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There is a crucial truth in the Bible related to three lives and four laws. If we desire to clearly understand the condition of our inner spiritual life or if we desire to be freed from sin so that we can lead an overcoming life, we must have a thorough understanding of this basic truth. There are three lives within every saved person. First, there is man’s life, which is the created life of man. Second, there is Satan’s life, which is the life man received because of the fall. Third, there is God’s life, which is the life man receives at his salvation. These three lives — the life of man, the life of Satan, and the life of God — exist simultaneously within a saved one.
These three lives originated in three great events that happened to man: creation, the fall, and salvation. Before his fall in the garden of Eden, Adam was created by God; thus, God’s creation was the first great event. Tempted by Satan, man then ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and became fallen; thus, he received Satan’s life. This was the second great event. These two great events — creation and the fall — are part of the history of every person. A third great event, however, happened to the believers; this great event is salvation through which God’s life enters into the believers.
These three great events within a believer have brought in three different lives: the created human life, Satan’s life, and God’s life. The created life of man comes from the breath of God (Gen. 2:7), Satan’s life comes from Satan, signified by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (v. 9), and God’s life comes from the Son of God (1 John 5:12). When man received the breath of God, he obtained the created human life. When he received the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he obtained Satan’s life. When he believed and received the Son of God, he obtained God’s life.
Coming forth from the creating hands of God, we were created; thus, we have man’s created life. Passing through Adam, we became fallen; thus, we have Satan’s fallen life. Entering into Christ, we were saved; thus, we have God’s uncreated life. The three prepositions — from, through, and into — in these three simple sentences involve many complicated stories.
In the garden of Eden there is a picture of three parties: man, represented by Adam, God, represented by the tree of life, and Satan, represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. With Adam standing before the two trees, the three parties were in a triangular situation. Both God and Satan want man. God desires man for the accomplishment of His will, and Satan wants man for the fulfillment of his evil intention. God’s way is to gain man through life. This is also Satan’s way. God’s intention was for man to eat the fruit of the tree of life and thus obtain His uncreated life and be joined to Him. However, Satan enticed man to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, causing man to obtain his fallen life and be mixed with him instead. Hence, the garden of Eden is a story of the conflict between God and Satan.
The created life of man is in man’s soul, the fallen life of Satan is in his body, and the uncreated life of God is in his spirit. When man was created, God breathed the breath of life into him, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). Therefore, man’s created life is related to his soul. When man fell, he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which signifies Satan, and received it into his body. Strictly speaking, Satan’s life came into the human body and caused the body to become flesh. When we believe in the Lord, we receive the Lord as our life in our spirit; thus, the Spirit comes into our spirit, and we have the life of God in our spirit.
In order to clearly understand the three parts in which these three lives are located, we must look at the consciousness of the three parts of man — the spirit, soul, and body. The body as the outer, physical part of man is visible and tangible, and it enables us to contact the external, physical world. Hence, the consciousness associated with the body is called physical consciousness. The spirit, the deepest and innermost part of our being, is the part of our being associated with a consciousness of God, and it enables us to contact God and have fellowship with Him. Hence, the consciousness associated with the spirit is called spiritual consciousness or God-consciousness. The soul, situated between the spirit and the body, is our psychological part, which includes the mind, emotion, and will, and it enables us to contact the psychological world. Hence, the consciousness associated with the soul is called psychological consciousness or self-consciousness. Physical consciousness enables us to sense things outside the body, self-consciousness enables us to sense ourselves, and God-consciousness enables us to sense God. The body has physical consciousness to contact things outside the body, the soul has self-consciousness to sense the things of the self, and the spirit has God-consciousness to deal with God and sense the things of God.
The physical body includes five sense organs related to seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching. The spirit has two sense organs — conscience and intuition. Although the spirit consists of the conscience, intuition, and fellowship, fellowship is not related to a sense. Only conscience and intuition are related to a sense. Therefore, the spirit has sense organs related only to the conscience and intuition. Although the soul also has three parts, consciousness is related only to the mind and emotion. Hence, the soul also has only two sense organs. The created life is in our soul, having sense organs related to the mind and emotion, which are known simply as self-consciousness. Satan’s life is in our body, which includes the five senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching. These senses are called physical consciousness. God’s life is in our spirit, which has sense organs related to the conscience and intuition. The sense associated with these two is called God-consciousness. The three lives are located in these three parts.
The life of man was originally innocent and simple, without knowledge of sin, because after man was created, he was “very good” in God’s eyes (1:31). Therefore, the created life of man was originally good and upright. It was without sin or even the knowledge of sin, and it had no consciousness of shame. It was innocent and simple. Satan’s life, filled with all kinds of sins, contains seeds of corruption and factors of evil. The nature of God’s life is holy and good. Thus, these three lives possess three absolutely different natures: the nature of man’s created life is good and upright, Satan’s fallen life is evil and corrupted, and God’s divine life is holy and good.
