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Scripture Reading: 4, John 1:14, 16; 14:6a; 11:25a; 10:10b; 1 John 5:11-12; John 10:11, 15b, 17-18a, 28a; 3:14-15; Heb. 7:16; John 19:34; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 3:16, 36a; 20:31
The title and subject of this series of messages is “The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man.” This title is very particular. In it we see that God is triune and man is tripartite. The title of the initial messages in this series, “The Thought of God to Be Man’s Life Running through the Divine Revelation from Beginning to End,” also is very significant. The thought of God being man’s life runs through the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Let us consider again the main points of the previous message.
God’s creating of living things indicates that God is the God of life. The whole earth is full of living things in the water, in the air, and on the land. There is the marine life in the ocean, the birds in the air, and the cattle, beasts, and creeping things on the earth (Gen. 1:20-21, 24-25). In addition to all these things, there are grass, trees, and flowers (vv. 11-12). The living things that possess the consciousness of life, as well as those that do not possess such a consciousness, indicate that the Creator of them all must be one of life. The first thought in the Bible concerning God’s being life to us is God’s creating of living things on the earth.
God’s action in creating man in His own image (vv. 26-27) indicates that God wants man to have Himself as man’s life so that man can express Him. The reason God created man in His image was that man might express God. Man can express God only by having God as his life. The way God created man indicates that God wanted man to have God as his life.
The tree of life (2:8-9) is a symbol of God as life. God is Spirit (John 4:24); as such, He is abstract, difficult for people to grasp, understand, or touch. In His wisdom God used the tree of life as a symbol of Himself. The tree of life is a particular tree. All the other different kinds of trees, such as the apple tree, the peach tree, and the banana tree, are easily understood by everyone. But not many people understand what the tree of life is. Life is mysterious and abstract. The tree of life symbolizes God as life. Therefore, when we take the tree of life, we take God into us as our life. Although this seems very simple, the tree of life is not easy to understand.
On a radio program some years ago in Los Angeles, a famous preacher and Bible teacher was asked what the tree of life is. He replied that, since the tree of life no longer existed, there was no further need for us to know about it. His answer indicated that he was short of the proper biblical knowledge. The tree of life is mentioned not only in Genesis 2 but also in Revelation 2 and 22. 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.” How could the Lord give us to eat of something that no longer exists? In Revelation 22:2 the Bible concludes emphatically with the matter of the tree of life. The tree of life continues to exist, but few understand the meaning of the tree of life. Life is inexplicable, and God also is inexplicable. The tree of life in Genesis 2:9 symbolizes God. Therefore, the tree of life can also be called “the tree of God.”
According to the description in Revelation 22:2, the tree of life apparently is a vine. This verse says that the tree of life grows on the two sides of the river. Hence, it grows along the river on both of its banks. A pine tree, which grows upward, can never occupy two banks of a river, but a vine can. In John 15 the Lord Jesus said that He was the true vine (v. 1). The other vines are symbols, but the Lord Jesus is the real vine. If we put Genesis 2, John 15, and Revelation 22 together, we can see that God is the tree of life and that the tree of life is a vine. As a vine, God can reach people wherever they are.
Satan’s tempting of man to take the tree of knowledge indicates that Satan wants to keep man from taking God as his life (Gen. 3:1-6). After man took of the tree of knowledge, God placed cherubim and a flaming sword (v. 24) before the tree of life in order to prevent man from taking of the tree of life also. God’s prohibiting of fallen man by the cherubim and the flaming sword from taking the tree of life indicates that God’s glory (signified by the cherubim), holiness (signified by the flame), and righteousness (signified by the sword) do not allow the sinful man to abuse the life of God. The sword signifies God’s righteousness. In Revelation 19 the Lord is the One who judges in righteousness (v. 11) with the sharp sword that proceeds out of His mouth (v. 15). The Lord judges by the sword, and the sword is related to His righteousness. God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness keep man away from taking God as his life. Fallen man has lost his position to enter into God to take God as his life.
