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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 4a, 12-13; 3:5-6, 14-15; 6:57, 63; 10:10b; 11:25a; 14:19b-20; 20:22; Rev. 1:18a
In this series of messages we want to see the believers’ living of a mutual abiding with the Lord in spirit. Many people, including Christians, have an ingrained religious concept regarding the Bible. They think that the Bible is a book of religious teachings. Since every religion has its book of religious teachings, it seems that Christianity also has its book, which is the Bible. It may seem so, but actually it is not. In reality, the Bible is entirely a book on life, and this life that is referred to in the Bible is the Triune God as our life.
I have been speaking for the Lord for over fifty years. At the time I was saved, I did not pay much attention to this life, so I began by spending about seven years to diligently study the Bible and other spiritual publications. This certainly influenced me very much inwardly and caused me to be constituted with many doctrines. Thus, when I rose to speak for the Lord after those seven or eight years, the emphasis of most of my speaking was on doctrines. However, gradually the desire for mere doctrines began to diminish, because after much speaking I no longer liked or was willing to speak them, and I even lost the taste for doctrines. From then on, my speaking began to shift toward life. After I turned to life, the more I spoke, the richer and more living my speaking became; the more I spoke, the more I enjoyed speaking and the more my speaking became inexhaustible. The result was that I then saw that all the speaking in the Bible is life. Finally, I saw that at the beginning of the Bible and at the end of the Bible there is a tree of life. In the first two chapters of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, we see that God created the heavens and the earth, and He created man. Then He put the man in front of the tree of life. This indicates that God’s goal for man was that he be able to gain the life of this tree.
The life of the tree of life in the Bible is truly a mystery. What actually is the tree of life? Today there are some so-called Bible scholars who say that the tree of life is too ancient and has ceased to exist. This is not scriptural. The Bible shows us that not only in the beginning of time was there the tree of life, but even in eternity future there will still be the tree of life. In the book of Revelation the tree of life is mentioned at least two or three times. In 2:7 the Lord said, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” Chapter 22 says that in the middle of the street in the city of the New Jerusalem is a river of water of life, and on either side of the river is the tree of life (vv. 1-2). This shows us that the tree of life is not very tall, but it does span both banks of the river. It is not a huge cedar but a vine that continues to spread out, and it is for man’s supply, not something to be used as building material. This tree of life grows alongside the river of life, and with the watering of the flow of the river it supplies life to people. This is truly an eternal blessing. At the end of Revelation 22, verse 14 says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life.” It is evident that the tree of life has not passed away but continues to exist and will continue unto eternity.
Not only so, the tree of life is here today. Revelation 2:7 says, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.” This does not point only to the future but refers to today. Whoever overcomes today, to him is the enjoyment of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. What does this mean? If you have a bird’s-eye view of the entire Bible, you will see that this tree of life is a figure that signifies, symbolizes, God Himself as our life. The Gospel of John says that the Lord Jesus is life and that He is also a tree, the true vine (14:6; 15:1). We know that a vine is not like a pine tree or a cedar tree for the producing of building materials. No one would use a grapevine to construct houses or furniture. The Lord Jesus said that He is life. He also said that He is the vine tree. When you put these two sentences together, you can see that He is the tree of life. Furthermore, according to its natural function, the vine is for the supply of life.
What the Bible tells us is that this Triune God has become our tree of life and that He is the source of the supply of life. Not only so, according to the revelation in the Bible, God ordained that everyone must have two births: once of the mother’s womb and once of God. In John 3 the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (vv. 5-6). This tells us that God requires us to be born twice: once of the flesh and once of the Spirit. The first time is from the mother’s womb; the second time is not to reenter the mother’s womb and come out again, but it is to be born of the Spirit. That which is born of our parents is of the flesh, just as the Lord said that that which is born of the flesh is flesh. We were all born of the flesh so that we can exist in this world. If you know the Bible and see God’s arrangement, then you will see that God wants to have Himself born in us. Today God is the Spirit. God being born in us is the Spirit being born in us. We all have been born of the Spirit; this is to be born not of blood but of the Spirit.