How many lives did Adam have in the garden of Eden? What kind of living did he have? In the garden of Eden Adam had only one life, that is, the created human life, and he led a good and upright living. In fact, before Adam sinned, he did not have any consciousness of good or evil. According to the biblical record, Adam was good and upright. At that time his eyes for good and evil were not yet opened. He did not know of evil or even of good. Although he was good and upright, he had no sense of goodness and uprightness. In the garden of Eden Adam had the created human life, and his living by this life was good and upright, but he did not have a sense of uprightness and goodness, nor did he have a sense of evil. He was simply there living his life in an innocent and simple way. In God’s eyes he did not have sin, nor did he know sin.
After the fall of man, man began to have two kinds of life — man’s life and Satan’s life, that is, the created life and the fallen life. With these two lives, his living became a mixture of man and the devil. Sometimes we live like a man and sometimes like the devil. The Chinese often refer to opium addicts, alcoholics, lustful persons, and habitual gamblers as “smoking devils,” “drinking devils,” “lustful devils,” and “gambling devils.” There is a certain truth to this. After the fall man has two kinds of lives, so he can live out two kinds of living. At times these two kinds of living are mixed together. At one moment a man can be gentle and good, looking like a proper man, but a minute later he can lose his temper and become violent and ugly, looking like the devil. Then a minute later he can repent, confess, and express God. Within a short period of time, man, the devil, and God are all lived out through him.
The man God created was the best and the fairest. In response to Satan’s temptation, man took in the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and was corrupted. Consequently, man’s inner being has become a place where man and the devil are mixed, and man’s living is a mixed living of man and the devil. Chinese philosophers throughout the ages have been divided into two schools — one advocates that man is born good, and the other stresses that man is born evil; the contention between the two schools is very intense. Actually, human nature is both good and evil because within man there are elements of good and elements of evil. Therefore, both schools are right, but both are incomplete because they are only half right.
After the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there is not only human goodness and uprightness but also satanic corruption and evil within man. There are two different lives with two different natures within man. When the good nature is active, he has a so-called “sense of mercy,” which is goodness; when the evil nature is active, he has thoughts related to sin and does evil things. For example, honoring our parents is a manifestation of our good nature, but losing our temper and rebelling against our parents are manifestations of the evil nature within us. Thus, both good and evil are in us. This is man’s condition before he is saved.
What is man’s condition after he is saved? Is a man more complicated before he is saved or after he is saved? A saved person has three different lives: man’s life, the devil’s life, and God’s life; hence, he can have three different kinds of living. When he expresses his goodness, he is like a man. When he lives out the sinful nature, he is like the devil. When he manifests the divine holiness and goodness, he is like God. We can say that the situation in the garden of Eden is present within a saved person. In the garden of Eden there was a triangular situation — man, Satan, and God. In a saved person there is also man, Satan, and God. Within us we have man’s life, Satan’s life, and God’s life; this is a triangular situation. There is a conflict between God and Satan in us. Whenever we cooperate with God, we are victorious, but whenever we cooperate with Satan, we fail.
The triangular situation in the garden of Eden has been completely transferred into man. Once the garden of Eden was outside of man, but now it is present in the believers. The story of the garden of Eden occurs in us daily. Within us is the tree of life as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God desires that we eat of the tree of life, but Satan entices us to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If we follow Satan and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we will fail, but if we live in the fellowship of life and eat Christ as the tree of life, we will overcome. This story is enacted in us daily.
This should not be regarded merely as a doctrine; rather, we need to understand it thoroughly and apply it in our spirit. Then we will realize that we have man’s life, Satan’s life, and also God’s life in us. These three lives are in us. When we learn to live before God, we need to discern whether we are committing a sin by following Satan, doing a good deed in ourselves, or cooperating with God through fellowshipping with Him.
We have seen clearly that there are three different lives in us — the created life, the fallen life, and the divine life. We also have three different kinds of living because of these three different lives — a good and upright living, a sinful living, and a divine living. The concept of a natural man is that Christians should have a good rather than a sinful living. Actually, Christians should not have merely a good living; even more, they should have a divine living. Even unbelievers can have a good living in themselves. The only difference is that they neither know God nor have the life of Christ. Christians should have a living that is not only good but also divine; that is, they should live out not merely goodness, but even more, God Himself.
The ultimate purpose of God’s salvation in us is for us to have God Himself as the goal, not goodness. His desire is not for us to stay away from evil and be good; instead, His desire is that we would stay away from both good and evil and live out God Himself. He does not desire for us to merely reject a heart of hatred and live out a heart of love; rather, He desires for us to reject both a hating heart and a loving heart and live out God Himself. When God is lived out, spontaneously there will be a heart of love. Not every heart of love is God Himself, but when God is lived out, love is definitely lived out, because God is love. Gold is yellow, but not everything yellow is gold. Likewise, God is love, but not every kind of love is God. People in the world express love, but their love is not God. The love that Christians live out from their spirit is God. If God desired for us merely to be delivered from evil and be good, we would not need to reject ourselves, nor would we need to die to ourselves. However, God’s desire is that we would be delivered not only from Satan’s evil but also from our own goodness. We must therefore reject ourselves. We must reject not only the evil life of Satan but also our good life in order to live in the divine life of God.
