1. “Everything that He had made...was very good” (Gen. 1:31).
In each of the three great events in the history of a believer—creation, the fall, and salvation—a different life was received. Each event is related to a different life.
At the time of creation, man received a life that was good and upright. Following His creation, God saw that everything He had made, including man, was very good. Therefore, the created life that we received from God was good. It was not corrupted or evil.
2. “God made man upright” (Eccl. 7:29).
Since God made man upright, the created life of man was certainly upright. When man was created, the life that he received from God was upright, not crooked. This created life, however, is not the same as the uncreated life of God; it is only the good and upright life that God had created.
1. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (John 8:44).
Through the fall we received the satanic life, which is the fallen life of Satan. This life is the same in element as Satan. It is corrupted, evil, and full of every kind of sin. It includes the seed of corruption and the element of sin.
In Adam’s fall, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil entered into his being. Since the tree of the knowledge of good and evil refers to Satan, the life of Satan entered into man. The indwelling life of the devil has been within man from the time that Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Consequently, everyone who has been born in Adam also has the devil’s life. For this reason the Lord said that they were of the devil and that the devil was their father. The Lord’s word to the Jews indicates that we are all fallen human beings who have been born of the devil. With the devil’s life, every human being wants to do the desires of the devil.
2. “He who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning”; “Children of the devil” (1 John 3:8, 10).
Fallen people sin, and this proves that they are of the devil, have the life of the devil, and are one in nature with the devil because the devil is the one who has sinned from the beginning. We have the devil’s life because we are born of the devil. We are children of the devil, and the devil is our father. Just as children have the life and nature of their father, fallen man has the life and nature of the devil. We like what the devil likes and want to do the desires of the devil because we have the devil’s life and nature.
1. “Everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life” (John 3:15, see also v. 36).
Through salvation we have received the uncreated life of God. Since unbelievers are related only to the history of the creation and the fall, they have only the created human life and the corrupt satanic life. However, believers have a history of salvation in addition to creation and the fall. Therefore, we not only have the created human life and the fallen satanic life but also the uncreated divine life. When we believed into and received the Lord, we obtained God’s uncreated life because the Holy Spirit brings God’s life into us. This life is divine and eternal. All the riches of God’s fullness are in this life because it is the life of God Himself. Everyone who believes into the Lord and is saved obtains the divine, eternal life of God.
2. “He who has the Son has the life” (1 John 5:12).
In His Son God’s life can be received and obtained by man. When man receives the Son of God, he receives the life of God. Therefore, he who has the Son of God has the life, which is the uncreated life of God. This life is in addition to the human life, which we received through creation, and the satanic life, which we obtained through the fall. We received another life when we received the Son of God by faith. Now there are three kinds of life within us.
The Bible clearly shows that at the time of man’s creation, he had only one kind of life, the created human life. He was simple and did not know sin, and he had no feeling of shame. He was naive. But after the fall, Satan’s fallen, corrupted life entered into him. This brought in a great complication because the corrupted satanic life was added to his good created life. Therefore, man not only has a good and proper nature but also a corrupted and evil nature. This can be compared to adding poison to a glass of pure water, which corrupts the original element of the pure water.
Every person is complicated in this way. On the one hand, man desires to be good and upright, but on the other hand, he does things that are corrupt and evil. He wants to be good, but at the same time he has evil desires. People have at least two different kinds of life within them: the good, created human life and the corrupted, fallen satanic life.
After the fall, every human being has two different kinds of life with two different natures—one that is essentially good and the other that is essentially evil. Throughout the centuries some have realized that there is an element of good within man, and they have emphasized this aspect of man’s nature. At the same time others have realized that there is an element of evil within man, and they speak of this aspect of man’s nature. From ancient times until today there has been considerable debate over whether man’s nature is good or evil. There is no need to debate this question, because there is both a good nature and an evil nature within fallen man. Every man has two natures because he has received two kinds of life—the created human life and the fallen satanic life.
