We have seen that the central goal of God in the universe is life. Now we need to see how God came to be man’s life and to be mingled with man. God’s focus is on life, which is simply God Himself. Therefore, for God to take life as the center of the universe means that He takes Himself as the center of the universe. For Him to put His life into man means that He desires to put Himself into man. For Him to desire man to receive life means that He desires man to receive Himself. When life enters into man, God enters man. We would never say that God is God, that life is life, and that God and life are separate from each other. Actually, God is life, and life is God; the two cannot be separated. When life is separated from God, it is no longer life. Life is not only in God, but life is God. Hence, Psalm 36 says that life is in God and that the source of life is with God.
In the Old Testament we can see life, but we cannot easily see what life is. It is not until the New Testament that we see that life is God Himself. The incarnated Christ is God on one hand and life on the other hand. Christ is God, and Christ is life; therefore, God is life. Furthermore, we know assuredly that God became flesh in order that we may receive Him as life. In His incarnation, He said, “I have come that they may have life” (John 10:10). The life in us is God Himself. God became flesh so that man might receive Him as life. He said that He was the living bread which came down out of heaven (6:51); this means that God became man and came among men because He desires to be the living bread so that men can receive Him as their life.
We often say that we have received the life of God, but in fact, the Bible rarely uses the expression the life of God and almost never says that God desires us to receive His life. Instead, the Bible says that God is life. For example, in John 11:25, the Lord said, “I am...the life,” and Colossians 3:4 says, “Christ our life.” We often say that we have received God’s life, but strictly speaking, we have not received God’s life; rather, we have received God Himself as our life. We obtain our physical life from our father, but we cannot say that our father is our life. For our spiritual life, however, not only have we received the divine life from God, but we have also received God Himself as our life, because God’s life cannot be separated from God Himself. God’s life is God Himself; it is impossible for God to give His life to us without His coming into us. In order for us to receive God’s life, we must receive God Himself. Since life is God, it is impossible for us to receive only God’s life but not God Himself.
The manifestation of life, however, is not that simple. First, this life exists from eternity, from the beginning. First John 1:1 says, “That which was from the beginning...concerning the...life”; this life was in eternity past without beginning. This life was in the beginning and is called the Father. Therefore, the Father is the origin. At a certain time He was manifested, and this life was seen in the Son. Therefore, the Son is the expression.
When the Son was manifested, He clearly said, “I am...the life,” and “I have come that they may have life.” Then Paul says, “Christ our life”; the Son is our life. John went on to say concerning the Son, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:12). This means that the Son is life expressed, but the story of this life does not stop here. The Son went through human living on earth and eventually died on the cross; after three days He resurrected from the dead and became the Spirit. At this time, this life is seen in the Spirit. This life is in the Spirit.
According to Romans 8:2, after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit is called the Spirit of life, proving that life is in the Spirit and that the Spirit is life; hence, the Spirit is called the Spirit of life. John 7:38 says, “He who believes into Me,...out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” The rivers of living water are life. Then the next verse continues, “But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive” (v. 39). The rivers of living water actually denote the life of the Son; this can be proven by John 4:14, where the Lord explicitly said that the water that He will give to those who receive Him will become a fountain in them. Then in chapter 7, He said that the living water refers to “the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (v. 39). Glorification refers to the resurrection of Jesus.
At that time, because Jesus was not yet resurrected, the Spirit was not yet; however, when Jesus was resurrected, the Spirit came. The Spirit is the living water as life in those who believe into the Lord Jesus. When we put John chapters 4 and 7 and Romans chapter 8 together, we see that after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Spirit is life. Therefore, life is God Himself. In eternity past, life could be seen in the Father; when He was manifested among men, life was seen in the Son; after passing through death and resurrection, life can be seen in the Spirit. Hence, life is related to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.