IX. PUTTING MAN BEFORE THE TREE OF LIFE,
INDICATING THAT GOD WANTED MAN
TO RECEIVE HIM AS LIFE
God put man before the tree of life, indicating that God wanted man to receive Him as life. We have to see that at the very beginning, God had no intention to ask man to keep any law, to do anything good, or to bear any kind of burden. At the very beginning, right after God created man, God only put man in front of the tree of life. This indicated that God wanted man to receive Him as life, signified by the tree of life. God also warned man that he should be careful about his eating. Of course, what man did was altogether up to his own free will. What he chose to eat was up to him. But God’s desire was that man would choose the tree of life, which means that man would choose God as life.
X. MAN BEING CREATED A VESSEL
TO RECEIVE AND CONTAIN GOD
Man was created as a vessel to receive and contain God. This is fully revealed in Romans 9:21 and 23 and 2 Corinthians 4:7. In Romans 9 we are told that God is a potter, and we are the clay. The Potter made the clay vessels, and He made us vessels of mercy, vessels unto honor, and even vessels unto glory. Our being vessels to contain God is not because we are so good and preferable to God; it is altogether a matter of God’s mercy. God had mercy upon us, and He wanted us to be His vessels, so we are the vessels of mercy. We are vessels of honor because we contain the God of honor. Eventually, we all will be filled with God’s glory and glorified in the glory of God to become the vessels unto glory. Thus, God created us as vessels—vessels of mercy, vessels of honor, and vessels unto glory to contain Him.
We must see that God’s creation is to make us vessels to contain Him. We must stress this one point in this message—that man was made a vessel with a human spirit as a receptacle to receive God. This is the first message concerning life in our training. We have to make it so clear and so impressive to all the trainees that the creation of man was just to make man a vessel with a receptacle, that is, our spirit, to receive God into us as our life.
(Basic Lessons on Life, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
