Search
In the Bible God’s central goal is life, and also in the whole universe God’s central goal is life. This is a record in the Bible and a fact in the universe.
Some people may ask, “How can we say that God’s central goal in the universe is life?” This can be seen from the revelation of the entire Scriptures. From the outset the Bible is a record of how God created the universe and all things and how He created man and put him in front of the tree of life. If we consider the first two chapters of Genesis, we will see a picture with the tree of life at its center. God created the heavens and the earth, and in the realm of the universe God caused the plants to grow and the birds of heaven to be brought forth. He also caused the fish of the sea, the cattle of the earth, and the insects and wild animals to come forth according to their kind. Then God created man and pointed out one item to him — the tree of life. God put man, whom He created, in front of the tree of life so that man might receive life.
The picture in Genesis shows the situation of the universe, the story of the universe. At the center of this picture is the tree of life. Therefore, God’s central goal in the universe is life.
In the sixty-six books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, life is mentioned repeatedly. The first mention of life in the Bible is in Genesis 2; then Psalm 36:9 says, “With You is the fountain of life; / In Your light we see light.” Here we see a wonderful principle in the Bible: life is always spoken of in conjunction with light; life accompanies light, and life is in the light. Psalm 36:9 particularly speaks of this life. Since life is in God and God is light, life is in the light. Life is wrapped up with light and is contained in the light. Psalm 133 speaks of the brothers dwelling in unity, and at the end it says, “For there Jehovah commanded the blessing: / Life forever” (v. 3). In this psalm life is spoken of again.
In the New Testament, John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Here life and light are spoken of together again. The difference here is that the light spoken of in John is light that has shined forth, and the light spoken of in Psalm 36 is light as the source of life. On one hand, light is the source of life, and on the other hand, light has shined forth.
Furthermore, John 11:25 says, “I am...the life”; 14:6 says, “I am the way and the reality and the life”; and 10:10 says, “I have come that they may have life.” Colossians 3:4 says, “Christ our life.” First John 5:11 says, “This life is in His [God’s] Son”; therefore, “he who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (v. 12). Revelation 22:2 says that the tree of life is in the New Jerusalem. This shows that the scene in the universe recorded at the end of the Bible also has life as its center. Life is at the center of the new heaven and new earth in the new universe in the future. From beginning to end the record of the Bible shows that life is the center of the universe.
At the beginning of the Bible there is a picture, and also at the end of the Bible there is a picture. The picture at the beginning of the Bible portrays the first universe, the old universe. In the old universe God’s focus is on life. The picture at the end of the Bible portrays a new universe. In the new universe God’s focus is also on life. This shows that in the entire universe God’s focus is on life; the central goal in the universe is life. Since God’s focus in the universe is on life, His focus in the record of the Bible is also on life because it is a story of the universe; every important matter in the universe is recorded in the Bible. Since the facts are focused on life, the record is surely also focused on life. Therefore, the Bible is a book on life, a book with life as its subject. Since life is the focus of the universe, and since the Bible reveals the mystery of the universe and describes the story of the universe, certainly its content also is focused on life. Although some people say that the Bible speaks of this and others say that the Bible speaks of that, in reality the Bible is a book on life.
All the sixty-six books in the Bible are on life. From the beginning in Genesis 2 life is revealed. It shows from whom life comes, through whom it passes, and into whom it enters. Life comes from God, passes through Christ and the Holy Spirit, and enters into us to be our life. The record at the end of Revelation is also on life. The pictures at the beginning of Genesis and at the end of Revelation focus on life. What is the difference between these two pictures? In the first picture the created life was put in front of the uncreated life so that the former might receive the latter. In other words, the two lives had no relationship. In the second picture the created life has received the uncreated life, and the uncreated life has become the enjoyment of the created life; thus, the two lives have become one.
In the first picture the two lives are separate from each other and are even the opposite of each other. Yet in the second picture the two have become one; the uncreated life has been mingled with the created life. Man represents the created life, and God represents the uncreated life. Hence, the mingling of the created life with the uncreated life is the mingling of man and God. At the beginning of Genesis, God was God, and man was man. The two were separate from each other; they were not mingled together. At the end of Revelation, however, God and man, man and God, are mingled together.
