Because the truths in the Bible are so profound, we cannot understand them unless we use illustrations and parables. This is true of what the Bible says about how the life of God enters into us. God’s life does not come into us like water poured into a glass. We receive God’s life through a process of divine conception. The fact that we are born of God (John 1:12-13) indicates that God’s life comes into us through conception. Birth always involves the conceiving of life.
I have been condemned for teaching the mingling of God with man. Let me ask, how could we be conceived of God and born of God without being mingled with God? John 3:6 says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Our physical life is a portrait of spiritual life. In principle, spiritual birth is the same as physical birth. Both kinds of birth involve the conceiving of life. Through conception and birth, we have received the life of God.
In the Lord’s recovery we emphasize the subjective aspects of the truth in the Bible. Many religious ones are offended by this. Pointing to the fact that Christ is great, that He has been glorified and enthroned in the heavens, they ask how such an exalted Christ could be our food. Some even mock us, asking what is our basis for saying that Christ is edible. In their blindness, they ignore the subjective truth that Christ, the bread of life, is indeed edible. He Himself said, “He who eats Me shall also live because of Me” (John 6:57). Eating Christ and living because of Him certainly are very subjective matters.
We have seen that it is God’s life which makes us one with God. This oneness in life can be illustrated by the grafting of a branch from one tree into another tree. Grafting involves a metabolic process. Dead sticks can be nailed together, glued together, or tied together, but they cannot be grafted together. Only living things can be grafted.
Two substances that are to be grafted together must be similar in life. We know that our natural human life is not the same as the divine life. It is a principle according to Genesis 1 that each life is according to its kind. But even though the human life is not the divine life, it was created according to the divine life, for man was made in God’s image and according to His likeness. Only the human life, not any other kind of life, was made according to God. Because the human life and the divine life are similar in certain respects, they can be grafted together. Once this grafting takes place, the life juice of the divine life flows into the human life and produces a marvelous oneness between God and man. How, then, can we be one with God and God one with us? This oneness comes by the grafting of the human life into the divine life and the divine life to the human life. John 15 says clearly that we are branches in Christ, who is the vine. According to the illustration used by Paul in Romans 11, we are branches grafted into Christ. Now as we abide in Christ and He abides in us, we and He, He and we, share one life and one living. This oneness in life and living makes us truly one.
Our oneness with the Lord is also illustrated in Scripture by the oneness between a man and his wife. A husband and his wife are one both in nature and in life. Eventually, after many years, a man and woman who have enjoyed a genuine married life will become one even in expression. During the honeymoon, a husband and wife are one in love. With more time, they become one in life. But ultimately those who develop a proper married life become one in expression. This is a picture of our relationship with the Lord. First we are one with Him in love; then we become one with Him in life and nature; and finally we shall be one with Him in expression. When we are one with Him in love, we experience His life and enjoy His nature. When we live His life and walk according to His nature, we become His expression.
We pointed out in a foregoing message that the law is a description of what God is. This means that the law is the expression of God. If we become one with God in love, life, nature, and expression, we shall automatically keep His law. There will be no need for us to make up our mind to keep it, for we shall spontaneously live according to God’s law.
It is important to see that in the New Testament the Ten Commandments are repeated, developed, and uplifted. In fact, the teaching in the New Testament goes beyond the Ten Commandments. Anyone who rejects God’s law must also reject the entire New Testament, which reiterates in an expanded way the law decreed in the Old Testament. In Matthew 5 the Lord Jesus complemented the law and uplifted it. More than once He said, “You have heard that it was said...but I say to you...” (Matt. 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 43-44). The Lord Jesus came with no intention of abolishing the law. He Himself said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). Concerning the law, the teaching of the New Testament is thus essentially the same as that of the Ten Commandments.
When some read this, they may wonder about the fourth commandment, concerning keeping the Sabbath. Even with respect to the Sabbath, the New Testament does not change in principle. In the Old Testament, the seventh day was a memorial, a mark of God’s creation. But because we, the saints in the church, have been regenerated in Christ’s resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3), we are not merely of God’s creation, but also of His re-creation. Unlike Adam, we are not those living in God’s creation; we are the ones living in Christ’s resurrection. Hence, our memorial day is no longer the seventh day; it is the eighth day, the first day of the week, the day of resurrection. According to Acts 20:7, the disciples came together on this day, not on the seventh day, to have the Lord’s table. According to 1 Corinthians 16:2, also on this day material things were set apart for God’s use. Furthermore, in Revelation 1:10 John says that he was in spirit on the Lord’s day, which was the first day of the week. Since there is a memorial day both in the Old Testament and in the New, it is correct to say that concerning the fourth commandment there is no change in principle. Because the Old Testament saints lived in God’s creation, their memorial day was the seventh day. But because we, the New Testament saints, are in resurrection, our memorial day is the eighth day. The actual day has changed from the seventh day to the eighth day. However, God has not annulled the principle of setting apart a day unto the Lord. Again we see that, in principle, the whole Bible, the Old Testament as well as the New, is the same concerning the law.
God’s ultimate goal is to make us one with Him. The way for us to become one with Him is by love, life, nature, and expression. Our love for God should be like that of a woman for her husband, the very love portrayed in Song of Songs. Loving the Lord in this way, we receive His life supply. We have given a number of messages on life and building based on Song of Songs (see Life and Building in the Song of Songs).Through our affectionate love for the Lord Jesus, we are supplied with life. As this life grows, the building takes place. Actually, the growth of life is the building. Loving the Lord as our Husband and experiencing and enjoying His life and nature, we shall become His expression. Song of Songs depicts this sequence. Eventually, in a very real sense, the seeking one in Song of Songs becomes her beloved. The two, the man and the woman, become one absolutely, even in expression, living as if they were one person.
In the oneness between man and wife we see the proper way to keep the law. We do not keep the law through the exercise of our mind and will. We keep it by loving the Lord as our Husband. We all need such a sweet, intimate, affectionate love between us and the Lord. We should love Him as a woman loves her husband. We all, young and old alike, need this kind of love. The more we love the Lord in this way, the more we shall partake of His life and spontaneously live Him in accordance with His nature. Then our living will automatically become the keeping of His law. What we live out will be according to the law as His description, definition, and expression.
As we shall see in a later message, if we try to keep God’s law without having such an affectionate love for Him, we shall be in darkness, condemned, exposed, and even slain by the law of God. That is the dark aspect of the law, the “night” aspect. In this message our concern has been to consider the bright aspect, the “day” aspect. Considering this aspect, we see that we can keep the law of God only by loving Him and becoming one with Him.