Although man did not have the divine life, he did have a spirit within him (Job 32:8). The spirit of man was specifically formed by God as the deepest part in the entire being of the created man; it is the receiver for man to receive God and an organ for man to contact God and all the spiritual things, in order that man may substantiate the things of God and the spiritual things. Zechariah 12:1 says that Jehovah “stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.” This indicates that the spirit of man ranks with the heavens and the earth. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man has a spirit within him to contact God and to contain God that God may enter into him to be his life and life supply.
Although God did not put His life into man, He created man with a free will that man might exercise his own will to choose Him and to obtain His life. Therefore, He placed man in front of the tree of life, and He also set the tree of the knowledge of good and evil beside the tree of life, thus affording man the opportunity to make a choice. Man could either choose God, who was signified by the tree of life, or he could choose Satan, who was signified by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God allowed man to exercise free will to choose for himself that which he thought was good. God desired that man would voluntarily and willingly choose Him and take Him as his life and content.
After man was created, God did not require him to do anything; He assigned him only to dress and to guard His garden on earth (Gen. 2:15). To dress here means to cultivate or to till the ground. Man was charged to dress the garden of God, that is, to cultivate the garden of God so that it might not be ruined. Man was also charged to guard the ground, to protect the garden from God’s enemy, that is, to deal with Satan by God’s authority that the garden might not be damaged.
It was with such a man who was without sin, who had a spirit and a free will, and who was assigned to dress and guard His garden, that God made the first covenant with man.
God’s eternal intention is to work Himself into man, whom He created, to be man’s life and content that He may have a corporate expression. Hence, after man was created, God put him in front of the tree of life and commanded him, saying that he could freely eat of every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17). This indicates that God desired and longed for man to receive His life, signified by the tree of life, that His eternal intention might be accomplished.
The tree of life is a symbol, signifying God as the source of life. This matter is clearly revealed in the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John tells us that in Him (Christ) was life (1:4), that He came that man might have life (10:10), that He is life (11:25), and that He is the unique true vine in the universe (15:1). This clearly indicates that Christ is the tree of life. Furthermore, Christ is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). Hence, the tree of life in Genesis 2 signifies God as the source of life. Its content is life, and its nature and result also are life. Everything pertaining to it is life.
God’s way for man to take the tree of life is by eating. Hence, God placed man in front of the tree of life and strongly commanded man to pay attention to his eating because eating is a matter of life and death (Gen. 2:16-17). Eating issues in a union and a mingling. It is not merely an outward objective contact but an inward subjective receiving. If man eats properly, he receives God into him subjectively to be joined and mingled with him, thus fulfilling God’s purpose in creating man.
Besides the tree of life, there was also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:9b). God warned man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that he would eat of it he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). This indicates that God wanted man to reject the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and to receive the tree of life.
There are two sources in the universe: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life signifies God as the source of life; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of sin and death. Just as God’s life is the content of the tree of life, so also Satan’s evil life and nature are the contents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin entered into the world through him (Rom. 5:12). Actually, sin is the embodiment of Satan, the evil one. Furthermore, death came through sin, and Satan was the one who had the might of death (Heb. 2:14). Hence, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of sin and death; it includes good, evil, and knowledge. If man were to contact it, he would touch the source of sin and death, and this would surely issue in sin and death.