After God created man, He put man before the tree of life. This tree of life is God Himself (Gen. 2:9). The Triune God made man in His own image and also created within man a spirit that can receive Him. At this time, man was proper and was ready. Hence, God put man before the tree of life so that man may receive Him as his life and also that man may live by His life in order to live Him out to express Him.
Here, we can see that God’s creating of man is altogether a matter of life. God is life. He has a divine creation of man for the purpose that He can obtain a divine expression. In addition, this expression is not individual, but corporate. I hope that every one of us can see that we are persons who have God. We are not only persons made by God, but also persons who have God. Within us believers is God; hence, we should all feel honored and proud, not because of ourselves, but because of the God within us. Because God is within us, we do not do the things we should not do, and we do not go to the places where we should not go. We do not sell our birthright for the sake of a temporary pleasure of sin.
Today we have God; hence, we have life within. We eat Him as the tree of life, live by Him, and live Him out. Within, we have God as life; without, we have God as our living. Before we believed in the Lord, we lived a godless life. That living was empty, dark, vain, and false. After we believed in the Lord, this God who is the Spirit came into us to be our life, and we live by Him. We do not live ourselves any longer, but we live the One who is our life. At this time, our living becomes one that is satisfied, joyful, peaceful, and full of energy. This kind of living includes many, many things. In conclusion, we may say that we become more loving, more shining, more holy, and more righteous.
When God made man in the beginning, he was made in His own image. Because God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness, the man He created also had these virtues. Within every created person, there is the aspect of good. Although we are fallen, corrupted, those good things are still remaining within us. At the time we believed in the Lord Jesus, this God who is love, light, holiness, and righteousness entered into us to be our life, and we were filled with love, light, holiness, and righteousness within. It is this that makes the greatest difference in our believing in Jesus. This is not a matter of behavior, but of life. It is the kind of living lived out by the life of God.
Also, as soon as a person is saved, he wants to preach the gospel, he wants to tell people about Jesus. This is not his work, nor his special ministry, but his living. This is like a tree bearing fruit; it is not by the working of the branches, but by the living of the branches. From the standpoint of ethics, our Christian life is a living of love, light, holiness, and righteousness. From the standpoint of fruit bearing, it is a living of preaching the gospel. If every believer lives this kind of life every day, then every one will bear fruit spontaneously. In addition, after fruit bearing is the feeding of the lambs to lead the new believers. At the same time, we also like to come to meet together. This is not something we try to do, but our living. If we do not live this kind of life, we would not feel comfortable and happy; but when we live this kind of life-preaching the gospel, feeding the lambs, and meeting together-we feel proper, comfortable, and happy. We go to work, to school, or take care of our housework; these are necessary aspects of our daily conduct. Within such a living, as those who are walking uprightly, being holy and not being earthly, with everything done righteously, we love people. Besides these things, we also love preaching the gospel to save sinners, feeding the lambs, and meeting together to perfect one another, pursuing after the truth and speaking for the Lord. This is our Christian life.
From Genesis 1 and 2, we see that the Triune God made man in His own image, created a spirit for man by His breath of life, and became the tree of life to be received by man as his life so that man may live Him out to express Him. God entered into us to be our life; we live by Him in our body, and we live Him out. This is our living. God within is life, and we without are the living. These two are joined together, within and without, in harmony. This is to be organic.
We are not machines; we are living persons who have God. God lives within us as life; we live out a living without that is by God; this is to be organic. We live this kind of organic living every day. We love to preach the gospel, take care of the lambs, have small group meetings, and prophesy for the Lord. In this kind of living there are no methods or activities; even the more, there is no religion or arrangement. It is altogether the activity of life expressing God’s living. I hope that the brothers and sisters can all be clear that this is God’s original intention in creating man so that the created man may take God’s life as his content and produce a living that expresses God.
God created man for the purpose that man would receive Him as life and live by Him in order to live out an organic living. Unfortunately, before God’s desire was accomplished, Satan rushed in ahead of God to entice man to partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:6). Because man received the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which signifies the old serpent Satan, he became fallen, and he had sin within him. Due to this, the image God created for man was damaged; that image of love, light, holiness, and righteousness, was damaged (Gen. 3:7). Everyone would like to be loving toward others, straight- forward, upright, holy, and righteous; yet no one can do it. This is because the love, light, holiness, and righteousness within were all damaged. At the same time, man also lost the position to receive God as life. God drove out the fallen man, and He used the cherubim, which signify His glory, the flame, which signifies His holiness, and the sword, which signifies His righteousness, to block the way to the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). From that time, God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness would not again allow us, who have been damaged by sin, to contact Him and receive Him for enjoyment.
When the Lord Jesus came, He was God coming in the flesh to die for us on the cross in order to satisfy the requirement of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. His blood accomplished redemption for us and opened a new and living way in order that we can again draw nigh to God and contact God by His blood (Heb. 10:19-20). Through this, we can receive God as our life. Once He comes into us, we are alive, and we obtain God as life. This life can cause us to have a living that lives by God and expresses God. This is an organic living, and it is also the Christian life. In totality, this is the church life. This is not religion, but a group of people who have God, living out God. In this there are love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Furthermore, all the divine attributes are being expressed as virtues from us who have God. At the same time, we spontaneously can lead people to be saved, take care of new ones, perfect one another through meeting together, pursue the truth, and speak for the Lord. This is also the living we ought to have in the new way.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Hualien on April 28, 1990)