We must now consider what man’s possession is. Psalm 16:5 says, “Jehovah is the portion of My inheritance and of My cup; / You maintain My lot.” An inheritance is a possession. The land is not our real possession; rather, God is our possession. The land is merely a type, a symbol, and a figure. How can we say that God is man’s possession? From Genesis 1:26 and Romans 9:21-23 we can see clearly that man was created by God to be His vessel. A vessel as a container is empty by itself; hence, it needs content. The content of a vessel is its possession. An empty cup is a destitute cup. One who is thirsty desires a drink, but an empty cup cannot quench his thirst. To be empty is to be poor, and to be poor is to be empty. Man is a vessel of God; hence if man does not have God, he is empty and poor. The first chorus of Hymns, #1080 says, “Vanity! Vanity! / Vanity! Vanity! / ’Tis chasing the wind, / It’s all vanity!” The last chorus says, “Christ without, all is vain! / Christ within, all is gain! / All things are vain, / Christ only is gain!” Man without Christ is vain. Hence, man’s real possession is not land or a house, and neither is it a wife or children; man’s possession is God. God created man as His vessel to contain Him. If we as a vessel do not have God as our content, we are empty and poor.
After God created Adam, He put Adam in front of the tree of life, indicating that He wanted Adam to receive the tree of life; besides this, He indicated little else to Adam. What is the tree of life? The tree of life is God. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst” (John 6:35). Psalm 36:9 also says, “For with You is the fountain of life.” The Lord is the tree of life and the river of life; he who believes into Him eats and drinks Him and is satisfied. To be sure, God is our possession. Furthermore, according to Psalm 16:5 God is not only our inheritance, but also the portion of our cup. In this verse, inheritance is a general expression, whereas cup is a more personal expression. God is not only our inheritance but also the portion of our cup for our enjoyment. God is not only our possession but also our real enjoyment. Moreover, God maintains our allotted portion.
God presented the tree of life to Adam, but Adam did not take it; hence, he lost his portion of the enjoyment of God. Adam fell from God’s presence, and as a result, all the people of the world lost God. Therefore, Ephesians 2:12 says that people living in the world today have no hope and are without God. The prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32 is a portrait of all mankind. From kings and presidents to street sweepers and beggars, everyone is a prodigal son who has become penniless and who lives with “hogs.” The fall of man is a fall from God, a fall from man’s possession. Man has lost God as his possession and enjoyment. This is the first step of man’s loss.
The second step is that in the fall, man sold himself to sin. Paul says in Romans 7:14, “I am fleshy, sold under sin.” As fallen sinners, we have lost God, and we are without God. Not only so, we have sold our members to sin to become slaves of sin (6:19). Sin dominates man. Today people in the world, no matter who they are, are under the domination of sin. Some people have a higher degree of intellect and thus are controlled by their reason. For the sake of society, their relatives, and their friends, they are not reckless outwardly, but they are still reckless in their mind. Who is not sold to sin in his heart? We have all sold ourselves to sin.
God called Paul and said to him, “I send you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:17b-18). This inheritance is God as our possession, that is, God as our land with its rich produce. Today man needs land to provide food for his living and a lodging for his rest. As we have seen, Psalm 16:5 says, “Jehovah is the portion of My inheritance,” and Psalm 90:1 says, “O Lord, You have been our dwelling place / In all generations.” Hymns, #600 is written based on these two psalms. The general idea of the hymn is that God is our eternal portion, our everlasting all, and our safe abode. God is our land and our dwelling place. It is no wonder that when the Lord Jesus came, He said, “Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Moreover, in John 15:4 He said, “Abide in Me.” Today all men have lost God as their possession, and they have no real dwelling place. Fallen people are all drifting about and wandering without a home. Although they may live in high-rise buildings or large mansions, within them there is no rest, no dwelling place. Man is wandering because he has lost God. God is man’s real dwelling place and real possession.