Christians should not live by their good life, just as they should not live by Satan’s evil life. Christians should live only by God’s divine life. Hence, God demands that we reject and deny ourselves (Matt. 16:24-25), just as we reject and deny Satan. We need to learn to deny ourselves in the same way that we deny Satan. We also need to learn to reject our life of doing good in the same way that we reject Satan’s life of doing evil. We need to reject our good thoughts as well as our evil thoughts. Both must be rejected because God does not desire for us to live by our good thoughts, just as He does not want us to live by our evil thoughts. Instead, He desires for us to live by His divine life. If an unsaved person tried to deny himself and to reject Satan, he would have nothing to live by and thus could not live. However, if a believer rejects Satan and denies himself, God will still have ground in him, and God will be lived out from within him.
To reject Satan and to deny our self is the experience of the cross. To put our self to death in order to allow God the opportunity to live out of us is resurrection. Death and resurrection are the basic experiences of a Christian. The death of the cross is related to losing the life of man. When we lose our human life, the evil life of Satan with which we have been involved will be lost automatically. Once we die, we are delivered from our own life as well as from Satan’s life. We are delivered from both lives. At such a moment, God’s life in us will have the opportunity to be lived out of us; this is resurrection. The life that is lost is our human life together with the satanic life. The life that is resurrected is God’s life, the life of God lived out of us.
Hatred toward the brothers is the manifestation of Satan’s life, but our intention to love the brothers is a manifestation of our own life. Just as we need to reject our hatred of the brothers, we also need to deny our intention to love the brothers. Some may say that this is very dangerous. If we reject both our hatred and our love, will anything be left? In fact, it is only at this juncture that God’s life has the opportunity to be lived out of us. When we reject Satan’s life and its thoughts of hatred and when we also deny our own life and its thoughts that originate from our own love, we will practically experience the death of the cross; that is, we will be standing in the place of death to allow God’s life to be lived out of us. When we reject Satan’s life and also our own life, we are standing in the place of death, putting ourselves to death by the Holy Spirit. We do not want evil, nor do we want good; rather, we have come to the place of death. A dead person neither hates others nor loves others, nor can a dead person commit sins or do good. It is at this point that God can be lived out of us.
Christians need to arrive at a point where they have been put to death, being able to neither commit sins nor do good. At this time there will be resurrection. Death brings in resurrection. Where there is death, there is resurrection. Death involves the loss of man’s life, but resurrection involves the living out of God’s life. When we come to the place of death, God is resurrected. When we depart, God comes in, and when we are terminated, God is germinated. When we do not know love or hatred and cannot do good or do evil, God is lived out, and God’s life will come out from within us. When God’s life comes out from within us, there will be a gushing forth of a great measure of love, a great measure of goodness, a great measure of humility, and a great measure of meekness. What gushes forth will be a fountain of living water. This is not something we work out; instead, it is God Himself being lived out of us.
The inner being of a believer is quite complicated. In order to have a living that is up to standard, Christians need two levels of rejection. We need to reject Satan’s life, and we also need to reject man’s life. We need to reject evil and also to reject good. Unbelievers need only one level of rejection. By rejecting the life of the devil and living by their own life, they can be decent and proper persons. But Christians not only need to reject the satanic life; they also need to reject their own life. We not only need to reject evil but also to reject good; we need to reject both good and evil. We must have these two levels of rejection so that God’s life, the life on the third level, can be lived out of us. The goal of a Christian is not to be a good man but to be a God-man. Goodness is not the goal of Christians; God is the goal of Christians. People in the world take goodness as their goal, but Christians should take God and Christ as their goal.
Learning the fellowship of life is not about living a life of goodness but living the life of God, the life of Christ. When we touch the fellowship of life, we are not in the realm of evil or in the realm of good; we are in Christ. We need to see that good and evil stand together and are on the same tree. Both good and evil are versus life. When we learn to fellowship in life, we do not reject evil and follow good; instead, we reject both good and evil to follow the inner life and live the divine life in us.
As soon as a person is saved, it is easy to have a concept about rejecting evil and pursuing good. They naturally think of rejecting evil and living out good. However, we must remember that whenever we pay attention to goodness, we are not in God but in ourselves; whenever we pay attention to goodness, we fall into ourselves. When we pay attention to love, to virtues, or to goodness, we fall into ourselves. Once we fall into ourselves, the fellowship of life ceases. In order to learn to fellowship and to deny ourselves, we must deny ourselves in relation to not only evil things but also good things. It is only at this point that we can practically stand in death, having the experience of death, so that God can come in and be lived out of us. It is at this moment that we can touch God in our fellowship. Then what we live out will be a living in fellowship, a mingled living of God and us. In the flow of God’s life, we have a life of fellowship that is based on neither the evil of Satan nor the good of man but rather on the life of God being lived out of us; this is the fellowship of life.
May God open our eyes so that we can truly know that His life in us is the treasure we have received. We need to learn to know God’s life and to live in this life. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we may touch His way and know the way of life. We need to ponder all these matters point by point and calmly remain in a spirit of prayer to touch the proper way of life.
