After seeing God’s goal, we may wonder how the man created by God can attain this goal. How can the man created by God become a living image of God and practically have the authority of God? This is a question concerning the way to attain this goal. Genesis 2, following chapter one, speaks concerning the way. The presentation of the way may seem to be very simple, but it is actually very detailed and clear.
The first step that Genesis 2 shows us is the step of God forming man out of dust. Man was an earthen vessel, a vessel made of dust. However, within this man who was made of dust, God created a spirit. This is the most distinctive feature of man, distinguishing man from all the other creatures. The reason man surpasses all the other creatures and is the highest among the creatures is because man has this excellent spirit within him. Although man is an earthen body outwardly, within him is an excellent spirit. The reason God created this excellent spirit for man was so that man would have a spirit to contact and receive God who is Spirit. As we have illustrated, a radio is a mere wooden box outwardly, but inwardly it contains a component that is capable of receiving electromagnetic waves. Since the component is able to receive the electromagnetic waves from the air, the electromagnetic waves will cause a response in this component as long as it is tuned to the right frequency. In the same manner, as human beings of visible substance, we are like earthen boxes, but within us there is a precious and excellent spirit. This spirit is the spiritual component within us that enables us to receive God who is Spirit.
After God created man, He put man in front of the tree of life. This shows us very clearly that God wants to dispense Himself as food for man to receive and enjoy Him. This is why the Lord Jesus said that He is the living bread from heaven (John 6:32, 35) and that He came as food to be placed in front of people for them to receive Him into them as their life. Recall how one day a Canaanite woman came to beg of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs” (Matt. 15:25-26). This clearly tells us that the Lord’s coming to the earth was His humbling Himself to be a piece of bread and to be placed before men for them to receive. Once a person receives the Lord as bread, then God who is within the Lord enters into him and becomes his life. This is regeneration. Regeneration means that man, in addition to his own life, receives God to be his life. This is man’s second life.
In the third step there is a river flowing and watering. This signifies that from the moment God came into us as life, this life has been moving and flowing in us, watering us like a river. The issue of this moving, flowing, and watering is that pure gold is brought forth. Pure gold symbolizes or denotes the transcendent nature of God. The nature of God is like pure gold. God came into us as life, and this life brought God’s nature into us. Peter said that we are “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust” (2 Pet. 1:4). How can we partake of the divine nature? It is through God’s entering into us as life. This life moves and flows within us, thus bringing God’s nature to us. Hence, we have pure gold within us.
The flowing of the river produces not only gold but also bdellium and precious stone. This indicates that the flowing of God’s life in us not only imparts God’s nature to us but also causes us to be transformed within. Second Corinthians 3 says that we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (v. 18). From the day we received God’s life and were regenerated, the Spirit of the Lord in us, in coordination with the high pressure and intense heat in the outward environment, has been continually doing this transforming work. Formerly, as earthen men we were lowly vessels—worthless and without honor. However, because God’s life has been added into us, we have the element of gold within us. Moreover, because the Holy Spirit is doing a work of transformation in us, we are being transformed into pearls of great value and precious stones.