An ancient Chinese sage said that man is the spirit of all creation. The reason man is precious, valuable, and wonderful is that there is a spirit in man. If the spirit of man were to be removed from man, he would be no different from the cats and dogs. Man is different from the beasts in that man has a spirit and the beasts do not. Throughout the ages you cannot find cats and dogs anywhere that have the desire to worship God. Nevertheless, all human beings, whether civilized or barbarian, have a desire to worship God. The barbarians have their crude method of worship; the civilized ones have their cultured way. The demonic gods that the backward nations worship are rough and wild; the idols that the civilized nations worship are rather refined. Why must man worship? The reason is that man has a spirit within, which only God can satisfy. Even the atheistic Communists worship something. They worship themselves; their self is their god. The Bible says that with some their god is their stomach (Phil. 3:19). There is not one person who does not desire God; everyone wants God. Just as everyone has a stomach that requires food, so man has a spirit that requires the worship of God. Whether the god that man worships is true or false, refined or barbaric, the fact that man worships God proves that man has a spirit. God created man with a spirit, and this spirit has a need for God.
The spirit of man is for man to be regenerated. Our flesh is born of our parents, but God created us with a spirit that we may be born again. This is what it means to receive God into us. To be regenerated is to receive God into us. God is life. When we receive God into us, this God who is life enters into our spirit to be our life. According to Romans, we human beings are vessels (9:21) with an inner receiving organ for us to receive God. This is just like our stomach, which is a receiving organ to take in food. God is Spirit, and He created us with a spirit, which is the receiving organ for us to receive God. By using this spirit we receive God.
The Bible is not what most of us think it to be, that is, a book of religious teachings or religious regulations. Rather, the Bible is a book of revelation, revealing God to man that man may know God as life. God created a spirit for man so that his spirit could take God in to be his life. If a man is willing to receive God into him to be his life, he will be regenerated in his spirit. This is the second birth. If you do not have the second birth, then you are incomplete, not up to par; you have not reached the standard. That God wants to be born in you is not a superstition but a fact. It is a fact that you have a spirit within. It is also a fact that God is Spirit. God is not only God but also life, which is the Spirit (John 4:24; 1 Cor. 15:45b). He is such a life-giving Spirit waiting for you to repent, confess, and open up yourself to receive the Lord Jesus to be your Savior. The Lord Jesus is the life-giving Spirit. When you receive Him, you receive God, and He enters into you to be your life. Then you are regenerated and have another life within. This life is not only a higher life but also a superior life, the eternal life of God. This is the revelation of the entire Bible.
In the sixty-six books of the Bible, there is one book, the Gospel of John, that focuses on the matter of life. When reading the Gospel of John, most people tend to see only the superficial matters. In reality, the emphasis of the Gospel of John is not on the outward things but on the matter of being born to live. Being born to live means that after one is born, one must live. After we have been regenerated, we must live. If a person has not yet believed, or has not yet been saved, then he must be born again. The Gospel of John focuses on the matter of being born to live. In John 3 the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born anew and that he must be born of water and the Spirit. He also said, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (v. 6). Later, the Lord Jesus said, “Because I live, you also shall live,” and “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (14:19; 6:57). In the Gospel of John you can see these two words: born and live. After you are born, you begin to live. You must not only be born; you must also live.
John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then verse 4 says, “In Him was life.” This indicates that there is life in the Word. Since life is in Him, He is life. Then this Word who was in the beginning became flesh (v. 14), coming into mankind to reveal and explain Himself. Verses 12 and 13 say, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
If a person is willing to open to the Lord from his deepest part and say to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. Lord, You are my Savior,” then the Lord Jesus as the omnipresent Spirit will enter into him. I can truly testify that although I was born, raised, and even received my education in Christianity, I never really opened myself in this way to receive Jesus until the afternoon in which I heard the gospel. At that time I became deeply moved, and I opened up myself to receive the Lord. Once I received Him, I can truly testify that this Spirit entered into me and changed my whole life. Whoever receives Him, He will give him the authority to be a child of God. This authority is nothing other than the divine life. Because you have your father’s life, you have the authority to be a child of your father. The authority to be the children of the father is the life of the father. Originally, we did not have the authority to be the children of God, but after He put His life into us, we were born of Him and received the authority to be His children.
