God’s central goal in the universe and in the Bible is life. The word life indicates that God desires to be man’s life. In terms of the nature and significance of life in the universe, only God’s life is life because only God’s life is eternal and incorruptible. Life is the flowing out of God and also the content of God; this life is God Himself.
In brief, life is the Triune God. But to us, this life is not the Triune God who is only in heaven but the Triune God who has flowed out. The Triune God first flowed out with Himself as the content through Christ’s incarnation, and then He flowed out through Christ’s death and resurrection as the Spirit in order for us to receive Him as our life. Hence, when we touch God in the pneumatic Christ, we touch life, because life is God as the pneumatic Christ.
We all know that God is triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is in the Son, and the Son became the Spirit. The Father is in the Son so that He may be expressed among men; the Son is the Father’s expression. The Son became the Spirit so that He could enter into man; the Spirit is the entering in of the Son. The Father is the source of life; He is life itself. The Son is the expression of the Father (1 Tim. 3:16), and He is the expression of life (1 John 1:2). The Spirit is the entering in of the Son; He is the entering in of life. The life in the Father was manifested in the Son among men and realized as the Spirit to enter into man and be experienced by man. Therefore, the Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), through whom man can receive life; moreover, the mind set on the Spirit is life (v. 6). Because the Spirit is the Spirit of life, when a person touches the Spirit with his spirit, he touches life; when he contacts the Spirit, he contacts life; and when he obeys the Spirit, he experiences life.
God is the Triune God. The Father is in the Son, and the Son became the Spirit. To us, the Father is the source, the Son is the expression, and the Spirit is the entering in of God. The Father is expressed in the Son, and the Son became the Spirit to enter into us. Thus, life is the Triune God. The Father is the source of life, the Son is the expression of life, and the Spirit is the entering of life. There is no such thought in our human mind. The most that we have are ethics, morality, and philosophies which teach us to be humble, meek, patient, and forbearing.
There are two verses in the New Testament which indicate that the manifestation of the Lord Jesus in the flesh is the manifestation of God and that the manifestation of the Lord Jesus is the manifestation of life. These are the two sides of the same thing. When the Lord Jesus was manifested in the flesh, God was manifested—“Great is the mystery of godliness: / He who was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). When the Lord Jesus was manifested in the flesh, life was manifested as well—“And the life was manifested” (1 John 1:2). These two verses show that the incarnation of the Lord Jesus is the manifestation and expression of God as well as life.
Concerning the matter of God coming to be our life, we first need to see that God is life, then we need to see that God Himself came to be our life, and finally we need to know how God came to be our life. It is not a simple thing for God to come to be our life. First, God flowed out into the flesh; then He flowed from the flesh into the Spirit. Only in this way could He flow into us. From the Gospel of John we need to see how God came to be our life. This is the only book in the Bible which specifically speaks of God being our life.
In John 10:10 the Lord said, “I have come that they [man] may have life.” This means that He desires that we have Him as life; He has come to be our life. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word”; this speaks of the very beginning and says that the Word was God. Then verse 4 says, “In Him was life,” and verses 12 through 13 say, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God...who were begotten not of...the will of man, but of God.” Since we are begotten of God, His being our life is His begetting of us, and His begetting of us is His regenerating of us.
The subject of the Gospel of John is life. It begins by saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...In Him was life” (vv. 1-4). This means that the Word in the beginning was God, in whom was life. Those who receive this life are given the authority to be children of God. This authority is of life. Verse 13 goes on to say that we were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God. Whoever desires to receive God’s life must be begotten of Him. If God did not beget us, He could not be our life.
The word beget is a verb. Just as a mother begets a child, God came to beget us. Have you ever thought that God has a deep consideration about us? All the thoughts that we have toward Him relate to His dealing, striking, and disciplining us. We have many thoughts of God dealing with us, but we do not have the thought that God came to beget us. If God did not beget us, He could never be our life. It is a great matter in the universe that God has begotten us.
When we think of the fact that God has begotten us, do we have a deep sense that we should jump up and praise God? Over the past twenty some years, whenever I thought of God begetting me, I would thank and praise Him. I was a piece of clay, but God begot me. This is what we see in the first chapter of John. Verse 4 says, “In Him was life”; then verses 12 through 13 say, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God...who were begotten...of God.” It is God who begets us. If He did not beget us, He could never become our life. This is a great matter in the universe. We were clay and mud, but we have received Him as life because of His begetting. God did not simply “overlay” Himself on us as gilding, nor did He merely “coat” us with Himself like oil. Instead, He begot us. Through His begetting, God has become our life.