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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:9; Psa. 36:9; John 1:4; 11:25; 14:6; 1 John 1:2; 5:12; Col. 3:4; John 4:10, 14; 7:38-39; Rom. 8:2, 6; Rev. 22:1-2
The first point we want to cover in this book is how to grow in life. The church life depends mainly on the growth in life.
In a sense, it is easy to know about God. Even the unbelievers know about God. They know that there is an almighty Being in this universe. But it is rather hard to know Christ. In the first verse of the Bible in Genesis, God is revealed — “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The first item revealed in the Bible is God.
Later, Christ is revealed in the Bible. The Gospel of John says that in the beginning was God, the Word, and the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality (1:1, 14). Christ is God plus something. The revelation in the Scriptures begins with God and goes on to Christ. Many human beings know something of God. But only a small number of people, relatively speaking, know Christ. Many Jewish people know God, but they do not know Christ. We thank the Lord that we Christians know not only God but also Christ.
All the real Christians know Christ, but very few know the church. When we go on from the Gospels to Acts, there is the church. Knowing the church is not as easy as knowing Christ. After the church is revealed in the New Testament, the local churches are revealed. In Genesis God is revealed, in the Gospels Christ is revealed, in Acts the church is revealed, and in Revelation the local churches are revealed. Thus, the Bible goes from God to Christ, from Christ to the church, and from the church to the local churches. The local churches are the last point of God’s divine revelation. Revelation 1:11 says, “What you see write in a scroll and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” Here there are seven local churches in seven localities. I say again that this is the last point of the divine revelation in all the Scriptures.
Those Christians who are advanced know God, Christ, and the church. But thank the Lord that by His mercy, we know God, Christ, the church, and the local churches. We are not held in Genesis, the Gospels, or Acts. We are in Revelation. I like Genesis, but I do not want to stay there. I like the biography of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels, but I do not want to stay there either. I like Acts, Romans, and Ephesians, but I do not want to remain in these books. I want to stay in the book of Revelation. Revelation will bring us into the New Jerusalem, which is revealed in its final chapters. Thus, we will never get out of the book of Revelation. We will be there for eternity.
We can get into the New Jerusalem through the local churches. In the first three chapters of Revelation, there are the local churches. Then in the last two chapters, there is the New Jerusalem. If you are in the local churches, there is no doubt that you will be in the New Jerusalem. We have to be in the beginning of the book of Revelation so that we can know the local churches.
A number of spiritual teachers know the church but not the local churches. They talk much about the book of Ephesians, but they have not entered into the end of the divine revelation. The four main items revealed in God’s divine revelation are God, Christ, the church, and the local churches. When we have the local churches, we have the church. Then we have Christ and God. This is because God is in Christ, Christ is in the church, and the reality and practicality of the church are in the local churches. If we want to find God, we must come to Christ. In order to find Christ, we must come to the church, and the reality and practicality of the church are in the local churches. Thus, if you are for the local churches, you are for everything. If you have the local church, you have the church; if you have the church, you have Christ; and if you have Christ, you have God. We all should declare, “Praise the Lord! I am in the local churches!”
In order to grow in life, we must know the local church. The local churches are the real expression of the church; the church is the real expression of Christ; and Christ is the real expression of God. In other words, God is expressed through Christ, Christ is expressed through the church, and the church is expressed through the local churches. People may talk about the universal church, but have they ever contacted it? What we can contact is the local church. Some might say that when we speak too much about the local church, we make the heavenly church earthly. But we must be clear that the local churches are the real expression of the heavenly church on the earth.
We also need to see that the church is not an organization but an organism. But what is the difference between an organism and an organization? We can illustrate this by considering a chair and our physical body. A chair is an organization of lifeless material, but our physical body has life. Thus, it is an organism. Life makes our body an organism. The church is the Body of Christ, and as an organism it depends upon life. The church is an entity of life. It is produced by life and formed with life and in life. We have to see that the church is a life entity. It is not something formed by teaching or by organization. We cannot form, organize, or establish a church by our teachings, regardless of how spiritual they are. The church is born of life and formed of life. It is altogether an entity of life.
