THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The Divine and Eternal Life
Message Two—The Way to Fulfill God’s Purpose
Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:9; Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14; John 1:4; 10:10b; 14:6a; 7:38; 12:24
I. God’s original intention according to His economy was that man should eat of the tree of life—Gen. 2:9, 16; Rev. 2:7:
A. The tree of life typifies Christ who imparts life to man and who pleases and satisfies man—Gen. 2:9; John 14:6a; 10:10b; cf. 15:1; Exo. 15:25.
B. The symbolism in Genesis of the tree of life finds its explanation and fulfillment in the Gospel of John—14:6; 15:5; 6:35, 57, 63:
1. The Gospel of John reveals Christ as the fulfillment of the figure of the tree of life; Christ is the life, and He is a tree, a vine tree; hence, He is the tree of life—14:6; 15:5.
2. The fact that Christ said in John 6 that He is the bread of life indicates that He has come to us as the tree of life in the form of food—vv. 35, 57, 63.
C. Christ as the tree of life is the center of the universe and the focal point of the entire Bible—Gen. 2:7-9:
1. According to the purpose of God, the earth is the center of the universe, the garden of Eden is the center of the earth, and the tree of life is the center of the garden of Eden; hence, the universe is centered on the tree of life—Zech. 12:1; Gen. 2:7-9.
2. The Old Testament begins with the tree of life (Gen. 2:9), and the New Testament ends with the tree of life (Rev. 22:2, 14); thus, the thought of God being man’s life runs through the entire divine revelation.
D. God’s desire for man to express Him in His image and rule in Him with His dominion can be realized only by God’s life; life is the way to fulfill God’s purpose—Gen. 2:7-12, 22:
1. Life conforms the believers to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God and brings us into glory—Rom. 8:2, 6, 29; Col. 3:4.
2. Resurrection life gives authority—Num. 17:8; Rev. 20:4.
E. Eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life—2:7.
F. What the church needs today is the ministry of life; life is the only means, the only way, for the church to be built up—Rom. 8:10, 6, 11; 1 John 5:16a.
II. The Lord’s recovery today is in the time of the mending ministry of John, mending the rents in the church by the ministry of life for God’s building in life—Matt. 4:21; John 1:4; 10:10b; 14:6a; 1:51; 2:19-22; 14:2-3, 23:
A. The Gospel of John reveals life’s principle, life’s purpose, and life meeting the need of every man’s case, issuing in a house of feasting for God’s building:
1. Life’s principle is to change death into life; the meaning of all the cases recorded in this Gospel corresponds with the principle that the tree of life results in life and the tree of knowledge results in death—2:1-11.
2. Life’s purpose is to build the house of God—vv. 12-22.
3. Life meets the need of every man’s case:
a. The need of the moral is life’s regenerating—2:23—3:36.
b. The need of the immoral is life’s satisfying—4:1-42.
c. The need of the dying is life’s healing—vv. 43-54.
d. The need of the impotent is life’s enlivening—5:1-47.
e. The need of the hungry is life’s feeding—6:1-71.
f. The need of the thirsty is life’s quenching—7:1-52.
g. The need of those under the bondage of sin is life’s setting free—7:53—8:59.
h. The need of the blind in religion is life’s sight and life’s shepherding—9:1—10:42.
i. The need of the dead is life’s resurrecting—11:1-57.
4. Life’s issue is the church life as a house of feasting for God’s building as the house of the Father, the universal vine tree of the Son, and the new man of the Spirit—12:1-11; 14:2-3, 23; 15:1-8, 16; 16:13-15, 21.
