Search
We all know that God’s central goal in the universe is life and that God Himself comes to be our life. God comes to be our life, not to be our power, because He desires to mingle Himself with us. God comes to be our life in order to mingle Himself with us; there is no way that is more practical than this.
It is true that God is life, but He also has come to be our life. Paul says, “Christ our life” (Col. 3:4). Christ, who is life, is now in us as our life. This life is Christ Himself; only by coming into us to be our life can Christ be mingled practically with us.
In order for a lamb or a cow to be mingled with us, it must be eaten. Only by being eaten, digested, and assimilated can they get into us and be mingled with us. Eating is a matter of life. Thus, the Lord said, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven;...the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Then He continued, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within yourselves” (v. 53). This means we must eat Him and drink Him; when we eat and drink Him, we have life within us. Here we see that there is only one way, one method, for God to mingle Himself with us, and this way, this method, is life. If God was not our life, He would have no way to mingle Himself with us.
In the Bible the thought of God becoming our life through eating and drinking is deep and profound. But among Christians this thought does not have much weight or ground. We have never had the thought that God’s coming to be our life is similar to a cow or a lamb becoming our life by being killed and taken into us, but this is the thought of the Bible. In John 6:27 the Lord Jesus said, “Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life.” This verse speaks of two kinds of food: one is the food which perishes, and the other is the food which abides unto eternal life. The eternal life of God is God Himself. Therefore, the food that abides unto eternal life is also God Himself. God Himself is our food. This is not merely a matter of enjoyment but of constitution. When food is taken into us and becomes our enjoyment, it is digested in us to become a part of us, and eventually, it is constituted into us and mingled with us.
When we eat food, such as beef, lamb, bread, vegetables, and eggs, it is a pleasure and enjoyment, but the ultimate result is that the food is digested into us to become our blood, our flesh, and our life constituents. All the readers of the Bible know that eating and drinking are symbols. Our need to eat food and drink water signifies our need to eat and drink God, that is, to take God into us by eating Him and drinking Him. This kind of speaking may sound wild, but actually, it is expressive and practical. In John 6 the Lord told us to work for the food which abides unto eternal life, not for the food which perishes. This work issues in gaining God Himself. Because the Jews did not understand what the Lord said, He later told them that He was the bread of life which came down out of heaven, that He was food, and that those who ate Him would have eternal life. The eternal life is God Himself.
If we study John 6 carefully, we will see that the Lord came to earth for one purpose — to enter into man and become man’s life. He can enter into us and become our life when we take Him in as food. Preachers often tell people that without God, man is empty and unsatisfied, but with God, man is satisfied. This can be likened to the fact that without food, one’s stomach is empty; with food, one’s stomach is full. This is a simple illustration. Not only does food satisfy man and become man’s enjoyment, but it is also received, digested, and assimilated by man to be mingled with man and become man’s element. This mingling is so practical and subjective. After food is taken into us, it is not only mingled with us, but it also becomes our element, our blood and flesh. This shows that God desires to give Himself to us as food so that He may not only satisfy us and become our enjoyment but also may be digested in us and become our element. If God did not come to be our life in this way, He would have no way to mingle Himself with us and work Himself into us.
We all know that the entire Bible is about life, but when life is spoken of, eating and drinking are spoken of as well. When Genesis 2 speaks of the tree of life, the matter of eating is mentioned immediately (vv. 9, 16-17). In the age of the New Testament the Lord Jesus came. When He revealed that He wanted man to receive Him as life, He also spoke of the matter of eating. He said, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” (John 6:54). In His conversation with the Samaritan woman, the Lord said, “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall by no means thirst forever” (4:13-14). This shows how the Lord used eating and drinking to speak about the matter of receiving.
At the end of the Bible Revelation 22:1-2 also speaks of life, saying, “A river of water of life...in the middle of its street. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits.” Then verse 17 says, “Let him who wills take the water of life freely.” At the end of the Bible, when life is spoken of, the matter of eating and drinking is referred to in regard to eating the fruits of the tree of life and drinking the river of water of life. Therefore, the entire Bible speaks not only of life but also of eating and drinking. Life cannot be separated from eating and drinking.
In John 6:53-56 the Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in Him.” We need to see that whenever we eat the Lord’s flesh and drink the Lord’s blood, we are joined to the Lord Jesus in a very subjective way; He and we are in each other.