Now we need to ask, “What is life?” Christ is life. John 1:4 says that in Him is life. In John 11:25 and 14:6, He said that He is the life. Then the apostle Paul told us in Colossians 3:4 that Christ is our life. Christ is the life of the members of His Body. Who is Christ? Christ is God. Where is Christ? Christ is in the Spirit.
But this is still not fully clear. I want to give you a clear picture with a full scope of the matter of life from the entire Scriptures. God’s intention in this universe is to bring forth the church as the Body of Christ. How could God produce such a Body? The first step He took was His creation. He created many things, and eventually He created man in His own image (Gen. 1:26). But at the time of creation, God did not put Himself into man as life. He put man in the garden of Eden in front of the tree of life (2:9), and man at that time was an empty vessel.
Romans 9 tells us that we are vessels, containers (vv. 21, 23). Thus, man at the time of creation was in the image of God, but he was empty within. He was made as an empty vessel and put in front of the tree of life. God did this with the intention for man to partake of the tree of life, which signifies God Himself. Psalm 36:9 says that God is the fountain of life. Then John 1:4 says that in Him, the One who is the Word and God Himself, there is life. Life is in Him, so He is the tree of life.
The Lord is life, and we have to receive Him (vv. 12-13). If we have Him, we have life (1 John 5:11-12). The apostle John said, “The life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us” (1:2). Christ is the life. When Christ was manifested, the life was manifested for us to receive. If we have the Son of God, we have life. By this life we have been regenerated, reborn, and by regeneration we have been produced as the members of the Body of Christ. Christ is the life of all the members of His Body, and eventually, this Body will be increased into the New Jerusalem.
In the New Jerusalem we see the tree of life once again (Rev. 22:2). The tree of life in the garden of Eden was not within any human beings. It was standing there outside of man, and man was standing in front of the tree of life. But at the end of the divine revelation, the tree of life is within the New Jerusalem. This city is the composition of all the redeemed ones. This means that the tree of life will be within all the redeemed ones.
Furthermore, the tree of life in the New Jerusalem is growing in the river of life (vv. 1-2). Where the river of life flows, the tree of life grows. If the river of life is flowing in you, the tree of life is growing in you. When we have the flow of the river, we have the growing of the tree. This brief fellowship gives us a brief yet full picture of life in the entire Bible.
Revelation 22:1 says that the river of life flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. There is one throne, but how can two persons sit on one throne? You may say that the Bible tells us that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. So it must be that God is sitting at the left and Jesus is sitting at the right. But actually there is not one throne for two persons. Revelation 21 tells us that Christ is the lamp (v. 23), and we know that God is the light (1 John 1:5). The light is within the lamp. On the throne there is not only God but also the Lamb. God as the light is within the Lamb as the lamp. He is the Lamb-God, which means that He is the redeeming God.
Genesis 1 does not say that in the beginning God and the Lamb created the heavens and the earth. It simply says, “In the beginning God...” But at the end of the Bible there are God and the Lamb. There is God plus something. In the beginning is God, but at the end is God plus the Lamb. Now He is not only God but also the Lamb-God.
Out of God who is in Christ, out of the redeeming God, flows the river of water of life. The river of life is simply the flowing of life, just as the current of electricity is the flowing of electricity. The river of life is life flowing. Thus, the river of life is God in Christ as the Spirit flowing. It is the flowing of God. Life is simply the Triune God flowing into us, through us, and out of us.
