In this series of messages we shall consider the growth in life. Colossians 2:19, 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 and 9, and 1 Peter 2:2 are the best verses in the New Testament related to the growth in life. Ephesians 4:13-16 speaks of the growth of the Body rather than the growth in life of the members individually.
First Corinthians 3:6-7 says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God made to grow; so that neither is the one who plants anything nor the one who waters, but the One who makes to grow, God.” Verse 9 says, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s farm, God’s building.” Growth in these verses is not the growth in knowledge because here Paul speaks of a farm. Planting and watering are not related to knowledge. To plant is not to instruct but to nourish by supplying the plant with fertile soil. Likewise, to water is not to teach but to supply the plant with nutrients in the water. This is related to life.
Colossians 2:19 says, “Holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, by means of the joints and bands being supplied and knit together, grows with the growth of God.” These verses show us that to grow is to grow with something. If a young boy does not eat or drink, he will have nothing with which to grow. One cannot grow with nothing. Rather, without something with which to grow, one will die. Dietitians tell us that we are what we eat. If we eat beef, we will be constituted with the meat of the cow. If we eat fish, we will be constituted with fish.
God created man in His own image according to His own likeness (Gen. 1:26). Then He breathed His breath into man, and after getting into man, that breath became man’s spirit (Gen. 2:7; Zech. 12:1). These are the two particular characteristics of the created man. Outwardly man has God’s image, and inwardly man has God’s breath as his own spirit. Strictly speaking, however, God’s breath alone is not His life. God’s life is God Himself, the divine Person. At the time of his creation, man did not have God’s life, God Himself, within him. He had only God’s image as His expression. This image may be compared to a photograph. My photograph may bear my image, but it does not have me in it. The life within the created man was only man’s life, and after the fall this life became death itself.
This created man was made as a vessel (Rom. 9:21-23) with the ability to eat. To eat is to receive, digest, assimilate, and retain something organic. Anything that is not organic is not good for food. Something must be organic for us to eat it, and as we have seen, whatever we eat eventually becomes us. Therefore, we must be careful about our eating. To be careful about eating is the first charge that God gave to man (Gen. 2:16-17). In Genesis 2 God did not give Adam commandments concerning his conduct. The commandments concerning faithfulness, lying, stealing, and obedience to parents were given after the fall. Before the fall, right after God’s creation of man, God gave only one charge. Genesis 2:16-17a says, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.” The tree of life was good for food, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was also good for food. Even today there are two trees among us. One tree is God as life. If we eat this tree, we become life. The other tree is the source of death, Satan. If we eat him, we receive the source of death, that is, we receive him as death. Romans 8:6 says, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” If we eat life, we will receive life and will become life, but if we eat death, we will not only die but will become death.
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