Life In the Word

            Life is in the Word. "In Him was life" (1:4). The "Him" in 1:4 denotes the Word who was God and through whom all things came into being. In Him is life. Why did He create all things before He came to be life? Because in order for Him to be received as life there was the need of a receptacle, a receiver. Suppose He had not created anything, yet came to be life. To whom would He be life? Although He might be life, there would have been no receiver for Him as life. Thus, before He came to be life He created the heavens, the earth, and man with a spirit to receive Him. Zechariah 12:1 says that the Lord "stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him." Thus, the heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man was made with a spirit to receive God. Now the Word can come as life to be received by the man whom He created. Creation produced the receptacle for life.

            We have seen that life is in the Word. Life can only be found in the expression of God. The Word, which is the expression and explanation of God, contains God as our life. When we receive the Word, we receive the life within it. Both the Word and the life are God Himself. The Word is the expression of God, and the life is the very content of God. When we hear the Word, we realize that God is expressed and explained; when we receive the Word, we receive God's very content as life and are thereby born of God and become the children of God. The life in the Word is the very content of God.

            Since verse 2 refers to the creation in Genesis 1, the mention of life in verse 4 should refer to the life indicated by the tree of life in Genesis 2. This is confirmed by John's mention of the tree of life in Revelation 22. Since life is in Him, so He is life (John 11:25; 14:6), and came that man might have life (10:10).

            Man was made as a vessel to contain God as life. However, by creation he was merely an empty vessel; he did not have genuine life. The created life of man is not genuine; genuine life is the divine life which is in Christ. What kind of life did you have before you received Christ? It was, at best, a temporary life, it was not a permanent life, an everlasting life. Although it was an instant life, it was not a constant one. Before we received Christ we were uncertain just how long our instant life would endure. Thus, in a sense, before we were saved we did not have life. The life in Christ is eternal, constant, and permanent. All men need such a life, the divine and uncreated life that is in Christ. This life is for man, and man is the receiver of this life.

Life Being the Light of Man

            John 1:4 says, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." It is absolutely true that the life is the light of men. When we called on the name of the Lord Jesus, receiving Him into us, the divine life came into our being. Immediately we had the sense of something shining within, but perhaps, at that time, we did not have the language or the utterance to describe it. That shining was the shining of life. Because life shines, the life is the light of men. This shining is the strongest confirmation that we have been born of God.

            When the Word is heard and the life is received, the life becomes the light shining within to enlighten us. When God, as the divine life, shines within us as the light of life, we are under His enlightening. Being born of God by receiving His Word, we have God as our life, and this life becomes the light within us shining all the time. The Lord is the Word of God, the expression of God by which we may know God. When we receive Him as the expression of God, He becomes our life, and this life becomes the light that shines within us.

            Verse 5 says, "And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." Darkness can never overcome or extinguish light, but light dispels darkness. When the light of life shines within us, darkness can never overcome it. Furthermore, this light is the true light which enlightens every man. The word "enlightens" in Greek is the same word used in the same way as in Ephesians 1:18; 3:9 and Hebrews 6:10; 10:32. It refers here to the inward enlightening which brings life to the ones who receive the Word. For the old creation, it was the physical light (Gen. 1:3-5, 14-18). For the new creation, it is the light of life.

            Life also becomes the authority for the believing ones to be the children of God. But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (1:12-13). The birth described in these verses is not the natural birth which we had through our parents; it is the second birth which occurred when we believed in the name of the Lord Jesus.

            Believing in the Lord is equal to receiving Him. When I speak of receiving the Lord Jesus, you may say that you have never done that. However, I want to ask you a question: Have you not believed in the Lord Jesus? When you heard His name, did you not believe in it? If a person truly believes in that dear name, I am certain that, in some way or other, he will say, "Lord Jesus." As long as you say His name from the depths of your being, it means that you believe in Him. If you believe in Him by calling on His name, it is proof that you have received Him. And since you have received Him, you have received the authority to become a child of God. What is this authority? It is Christ Himself as life to you. Christ as life is simply the Spirit of sonship, and this Spirit of sonship makes you God's child. You can know that you are a child of God by two things: by the fact that you believe in Him and call on His name, and by the fact that, at times, you spontaneously and sweetly cry, "Abba, Father." If you can call God "Abba, Father" in such a sweet way, it proves that you are His child.

            As verse 13 declares, this birth is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Blood (Gk., bloods) here signifies the physical life; the will of the flesh denotes the will of fallen man after man became flesh, the will of man refers to the will of man created by God. When we became a child of God, we were not born of our physical life, our fallen life, or our created life--we were born of God, the uncreated life. For human beings to become children of God is for man to have the divine life and the divine nature.

            Why has God brought forth so many children? Not mainly because He loves us or because He has pity on us. Although He loves us, the purpose of His begetting so many children is for His multiplication. God loves to be multiplied. Every father has some multiplication. Before God brought us forth, He was merely God Himself. He could look at Himself and say, "Here I am by Myself. I am almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent. I am everything, but I am alone." Now, after generating so many children God can say, "Behold My multiplication!" Throughout all the centuries and generations God has been multiplying Himself.

            In the beginning was the Word and in Him was life. Through creation He prepared many receivers. Today, these receivers have become God's multiplication, and this multiplication has become the increase and corporate expression of God. God is fully expressed through His children as His increase and corporate expression.

            God originally had only one Son, His only begotten, as His expression. That expression may be called the individual expression. Now God, through the multiplication of His life, has many sons as His expression. This expression may be called the corporate expression, which is composed of His Son, who has now become His firstborn, and His many brothers. This is one of the main aspects of the revelation of this book.

(Witness Lee, Life-Study of John, pp. 24-28)