«　WEEK 12　DAY 1　»

　　Deut. 30:15-16 …I have put before you today life and good….If you obey the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I am commanding you today, to love Jehovah your God and walk in His ways and keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, then you will live and multiply, and Jehovah your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to possess.

　　The children of Israel not only enjoyed the oracle of God; they were also saturated with the fatness of God’s house (Psa. 36:8). God’s house refers to the temple, which was the continuation and enlargement of the Tent of Meeting. In Psalm 36:9 the psalmist goes on to say, “With You is the fountain of life; / In Your light we see light.” This verse is also related to the temple. Only in the temple could God’s people enjoy the fountain of life. Furthermore, it was in the temple that they could see light in God’s light. This is an…indication that the essence of the oneness of God’s children is life and light. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “The Genuine Ground of Oneness,” p. 247)

　　According to God’s economy, the one who trusts in God is like a tree planted by water, signifying God as the fountain of living waters (Jer. 17:7-8; 2:13a). The tree grows beside the river by absorbing all the riches of the water into it. This is a picture of God’s dispensing. In order to receive the divine dispensing, we as the trees must absorb God as the water. (Life-study of Jeremiah, p. 111)

　　Life (zoe) is eternal. Eternal means “immortal.” First John 1:2 says, “The life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” Then Psalm 90:2b says, “Indeed from eternity to eternity, You are God.” Strictly speaking, all lives that are mortal are not life. The real life is immortal and eternal, and this real life is God Himself because God is from eternity to eternity. God is eternal, so only God Himself is the real life.

　　Life is God’s content and God’s flowing out. God’s content is God’s being, so life is God’s inner being (Eph. 4:18a). God’s flowing out is the impartation of Himself as life to us. In Revelation 22:1 we see the river of water of life flowing out from the throne of God. This is God’s flowing out. Life is God’s content, His inner being, and life is God flowing out into us and being imparted into our being.

　　Life is Christ (John 14:6a; Col. 3:4a; 1 John 5:12a). Christ is the embodiment of God, who is life. Colossians 2:9 says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. God as life is embodied in Christ, and Christ is the expression of God. John 1:18 says that no one has ever seen God, but the only begotten Son has declared Him. Then Hebrews 1:3 shows that Christ is the effulgence of God’s glory. This means that Christ is the expression of God, who is life.

　　Finally, we need to point out that life is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the reality of Christ (John 14:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:45b). The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and the Spirit is the reality of the Son. Romans 8:2a uses the term the Spirit of life, and 2 Corinthians 3:6b says that the Spirit gives life. Thus, the Holy Spirit today is the Spirit of life who gives life to us. We must stress that the Spirit in the New Testament has two aspects. On the one hand, He is the Spirit of power; on the other hand, He is the Spirit of life.

　　Life is the Triune God dispensed into us and living in us. The Father is the source, the Son is the course, and the Spirit is the flow. The Triune God is dispensed into us in His Divine Trinity and is now living within us. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 1, “Basic Lessons on Life,” pp. 517-518)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Deuteronomy, msgs. 1-4; CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “The Genuine Ground of Oneness,” ch. 2; Life-study of Jeremiah, msg. 16; CWWN, vol. 37, ch. 2