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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:8-9, 16-17; Rom. 7:21-25a; 8:1-2
There are many things on this globe that people treasure. I would like to tell them, however, to throw those things away. I have diamonds to give them! This is the gospel. The gospel imparts to us something other than what we have. It offers us God Himself.
The Jews believe that they have God, but actually they do not. God is in Christ. God in Christ is the treasure. Without Christ we do not know where God is; He cannot be traced. I would like to tell my Jewish friends that what they have is not real. What I would share with them is real. This sounds proud, but it is not. It is spoken out of love. I may have come from a nation despised by the Western people, but nonetheless I do have something beyond what they have.
In a private talk with me in 1933, Brother Nee spoke with me about the Lord’s move. After Count Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren, he said, the Lord unquestionably raised up the Brethren in the 1820s under the leadership of John Nelson Darby. These British Brethren were much used by the Lord. Before very long, however, they were damaged by division because of their excessive attention to doctrinal considerations. Because of them, Europe was spoiled for the practice of the church. This poison also spoiled the United States.
According to Brother Nee’s observation, around 1920 the Lord had a need for His recovery to be carried on. Because both Europe and America were no longer pure soil, the Lord was forced to go to a heathen, primitive land. Concerning the church practice, China was virgin soil. The gospel had been brought there. The Bible was there. The Lord’s name was known. The denominations also, sorry to say, were present; but there was little Brethren practice. Sixty years ago China was truly virgin soil in the matter of the church life. This afforded the Lord a new beginning, distinct from the denominational practices and purely according to the Bible.
Now sixty years have gone by. Revelation after revelation has come to us. It is not surprising that when Brother Nee’s books were translated into English, many seeking Christians were ready to devour them. New light was there. New expressions were used. Remember that the source was the Nazareth of China. Can anything good come out of Nazareth (John 1:46)? Yes! That was where Jesus Christ came from!
The Lord has very much opened up Romans 8 to us recently. For fifty years I have been speaking on Romans 8. Now it has become a new chapter. The other day I was looking into Godet’s exposition of Romans 8. What is there is old and general. It is common to a number of seeking Christians. Where can we find something fresh about the law of the Spirit of life?
Western culture is based upon Hebrew religion, Greek philosophy, and Roman politics. When we say that the West is under the influence of the Hebrew religion, we are including Judaism, Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. The Hebrew religion presents people with God and ethics. The essence of religion is to behave and teach according to one’s beliefs about God. The Jews have a belief about God. I do not say that they believe in God. I believe in God — I am not boasting — but my Jewish friends only believe about Him. They do not really believe in Him. In any case, because of their belief they preach and teach their children about God and try to behave according to what they believe. The Western world, Europe and America, is made up of the descendants of Japheth, one of Noah’s three sons. These make up the white race. They are under the influence of the Hebrew religion and its offshoots.
The Chinese are under the teachings of Confucius. Even in their dreams the Chinese people, some nine hundred million of them, are governed by his ethics.
In this chapter what I have to say is beyond the Hebrew religion. It will leave the teachings of Confucius far behind. The pure revelation of the Scripture levels all of them. According to the revelation of the Bible, I say to the Westerners, Forget the Hebrew religion! To the Easterners, Forget Confucius’s teachings! I have no choice. I have a commission and a burden. The apostle Paul also acted according to this principle. He offended both Greeks and Jews, calling them both fools and stressing that God alone was wise (1 Cor. 1:19-27; 2:6-16).
We must come back to the Bible. What I have to say is extraordinary. If you have a Chinese background, as you read, do not entertain the thought that Confucius deals with this point also. If you come from a Western background, as you are reading, do not say to yourself, “My pastor said the same thing five years ago.” What the Bible teaches is higher and deeper. Please learn to pick up the God-given discernment. The focus of what the Bible reveals is other than what Confucius and the Hebrew religion teach.
We have a new message, vital though unusual, on the two trees in Genesis and the two laws in Romans.