When we fell, the life of Satan entered into us, and his life was mixed with our human life. Through this event, Satan acted upon his evil desire to destroy God’s purpose for humanity. He injected himself into man, causing man to be corrupted through the mixture of his evil life with man’s human life. What is in Satan is in man as well. Man’s corrupt and evil nature expresses Satan’s corrupt and evil nature. Therefore, man has become complicated through a change in his constitution. We not only have the human element, but we also have the satanic element. In this regard, every human being has been infected with a devilish element. It is possible to see this devilish element in every human being. Even though we have the outward appearance of a man, we also have the flavor of the devil. While the gentleness of a man can express his good nature, his gentleness can easily be overcome by his temper, which expresses the devil. Man also commits every kind of sin, exposing the devilish element in his being. When a man acts uprightly, his good human nature is expressed, but when he sins, his corrupted devilish nature is revealed.
It is important to note that a person who sins and lives a devilish life does not act this way willingly. Those who lose their temper, dance, gamble, smoke, and drink all act against their will. The devilish life within them works mischief and causes them to follow these evil desires. They have a devilish living because they have the devil’s life. However, it is also possible for them to live a proper human life because they have the good and upright created human life. Because man has both the human life and the satanic life, his living can express the good elements of the created human life and also express the corrupted elements of the fallen satanic life.
As a believer, however, we should praise and thank God that we have the divine life in addition to the human life and the satanic life. Just as Satan injected his life into us through his corruption, God imparted His life into us through His salvation. The entrance of Satan’s life into us was the entrance of Satan into us, along with his evil and vile nature, to accomplish his evil intention of damaging us. In contrast, the entrance of God’s life into us was the entrance of God Himself into us, which imparted His holiness and goodness, to accomplish His good intention of gaining us. Today we not only have Satan’s life and nature, but we also have God’s life and nature.
Consequently, our inward constitution is even more complicated than that of an unbeliever. We have three kinds of life within us—the human life, the satanic life, and the divine life. This means that we can express man, Satan, and God. Our condition is no different from the condition of Adam in the garden of Eden. It is as if our being is a small garden of Eden in which man, God, and Satan are present. Thus, the struggle between God and Satan over man in the garden of Eden continues in us today. Satan is working in us to fulfill his evil intention to destroy our usefulness to God, and God is also working in us to cause us to cooperate with Him to accomplish His purpose. If we live according to the life of Satan within us, we will express his corrupt and evil life and cause his evil intention toward us to be fulfilled. If we live according to the divine life within us, we will express God’s holy and righteous life and cause His will to be accomplished in us. Although it may seem as if we are living merely according to our human life with no influence from Satan’s life or God’s life, this is not true. We cannot live the human life independent from these two other lives because our human flesh has been mixed with the satanic life, and our human spirit has been mingled with the divine life. Consequently, if we are not living our human life by God’s life, we are living it by Satan’s life.
A Christian experientially knows that he has three different kinds of life. In the morning a brother can be nice and express the capacity that man has for good. At noon, however, he can lose his temper with his wife and express the satanic life. But after praying in the evening, he may be enlightened about his offense, confess to God, apologize to his wife, and thus express the divine life of God. In just one day he can express each of the three kinds of life within him. When he is nice in the morning, he is like a man; when he loses his temper at noon, he is like a devil; and when he deals with his sin in the evening, he manifests the likeness of God. In one day he has expressed the life and nature of his created humanity, Satan, and God. This is possible because the life of all three—man, Satan, and God—are in him. When he lives by the human life, he has the appearance of a man. When he acts by the satanic life, he has the appearance of a devil, and when he moves by the divine life, he manifests the appearance of God.
We must see that there are three different kinds of life within every believer: the created human life, the fallen satanic life, and the uncreated divine life. Even though we obtained these three kinds of life at different times and through different means, these three kinds of life are in us. We obtained the human life at the time of creation through God’s creation. We obtained the satanic life at the time of the fall through Adam’s contact with Satan and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We obtained the divine life at the time of our salvation by believing into and receiving the Son of God. Through these three great events—creation, the fall, and salvation—we have three different kinds of life—the life of man, of Satan, and of God. If we see and know this, we can be clear about the way of life. The lives of man, Satan, and God are in us, and our living is a matter of which life is the source of our living—the human life, the satanic life, or the divine life. Even though the life that we live determines the kind of living that we express, the way of the divine life is available to us as believers.