B. The Gospel of John reveals that we can enjoy the Lord as our abundant life to be men of life—10:10b:
1. We can breathe in Christ as the breath of life—20:22.
2. We can drink Christ as the water of life—7:37-39; 4:10, 14.
3. We can eat Christ as the bread of life—6:35, 57, 63, 68.
4. We can walk in Christ as the light of life—8:12.
5. We can abide in Christ as the vine tree, the tree of life—15:5; 14:6a.
III. The Gospel of John reveals that we need to carry out the revelation of God’s eternal economy, not in the way of work but in the way of life—John 7:37-39; 4:10, 14:
A. The Lord Jesus sowed Himself as a seed of life and fell into the ground as a grain of wheat so that the life within Him might be released to bring forth many grains; we need to serve Him and follow Him in this way—Matt. 13:3; John 12:23-26; 10:11; 1 John 3:16.
B. The work that the Lord needs to produce and increase the church is the overflow and outflow of the inner life, not the endeavor of outward activity—John 7:37-39; 4:10, 14:
1. The important thing regarding our work is not its quantity but its quality; gold, silver, and precious stones are always small in quantity but high in quality, whereas wood, grass, and stubble are always high in quantity but low in quality—1 Cor. 3:12-15:
a. Gold symbolizes God’s nature, silver symbolizes Christ’s redemptive work, and precious stones symbolize the Spirit’s transforming work.
b. Wood signifies human nature, grass signifies man in the flesh, and stubble signifies lifelessness.
2. We will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ not according to the quantity but according to the quality of our work, “of what sort it is”—v. 13.
3. “Because Watchman Nee was not interested in the outward work, the life-issue of his ministry has flowed throughout the whole earth…. In my whole life, he is the only person I have known who paid more attention to life than to work” (Watchman Nee—A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age, p. 87).
Ministry Excerpts:
GOD’S ORIGINAL INTENTION
Our burden is to see God’s original intention. According to the record of Genesis 1 and 2 God’s original intention was to have a Bride. After God created man, Adam was single. He was a bachelor. But then God said it was not good for man to be alone. This was a type. According to the revelation of the Bible, God is the unique husband in the entire universe. In Jeremiah 31:32 the Lord considered that He was a husband to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Isaiah told the children of Israel that their maker was their husband (Isa. 54:5).
In the New Testament we find the same thing. In John 3:29 John the Baptist indicated that Christ was the Bridegroom. Paul continued this thought in 2 Corinthians 11:2 where he said that he had betrothed the Corinthian believers to one husband, to present them a pure virgin to Christ. And in Ephesians 5 he likened Christ as the husband and the church as the wife. Finally, at the end of the Bible in Revelation 19:7 there is the marriage of the Lamb whose wife has made herself ready. The church as the Bride will be married to Christ as the Bridegroom. This tells us that unless man becomes God’s wife, God is alone. For the Bible to say that it was not good for man to be alone implies also that it was not good for God to remain alone. God needed a counterpart, a wife.
The first two chapters of the Bible reveal that God was planning to have a Bride which would bear His image. After God created Adam, He brought all the animals to him and Adam named them, but he did not find among them a counterpart. So God caused him to sleep and took a piece of rib from his side. Genesis 2:22 tells us that God builded a woman from that piece of bone. When he looked at the woman he saw that she resembled him and bore his image, so he said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23). Adam then took her to be his counterpart. This is a picture of what God wants for Himself. It was for this purpose that God created man: to bear His image, to resemble Him in order to be His counterpart.
For such a one to be produced, there was a need to have God’s divine life. This is why in Genesis 1 and 2, after God had created man in His image, He brought him to the tree of life. This indicated that although man had God’s image, man did not have God’s life. Man was like a photograph. A photograph may bear an image of a person, but it has no life. Adam was created like a photograph of God. He did not have the eternal, uncreated life, the life of God. This life was indicated by the tree of life. So God brought the man who did not yet have God’s divine life to the tree of life so that he might eat of the tree of life. If Adam had eaten of the tree of life, he would have received God’s life. Of course we know that Adam did not eat of the tree of life at that time. But nevertheless God’s original intention was that the man who was created in His image should have God’s divine life.
