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John 14:6; 1 Tim. 3:16; John 1:4; 10:10; Col. 3:4; John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2
I. Life being God Himself
II. Life being Christ
III. Life being the Holy Spirit
IV. Life being God the Father in the Son as the Spirit flowing into us
As a result of regeneration we all have this life and we must thank and praise Him for giving us this life. However, we must explore further to better understand this life, so that our experience will be correct and enriched. We must see that life is not something that is merely of God or that is given by God, but that it is God Himself.
[In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus says that He is life. After He said this, from verse 7 to 11, He made known to the disciples that He and God are one — and when He speaks this word, it is God speaking in Him. He is God become flesh; and He is God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 3:16). When He says He is life, it is God who says God is life. Hence His words show us that life is the very God Himself.
Strictly speaking, when we receive life, we receive not the life of God, but God as life. Not only did God give us His life; He Himself came to be our life. Because God Himself is life, His life is His very self.
Then what is life? Life is God Himself; What does it mean to have life? To have life is to have God Himself. What does it mean to live out life? To live out life is to live out God Himself. Life is not different in the least from God. If it were, then it would not be life. We should understand this clearly. It is not sufficient merely to know that we have life; we must know further that this life we have is God Himself. It is not sufficient only to know that we should live out life; we must also know that the life we should live out is God Himself.]
God is love. God is light. God is holy. God is righteous. When we have God as our life, we may live out God and express Him as love, light, holiness and righteousness. When we have God as our life we would not hate our enemies, rather we would love them (Matt. 5:44). We would not walk in darkness and do the hidden things of shame (2 Cor. 4:2); rather we would walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7). We would not be worldly, but rather would be holy, separated from the world and full of God’s holy nature (2 Pet. 1:4; 1 Thes. 5:23). We would not be unrighteous, but rather we would become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). This is too marvelous. God can be life in us to live out all that God is.
God is life. This is wonderful. But how can we fallen sinners contact and receive God to be our life? God knows how. He comes to us in His Son Jesus Christ. The Bible further reveals to us that God became flesh, which is Christ (John 1:1, 14). Since Christ is God (Heb. 1:8), He has the life of God in Him (John 1:4), therefore, He is also life (1 John 5:12). He said many times that He is life (John 11:25; 14:6) and that He came to earth that we may have life (John 10:10). Therefore, we who have believed and received Him have Him as our life (Col 3:4).
[Just as life is God Himself, so also life is Christ. Just as having life is having God Himself, so also having life is having Christ. Just as to live out life is to live out God Himself, so also to live out life is to live out Christ. Just as life is not different in the least from God, likewise life is not different in the least from Christ. Just as a slight deviation from God is not life, likewise a slight deviation from Christ is not life. For Christ is God being life. It is through Christ and as Christ that God is manifested as life. Hence, Christ is life and life is Christ.]
Without Christ, we do not have God nor do we have life (Eph. 2:12; 1 John 5:12). By receiving Christ, we receive God as our life. Then all the riches of God that are in Christ become ours to enjoy every day.
After seeing that Christ, the embodiment and manifestation of God is life, we may ask where Christ is today and how can we contact Him and receive Him as life?
[Although Christ is life, it is difficult for Christ to give you life. Who gives life? It is the Spirit that gives life (John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6). Christ is life, but it is the Spirit who gives us Christ as life. Without the Spirit Christ may be life, but Christ as life cannot be given to us. By being the Spirit Christ is imparted into us as life. Today, after being processed, the very Christ is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Never forget that Christ is the very God, Jehovah the Savior, God with us. Christ is God. This Christ, after being processed, is now the life-giving Spirit. We have to enjoy Him in His fullness as such a Spirit.
After the Lord Jesus said He was life in John 14:6, He made known to His disciples not only that He and God are one (vv. 7-11), but also that the Holy Spirit and He are also one (vv. 16-20). In verses 16 and 17 the Lord referred to the Holy Spirit as “He,” but in verse 18, He changed the pronoun from “He’’ to “I.” By changing the “He’’ to “I’’ the Lord was saying that “He’’ is “I.” This reveals that the Holy Spirit He spoke of in verses 16 and 17 is He Himself. From verses 7 to 11 He showed us that He is the embodiment of God — He is in God, and God is in Him. Hence, His being life means that God is life. From verses 16 to 20, He further revealed that the Holy Spirit is His embodiment, His other form; and when His physical presence leaves us, this Spirit of reality who is Himself as another comforter comes into us and abides with us. This Spirit living in us and abiding with us is just He Himself living in us as our life that we may live. These two passages therefore show us that it is by God being in Him and Him being the Holy Spirit that He is life. God is in Him as life, and He is the Holy Spirit as life.]
First Corinthians 15:45 says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.’’ The last Adam is the Lord Jesus who was crucified to end the fallen adamic race. In His resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit; therefore, all that Christ has received from the Father is now in the Spirit. This Spirit is called the Spirit of life in Romans 8:2. As the Spirit of life He is able to free us from the law of sin and death. He is also life in our spirit, may be life in our mind, and is able to give life to our mortal body (6, Rom. 8:10,11).
[The way to have life is the Spirit. The way to be saved in His life is the Spirit. The way to reign in life is the Spirit. The way to walk in newness of life is the Spirit. The way to be sanctified in life is the Spirit. The Spirit is the way. Life belongs to the Spirit, and the Spirit is of life. These two are actually one. We can never separate life from the Spirit, nor the Spirit from life. The Lord Jesus Himself said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life’’ (John 6:63). In this word the Lord Jesus connects the Spirit and life. If we have the Spirit, we have life; if we do not have the Spirit, we do not have life. If we walk in the Spirit, we walk in life, but if we do not walk in the spirit, we do not walk in the newness of life. Thus, the way to experience the divine, eternal, uncreated life is the Spirit.]
[In summary, life is the Triune God. But to us, life is not the Triune God in heaven, but the Triune God flowing out. This flowing out of the Triune God means that His content, which is Himself, first flowed out through Christ; then it flowed out as the Spirit to be received by us as life. Thus when we touch God in Christ as the Spirit, we touch life, for life is God in Christ as the Spirit.]
The Father is the source of life. The Son is the course of life. The Spirit is the flow of life. Life is the Father in the Son as the Spirit flowing into us to be our life and life supply. Life is this processed Triune God flowing into us with all His divine riches, all that He has accomplished, passed through, obtained, and attained, to deal with all the negative things in us and to fill us up with Himself. Eventually, this life as the processed Triune God flows out of us to express God in our daily living, to bear fruit through the gospel, and to build up the church, the Body of Christ, consummating into the New Jerusalem.
