In the previous chapter we pointed out that God's four great acts in the universe are related to creation, election, the new creation, and the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. In each of these acts we see the matter of oneness. In God's creation there was one corporate man, and in God's election of Abraham there was also just one man. Furthermore, the church, the one new man, is uniquely one as God's new creation. Finally, the new city in the new universe will be characterized by oneness. Actually, that city will be a corporate man. Hence, oneness is the basic element of God's acts.
The reason for this oneness is that God Himself is one. Oneness is His nature. In all God's acts we see one origin, one element, and one essence. In God's creation we see one God and one corporate man. In His selection we also have the one God and one man. Moreover, in the church we have the one Spirit and one new man. Eventually, in the New Jerusalem we have the unique Triune God in the one city characterized by the one throne, the one street, the one river, and the one tree. Therefore, the oneness about which we are speaking is not a partial oneness; it is a great, complete, comprehensive oneness, a oneness in entirety. May we all be impressed with the vision of such a oneness. If we see the vision of the oneness of entirety, all the germs of division will be killed, and we shall be delivered from every kind of division.
In this chapter we need to go on to see the essence of oneness. What is the essence of this great oneness, the oneness in entirety? The essence of this oneness is life and light.
Genesis 2:8 says, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." A garden is a place of life. After God created man, He put him in a place that was full of life. In the midst of this place, the garden in Eden, there was a tree called the tree of life. Not only was the garden a place of life, but at the center of this place there was the tree of life. The fact that the Creator put man in such an environment indicates that God was presenting Himself to man as the source of life and also as the supply of life.
Man, however, did not partake of the tree of life. Instead, he ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and, as a result, was eventually divided into nations. At Babel, the man created by God for His purpose was divided into nations. This was the result of his having been seduced by Satan to eat of the tree of knowledge. Babel was the issue, the consequence, of the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. This indicates that we should beware of anything that is not of life, for any such thing will result in division, Babel.