Regardless of how spiritual we are, we must remember that we are fallen. We were born fallen because our first father fell six thousand years ago. A fallen person is an independent person. All mothers know that there is not one child that is not independent. Whether they are American, Chinese, Western or Oriental, the first word they learn is “No!” Whatever their mothers say, the answer is “No!” Our fallen nature is independent.
Even the sisters who are wives are still very independent. However, they would say it in a nicer way. They would say that to keep their independence is to keep their prestige. For them to submit to their husbands is to lose their prestige. But that is really not the case. The case is just the independence of our fallen nature.
The principle of the tree of knowledge is simply the principle of independence. Knowledge makes people independent. Students, after they finish their course, graduate from school and then become so independent. But can you graduate from life? It is impossible. This is why the principle of the tree of life is dependence. Yesterday we ate, we drank, we breathed, and we slept. But today we still must do the same. We could never say that because we learned to breathe well yesterday, that today we have graduated from breathing. You can graduate from any kind of knowledge, but you cannot graduate from anything of life. The tree of life means dependence, and the tree of knowledge means independence. It was at the fall of man that the tree of knowledge, which means the nature of independence, got into man. This is why we were born independent.
However, God’s economy depends upon our dependence. On one hand God created us as an individual with a proper will. Yet in God’s salvation, God comes into us that we may take Him as our person. This means that we should no longer live by ourself, but by Him. To say this is easy, but to experience it is not so easy.
Let me illustrate. God has created you as a complete unit, a perfect individual. You have your will, your likes, and your dislikes. You have your thoughts and intentions. You are a perfect individual being. You also have your personality. However, God’s creation is one thing, but God’s salvation is another. God’s creation is to create us in such a way, but in His salvation, He Himself comes into us to be our life and our person. He dwells in us, and we must live by Him. This is really good, but we have a problem. Now besides ourself, we have another person. This means that now we must be willing to be dependent upon this person, forgetting about ourselves.
In all weddings, the bride has her head covered. This means that in a family, there can be only one head. But immediately after the wedding, they take away the covering. To tell the truth, I have never seen a person fully dependent upon and submissive to another person. I never saw such a one because we were all born fallen and independent. To our feeling, to depend upon others is a kind of shame.
But in God’s salvation, what is needed is our dependence. However, it is not easy to give up our independence. Therefore, the pressure is needed. God is sovereign. He brings in a certain kind of pressure to take away our independence. This is why there is not one Christian that does not have trouble. Nearly all the husbands are a tribulation to the wives, and all the wives are a tribulation to the husbands. Moreover, all the children are tribulations. I met a certain brother in 1958, and then I saw him again in 1960. At that time I realized that he had nearly no pressure from the little ones. But just five years later, in 1965, I noticed that the little ones had become a pressure to him. There are no parents who can testify that their children are not a pressure to them. Every child is a tribulation. The more children you have, the more tribulations you have.