GENERAL SUBJECT:
THE FOUR GREAT PILLARS IN THE LORD’S RECOVERY
Message Two
The Second Great Pillar—Life
Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:9; Eph. 4:18; 1 John 1:2; 5:11-12; Rom. 8:2; Rev. 22:1-2
I. Life is mysterious, for life is God Himself—John 1:4; 11:25; 14:6:
A. Life is God’s content and God’s flowing out; God’s content is God’s being, and God’s flowing out is the impartation of Himself as life to us—Eph. 4:18a; Rev. 22:1.
B. Life is Christ; Christ is the embodiment of God, who is life, and Christ is the expression of God—John 14:6a; Col. 3:4a; 1 John 5:12a; Col. 2:9; John 1:18; Heb. 1:3a.
C. Life is the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is the reality of Christ and is the Spirit of life who gives life to us—John 14:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2a; 2 Cor. 3:6b.
II. Life is the first and basic attribute of God—Eph. 4:18:
A. In the sight of God, only the life of God is life, and only His life can be counted as life; therefore, when the life of God is mentioned in the New Testament, it is treated as if it is the unique life—John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6a; 1 John 5:20b.
B. The life of God is eternal; that is, it is uncreated, without beginning or ending, self-existing, ever-existing, and unchanging—John 3:15; 1 John 1:2; 2:25; 5:11.
C. God’s intention in His creation of man was that man would partake of the fruit of the tree of life and thereby receive the eternal life of God—Gen. 2:7, 9.
III. Life is the Triune God dispensed into us and living in us—Rom. 8:2, 10, 6, 11:
A. God the Father is the source of life—John 5:26.
B. God the Son is the embodiment of life—1:4; 1 John 5:11-12.
C. God the Spirit is the flow of life—Rev. 22:1.
D. The Body is the fullness of life—Eph. 1:22b-23.
E. The building up of the Body is the growth of life—4:16; Col. 2:19.
F. The New Jerusalem is the city of life—Rev. 22:1-2, 5.
IV. Life is the way to fulfill God’s purpose; God’s desire for man to express Him in His image and rule in Him with His dominion can be realized only by God’s life—Gen. 1:26; 2:9:
A. Life conforms the believers to the image of the firstborn Son of God and brings us into glory—Rom. 8:2, 6, 29-30; Col. 3:4.
B. Resurrection life gives authority—Num. 17:8; Rev. 20:4.
V. The central recovery of the Lord is to recover the divine life within us that God may have His corporate expression—Rom. 8:2, 10, 6, 11; 12:4-5:
A. The Lord is recovering Christ as life and everything to us and the church as His Body, His fullness—Col. 3:4a; 2:19.
B. The Lord wants to recover the church back to the beginning—back to the eating of the tree of life for His expression—Gen. 2:9; Rev. 2:7; 22:14.
