The tree of life, how sweet the fruit

The tree of life, how sweet the fruit

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The tree of life, how sweet the fruit,
With God as life complete.
I once was dead, but now I live,
Was starved, but now I eat.

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’Twas God that brought me to the tree,
With Christ Himself as meat;
How precious did that tree become
When I began to eat.

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The Lord Himself is food to me,
He is my life supply;
He will my pure enjoyment be,
None else can satisfy.

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I freely eat this living tree,
For eating is the way
To put God’s life inside of me,
To live by Him today.

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We also need to eat the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs (Exo. 12:8; 1 Cor. 5:8). In these three items—the flesh of the lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs—there are two kinds of lives: the animal life and the vegetable life. In the Scriptures these two kinds of lives typify two aspects of Christ's life. The animal life has blood that can be shed for redemption. Hence, the animal life typifies the redeeming aspect of the life of Christ, a life that redeems us continually (Rev. 13:8). The vegetable life is the generating life and typifies Christ's life in the aspect of generating. Christ was the grain of wheat that fell into the earth, died, and grew up to produce many grains (John 12:24). However, both the redeeming and the generating aspects of Christ's life are for sustaining, nourishing, supporting, energizing, and strengthening. Whether we eat the flesh of the animal life or the unleavened bread of the vegetable life, we will be strengthened and nourished. Christ as life to us is the sustaining and strengthening power. We need to take Christ as such a life.

We may wonder why it was necessary to eat the unleavened bread with bitter herbs. We often speak of how sweet it is to receive Christ, and a number of hymns use this expression (see Hymns, #221, 554, 1143, and 1157). But it is quite significant that in the type of the passover there are bitter herbs. While we are eating the flesh of the lamb and the unleavened bread, we need to experience bitterness also. The proper way to experience Christ as life is, on the one hand, to be sustained, strengthened, nourished, and supported and, on the other hand, to sense that we are sinful. In fact, the more we enjoy Christ, the more we will sense that we are sinful, worldly, natural, fleshly, soulish, and very much against God. The more we enjoy Christ, the more joy we will have, and also the more bitterness we will have. While we are thanking the Lord for being everything to us, we may also be confessing with tears how sinful, worldly, fleshly, and full of the self and the natural man we are, and how much we are for ourselves and how little we are for God. Before God we may feel that everything concerning us is wrong. In our experience the enjoyment of Christ as life is always accompanied by such a real repentance. This is to enjoy Christ with a contrite heart and a broken spirit (Psa. 51:17). Whenever we eat and enjoy Christ as the Lamb, there must also be the bitter herbs.

The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1964, Lord's Day Messages, chapter 3 (LSM)

I want to give you another illustration of how we should never be contented with what we have. In John 6:57 the Lord tells us, "he who eats Me shall also live because of Me." A few hymns in our hymnal tell us that "eating is the way." We must ask ourselves what the eating way is. How do we eat Jesus? In my writings I have only given you a small amount of information on this subject. Because I did not give you an adequate definition of the way to eat Jesus, you must study this point. To fully understand this point you must take care of the entire context of John 6:57. In verse 63 the Lord says, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life." This indicates that to eat Jesus is to receive Him into us as life. This corresponds with the principle of eating. Eating is to receive some organic nourishment into your being as your life. Eating is to take in the life supply. Some might say that it is heretical to say that people can eat Jesus. The Bible, however, says to eat Jesus.

We must realize that to eat Jesus is a figure of speech. It indicates that we need Jesus as our life supply so we receive Him into us as life supply just as we eat food. The Lord uses bread to illustrate that He is the life supply by saying that He is the bread of life (John 6:48). We eat bread by receiving it into our organic body, by digesting it into our blood, fibers and tissue. Therefore, to eat Jesus is to receive Him into our being. He is the Spirit and the Spirit is in the Word, so we have to take His Word by exercising our spirit. Then we receive the Spirit in the Word. This is Jesus becoming our inner life supply. Here we could see the way to eat Jesus.

Chapter six of John also indicates the Lord's death, that is, His being slain. Verse 54 tells us that His blood is drinkable and that His flesh is eatable. Here flesh and blood are mentioned separately. When blood is separate from flesh, it indicates death. This helps us further to see how to eat Jesus. To eat Jesus means to receive the crucified and resurrected Christ through His Word by exercising our spirit to receive the life-giving Spirit as our life supply.

Elders' Training, Book 3, chapter 3 (LSM)

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