We often hear people say that a certain brother or sister’s life is truly wonderful and rich. If I heard such a word ten years ago, I would have believed it without a doubt. However, gradually God has opened my eyes to see that a certain brother’s humbleness or a certain sister’s gentleness may not be the issue of being rich in life. In 1948 when we were in Nanking, a sister came from Hopei, and the saints told me of her spirituality, suggesting that she was rich in life. I immediately asked them what their view was based upon. They could not answer. I told them that if outward appearances, such as the pace of her walking, the propriety of her speech, and the frequency of her smiles, were the basis for their consideration, then the statues of Mary in Catholic cathedrals should also be considered as being very spiritual because they are quiet, stationary, and never get angry. Whether or not a person is rich in life is not determined by outward appearances.
Life is God Himself, and life is Christ. There truly are such things as humility, gentleness, and quietness in life. However, the humility of many people is not life, and the gentleness of many people is not life. Instead, these characteristics are mere behavior. Genuine life is God Himself; behavior is man himself. Every time we speak of life, we are referring to the God whom we enjoy. He is the God who comes into us to deal with our problems and to solve our difficult situations. If we need satisfaction, He becomes our satisfaction; if we need gentleness, He becomes our gentleness. God is life, and life is God Himself. Behavior is man himself, and it is produced by man’s working and doing.
When we live out life, God comes out of us and is expressed in us. Sometimes when we contact a saint, we touch pride, and with another we touch humility. These are two different kinds of people. However, when we contact yet another saint, we cannot tell if he is proud or humble; instead, we sense that we are touching God, and it is as if we have come before God. We do not sense pride or humility; we sense only God and His presence. This is life.
Life is God Himself; life is God being lived out and expressed. When God is expressed, life is lived out. Many times man’s humbleness is full of human flavor, not the divine flavor. On the contrary, sometimes we meet people who speak a frank and straightforward word to us. The frank and straightforward word may cause us to feel sad and hurt, but in the depth of our being, we sense that we have touched God and experienced His presence. This is life. Life is God Himself. When life is lived out, God is lived out.
This is not our theology or the result of our research; this is the revelation of the Bible. The Old Testament tells us that life is in God (Psa. 36:9). The New Testament speaks clearly about the Word who became the incarnated Christ. He is life, and He comes that man may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). God wants man to gain Himself.
If we want to know God, we have to know life. If we want to obtain and touch everything of God, we need to touch God’s life because all the riches of God’s nature are in His life. This can be compared to beef containing a great amount of nutrients. If we want to receive the nutrients of the beef, we must eat it. Similarly, God is so rich and so sweet, and all of His riches and sweetness are in His life. Psalm 36:7-8 says, “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! / Thus the sons of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. / They are saturated with the fatness of Your house, / And You cause them to drink of the river of Your pleasures.” The fatness and the river of life are to be enjoyed by man in the shadow of God, that is, in His house, in Himself.
At the end of the Bible, Revelation 21:22 says, “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” In the New Jerusalem there is no temple, because the temple is God Himself. To enjoy the fatness of God’s house is to enjoy God’s riches in God Himself, for with Him is the fountain of life. We need to realize that God’s fatness and riches are in His life. Unbelievers do not know life and cannot touch life. If they do not have life, they do not have the fatness because everything of God is in His life. All the riches of the rice grains are in the cooked rice, so if we want to receive the benefit of the grains, we have to eat and receive the cooked rice. Because God’s riches are in His life, if we want to receive God’s riches, we must touch life because God Himself is life.