Consider the universe that God created. Scientists today have learned something of how vast it is. The universe is composed of perhaps forty billion galaxies. One galaxy is made up of two hundred forty million solar systems. The distance from the earth to the moon is just a short length in one solar system. Besides the vastness of the universe, there are the billions of items it contains, too numerous to mention. One of these items, the Bible, God’s Word, tells us that God created man, another item, in a particular way. Man was not God, but he was made in God’s image and likeness.
Romans 11 tells us that we believers in Christ have been grafted into God. (Romans 6:5 has this thought also.) For a branch from one tree to be grafted to another, the two trees must be close in nature. Apples, for example, will not grow on peach trees. An almond branch, however, can be grafted to a peach tree because the two are quite close. If our human life were entirely different from God’s, there would be no possibility for the two lives to be grafted together. Man’s life is not the divine life, but the two are close because man’s life was made according to the image of God’s life. A believing human being can be grafted into God because human life was made in the form of God’s virtues. God has love; He made love for man. But His intention was to use this created love of man as a container for His own real love. When the divine love enters into man’s love, they are grafted together. Then the two love together. You and God love your wife or your neighbor. It is the love of a human being filled up with the love of God. The almonds produced by the branch grafted to the peach tree result from the mingling of the two lives.
The love of Jesus was like this. When He was on this earth, He loved people as a man, yet in that human love was the love of God. The love of God mingled with a man’s love. Was it a human or a divine love? It was a fruit brought forth from the mingling of two lives. People were curious about the Lord Jesus. Who was He? Was He not a carpenter? Was He not the son of Mary? Did they not know His brothers and sisters? What was there about Him that was so unusual? How could He be so different? It was because God was in Him. He was a God-man.
The same can be said of all of us, the members of Christ. Surely my love for you is not merely that of an elderly, Chinese man; in my love there is the sweet love of God. This is the Christian life. A Christian life is not the divine life; nor is it merely a human life. It is a mingled life. It is a human life redeemed, terminated, resurrected, uplifted, and indwelt by the divine virtue. To make tea, we add tea leaves to water. The water indwelt by the tea becomes tea-water. It is not tea alone, nor water alone; it is tea-water. The two have been mingled together. The Christian life is a human life mingled with the divine life.
When we read Genesis 1, it is not until we get to the last few verses that we find the greatest thing that was created. It was not the heavens or the earth but a small man. He was the greatest because he alone was made in the image and according to the likeness of God.
Before the incarnation of Christ, God came to His people a few times in the form of a man. In Genesis 18 He came with two angels as a man. The Bible says that three men came. Abraham washed His feet and served Him a meal, which He ate. That was God. Then in Daniel 3, when the three friends of Daniel were cast into the blazing furnace, there appeared with them a fourth person, whose form to Nebuchadnezzar was like a son of the gods (v. 25). God, then, took the form of a man even before He became a man. This we cannot explain, but it shows us that man resembles God. According to the biblical revelation, man closely resembles God. This is why man can be grafted into God, and the two lives can live together as one life.
When Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20), who was living? It was Christ. Yet Paul went on to say, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith.” When Christ lived, Paul lived; when Paul lived, Christ lived. The Lord Jesus foretold this in John 14:19: “Because I live, you also shall live.” We live in His living; He lives in our living. In other words, we two live together. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). What a miracle! What a mystery! We cannot explain it, but we know it is so because the Bible tells us so. This is God’s eternal intention and His economy.
After reading the description in Genesis 1 of God’s creating man, I was looking forward to reading the second chapter. My first reading of it disappointed me. It seemed quite ordinary. The man in chapter 1 seemed great. In chapter 2, however, he was just a piece of clay molded by a potter. Even a little boy can fashion a toy figure out of clay! Then God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and that toy became a man. How simple! To build an airplane is far more complicated. Several different departments have to be set up. Different kinds of people have to be hired — some with doctoral degrees, some with other skills. It is a comprehensive undertaking. God used only the dust of the earth and made a little man. Was this the image of God? Was this little figure according to God’s likeness? When I was growing up in China, we used to make toys like this out of clay. Some were shorter; some were taller. Sometimes we would make nostrils and breathe into them too. There was nothing great about it.
