Subject Nine

LIFE VERSUS GOOD AND EVIL

Scripture: Gen. 2

1. Two trees
   1. Mention that after God created man, He put him in front of two trees, and that He held him responsible for these two trees. Whether man would be a success or a failure, right or wrong, legal or illegal, was all dependent upon how he would deal with those two trees.
   2. The tree of life.
      The tree of life depicts God’s life. When God made man, He gave man a life for his human existence, but God did not give him His own life. So after man was made, man had only man’s life, not God’s life. God intended that man would, by his own free will, choose God’s life and receive His life into him. God used the tree of life to depict God’s life, and God intended that man would contact the tree of life, that is, to contact God Himself.
   3. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
      Just as the tree of life depicts God’s life, the tree of good and evil depicts Satan’s life. God used these two trees to point out that He and Satan are opposite to one another. He wished that man would contact the tree of life and thus have a relationship with Him, and He wished that man would not contact the tree of good and evil and thus have a relationship with Satan, but He gave man a free will to choose.
2. Life is God’s goal
   1. God’s goal for man is that man may have His life. Emphasize this point.
   2. This life is God’s life, and this life is God Himself.
   3. Explain how God made man to be His vessel, so that He may pour Himself into man.
   4. When man gets this life, he is up to God’s standard; he is no longer empty, but is living in reality. He becomes a man of meaning.
3. Good and evil are Satan’s purpose
   (This point must be presented clearly; otherwise it is difficult for people with moral thinking to understand.)
   1. Satan wanted to capture man, whom God had created for Himself.
   2. The way Satan captured man was to cause man to pay attention to good and evil.
   3. As soon as man pays attention to good and evil, he is independent of God and becomes severed from God.
   4. To man there is a big difference between good and evil. All men condemn evil and justify good, but the ultimate result of either good or evil is but one: both good and evil result in independence from God and keep man from having God’s life.
4. Only life is the true goodness
   1. The source of good is God Himself. You should make people realize that all the evil originated from Satan, and all genuine goodness originated from God. God is the source of all good.
   2. God’s true goodness is touched through God’s life because God is not only good, but much more, God is life. Only when you touch God’s life can you touch the true goodness.
   3. Any goodness not from God and God’s life is only secondary goodness, if not false. It is never the genuine goodness or the highest goodness.
      This point should subdue the listeners.
5. Life is the power of goodness
   1. Satan causes men to pay attention to goodness, but he would not give them the power to do good. Anyone who tries to do good outside of God and without leaning on God, only has the knowledge of good, but has no power to do it.
   2. In the Chinese dictionary there are the words “virtue” and “wisdom,” and even the word “wisdom-power,” but not “virtue-power.” This proves that the Chinese philosophers had discovered that men had the knowledge of good but lacked the power to do good.
   3. This is why the more a man pays attention to good, the more he discovers the lack of power to do good. When you are sloppy, you hardly feel that you are powerless in doing good. It is when you are trying to do good that you find out that you lack the power of doing good.
   4. Since God Himself is the true goodness (the highest goodness), God’s power must be His life. Only when a man receives God’s life can he have the real goodness and the power to do good. So if you really want to do good, you must receive the life of God.
6. The way to receive life
   1. God’s life is put in Christ. Speak more about this.
   2. Christ died to redeem us, and resurrected to release His life. Christ’s death took away the problem (sins) between men and God. Unless men’s sins are taken away, God (the real life) cannot get into us. Through death Christ dealt with our sins, and through resurrection Christ released His life for us to receive.
   3. We must confess our sins, and repudiate our past ways and goals. In addition, there are many other evils we need to confess from our heart. We must change our mind and turn to God. As soon as we change our mind, we should pray and confess to God.
   4. You must open yourself from within, and accept Christ to come into your heart, to be your living Savior.
   5. Acknowledge that you have received this life because you believed. This is according to the words of the Bible (1 John 5:12-13).
      This message is suitable for speaking to the more intellectual ones.