In this Chinese New Year’s conference we will specifically consider the subject of God’s salvation in life. Salvation in life means that God comes into us as life to save us. This salvation in life is not outward but inward because it is God Himself coming into us to be our life.
God’s desire and purpose in creating man is that He may be man’s life (Gen. 2:8-9), and this is symbolized by the tree of life (v. 9; Rev. 2:7b; 22:2, 14, 19). The Bible is a wonderful book. At the beginning, in the first two chapters, it speaks of how God created the universe with all the things therein including mankind. After reading these two chapters we may ask, “After creating man, what did God want man to do?” The readers will be surprised and also a little disappointed to learn that after God had created man, instead of telling man what to do, He prepared a garden for man. Those who have studied the Bible refer to this garden as “Paradise,” the Garden of Eden. God brought the created man into the garden and wanted him to live there.
There were two special trees in the garden. Actually, there were many trees in the garden, but two of them were special. One was called the tree of life. We all have heard of the apple tree, the grape vine, the apricot tree, and others, but we probably have not heard of the tree of life. The tree of life at the beginning of the Bible has become a big problem to Bible readers. Genesis chapter two was written three thousand five hundred years ago. Since then, readers of the Bible have been asking, “What is the tree of life?” However, no one can answer that question. Not only so, after mentioning the tree of life in the first two chapters, the Bible does not mention it again until at the end. In the Bible from Genesis chapter two, thousands of other things are mentioned, but you do not see the tree of life again until the very end of the sixty-six books. In the last two chapters of the entire Scriptures the tree of life reappears. This shows us that the Bible begins with the tree of life, and it also ends with the tree of life. The tree of life is the beginning and the conclusion of the Bible. Therefore, it must be something significant.
The tree of life in Genesis 2 shows us the desire of God. What was God’s desire concerning man when He created man? The Bible tells us that God created man in His image and according to His likeness (Gen. 1:26). Actually, what God created was not a man but a “god.” For example, if you try to make a dog, but you make it according to the human face and body, people would say that that is not a dog but a man. Genesis shows us that God created a man, but what He created had the appearance of God because this man looked like God in image and in likeness.
The Bible tells us that God created the heavens, the earth, the animals, the plants, and the creeping things, and then He created man. If you say that what God created was a man, I may argue with you and say that this man was actually God. What was God’s purpose in creating such a God-resembling man? In Genesis 2 we see that God placed the created man in front of the tree of life. This is very significant. God’s intention was for Adam to eat of the tree of life. Dietitians tell us that we are what we eat. Those who eat the tree of life will look like the tree of life.
What is the tree of life? This requires a careful study of the Bible. After Genesis 2, which mentions the tree of life, you must continue to read until you come to the Psalms. In Psalm 36 it says, “They are saturated with the fatness of Your house, / And You cause them to drink of the river of Your pleasures. / For with You is the fountain of life” (vv. 8-9a). Here life is mentioned again; Psalm 36 tells us that in God there is the fountain of life. In other words, God is the source of life. When you dwell in the house of God, the source of life is placed before you, and it is for you to enjoy. What this picture means is that God’s desire is to work Himself into man to be man’s life. How can God be wrought into man? It is by the way of eating. It is no wonder that when the Lord Jesus came, He told us in John chapter six that He was the bread of life (v. 35); then He said that those who eat Him shall live because of Him (v. 57b). Not only so, John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word,...and the Word was God,” and then verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Moreover, John 10:10 says, “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” From these verses we can see clearly that the tree of life is God Himself.
As Spirit, God is mysterious and invisible to man. Therefore, He used the tree as a symbol, an allegory. When you see this tree, you will wonder, “To whom does this picture refer?” This is neither an apple tree nor a peach tree; it is the tree of life. What is life? We know that there is the plant life, there is the animal life, there is the human life, and there is the divine life. Life is always mysterious. Therefore, to make it clear to us, it was not enough for God merely to use words to explain that He is life. Thus, He showed us a picture. When you see this tree, gradually you will realize that you must eat this tree. This means that you need to receive God into you to be your life. Therefore, the tree of life in Genesis 2 expresses the heart’s desire of God, which is that God wants to enter into man.
John 3:16 says that God loves the world. However, our understanding of this word is too shallow. That God loves the people of the world does not mean that He merely likes them; rather, He loves them to the uttermost, to the extent that He wants to enter into them. In the entire universe there are thousands and millions of items created by God, but that which is the most precious to Him is man, because man is His object to be a vessel to contain Him. God desires to be in man. Therefore, at the beginning the Bible expresses the desire of God, and at the end it shows us again the purpose of God. The sixty-six books of the Bible give a record of God’s works, the ultimate consummation of which is that man can receive God as the tree of life. As the tree of life, God will grow within man to be man’s life. This is God’s purpose.
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