Verse 57 continues, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” Translators of the Bible into Chinese rendered the phrase he who eats Me as “he who eats My flesh.” Actually, the Lord meant that He desired us to eat Him. Although the expression to eat Him may sound wild, it is exactly what the Lord meant. He who eats Him will live because of Him. Has there ever been anyone who has actually eaten the flesh of the Lord Jesus? No. But we have all received the Lord Jesus into us. We must see that God desires us to take Him in as food. He gives Himself to us as food to eat because He desires to be digested in us. This is the reason God must come to be our life. If God were not our life, He could not be digested in us, joined to us, and mingled with us to become our inward constituents.
In order to mingle with man, God has to come to be our life. His coming to be our Savior, power, and wisdom does not reach His goal of mingling Himself with us. He must first come to be our life, and then all these other things can be added. All these other matters depend on His being our life. His being our power is based upon His being our life, His being our Savior is based upon His being our life, and His being our everything is based upon His being our life. If God were not our life, He could not be anything to us. God being our life is a central matter; it is the focus of all His work in us. His being our power, healing, comfort, Savior, and even our Lord depend on this matter. In other words, if He were not our life, He could not do anything in us.
Since God being our life by being digested, mingled, and constituted into us is a central matter, we need to see more concerning this life. God Himself is life, but how many processes or stages are involved in His becoming our life? In each of the processes, how is He identified? We need to know all these matters. From eternity, from the beginning, God is life. In eternity the Father is the source of life. One day the Father, who is the source of life, was manifested among men. First John 1:1-2 clearly says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life (and 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).”
This is the Son, and His name is Jesus. The Gospel of John records that everyone who believes into the Son should have eternal life (6:40); the Son is life. The Son, having passed through His human living on the earth was crucified and resurrected to become the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). Life and the Spirit are one; thus, the Spirit is life. John 20 says that in the evening of the Lord’s resurrection, He came to the disciples and breathed into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” From that moment, the Lord who is the Spirit was with the disciples (vv. 19-22). The Lord as the Spirit dwelling in the disciples was their life because the Spirit is life. This shows that the Father is life, the Son is life, and also the Spirit is life.
In the universe, besides the life of God, all other kinds of life cannot be considered as life. In the universe there is plant life, lower animal life, higher animal life, human life, and angelic life. In terms of nature and principle, however, these different kinds of life cannot be considered as life. The real nature and principle of life is that it is ever-living, ever-existing, indestructible, unchangeable, and incorruptible. Only God Himself is life because only God is eternal, ever-existing, unchanging, and incorruptible. Only God Himself is divine and eternal, and only God Himself is life. Therefore, only God’s life can be considered as life. God’s life is the unique life in the universe. Only by having this life can one have life; without this life, one cannot have life.
The life of God is in His Son Jesus Christ; hence, 1 John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” This means that with the Son, there is life, and without the Son, there is no life.
God is life. In order for Him to enter into us to be our life, He must flow Himself out. If He did not flow out, we would have no way to contact Him, let alone receive Him. If He did not flow out, He would have no way to enter into us. In Genesis 2, immediately after speaking of the tree of life, there is mention of a flowing river (vv. 9-10). Therefore, after speaking of life, the Bible goes on to speak of a river. God’s coming to be our life is absolutely related to a river.
First, this river flowed from the throne to Jesus the Nazarene. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He was a river of life flowing among men but not yet flowing into them. Therefore, He needed a second step, which was to go to the cross so that His flesh would be broken, just as the rock was cleft in the Old Testament. Then from His inner being, life flowed forth, becoming rivers of living water. The rivers of living water are the many flows of the different aspects of life, originating from the one unique river of water of life (Rev. 22:1), which is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the Lord’s transfiguration. The Lord, as the Spirit, not only can appear among men but also enter into men. Hence, John 7:38 says, “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” From the innermost being of those who believe into Him flow rivers of living water. Then verse 39 continues, “But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive.” This means that the Spirit, who is the Lord Himself, has entered into those who believe into Him to become the living water of life in them.
At this time we can say that God has truly entered into us to be our life. This is the flowing out of God. God flowed out through the Lord Jesus and flowed into us; this is life.