Christ’s redemption meets the requirement of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. The Lord Jesus died for us in order to satisfy God’s requirements. Christ redeemed us back to our original position so that we can enter into God and enjoy Him as our life. Since the redemption of Christ had not yet been accomplished in the Old Testament, God used propitiation, which was accomplished with the animal sacrifices. Propitiation, or expiation, in the Old Testament typifies the redemption of Christ in the New Testament. The blood of the sacrifice offered to God for the sins of the Israelites on the Day of Expiation was brought into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled upon the cover of the Ark (Lev. 16:14-15). Within the Ark, under its cover, were the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. These commandments placed certain demands upon man before God. But the blood of the bullock covered the demands of these commandments. As a result, God could see only the covering blood and not the Ten Commandments. The troublesome situation between man and God was covered, that is, propitiated. The issue of this propitiation was peace. On the propitiatory place, the cover of the Ark, God and man were able to meet in peace. The propitiation in the Old Testament gave the saints the right to partake of God as the fountain of life for their satisfaction (Psa. 36:8-9).
The propitiation in the Old Testament pointed to the redemption of Christ, which He accomplished in the New Testament. Now, under this redemption we have the full right to enter into God and take Him as our life.
The first point concerning God being life to us in the New Testament is His incarnation. God came to be incarnated that man may receive Him as grace and reality (John 1:14, 16). Both grace and reality are God Himself to be man’s life as man’s eternal portion. God was incarnated in order that He might dispense Himself into us as life. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” For the Word to become flesh means that God became a man. Grace is God enjoyed by us, and reality is God gained by us. When God is gained by us, that is reality. If we have everything in the universe but do not have God, everything is vanity. Only God is reality. When God is gained, realized, and apprehended by us, God is reality to us.
In order for us to enjoy Him and to gain Him, God must be our life. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 3 says that “all things came into being through Him.” Then verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Joining these verses with verse 14, we can see that God as the Word became flesh to bring grace and reality to us. To have grace and reality is to have God as life.
According to New Testament usage, grace and reality are equal to life. In John 14:6 the Lord declared, “I am the way and the reality and the life.” In this portion of the Word, reality and life are joined together. If we do not have the reality, how can we have the way? If we do not have the life, how can we have the reality? When we have the life, we also have the reality. When we have the reality, the reality is the way. We are human beings, but without the human life, how could we have the human reality? Without the human reality, how could we carry out human things? In order to carry out human things, we need human reality, and in order to have human reality, we must have human life. The way is the reality, and the reality is the life. Hence, John 14:6 tells us that reality and life are one thing. Grace and life also are one thing. Both 1 Corinthians 15:10 and Galatians 2:20 contain the phrase yet not I, but. First Corinthians 15:10 says, “Yet not I, but the grace of God,” and Galatians 2:20 says, “Yet not I, but Christ” (KJV). Putting these two verses together, we can see that grace is Christ Himself. Second Corinthians 13:14 refers to “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” This too indicates that grace is just Christ. This Christ is the One who lives in us (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:10) as our life (Col. 3:4). When all these verses are put together, we can see that grace is the divine life of God becoming our portion. When the divine life of God becomes our portion, this is grace. According to popular American theology, grace is unmerited favor. To receive a good car for transportation as a gift without paying any money would be counted as grace. This kind of theology is very shallow. However, Hymns, #497 defines grace according to its highest definition:
John 1 is a marvelous chapter because in it God as the Word (v. 1) coming in incarnation is combined with grace and reality (v. 14) to be our life (v. 4). Then verse 16 says, “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” All these verses indicate that God’s incarnation was to bring Himself into us, that is, to dispense Himself into us, as our life. Grace and reality are God Himself. God came to be incarnated that man may receive Him as grace and reality, both of which are God Himself to be man’s life as man’s eternal portion. God as life is our eternal portion. Nothing is more valuable than God as life to us to be our eternal portion. As human beings, the most valuable thing to us is our human life. Clothing, a house, or a car are not as important as our life. If our human life is gone, we are finished. Life is everything. In the same way, God is our portion to be our life. This is the top blessing.
Christ came as life that man may have life and have it abundantly (14:6a; 11:25a; 10:10b; 1 John 5:11-12). His coming to man was by incarnation. He did not simply descend to the earth from the heavens and declare that He was life to man. This would not have worked. He had to come through incarnation through the womb of a virgin, because He had to die for our sins. In order to die for our sins, He had to shed His blood (Heb. 9:22); therefore, He needed a body of blood and flesh. The only way for Him to gain such a body was to be incarnated. Through incarnation He obtained a body of blood and flesh in order to accomplish redemption. However, His coming through incarnation was not only to save us from our sins but also that He might be life to us. In John 10:10b the Lord Himself said that He came that man may have life and may have it abundantly. Christ came as life and resurrection (14:6; 11:25). Thus, when He came, life came, and when we receive Him, we have life (1 John 5:11-12).
