The book of Jeremiah shows us the principle of being one with God, which is the principle of the tree of life versus the principle of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (see Jer. 2:13); we must be those depending on God in everything.
God wants to be one with man and He wants man to be one with Him; this is not something done in an outward way, merely in the way of us listening to God and doing what He tells us to do, but in the principle of the tree of life, which is depending on God and taking Him as our unique source and life supply.
First of all, we need to remember that we men can be one with God simply because He has made us the same as He is; He created us in His image and according to His likeness, and He breathed His breath of life into us so that we may become a living soul.
Even more, through regeneration we have received the life of God to be regenerated in our spirit, we are being transformed in our soul, and we will eventually be transfigured in our body to match Him completely! Praise the Lord!
God’s full salvation starts with the regeneration of our spirit, continues with the transformation of our soul, and consummates with our full glorification to have our entire being brought into the divine glory!
The reason God made us in His image and according to His likeness is so that we may be one with God in the way of life, that is, so that we may be those taking God as our life and source of life, depending on God, and living Him out.
This is what the Bible reveals, and this is what God is after. God doesn’t merely want to improve us, make us better people, or give us prosperity and make us happy; God wants man to be one with Him to the extent that man has become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, and man fully expresses God in His glory.
May we continue to partake of the divine nature of God and allow God to transform us by the renewing of the mind until we are conformed to the image of Christ.
May we cooperate with God in His transforming work and may we come to Him again and again to just be open to Him as vessels that seek to be filled with Him and be one with Him.
Our destiny for eternity is to be one with God and even be the same as God as the New Jerusalem; until then, He is imparting Himself into our being to fill us and saturate us in an organic way, renewing us from the old things, and eventually glorify us to match Him completely and be fully one with Him. Hallelujah!
We start from resembling God in our image and likeness (for we were created in His image and according to His likeness), and we will end up being the same as God in life, nature, function, and expression, but not in the Godhead, to be fully one with God for eternity as the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord!
Realizing that to Sin is to Leave God and to Trust in Ourselves to Do Something for Ourselves
This verse, Jer. 2:13, is a crucial verse in the book of Jeremiah and in the whole Bible, for it shows us the principle of being one with God. Such a oneness with God is to eventually make us the same as He is, sharing the same image as Him.
The principle of being one with God – which is the principle of the tree of life versus the principle of the tree of knowledge of good and evil – is seen in Jer. 2:13, which reveals the two basic sins of God’s people.
What is sin? We may think and know that sin is something bad, doing something evil, something like stealing, committing fornication, coveting, lying, etc but in its most intrinsic definition, sin is a matter of leaving God and doing something by ourselves and for ourselves.
This is the definition of sin according to Jer. 2:13, and this is exactly what the children of Israel did.
They forsook God – the fountain of living waters for their supply – and they did whatever they could to work out something by themselves and for themselves, for their own enjoyment.
Sin may not be something evil outwardly, but sin is forsaking God and doing something by ourselves and for ourselves by trusting in ourselves. This is the principle throughout the Bible, and we see this principle in the book of Jeremiah again and again.
The first sin the people of Israel committed was forsaking Jehovah as the fountain, the source, of living waters, and the second sin was hewing out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which could not hold water.
Sin is independence from God, leaving God, and doing something on our own to achieve something for ourselves.
The principle in the Bible is that God doesn’t want us, His chosen people, to take anything other than Himself as their source.
After God created man, He put him in front of the tree of life, signifying God as life, to indicate that He wanted man to partake of the tree of life and not anything else (Gen. 2:8-9).
For us to partake of the tree of life is for us to take God as our unique source, as our source of everything.
God put man in front of the tree of life to show him that this should be his source, his everything; the tree of life is God Himself in the form of food for man to take in.
When man partakes of God as life, man becomes dependent on that source; when man partakes of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he becomes independent from God and commits sin, which results in death.
In our Christian life we need to practice every moment to depend on the Lord, not leaving Him and not trying to hew out for ourselves other sources for water, for nothing else can satisfy.
It is a sin in God’s eyes for us to leave Him as the source of living water and to try to do something by ourselves and for ourselves by trusting in ourselves.
The second sin the children of Israel committed was not trusting in God but trusting in themselves to do whatever they could do to work out something by themselves for their enjoyment.
Sin is to forsake God and do something by ourselves and for ourselves, trusting not in God but in ourselves.
Oh Lord! We are all guilty of such a thing, for many times we trust in ourselves and not in God, and we do things (even for God!) in ourselves and by ourselves, not by taking God as our source, our fountain of living waters; many times we do things by not depending on God.