How can God and man be mingled together? How can God be mingled with man? The mingling of God and man is the mingling of life; God mingles with man in the way of life. Man is a created life, and God is the uncreated life. The mingling of these two lives is the mingling of God and man. But how can these two lives be mingled together? How can man be mingled with God? For man to be mingled with God, he must receive God’s life. Unless man receives God’s life, he cannot be mingled with God. Therefore, the mingling of God and man is altogether by life and through life.
We have seen that the central goal of God in the universe is life. Now we need to see how God came to be man’s life and to be mingled with man. God’s focus is on life, which is simply God Himself. Therefore, for God to take life as the center of the universe means that He takes Himself as the center of the universe. For Him to put His life into man means that He desires to put Himself into man. For Him to desire man to receive life means that He desires man to receive Himself. When life enters into man, God enters man. We would never say that God is God, that life is life, and that God and life are separate from each other. Actually, God is life, and life is God; the two cannot be separated. When life is separated from God, it is no longer life. Life is not only in God, but life is God. Hence, Psalm 36 says that life is in God and that the source of life is with God.
In the Old Testament we can see life, but we cannot easily see what life is. It is not until the New Testament that we see that life is God Himself. The incarnated Christ is God on one hand and life on the other hand. Christ is God, and Christ is life; therefore, God is life. Furthermore, we know assuredly that God became flesh in order that we may receive Him as life. In His incarnation He said, “I have come that they may have life” (John 10:10). The life in us is God Himself. God became flesh so that man might receive Him as life. He said that He was the living bread which came down out of heaven (6:51); this means that God became man and came among men because He desires to be the living bread so that men can receive Him as their life.
We often say that we have received the life of God, but in fact, the Bible rarely uses the expression the life of God and almost never says that God desires us to receive His life. Instead, the Bible says that God is life. For example, in John 11:25 the Lord said, “I am...the life,” and Colossians 3:4 says, “Christ our life.” We often say that we have received God’s life, but strictly speaking, we have not received God’s life; rather, we have received God Himself as our life. We obtain our physical life from our father, but we cannot say that our father is our life. For our spiritual life, however, not only have we received the divine life from God, but we have also received God Himself as our life, because God’s life cannot be separated from God Himself. God’s life is God Himself; it is impossible for God to give His life to us without His coming into us. In order for us to receive God’s life, we must receive God Himself. Since life is God, it is impossible for us to receive only God’s life but not God Himself.
The manifestation of life, however, is not that simple. First, this life exists from eternity, from the beginning. First John 1:1 says, “That which was from the beginning...concerning the...life”; this life was in eternity past without beginning. This life was in the beginning and is called the Father. Therefore, the Father is the origin. At a certain time He was manifested, and this life was seen in the Son. Therefore, the Son is the expression.
When the Son was manifested, He clearly said, “I am...the life,” and “I have come that they may have life.” Then Paul says, “Christ our life”; the Son is our life. John went on to say concerning the Son,“He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:12). This means that the Son is life expressed, but the story of this life does not stop here. The Son went through human living on earth and eventually died on the cross; after three days He resurrected from the dead and became the Spirit. At this time this life is seen in the Spirit. This life is in the Spirit.
According to Romans 8:2, after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit is called the Spirit of life, proving that life is in the Spirit and that the Spirit is life; hence, the Spirit is called the Spirit of life. John 7:38 says, “He who believes into Me,...out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” The rivers of living water are life. Then the next verse continues, “But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive” (v. 39). The rivers of living water actually denote the life of the Son; this can be proven by John 4:14, where the Lord explicitly said that the water that He will give to those who receive Him will become a fountain in them. Then in chapter 7 He said that the living water refers to “the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (v. 39). Glorification refers to the resurrection of Jesus.
At that time, because Jesus was not yet resurrected, the Spirit was not yet; however, when Jesus was resurrected, the Spirit came. The Spirit is the living water as life in those who believe into the Lord Jesus. When we put John 4 and 7 and Romans 8 together, we see that after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit is life. Therefore, life is God Himself. In eternity past, life could be seen in the Father; when He was manifested among men, life was seen in the Son; after passing through death and resurrection, life can be seen in the Spirit. Hence, life is related to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