The Lord Jesus laid down His own human life for man (John 10:11, 15b, 17-18a). The Lord Jesus has two lives. The life that He came to give us is the divine life (v. 28a), and the life that He laid down for us is His human life, His soulish life (v. 11). He died in the human life, but He remained alive in the divine life. For Christ to lay down His life means that He sacrificed or gave up His human life for us. The Lord laid down His own human life for sinful man and took it again (v. 18a). For the Lord to take His life again means that He rose up, resurrected, from the dead. Through death and resurrection He released His divine life that He might dispense the divine life into His believers (12:24). The divine life has been released for us to receive, and the way to receive it is just to believe into Christ as the resurrected One (3:15-16, 36).
Christ was lifted up on the cross in the form of the serpent (vv. 14-15). He died on the cross not only as a man but also as a serpent. Fallen men are serpents (Matt. 3:7; 12:34; 23:33) who have been poisoned by the old serpent, Satan (Rev. 12:9). As fallen men, we have been bitten, poisoned, by Satan. The poisonous nature of the old serpent is within us. Therefore, in God’s eyes we are not merely human beings; we are serpents with a serpentine nature. Christ died for us in the form of the serpent, typified by the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness (John 3:14-15; Num. 21:8-9). In Numbers 21 many of the children of Israel were bitten by fiery serpents. In the eyes of God they had become serpents. So, Moses put a bronze serpent on a pole, and as many of the Israelites who looked on the serpent were healed. The serpent on the pole had the form of the serpent but not its poison. In the same way, the Lord Jesus had the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3), the form of the flesh of sin, but He had no participation in the sin of the flesh (Heb. 4:15; 2 Cor. 5:21). Since the Lord Jesus was lifted up in the form of a serpent, in the eyes of God He was a serpent. To be lifted up is to be judged, exposed, and openly put to shame. Christ was judged for us that we as His believers may have God’s eternal life—the uncreated, indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Because God’s life is eternal, it is also indestructible. If it could be destroyed, then it would not be eternal. That it is eternal means that it exists under any kind of situation. Thus, it is everlasting. In nature and in standard God is eternal, without any limitation. This eternal life is given to us through Christ’s being lifted up in the form of the serpent. He died in the form of the serpent to suffer shame openly for us before the whole universe so that His life could be released from within Him and dispensed into us. This life that is dispensed into us is eternal, uncreated, and indestructible.
Through His death on the cross, Christ accomplished God’s redemption and released His divine life. These two things are signified by the shedding of His blood and by the flowing of water out of Him (John 19:34). Christ came through incarnation, and His death and resurrection were a continuation of His journey in incarnation. What was the destination of His journey? The destination of the Triune God’s journey through incarnation is man’s spirit. Unless the Triune God reaches our spirit, He has not arrived at His destination. In order to reach this destination, the Triune God had to pass through human living, death, and resurrection. Through death He accomplished redemption. We needed redemption because we could not meet the threefold requirement of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. As long as God’s requirements are unsatisfied, God has no way to enter into us. Through the redemption of Christ, God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness were satisfied. This is the negative side of Christ’s death, signified by the shedding of His blood (v. 34).
Christ’s death released His divine life, signified by the water flowing out of Him (v. 34). This is the positive side of Christ’s death. His divine life could be released from within the shell of His humanity (12:24) only by death and resurrection. In resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As the life-giving Spirit, He is ready to enter into our spirit. When we call “O Lord Jesus,” He immediately arrives at the destination of our spirit. Our spirit is the destination of His journey.
Christ has taken several steps in His journey through incarnation to be man’s life. His first step was to enter into the womb of a virgin (Matt. 1:23). His second step was to come out of that womb to be a God-man. His third step was to walk on the earth in His human living. The goal of such a walk is the spirit of man. But in order to enter into the spirit of man, Christ had to die on the cross to redeem man, and He had to rise from the dead to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As the Spirit, He can enter into man. When man calls upon the name of the Lord, He arrives at His destination.
Christ’s becoming the life-giving, life-dispensing Spirit is the last step of His coming to man. Now only one thing is needed: we must believe into Him in order to have eternal life (John 3:16, 36a; 20:31). The way to believe into Him is to call upon His name (Rom. 10:9, 13). When we call upon His name, He enters into us immediately. He enters into us, and we enter into Him. Our believing brings Him into our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:10), which is the destination of His journey.
