mark@altos86.UUCP (07/23/83)
What is God's purpose in this universe? Why did He create us humans? Surely His purpose must be revealed from the very first, and since God is omnipotent, surely He must acheive it in the end. God reveals His purpose when He first speaks concerning man. In Genesis 1:26 God said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (KJV). What is God's image? God is a Spirit (Jn 4:24), so we must have a spirit which is after the likeness of God. Why? To have dominion over all of creation (last half of Genesis 1:26). How? In Genesis 2:7, immediately after making man, God puts him in a garden. In the garden are trees and a river flowing out (v9). Two trees in particular are mentioned, the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man was to eat of the tree of life, but not the tree of knowledge. What was the tree of life? What was the tree of knowledge? In John chapter 15, Jesus says "I AM the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman." This means that the tree of life was just Jesus. You may ask then, does this mean man was to eat Jesus as the fruit of the tree of life? Jesus said "I am the bread of life" (Jn 6:35), and "Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life" (Jn 6:54). You may say, how can we eat His flesh when He died and shed His blood 2000 years ago? Well, what happened to His flesh and blood? They were transfigured into the Spirit. "The last Adam became a life-giving spirit" (1Cor15:45 ASV) So now the Spirit is the tree of life. We can eat and drink of the spirit and obtain life. You may say, don't we already have life? Yes we have a human life, but we may or may not have the spiritual life of God. In the original Greek, there are actually three words for three different lifes; Bios - the physical life (from which we get biology), Psuche - the soul, mind etc. (from which we get psycology), and Zoe - the spiritual life, eternal life. If you are born-again, you have received this spiritual life, so you know what I am talking about. Our Bios perishes when our physical body dies. Our Psuche may leave even earlier (some people are just vegetables, just physical life), but our Zoe is eternal. So by eating of the tree of life, we can obtain more of this eternal life. This is why we were created in the image of God, so that we could recieve His spiritual life, by eating of Him. This receiveing of Him is so that we could express Him. The more we grow spiritually by eating of this spiritual food, the more His life will be manifested outwardly in our behavior, in our attitudes and in our living. This is how we can keep His commandments, not by trying of ourselves to accomplish something that will please God, but by living His life and manifesting His righteousness. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life" (Rev22:14 KJV). This is also how we can overcome our outward circumstances, by enjoying Him as our food and nourishment. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life" (Rev 2:7). By eating God as our food and living His life, we come to manifest Him and express Him. This is God's purpose for man, that man would express God. So often, we just express ourselves. Our own will predominates, not God's. Our thoughts are occupied with our own desires and lusts. Even our emotions and attitudes toward people are filled with selfishness. This is just because we lack a sufficient quantity of God's life within us. If we have this life operating in us daily, it will expose all these thoughts, desires and attitudes for what they are. We can then turn to the inward life to supply us with what we lack. Eventually, God will acheive His purpose of having an expression. The New Jerusalem will be made up of all the spiritual stones that have been transformed by His inner life. Precious stones and gold, signifying the people that have manifested God, become the dwelling place of God for eternity. "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house" (1Pet 2:5) And guess what, the tree of life is there also, growing out of the river of water of life (Rev 22:1-2), supplying the nations with the life of God for His eternal expression. Mark A. Carlson ..!decvax!microso!altos86!mark