Then God took this man whom He had created and set him before two trees. Was not this a strange thing to do? I would have thought God would take Adam and talk with him in lecture after lecture, training him in how to behave. He would explain that Eve was his counterpart, that Adam must love her, that she would be the mother of his children, and that Adam must be the head. Then God should have taken Eve and spent time to train her; she would need an even longer time because females always make trouble! If Genesis 2 had been written like this, I surely would have thought that it was a wonderful chapter of the Holy Scriptures, written by God.
One tree was the tree of life. God did not explain what life was. Even today Bible scholars with doctoral degrees cannot explain the tree of life. Yet it is a simple name. The other tree was more complicated. It was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God did not explain what knowledge was, nor what good and evil were. He simply said that all the trees in the garden were good for them to eat. They could partake of them freely. Only one tree was an exception. He warned them that if they ate of that tree, they would die. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil would bring death. Notice the four words related to this tree: knowledge, good, evil, and death. These four words stand in contrast to the one word: life.
What is the point of these two trees? Everything else is secondary in God’s eyes. The only thing that is crucial is that man eat of the proper tree, the tree of life.
From the rest of the Scriptures we know that the tree of life is Christ as the embodiment of God. In the last book the Lord promised the overcomers in the church that He would give them to eat of the tree of life (Rev. 2:7). For eternity the tree of life will be in the New Jerusalem to feed and satisfy God’s redeemed people (22:2). The other tree will be done away with; its end will be the lake of fire.
These verses strongly indicate that God’s intention was that the man whom He had created according to Himself would take of the tree of life. To eat of the tree of life means to take God in as nourishment. We know this because the Lord Jesus told people that He Himself is a tree, the vine tree, and also that He is the bread to be eaten (John 15:1; 6:57-58). “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” To eat is to take in what can be digested and can provide nourishment by being assimilated into the cells to become their constituents. The term to eat Jesus is not found in Christianity’s dictionary. Some think that it is too crude a way of speaking. Yet in the verse we have just quoted, the Lord Himself speaks this way (see also vv. 50-56). In the typology of the Old Testament there is the manna, which typifies Christ as food.
God’s intention is to plant Himself into you as the tree of life. This planting is grafting. This thought is implied in Romans 6:5. Has God been planted in you? Are you a garden with God as a dear little plant growing in you? Is this plant, called the tree of life, growing in you? Are you growing, or is He growing? May God be merciful to you and grace you, that you may grow together with Him and that He may grow together with you.
Colossians 2:19 says that we should grow with the growth of God. As God is growing in us, we must grow with Him. If we are growing by ourselves, improving ourselves so that we are more patient, humble, or loving, we may be disciples of Plato or Confucius, but we are not disciples of Christ. A disciple of Christ, a Christian, must be growing together with God. Such a tree has been planted into us.
When we come to the second tree, we find Satan’s counterplot. Satan seeks to act ahead of God. When he finds out what God intends, he tries to step in and act first. God’s intention was to plant Himself in man. God, however, does not act in haste. It is not that He is slow or patient; the right word is steady. Thus, He did not plant Himself in man immediately.
It is strange that after creating man, God waited. He did not enter Adam right away. This gave Satan an opportunity. In Genesis 3 the subtle one came. He spoke to the woman, not to the man. Sisters, Satan’s way is to tempt you to open your mouth. “Did God really say...?” A question mark is in the shape of a snake. Eve should not have answered. She should have gone to her husband and let him answer. Instead, she responded to the serpent’s question. By opening up, she was ensnared and ate of the tree of knowledge with Adam. The evil one thus planted himself in mankind.