The pictures presented in the Bible, especially in Genesis and Revelation, are very meaningful. Revelation shows us that God as the light is in the Lamb as the lamp. Out of the throne of the Lamb-God flows the river of life. This signifies that God in Christ as the Spirit — the Triune God — flows out to be received by us. We receive Him by drinking Him. When we drink of Him, He will flow into us. When we cooperate with Him some more, He will flow through us and out of us as the Spirit. John 7 tells us that what we drink and what flows out of us is the Spirit, who is God Himself (vv. 37-39). Thus, life is God in three persons flowing into us, through us, and out of us.
Now we need to consider how God flows. The Bible shows us that God flows mainly in two steps. First, He flowed by being incarnated. He was in eternity in the heavens, dwelling in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), but one day He became incarnated. He came down to the earth to dwell among people. In this incarnated One, there was life and light.
Incarnation was the first step that God took to flow out. But this first step merely brought Him to the earth among people. He still could not get into us. Thus, He had to take a second step, the step of resurrection. The first step was incarnation, and the second step was resurrection. In order to be resurrected, He had to suffer death. By death He was brought into resurrection, and through resurrection He finished the second step of His flowing. By the first step He was incarnated to be a man with the flesh. By the second step He was transformed, changed in form, into the Spirit of life. In resurrection He is now the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Now He is not merely able to be on this earth among human beings, but He is also able to enter into us, His believers.
Now He is flowing in resurrection, and the way to receive Him is to drink Him in spirit by calling on His name — “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus.” The more you say, “Lord Jesus,” the more you drink of Him. The more you say, “Lord Jesus,” the more He flows in. He flows into us, through us, and out of us to water the whole earth, to quench the thirst of all the needy ones. In the flow the tree of life grows, indicating that when you have this flow, you have the supply of life. The tree of life produces twelve fruits and yields its fruit each month (Rev. 22:2). The fruit is always new and fresh to meet every need.
In John 14:6 the Lord told us that He is the life. Then in verses 7 through 11 He told us that He is one with the Father. Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (v. 8). Then the Lord said, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (v. 9). Then in verses 16 through 20 the Lord told us that another person would be sent — the Holy Spirit. As the Spirit, Christ would come to enter into the disciples. Verses 7 through 11 tell us that Christ is one with the Father. Verses 16 through 20 tell us that the Holy Spirit is the reality of Christ. Christ is life to us by being the embodiment of the Father realized as the Spirit. Romans 8:2 speaks of the Spirit of life, and 1 Corinthians 15:45b says that Christ as the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.
The key point to receiving Him and containing Him is our human spirit. Romans 8:6 says that the mind set on the spirit is life. If you want to receive the flowing Triune God as your life, you have to open from the depths of your being to say, “O Lord Jesus.” If you want to enjoy Him as life all day long, you need to call upon His name continually. The more you say, “O Lord Jesus,” the more you will enjoy Him. Do not try to be humble or good. That does not work. Simply call upon the name of the Lord.
How can you control your temper? When you feel like you are going to lose your temper, simply say, “O Lord Jesus.” Then you will not lose your temper, but your temper will be lost; in other words, it will go away. It will be lost by your saying, “O Lord Jesus.” Do not try to be humble or to love others. The more you try to love someone, the more you will not love him. Just call upon the Lord continually. Then everyone will be so lovable to you. This is the way to enjoy the flowing of the Triune God as life.
Without the real experience of life, there is no practicality or actuality of the church life. Without the real experience of life, we will be divided. We do not need to talk about life in a doctrinal way. We need the real experience of life through the exercise of our spirit. We need to enjoy Christ by drinking Him and giving Him the free way to flow in us, through us, and out of us. Then we have the Father in the Son as the Spirit as our life. Daily and hourly we need to enjoy Him as our life. When we enjoy Him as life, we are humble and love others unconsciously. This life is nothing less than Christ Himself realized as the Spirit, who is flowing in our spirit. We need to exercise our spirit to say, “O Lord Jesus.” Then we will enjoy the flowing of the living water in us, through us, and out of us. This is the way that we enjoy all the riches of Christ as the tree of life with the full, abundant, rich supply for the actuality of the church life.
