Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:9, 16-17; Rom. 5:12; John 14:19; Rom. 8:2
Ⅰ
If we would see the intrinsic significance of the two trees in Genesis 2, we must see God's eternal intention and Satan's counterplot:
A
God's eternal intention is to enter into us and become our life—Eph. 1:4-5; John 10:10b; 14:19:
１
God's desire was that the man whom He created according to Himself would have the divine life in addition to the human life—10:10b.
２
God wants to make Himself one with us and us one with Him so that we may live Him; He becomes our life, and we become His living—14:19:
ａ
The fact that we can abide in Christ and have Him abide in us indicates that we and He are one; this is God's eternal intention—15:4-5.
ｂ
God's eternal intention is that we live because Christ lives; we live in His living, and He lives in our living—14:19; Gal. 2:20.
B
Satan's counterplot was to inject himself into man—Gen. 3:1-7; Rom. 5:12:
１
When Satan injected himself into man, Satan became sin and death in man— v. 12; 7:8-9, 11, 17; Matt. 16:23; Eph. 2:2.
２
The life, nature, and substance of Satan have been injected into human nature; this was Satan's counterplot—Gen. 3:1-7.
３
To be called children of the devil means to be born of Satan; his life and nature are in his children—1 John 3:10; John 8:44.
Ⅱ
The tree of life signifies God with His eternal intention, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan with his counterplot—Gen. 2:9, 16-17:
A
In God's eyes, the crucial thing regarding these two trees was that man would eat of the proper tree, the tree of life—vv. 16-17.
B
God's intention was that the man whom He had created according to Himself would partake of the tree of life—1:26; 2:9:
１
The tree of life signifies the Triune God embodied in Christ as life to man in the form of food—John 1:1, 4; 6:48, 51.
２
God's placing man in front of the tree of life indicates that God wanted man to receive Him as man's life by eating Him organically and assimilating Him metabolically so that God might become the constituent of man's being—Gen. 2:9.
３
God's intention was to plant Himself into man as the tree of life and to grow together with Him so that man would express Him—1:26; 2:9.
４
God desired that man would partake of the tree of life in order to receive His life and be joined to Him, thus enabling God to gain man in order to fulfill His plan and destroy Satan—1:26-27.
C
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan as the source of death to man—2:16-17; Heb. 2:14:
１
Satan's counterplot was to plant himself as sin and death into man and thus to saturate man and grow together with man—Gen. 3:1-7.
２
Satan's purpose in tempting man was to entice man to contact the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that the life of that tree, the life of Satan, would enter into man—Rom. 5:12; John 8:44.
３
Satan wanted man to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to receive his life and enter into an illicit union with him so that he could usurp man, fulfill his evil intention, and frustrate God's plan.
Ⅲ
The two trees in Genesis 2:9 have become the two laws in Romans 8:2:
A
The word law in Romans 8:2 does not mean commandments but established principles; these laws operate by nature.
B
A law is something that operates by itself.
C
Where there is a life, there is also the law of that life; life is inseparable from the law of its life.
D
Every kind of life is not only governed by a law—every life is a law.
E
The divine life is the strongest life, and its law is the strongest law; we have a law operating in us that is the strongest law in the whole universe.
F
Every tree is a law; the law comes from the tree—Gen. 2:9; Rom. 8:2:
１
Since we have two trees growing within us, we have two laws operating within us:
ａ
When the tree of life was planted into us, it became a law operating in us—the law of the Spirit of life.
ｂ
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has also become a law within us—the law of sin and of death.
２
These two trees with their laws—the law of sin and of death and the law of the Spirit of life—are now operating within us.
G
By our first birth we have the law of sin and of death; with our second birth we have the law of the Spirit of life—Psa. 51:5; John 3:3, 5-6, 15.
H
The God who has been processed is now the Spirit dwelling in our spirit as the law of the Spirit of life—7:39; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14; Rom. 8:2.
I
God delivers us from the law of sin and of death through the operation of the law of the Spirit of life—v. 2.
Ⅳ
To live by the tree of life is to live spontaneously by the law of the Spirit of life—Gen. 2:9; Rom. 8:2:
A
In the Christian life an important principle is to live not by the power of one's own will but by the law of the Spirit of life—7:15-16; 8:2.
B
Our Christian life should no longer be governed by our will but by the sponta-neous operation of the law of the Spirit of life operating within us.
Ⅰ
A law is something that operates by itself.
Ⅱ
Every life is a law:
A
Where there is a life, there is also the law of that life; life is inseparable from the law of its life.
B
Every kind of life is not only governed by a law—every life is a law.
C
Every tree is a law; the law comes from the tree:
１
When the tree of life entered into us, it became a law.
２
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has also become a law within us.
３
Since we have two trees growing within us, we have two laws operating within us.
Ⅲ
Romans 8 shows us that God's life is given to us to be our law:
A
The two laws in Romans 8:2 are not commandments but principles; these laws operate by nature.
B
These two laws—the law of sin and of death and the law of the Spirit of life— are operating within us; their work is according to law, not activity.
C
God has not only given us life—He has given us the law of life.
D
God's life within us operates in the way of a law.
E
There is a new law within us—the law of the life of God.
F
Believers should trust not only in life but also in the law of life.
Ⅳ
A Christian should discover the law of God's life and live by this law of life; this is the Christian life:
A
The God who has been processed and is now the Spirit dwelling in our spirit is the law of the Spirit of life.
B
The life a Christian receives is a law, and the Christian life is a spontaneous living according to the law of life.
C
Being a Christian is not a strenuous exercise; all we have to do is let go and allow the law of the inner life to operate within us.
D
Our faith consists of God's life operating within us through a law; this oper-ation results in our being able to live out the Christian life.
E
We need to learn to trust in the law of God's life, allowing this law to operate in us in a spontaneous way.
F
God delivers us from the law of sin and of death through the operation of the law of the Spirit of life.
Ⅴ
A Christian should not live according to the power of his will but accord-ing to the law of the Spirit of life:
A
There is a law of sin and of death within us that the power of the will has no control over and which can never be overcome.
B
No one can resist the law of sin by his will, nor can anyone resist the law of sin by willing to do good.
C
To live by the will is to try to be a certain type of person when we are not.
D
A law is spontaneous; there is no need for the will to assist it.
E
In the Christian life an important principle is to live not by one's own will but by the law of the Spirit of life.
F
Walking according to the law of life is spontaneous; all we need to do is calmly trust in the law of life within us.
G
The law of life within spontaneously regulates and carries us on; as we go along with this law, we experience life and peace.
Ⅵ
There is another law that can contend with the law of sin and of death:
A
God has given us a life-law; it remains the same all the time, and it never changes.
B
The law of sin and of death still exists, but we are no longer living under its power; we are living under another law.
C
There is a law in us that delivers us from the law of sin and of death.
D
The way of salvation is not to be someone we are not; rather, it is living out a new law of life from within.
E
When this law is lived out from within, sin will appear to be nonexistent and annihilated, and the power of death will seemingly disappear.
F
We need to learn to follow the law of life within us.
G
The law of the Spirit of life, like the law of sin and of death, is spontaneous.
H
The moment we see the law of life, the first thing we will do is to drop our work.
I
Is our Christian life governed by our will or by the manifestation of this new law within us?
J
Are we living our Christian life, or is there a spontaneous law, a spontaneous power of life in us, that directs us to live the Christian life in a spontaneous way?