After Satan got into man, God came. Adam’s satanic nature came forth. Instead of confessing his sin, he blamed God. “The woman whom You gave” (v. 12) was the cause of the trouble. If God had not given him a wife, there would have been no problem. When God then spoke to Eve, she did not take the blame either: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (v. 13). God, she implied, allowed the serpent to be there. This way of talking is from the satanic nature. Even though Adam and Eve were new on the earth, from that time on they were old. They became the old man. In the second generation Cain hated his brother and killed him. Throughout the Bible two lines can be seen. One is of the tree of life; the other, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Man fell. Before the tree of life got into man, the second tree entered into him. Was this an emergency? It may seem so to us, but God waited.
Many years went by. After two thousand years He came to Abraham, promising him that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed (22:18). Another two thousand years went by. Four thousand years after the fall, God came. He came into man by the birth at Bethlehem. Isaiah 9:6 says that that child’s name was the mighty God. The mighty God became a human child! That human child was the Son; that Son was called the eternal Father. His name is Wonderful!
When the Lord Jesus came, He lived among thousands of men who had the second tree, the satanic life, growing in them. Do you remember what He called the Pharisees? These people were respected as highly moral and religious. Jesus, however, called them vipers and serpents (Matt. 12:34; 23:33). The devil was their father (John 8:44). The Lord Jesus knew that all Adam’s fallen descendants were children of Satan. Because Satan was growing in them, they lied, committed fornication, stole, hated, and murdered. When the Lord came to this earth, wherever He went, He saw sins, sicknesses, and diseases. Satan had fully saturated mankind. He was not only among men but within them. He was like an incurable cancer, spreading in their cells.
What shall we say about American society? It too is filled with the devil. This seems to be a great Christian country, but actually it is permeated with Satan. Satan is growing in every part of American society. Not only in Hollywood but in the department stores, in the hairstyles, and in the clothing, Satan is growing. Before we were saved, we were growing together with Satan. Even afterwards, because we are short of grace, we are still sometimes growing with Satan. A tree that brings death, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is growing in humankind.
But there was One born among men as a little babe. He grew to be a child and then a young man, growing all the time with God. He was a God-man. He was the only One. How could He become many? He Himself told us. He was a grain of wheat, falling into the ground and dying, thus bringing forth many grains (12:24). He went to the cross and died. He was buried. On the third day He arose. We all arose with Him. He has imparted His life into all who believe in Him. Now we are all His members and God-men like Him.
God-man is not a heretical term. It has been used by a number of Christian writers. Moses was called a man of God (Psa. 90, title). Paul called Timothy a man of God (1 Tim. 6:11). He did not call him a man of good; he was not to express good but rather God.
Every life is a law. Every tree is a law. The law comes from the tree. When the tree of life enters into us, it becomes a law. The tree of good and evil also becomes a law within us. Since we have two trees growing within us, we have two laws, not as commandments but as set-up principles. These laws of nature work within us, not by activities but by law. Our stomach digests food according to law. It does not refuse to digest our food if we offend it! When we have eaten, whether we have offended our stomach or not, it spontaneously carries on the digestive process. Digestion is according to law, not activity.
There are two laws working within us. One is Satan, called sin by Paul. “I do not do the good which I will; but the evil which I do not will, this I practice. But if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that work it out but sin that dwells in me” (Rom. 7:19-20). He is using the term sin in a personified sense here. Like a person, sin can deceive (v. 11), kill (v. 11), dwell within (vv. 17, 20), and do evil contrary to one’s will (v. 20). This is Satan in our nature, in our flesh. This sin is a satanic life within a satanic nature. It is a law, the law of sin and of death. It works within us by law unto death.
But we have another law! This law is the Triune God, after being processed through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. He is now the Spirit indwelling our spirit. He is a law, the law of the Spirit of life, working within us not by activity. If a building has no electricity, we can have light only by an activity. Once electricity has been installed, however, it works by law. We do not need to beg the power plant to give us light. All we need to do is turn on the switch. Electricity is complicated, but once it is installed, it is easy to apply and practical to use.
The two trees in Genesis are the two laws in Romans.