The picture in Genesis 2 is very wonderful! There is the tree of life, and near the tree of life there is a river flowing in four directions. With the flow of the river there is gold, bdellium, and onyx stone. Eventually in this picture there is also a bride. This picture, with the tree of life growing, with the river flowing, with the gold, the bdellium, the precious stones, and the bride, shows us that God’s original intention is to have a Bride bearing His image, possessing His life, and transformed by the flow of life into precious materials to be built up as a Bride.
We all are Adam. As men we bear the image of God. As believers we also have the life of God. Furthermore, we have a river flowing within us. In John 7 the Lord indicated that whosoever drinks of Him would have the rivers of living water flowing out of his being. This means you bear the image of God, you have the divine life, and you have the flowing river within you. But are you gold, bdellium, onyx, or are you still muddy? If you say that you are now gold, bdellium, and onyx, your wife or those who serve with you may say that they have never seen them. They may say they have seen mostly mud. This is our problem, but God has such an intention. God will work this out by the way of His dispensation. God has an administration to distribute Himself into all of us.
In Genesis 2 there are three categories of precious things. Why are there exactly three and not two or four? It is because God is triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In typology, gold always signifies the nature of God the Father, bdellium signifies the produce of the overcoming death and life-secreting resurrection of God the Son, and the precious stones signify the issue of the transforming work of God the Spirit. How could we who are the muddy human beings be transformed? It is by God the Father’s golden nature, by God the Son’s death and resurrection, and by God the Spirit’s transforming work. If I ask whether you are gold, bdellium, onyx stone or mud, it would be hard for you to answer because you are in between. You are the mud with a little gold. You are the mud with some amount of bdellium. You are the mud with some amount of precious stone. But let me ask you: Don’t you have God the Father’s nature? Are you not in the death and resurrection of God the Son? Are you not under the transforming work of God the Spirit? To these questions you can boldly answer yes. You can even boast that although you are muddy you have God the Father’s nature in you. You are in the death and resurrection of God the Son. You are under the transforming work of God the Spirit. We are all under the transformation today. Hallelujah, we are the people under God’s transformation! One day we will be fully transformed into the gold, bdellium, and precious stones. One day we will be the Bride constituted with these three precious elements to be ready (Rev. 19:7). This is God’s original intention revealed in the first two chapters of the Bible.
THE ULTIMATE CONSUMMATION OF GOD’S INTENTION
Now we come to the last two chapters of the Bible where we find the ultimate consummation of God’s intention. God’s intention will have a consummation, which will be the New Jerusalem, the consummate tabernacle of God as His Bride (Rev. 21:2-3), bearing His glorious image to express Him (Rev. 21:11). In that consummation, there is no more mud, no more dust. The New Jerusalem is built of gold, pearl, and precious stones (Rev. 21:18-21). All the dust and mud have been transformed. In Revelation we can see the same things as in Genesis—gold, pearls, and precious stones. The only difference is this: the bdellium in Genesis 2 is a kind of resin, a gum congealed into a plant pearl. This means it is a kind of pearl which comes from the produce of the plant. But the pearls in Revelation 21 are pearls from the animal oyster. In Genesis it came from the plant, and in Revelation it will come from the produce of the animal. Plant life in the Bible signifies the producing life of Christ, and animal life signifies the redeeming life of Christ. In Genesis 2 there was no fall of man and no sin, so there was no need of redeeming. But in Revelation after the fall and after sin had entered there was the need of the redeeming life of the animal. That is the significance of the death and resurrection of God the Son.