Lord Jesus, forgive us for sinning against You by leaving God and doing something by ourselves and for ourselves. Forgive us from forsaking God as the fountain of living waters to work out something in ourselves to do whatever we could do in ourselves and by ourselves. Oh Lord, we return to You as our source; You are the fountain of living waters. We forsake our independence from You and we choose the tree of life! We choose to come to You, take You in as life, and drink deeply of You as the fountain of living waters! We depend on You, Lord, and we remain in the organic union with You, drinking of You and being filled with You, so that we would do everything in oneness with You and do nothing apart from You!
Being One with God in the Principle of the Tree of Life by Depending on God in Everything
What does it mean for us as believers in Christ to eat the tree of life and depend on God so that we may be one with God? What does it mean for us as Christians to take God as the fountain of living waters?
In our Christian life we need to practice every moment, day by day, to partake of Christ as the tree of life, taking God as our source.
This means that we need to persevere in prayer and have an unceasing prayer, for we depend on the Lord even as we depend on the air that we breathe every moment.
All Scripture is God-breathed – the word of God is and should be like air to us, like God Himself as our living air for us to breathe in.
Day by day and all throughout the day, in big things and in small things, we need to practice to contact the Lord, depend on Him, breathe Him in.
In big things and in small things, in all the things of our practical daily life we need to be one with God in the principle of the tree of life by depending on God in everything.
For example, in the way we interact with our spouse, in the way we react to what others say, in the way we deal with our children, and in all the things in our practical daily life, we should partake of the tree of life by taking God as our source.
Many times we find ourselves that we forget God, we leave Him, and we try to do something by ourselves and in ourselves, either in our human endeavor or even in our doing a work for God.
It is easy to leave God yet “do the things of God”; the children of Israel did that – they drew near to Jehovah with their lips, but their heart was far away from God.
May we cleave to God, trust in God, and really depend on Him; when we do things, when we’re about to go somewhere, and when we simply have nothing to do, we need to come to Him again and again to take Him as our source.
May we not abandon God or reject God to live on our own, by our own life; this is the principle of idolatry, which is simply to do something without God or apart from God, building up some cisterns with our own strength and in our own way.
God put us in the front of the tree of life for He desires to be one with man and be our life, life supply, and everything! Amen!
The tree of life signifies the crucified (implied in the tree as a piece of wood – 1 Pet. 2:24) and resurrected (implied in the life of God – John 11:25) Christ as the embodiment of all the riches of God for our food.
Eating the tree of life should be the primary matter in the church life; enjoying Christ as our life supply should be primary in our Christian life and church life.
To eat Christ as the tree of life is to receive Him as life so taht He may be assimilated into our being organically and metabolically to mingle Himself with us (Rev. 2:7; John 6:57, 63).
When there’s no eating of the tree of life in the church life, that church life is doomed, for it is empty and wrong; the main thing and the center of the church life should be Christ as the tree of life being enjoyed by all the saints!
And a very simple way to enjoy Christ as the tree of life is to eat His words; the words that the Lord speaks are spirit and life, the embodiment of the Spirit of life. Christ is now the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, and the Spirit is embodied in His words.
When we receive His words by means of all prayer and petition (Eph. 6:17-18) by exercising our spirit, we get the Spirit, who is life.
Amen, may we eat Christ by eating His words with the exercise of our spirit!
As we eat Him, we depend on Christ, we are one with Christ, and we live because of Christ! As we eat the Lord, we receive life in the word, and we touch the Spirit, who is life; in this way we become one with Christ and we depend on Him in everything.
Lord Jesus, we come to You to enjoy You and take You in as life; we want to eat You as the tree of life so that we may be filled with You and depend only on You. Amen, Lord, we depend on You in what we are doing, in how we react, and in all the things we say and do – we don’t want to live independently from You but rather by being one with You! Oh Lord, You are in our spirit as the indwelling One; we call on Your name, we breathe You in, and we depend on You for everything! Amen! We cleave to You, Lord; we trust in You for all things. We can’t do anything without You. We take Your word by means of prayer and petition, and we want to live in oneness with You in all things!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 217-218 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 6, The Principle of Being One with God as Revealed in the Book of Jeremiah.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Yes, all our strength of independence died, / For we with Christ were fully crucified. / Now we’re so glad to be His proper wife, / Dependently enjoying Him as life / Forevermore. (Hymns #1140)
– Dear Lord, Thou art the Tree of Life, / The very life supply; / Thy fruits, replete with life divine, / Our hunger satisfy. / Thou art the true and heav’nly Vine, / Our very source of life; / By Thee we live, in Thee abide, / And rest from all our strife. (Hymns #198)
– God gave His Son to man to be / The tree of life so rich and free, / That every man may taste and see / That God is good for food….We eat this feast and take God in, / And as we eat we live by Him, / For all the elements within / This feast are God Himself. (Hymns #1145)
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