Then in John 3 we see that an elderly, moral man named Nicodemus came to see the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus said to him, “You must be born anew” (v. 7). Nicodemus thought this meant that he had to enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, but the Lord Jesus seemed to be telling him, “No, that which is born of the flesh is still flesh. You must be born again in spirit.” In addition, the Lord Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life” (vv. 14-15). This means that we humans were not only created but also bitten by the serpent, that is, poisoned by Satan. As a poisonous serpent, Satan bit us; hence, we received his poisonous element into us and became little poisonous serpents. Although Nicodemus was a just and upright man, perfect in his outward behavior, his inward nature was poisoned due to Satan’s poisonous injection. Thus, what the Lord meant in speaking to Nicodemus was, “I must not only be a Lamb to die for you and accomplish redemption for your sins, but I must also be a bronze serpent to deal with your serpentine nature. I must die in this way so that you may be able to receive Me, believe into Me, and thereby obtain eternal life.”
On the one hand, the Gospel of John tells us that as the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus took away the sin of the world; this was to deal with sin. On the other hand, it tells us that He was lifted up on the cross as the bronze serpent; this was to deal with the serpentine nature within us. The natural life within every one of us is serpentine. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He was not only the Lamb but also the bronze serpent. On the cross He died in the form of a serpent so that, on the one hand, our sinful deeds might be dealt with by the Lamb and, on the other hand, our sinful nature within might be dealt with by the bronze serpent. The purpose for this was that whoever would believe into Him might receive eternal life.
After His death and resurrection the Lord Jesus became the life-giving Spirit. First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” Today Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, and in resurrection He is the life-giving Spirit. If you are willing to open yourself to believe into Him, believing that He died on the cross for your sin and sins and solved the problem of your sin and sins, then as the life-giving Spirit He will enter into you, and you will be regenerated.
In John 6 the Lord Jesus went on to say, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). This shows that today the resurrected Christ not only gives us life but also becomes our food. Genesis 1 tells us that God placed man in front of the tree of life so that man might eat of it. From the word eat I found the key and gradually understood why in John 6 the Lord Jesus said that we need to eat Him. Thereafter, I began to release the truths on eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord.
Today Christianity teaches people the Bible by treating it like a religious book. Actually, the words in the Bible are the words breathed out of the mouth of God. The Lord Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Jeremiah also said, “Your words were found and I ate them” (Jer. 15:16). The Lord Jesus is edible; He said that He is our bread of life (John 6:35). The bread of life is for man to eat. In John 1 He is life, and in John 6 He is the bread of life. This is because between chapter 1 and chapter 6 there is regeneration. After you are born, you must live, and to live you must eat. If you do not eat after your birth, you cannot stay alive.
Hence, the sequence in the Bible is very particular. Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John tells us that the Lord Jesus is life. Chapter 3 tells us that by this life we are regenerated. Then chapter 6 tells us that we must eat the Lord Jesus as the bread of life. John 6:63a says, “It is the Spirit who gives life.” Because this phrase who gives life has a twofold meaning in Greek, a better rendering is, “who causes man to live and gives life to man.” He not only gives life to man but also causes man to live; He not only causes man to live but also gives life to man. Both concepts are present; this phrase bears a twofold meaning. He who gives life to man and causes man to live is the Spirit. Then the Lord Jesus continued, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (v. 63b). We have the Spirit and the words. Praise the Lord, today we who are saved have the Lord Jesus as the Spirit within and the Bible as the words without! These two cannot be separated. The words without and the Spirit within must not be separated. The words without are not for teaching but for nourishment; likewise, the Spirit within is also for nourishment. Both are our food for our nourishment. Therefore, when we eat the Lord, we receive His words and allow His words to become the Spirit within. As a result, His words and the Spirit become our food and our supply within.