The New Jerusalem will be built up with God the Father’s divine nature, with God the Son’s death and resurrection, and with God the Spirit’s transformation. That will be the universal Bride to satisfy God’s desire for His eternal expression. This is the consummation of God’s intention. In the first two chapters of the Bible there is God’s intention, and in the last two chapters of the Bible there is the consummation of God’s intention. Both sections show you the goal of God’s dispensation, a Bride to be His counterpart, His expression. God’s dispensation began from Adam and has been going on through all the generations. It will consummate in the New Jerusalem where we can see the goal of God’s dispensation. Today we need to contact the Triune God to be supplied and nourished with the divine life as the river of water of life and as the tree of life (Rev. 22:1-2), that we might be transformed with the Father’s golden nature through the Son’s death and resurrection and by the work of God the Spirit. We need to cooperate with the Triune God. (The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, ch. 1)
THE CYCLE OF LIFE—LIFE, FELLOWSHIP, LIGHT, AND THE BLOOD
In 1 John 1:1-7 there is a cycle in our spiritual life formed of four crucial things—the eternal life, the fellowship of the eternal life, the divine light, and the blood of Jesus. Eternal life issues in its fellowship; the fellowship of eternal life brings us into the divine light; and the divine light causes us to sense the need for the blood of Jesus. Then the blood brings us more life, and with more life we have more fellowship. Then with more fellowship we have more light and more cleansing of the blood. This cycle of life, fellowship, light, and the blood repeats itself time and again as we grow in life unto maturity. Just as a car travels by the turning of its wheels, so also a believer grows in life by experiencing cycle after cycle of life, fellowship, light, and the blood. Therefore, the fellowship of the eternal life helps us to grow in life.
THE FELLOWSHIP OF GOD’S SON,
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE.APOSTLES,
AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF SPIRIT
First Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Because the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the eternal life (John 14:6), the fellowship of the Son of God is the fellowship of the eternal life. We have been called by the faithful God to participate in Christ as our enjoyment and to abide in Christ as our realm.
Acts 2:42 says, “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” In this verse the fellowship of life is called the fellowship of the apostles. The fellowship of the Son of God has been expanded into the fellowship of the apostles. Hence, today the divine fellowship is not only the fellowship of God’s Son but also the fellowship of the apostles. According to 1 John 1:3-4, when the apostles reported the eternal life to the believers, the believers had fellowship with the apostles. Therefore, the fellowship of the eternal life is the flowing of Christ as life into the apostles and through them into the believers.
Philippians 2:1 speaks of “fellowship of spirit.” In this verse spirit does not refer to the divine Spirit but to the regenerated human spirit of the believers. The divine Spirit regenerated our human spirit with the divine life, and now our human spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit (John 3:6; 1 Cor. 6:17). The fellowship of God’s Son, which has been expanded into the fellowship of the apostles with all the believers, is the fellowship of our spirit. Philippians 2:1 does not mention the fellowship of soul, heart, or body but the fellowship of spirit. This shows that the fellowship of the divine life is in our spirit, not in our soul, heart, or body. The fellowship of the divine life, which is the flow of the divine life in all the believers, is the fellowship of God’s Son, the fellowship of the apostles with all the saints, and the fellowship of spirit.
THE FLOW OF LIFE PRODUCING MATERIALS FOR GOD’S BUILDING
In several portions of the Word, the fellowship of life, the flow of life, is illustrated by the flowing of a river. The flow of life is revealed throughout the Bible, from the beginning in Genesis to the end in Revelation. Genesis 2 describes the tree of life and a river that went forth from Eden to water the garden (vv. 9-10). The flow, the current, of this river signifies the fellowship of the eternal life (John 7:37-39). The flow of the river issued in three precious materials for God’s building: gold, bdellium, and onyx stone (Gen. 2:10-12). This means that the materials for the building of God come out of the fellowship of the eternal life. It is by the flow of life, the fellowship of life, that the precious materials are produced for God’s building, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2; 22:1). In order to be produced as precious materials for God’s building, we need to live in both the vertical and the horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship.
