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After God created man, He planted a beautiful garden and put the man there. In the garden there were many fruit trees good for food. In the center of the garden was the tree of life and with it a river. It was in front of this tree that God put the man.
At that time, what was the most important need of man? Did he need a job to earn money in order to eat? No, all that he needed for living had been provided for him by God. Did God tell the man to do good and to be a good person? No, He simply created him and then put him in front of the tree of life in the garden. To realize what man needed most, you must remember what God’s purpose was in creating man. He was not created to make a living or to be good and do good; He was created to express God in His image by being filled up with His life. So, what man needed the most was for God to be his life.
You have heard about the garden of Eden, but do you know what was the most outstanding feature in the garden? You may think it was its beauty or pleasantness, but this was not so. The most outstanding feature was the tree of life at the center. This tree signified God as life to man. The garden of Eden was not just a beautiful place, but a place where man could receive God as life and be filled with God in order to fulfill God’s eternal purpose and satisfy God.
Even though God had created man in His image and according to His likeness, it was impossible for this man to express God without receiving Him as life. Simply to have the outward form of God’s image and authority was not enough. For man to express God and represent Him, he needed God’s life. Without God’s life, we are utterly unable and unqualified to express God and represent Him. A light bulb is a good illustration. It is made to express electricity by shining, but if electricity never comes into it, it can never fulfill its function. It is just the same with man. Man is a “light bulb” to express God, the divine light. But to do this, the divine electricity, God’s life, must come into man. Though he has been made in God’s image and likeness to express Him, man still needs God’s life to come into him before he can truly express God.
Now, let us turn to Genesis 2:9-10. After God created man, He did not tell man to do good or to do something for Him in order to express Him. Rather, He placed man in front of the tree of life so that man could partake of Him as life. The way he would take God as life into him was by eating Him. The New Testament tells us that this tree of life signifies God incarnated in Christ. John 1:4 tells us that “In Him was life.” In John 14:6, the Lord Jesus said that He is “the way, and the reality, and the life.” In John 10:10, He told us that He came that we “may have life and may have it abundantly.” In John 6:57, the Lord Jesus told us to eat Him. These verses point out that Jesus Christ Himself is the life for man, as portrayed by the tree of life. Isn’t this wonderful? Jesus did not come to give us some laws by which we should live. He didn’t come to give us a better job, house or car. Instead, He came just to give Himself to us to be our life.
In the garden there was not only a tree, signifying Christ as our life, but also a river. In Genesis it does not say “a river of life,” but in Revelation 22:1 it says, “And he showed me a river of water of life.” This river is seen throughout the entire Bible. It signifies God as the Spirit reaching us as life and quenching our thirst. In John 7:37 the Lord Jesus said, “If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink.” This verse shows that Jesus came to be life to man in the same way that water quenches our thirst. Sometimes, you may feel that nothing is able to satisfy you. That was the case with the people in John 7 (see John 7:37-38). They did not know God’s purpose in creating them, nor did they realize their need to take God into them as life. Even though they had just finished a big feast which lasted all week, they were still hungry and thirsty for something more. It was then that Jesus offered Himself to them to be a satisfying drink, bringing God as life to them so that both they and God could be satisfied.
Today, God is still offering Himself to all of us. We all need to come to Him and drink.