Then in chapter 10 the Lord Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly” (v. 10b). To have life is to be regenerated; to have it abundantly is to eat daily. To have life is to receive the Lord; to have it abundantly is to eat the Lord daily, receive the word of the Lord daily, and touch the Spirit of the Lord daily through His word. In addition, the Lord said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25a). Today we no longer live by our old life; instead, we live by another life, a regenerated life, a resurrected life. Then in 14:19b He said, “Because I live, you also shall live.” According to the context, we can see that His living refers to His being resurrected. He seemed to be saying, “I am going now; the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me soon; because I live, you also shall live.” This refers to His resurrection. When the Lord was resurrected, we were resurrected with Him. First Peter 1:3 tells us that Christ regenerated us in His resurrection. In His resurrection we were made alive together with Him. In this way we know that He is in us and we are in Him, because He and we, we and He, have become one, and we live together. Therefore, to live after being born is to live with the Lord. The Lord lives and we also live; this is to live with the Lord.
John 20:22 says that after the Lord was resurrected and became the Spirit, He came into the midst of the disciples and breathed into them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Lord Jesus passed through incarnation, death, and resurrection to become the breath of life. The Word is mentioned at the beginning of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). Then the Word became flesh, and in the flesh He was the Lamb and the bronze serpent. After living thirty-three and a half years on the earth, He went to the cross as the Lamb to deal with our sins, our sinful deeds, and as the bronze serpent to deal with our sin, our sinful nature. Then He resurrected from the dead to become the life-giving Spirit. Thus, at the end of the Gospel of John, this Jesus Christ is the Spirit as the breath breathed into us for us to receive. Today this Spirit lives in us; that is, the Lord Jesus lives in us. In this way, not only were we regenerated, but we can also live because of the Lord. We have died to live — we have died with Him through baptism and live with Him in resurrection.
In Revelation 1:18 John testifies of Jesus Christ as the One who said that He is the living One and that He became dead but is living forever and ever. This is a word spoken to the churches. Today He is living in the heavens at the right hand of the throne of God, but this is not the point of emphasis. The importance of His being the living One is that He is living in us. He is living forever and is living in us. He told us that today He is still living. Therefore, He wants us to leave every kind of death and rise up to be the living church. This is the thought in Revelation 1, and it is the very point that I want to convey to you in this chapter. Praise the Lord, we can be regenerated because of Him, and after regeneration we can also live by Him!
Now we are clear that from eternity past, in the Lord was life. Then in time, the Lord became flesh, not only as the Lamb to solve the problem of our sins but also as the bronze serpent to solve the problem of our sin. Furthermore, He was resurrected from the dead to become the life-giving Spirit. Today if we open to Him from our innermost being to receive Him, He will come into us, and we will receive life and be regenerated. After this, He will be in us as our food to supply us that we may live and have life abundantly for us to live by Him.
How do you live by Him? First, you must realize that formerly you had only your life, but now it is no longer you but the Lord Jesus who is living within you. Therefore, today you are a dual person. Outwardly it is you, and inwardly it is the Lord Jesus; within you there are two lives. Second, God does not want you to live by your original life. God wants you to live by your second life, which is God Himself. Third, this second life is in your spirit. Thus, if you want to live by this life, you need to live by your spirit. Fourth, in your speech and action you should learn to slow down and not be in haste. You need to examine whether you are still living by your former life or are living by your second life. Are you speaking and doing things according to your emotions and moods or according to the spirit? Not only in big things but even in every small thing in your daily life, in every detail, you should carefully ask yourself, “Is this of my original life, or is this the Lord living within me? Am I speaking and doing things according to my emotions and moods or according to the Lord in me?”
In this matter we must be diligent to have daily exercise. This is vastly different from self-cultivation or any religious doctrine. Rather, this is the living God, the living Lord, who is in us to be our life. In actuality, this is not a doctrine; rather, this is a spiritual, divine fact. This living Lord passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit. Today if you receive Him, you will be regenerated, and He will live in your spirit. If you live by Him and not by yourself, you will be living Christ. This is being born to live, being regenerated to live Christ, to live Him out. This is the genuine Christian life, which is victorious and spiritual.
The issue of this living is the church. Therefore, for the church life we must all live in our spirit, exercising to live by the Lord.