BEING MEASURED BY THE LORD FOR A DEEPER FLOW OF
THE DIVINE LIFE IN US
Ezekiel 47 describes a river that flows out from the house of God, which signifies the life of God flowing out of His dwelling place to His people (v. 1). Verse 3 speaks of a man with the line in His hand to measure. In this verse to measure means to test through judgment in order to possess. For instance, when a sister is about to buy some cloth, she first examines the cloth by measuring it in order to possess it. The Lord intends to measure us, that is, examine, test, judge, and possess us, so that we may enjoy the flow out from God’s building.
When the man in Ezekiel first measured the river, there was only a trickle coming out from the house. Then he measured a thousand cubits, and the flow became deeper, up to the ankles (v. 3). Again he measured a thousand cubits, and the flow became deeper, up to the knees (v. 4). After this the man measured yet another thousand cubits, and the flow became even deeper, up to the loins (v. 4). When he measured a thousand cubits for the fourth time, the flow became a river that could not be passed through, and the river became waters to swim in (v. 5).
We may enjoy the fellowship, the flow, of the divine life, yet the flow may be very shallow. However, when the fellowship brings us into the divine light, the presence of God, the divine light shines in us, exposing, examining, testing, and judging us in order to possess us. To be enlightened by the Lord in this way is to be measured by Him. Consequently, the fellowship, the flow, of the divine life increases within us. As the flow of the divine life increases in us, we are once again brought into the presence of God to be enlightened, examined, tested, and judged so that we may be possesses by the Lord. Through such a measuring, the flow of the divine life in us becomes increasingly deeper until it becomes a river that cannot be crossed, waters to swim in. To swim in the flow of the divine life is to give up our own endeavor and self-effort, abandon ourselves to the flow, and let the flow carry us on.
THE UNIQUE STREET IN THE NEW JERUSALEM
BEING THE WAY OF LIFE
According to Revelation 21, the New Jerusalem, the holy city, lies square (v. 16), with three gates on each of the four sides—north, south, east, and, west (v. 13), yet the city, has only one street, which is pure gold (v. 21). The gates on the four sides face the four directions of the earth, signifying that the entrance into the holy city is available to all the peoples on earth. No matter what direction we come from and no matter what gate we enter through, we will all find ourselves on the same street and will be one on this unique street. The street in the New Jerusalem is uniquely one.
The New Jerusalem is a mountain of gold, and the golden street of this city is a spiral that serves all twelve gates in four directions. The river of water of life flows in the middle of the street (22:1), and the tree of life, which is in the river, grows on the two sides of the river along the street (v. 2). Although the golden street has no name, its substance and reality are the divine life. The unique street of gold in the life street, the street of life. In the New Jerusalem there will be no streets of divisive doctrine or practice. In the holy city there will be no such things as a pretribulation street, a posttribulation street, a tongue-speaking street, an Episcopalian street, a Presbyterian street, a Methodist street, or a Lutheran street. All the divisive doctrines will disappear, and the unique street of life will remain. Today our unique way, our unique street, is the divine life; the divine life is our only way.
WALKING ON THE WAY OF LIFE TO HAVE
FELLOWSHIP AND ONENESS
In the New Jerusalem the unique street of Gold reaches all twelve gates and spirals upward to the throne of God. This signifies the fellowship, the flow, of the divine life within all the saints. We can be won not by doctrines or gifts but by the divine life. Today among Christians there are many “streets,” many ways that are based on particular doctrines or practices. As a result, Christians are divided by these many ways. However, In the New Jerusalem there is only one street, one way—the way of life. If we all walk on this one street, the way of life, and enter into the same flow of life, we will be one. We must take the way of the divine life, for the divine life is the only way by which we can be one.
In the local churches there must be only one street, one way—the way of life. The Lord Jesus declared, “I am the way and reality and life” (John 14:6). The way cannot be separated from life, because the way is the life; that is, the way is constituted with life. Since the constitution of the Christian way is life, we need to work on the way of life. It is on this way of life that we have the divine fellowship and divine oneness for God’s testimony. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 3, “Life and Building in the Bible”, ch. 6)