EATING THE TREE OF LIFE
After God created man in His image with a spirit to contain Him, God put this man in front of the tree of life and charged him to be careful not to eat the wrong tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17). God wanted man to eat of the tree of life. In the Gospel of John we see that the Lord is the vine tree (John 15:1) and that He is the life (John 14:6). When we put these two matters together, we see that Jesus is the tree of life. He is the tree and He is the life, so He is the tree of life. We have to receive Him by our spirit, and we can receive Him by eating Him and drinking Him. He told us that He is the bread of life for us to eat. By eating Him we can live because of Him (John 6:57). Also, He is the living water for us to drink (John 4:14; 7:37-38).
What is it to eat Jesus and to drink of Jesus? This is God’s dispensing of Himself into our being. God created man in His own image with a spirit that man might receive Him. At the time of creation, man did not have God within him. Man was just an empty container. Adam was empty without God in him, so God put him in front of the tree of life. Adam was an empty container made to contain God as life. He needed to receive God into him that God would be his life, his life supply, and contents. In the same way God needs to be our contents, our life, and our life supply. We should not receive the wrong tree. The Lord warned Adam that if he would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. We need to receive the right item into us, and the right thing for us to receive is the tree of life. The tree of life indicates that God wants to be our life. We have to receive Him by eating Him. If we eat of Christ as the tree of life, we are receiving Him into our being to be our life supply, and we are no longer empty. God will be our contents.
Genesis 1 and 2 give us a picture in God’s creation, showing us the divine economy. Even in God’s creation there is a picture of God’s desire to dispense Himself into His created man. I must testify that my only burden and my unique interest is God’s economy. God wants to dispense Himself into us to make us God-men not good men. A Christian is not merely a good man but a God-man. We were made in God’s image with a spirit to receive God into us as our life, our life supply, and as our everything to be our very contents for us to be God-men.
(The Divine Economy, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
