What is life? Life is God Himself being dispensed into us to be our life and live in us!
Life is mysterious because life is God Himself. Our human life is mysterious and we are not able to fully understand it. How much more the life of God? If we can barely grasp what our human life is about, what about the eternal life?
Throughout the Bible we see many people who have experienced God and enjoyed His life, and Abraham in particular experienced God as El-Olam, the Eternal God with the eternal life.
The eternal life of the eternal God is concealed, veiled, hidden, mysterious, and secret, and yet this life is real, ever-existing, ever-living, and ready to be experienced by us.
The divine life is not devotion or a power; the eternal life is not a gift, a good behavior, or merely something very powerful. The entire Bible tells us that life is God Himself, and apart from God there is no life. God is the source of life, the origin of life, and the One through whom life exists.
We as human beings have life, but our human life is not eternal; we die, and our human life is ended. But we can lay hold of the life which is really life, the divine life, by believing into the Lord Jesus to receive His life.
In this blog post we want to see what life is, who life is, how is life manifested, how we can receive life, and how we can enjoy life.
People in the world try their best to “enjoy life”, but what they enjoy is merely something temporary – it is here today and it’s gone tomorrow, fleeting, and superficial.
But the life that is really life, the divine eternal life of God, is the Triune God dispensing Himself as life into man to be man’s life and everything for man to live by God’s life to express God to the uttermost!
The Eternal Life: the Life which is Really Life
Our human life is a kind of life which is not really life, since eventually death will overcome it and destroy it. But there is a life that is really life (1 Tim. 6:19), and this life is the eternal life of God, God Himself.
We need to lay hold of this eternal life to which we were called, and we need to constantly drink from this source. Whatever we do and wherever we are in our daily life, marriage life, work life, and church life, we need to attach ourselves to this divine life – lay hold of the eternal life!
Life is the Triune God Dispensed into us and Living in us
Life is the Triune God dispensed into us and living in us: (1) God the Father is the source of life (John 5:26), God the Son is the embodiment of life (1:4), and God the Spirit is the flow of life (4:14b). (2) God the Father is the light of life (Rev. 21:23; 22:5), God the Son is the tree of life (v. 2), and God the Spirit is the river of life (v. 1).
The life which is really life is the Triune God Himself – eternal life is the life of God (Eph. 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:3), and this life is God Himself. Life is not a matter or a thing; life is a person, the Triune God. If we have the Son of God, we have life (1 John 5:12).
In relation to life being God Himself, the Bible tells us that God the Father is the source of life (John 5:26), God the Son is the embodiment of life (John 1:4), and God the Spirit is the flow of life (John 4:14).
Also, God the Father is the light of life (Rev. 21:23; 22:5), God the Son is the tree of life (John 10; Rev. 21:2), and God the Spirit is the river of life (Rev. 22:1). The Triune God is life in order to dispense Himself as life into us and live in us.
The apostles saw the eternal life embodied and lived out in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they testified of this life to us in order that we may also receive this life and be brought into the fellowship of the divine life (1 John 1:1-2; John 1:1-2).
This eternal life was with the Father in eternity, living and acting in union and communion with the Father. The apostles saw this life, received it and enjoyed it, and testified of this life to us.
Receiving, Enjoying, and Living by the Eternal Life of God
The apostles saw the eternal life, they testified and reported it to us, and by receiving the word of God and believing in the Lord Jesus we have received the divine life into us.
All the genuine believers in Christ have God’s life in them: they have the eternal life of God in their spirit. And our commission is to be today’s “apostles” by testifying and reporting this life to others so that the eternal life would be imparted into them and they would be brought into the enjoyment of the eternal life!
This eternal life was promised by God, it was released through Christ’s death, and it was imparted into the believers through Christ’s resurrection (1 John 2:25; John 3:14-15; 12:24; and Luke 12:49-50; John 1:12-13).
When the Lord Jesus came, He was the embodiment of the life of God. Through His death, the divine life within Him was released, and in His resurrection, we were all regenerated with His life to be the many children of God (1 Pet. 1:3).
When we believe into Christ, the divine life which was released in Christ’s death and imparted in His resurrection is received by us to regenerate us! Whoever believes into Christ as their Savior receives His life, and His life becomes their life – now Christ is our life (Col. 3:4).
Today as believers in Christ we have the divine life of God in us, and this eternal life is our REAL life. We can partake of all the riches of the divine nature (contained in His life), and we can enjoy the union and communion with God in His life.
The life of God today is now our life – Christ is our life! Christ as the well of water of life is in our spirit today for us to drink and live because of Him!
Now the real believers in Christ, those who have God’s life in them, daily enjoy the life of God, drink of Christ as the fountain of life, and learn to live by the life of God and not by their natural life – so that they may express God and not themselves.
A Simple Way to Enjoy the Riches of the Eternal Life Today
There’s not much that we can understand or apprehend of what the divine life is, but what we can do is enjoy this life. A very simple way to enjoy the riches of the divine life is by praying over the word of God.
The Lord Jesus said, The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life (John 6:63). We may not understand all the mysteries of the eternal life of God as revealed in the gospels and the epistles of John, but we can surely exercise our spirit to pray over the word of God so that we may enjoy the riches of His divine life.
We are not called primarily to “understand” the eternal life; we are called into the fellowship of the Son of God, into the participation of all that God is in Christ as the Spirit (1 Cor. 1:30).
It is good to take the word of God and pray over it, practicing to pray-read the Bible by exercising our spirit with the words in the Bible. In this way we receive the word of God by means of all prayers and petition (Eph. 6:17), and our spirit is nourished, the divine life in us is growing, and we are filled with God.
It is good to take a verse like Col. 3:4 and pray over it,
Thank You Lord for being our life! Hallelujah, Christ is our life! Today I declare for all to know: my life is for Christ, and Christ is my life! And Christ our life is manifested! Lord, manifest Your life through us! We want to be a manifestation of Your life! May Your life be manifested in us so that we also may be manifested with You in glory! Lord, manifest Your life in us so that Your glory may be manifested! May You get all the glory! Glory to God! Hallelujah!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 John (msg. 4), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 10 / msg 10, Two Wells — Two Sources of Living.
- Further reading: recommending lessons 7 and 13 in, Basic Lessons of Life, and chs. 1-2 in, Knowing Life and the Church (both by Witness Lee).
- Hymns on this topic:
# O how glorious! O how holy! / God is the eternal life!…/ How mysterious, yet how real! / God Himself now flows in me! / In my heart, with me in oneness, / He has come my life to be. / Hallelujah! Hallelujah! / I will praise unceasingly! (Hymns #602 by W. Lee)
# Life is God the Father in Christ Jesus / As the Spirit flowing into us. / How enjoyable, this Person wonderful! / He’s our life so rich and bountiful. (Hymns #1193)
# Jesus is the living Spirit, / We must now proclaim; / He is rich unto all men / That call upon His name. / He is living now within us, / Giving liberty; / He is good and He is gracious / As we taste and see. / Jesus is the living Spirit / And the living Word; / When we touch Him by pray-reading / We receive this Lord. (Hymns #1142)
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