces of clay. If we build a building with clay, and a storm comes, the building will become a marsh. There are too many marshes in the United States today. A marsh is neither dry land or a flowing river. However, the more flow we have, the more the clay will be discharged, and we will be transformed day by day.
We were made a tripartite being. First Thessalonians 5:23 tells us that we are persons of three parts — spirit, soul, and body. One day when we opened up ourselves and called on the name of the Lord, He came in. By calling, “O Lord Jesus,” we gave Him an invitation. He took the invitation, He came into us, and we were regenerated. Our sins were washed away by His blood, and He came in not only as the Savior, the Redeemer, and the Lord, but also as the life-giving Spirit. First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” He is the Spirit in our spirit, so we are one spirit with Him, as 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” We are one spirit with the Lord.
However, we must also consider our soul. Our soul is composed mainly of our mind. We should not love our mind. Our mind is a real troublemaker. Whenever we exercise our mind, we have trouble. There is no need to try to be in the mind. As soon as we wake up, we may have a critical thought about our spouse. Right away we have to say, “O Lord Jesus!” and get ourselves out of our mind and misery. Do not stay in the mind, but turn from the mind to the spirit. The mind, emotion, and will are awful things. It is so easy to be irritated in our emotions. If a brother is told that he is nice, he will feel happy, but if he is corrected, his countenance will fall. Just by one sentence we can be made to laugh or be angry. The emotions are so fragile. Likewise, the will is so stubborn. It is wonderful that Jesus is in our spirit, but He may not be in our mind, emotion, and will.
Mere outward change, outward correction, means nothing. Many Christians like to talk about sanctification. To be sanctified is not merely to be sinless. The Brethren taught that to be sanctified is to be separated from what is common. In a sense this is right, but this is a positional change. We must realize that a positional change alone does not mean much. Regardless of the position of our troublesome mind, terrible emotion, and stubborn will, they are still a problem. We need a dispositional change. We need transformation. Transformation is a “chemical” change, a change in nature and element. Our awful mind needs a wonderful element to get into it. For a chemical change to take place, one element must be put into another. Without Christ getting into our mind, our mind can never have a “chemical” change. We can have a change in our thinking, a change in our concept, but our mind will still remain the same in nature. We need a “chemical” change in our mind. This means that Christ as the heavenly element must get into our mind. When Christ gets into our mind, the mind is renewed; it is transformed. This is the clay being transformed into gold, pearl, and precious stone. This is not outward correction or outward adjustment but the inward transformation in life by another element. This is why we have to be filled in our spirit (Eph. 5:18) and say, “O Lord!” Whenever we say “O Lord,” the Lord gets into us, and we are filled in our spirit unto the fullness of God. We are filled with all that God is in Christ.
If we have the infilling in our spirit, we surely will have the outflow into our mind. This outflow will saturate our mind and emotion. This is not correction from without but saturation from within. This is the real change, a change in nature, a change in disposition, and this is the proper, subjective sanctification. Originally, our mind, emotion, and will were muddy, but now our mind is becoming gold, our emotion is becoming pearl, and our will is becoming precious stone. By this we are qualified, we are just right, for the building.
Here in this country in the past few years, by God’s mercy we have seen the gold, the pearls, and the precious stones. Many who have visited the church in Los Angeles have testified that the most striking, inspiring, and convincing point there is the eating of Christ. Sometimes several hundred people meet together, but no hint of differing opinions can be found among them. The oneness is there because the muddy mind has been swallowed up by the presence of Jesus, the terrible emotion has been transformed by the element of Christ, and the stubborn will also has been transformed. This is just right for the building. For the church in your locality to be thoroughly built up, all the dear ones must pay their full attention to the eating of Christ. Do not care for mere teachings. Rather, eat Christ, call on the Lord, breathe Him in, and eat the Word by pray-reading. If we do this, we will have the real gifts. Some people ask us if we have the gifts in our meeting. Actually, there are many gifts in the meeting. We all have to realize that the main thing we need to build up a local church is to take Jesus as our life — to eat Him, to drink of Him, and to breathe Him in. Then all the pieces of clay will be transformed.
In Genesis 2 there are three kinds of precious materials, which match the three of the Triune God. Gold refers to the divine nature of the Father. The more we call on the Lord Jesus and enjoy Christ, the more gold we have. This means that we participate in the divine nature. The more we enjoy Christ, the more of the divine nature we have. Pearls refer to Christ with His redemptive work on the cross. A pearl comes out of an oyster. When a grain of sand wounds the oyster and remains in the wound, the oyster secretes its life-juice around the grain of sand. In this way the grain of sand becomes a pearl. Christ is the living oyster who came into the death water, and we are the grains of sand who wounded Him. As we remain in the church, His life-juice continually secretes over us to make us into precious pearls. The more we enjoy Christ, the more we stay with Him, the more we enjoy the secretion of His life-juice. Precious stones are not created but are produced by the transforming of things already created. This refers to the work of the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit burns us and presses us, we, the created matter, become precious stones. Gold, pearls, and precious stones denote the working of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This operation makes us fit for the building of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, we all need such a transformation. It is not teachings that build up the church. Neither are the gifts adequate to build up the Body. Rather, it is the transforming life of the living Christ. Let us all turn ourselves to the living Christ. Turn to Christ from teachings. Turn to Christ from the gifts. We must never take the Bible as a book of theology or a book of knowledge. We must take it as a book of life, as the embodiment of the living Christ, as the Spirit. In this way we enjoy Christ, and we eat Him, drink Him, and breathe Him in. If we do this, we will have the transformation.
Those who are trying to do a work merely by teaching others will get nothing. Whatever they do will be in vain. We all have to minister Christ to others. We may use teachings as the means, but we do not minister teachings to others. We minister Christ to others by helping them to eat Christ in the teachings. Likewise, do not help people to have the gifts. Gifts help people, but what people need is not the gifts but Christ. Learn to enjoy Christ. Learn to experience Christ. Learn to participate in Christ. Then learn to minister the Christ whom you have experienced to others. This will not only cause people to be regenerated in their spirit but also will cause them to be transformed in their soul. It is by this transformation that people will be ready for the building. Praise the Lord, the local churches are built up in this way.
