"It is the Spirit who gives life." But what is this life that the Spirit gives? We know that there are many forms of life. In this world there are the plant life and the animal life. The plant life is lower and the animal life is higher. Even higher than these two kinds of life is the human life. Today, various forms of plant life and animal life abound on this earth, and men with the human life also fill the entire globe. All these forms of life are wonderful; but there is a fourth kind of life—the divine life, which is God's uncreated life. The lower life exists for the higher life. Thus, the plant life exists for the animal life and supports the animal life, and the animal life is for the human life. In the same principle, the human life exists for the divine life. In fact, the plant life, the animal life, and the human life are merely shadows and pictures of the divine life. The beauty of the spring flowers points to the beauty of the divine life; the luxuriance of the forests is a picture of the abundance of the divine life; and the wisdom of the human life is a picture of the intelligence of the divine life.
What are the characteristics of this highest life? First, this life of God is divine. Being divine means being of God, having the nature of God, and being transcendent and distinct from all others. Only God is divine, so His life is divine. Furthermore, God's life is eternal. God's life is uncreated; it has no beginning and no end. All of us were born at a certain time and on a certain day, and all of us realize that our human life will have a definite ending in death. However, God's life has no beginning, and it will continue in perpetuity. For centuries men have tried to build machines that will prolong their lives, but none has succeeded. But God is self-existing and ever-existing. His life is unfailing and unchangeable. God's eternal life not only endures forever, but in quality it is absolutely perfect and complete, without any shortage or defect.
This eternal life is also indestructible and indissoluble. A piece of soap can be dissolved by placing it in water, and even gold and silver can be dissolved in some solutions. But nothing can dissolve the indestructible life of God. It will remain the same forever. If you put the human life into the grave, it will soon decay and decompose. But if you put the eternal life into the grave, the grave will burst. If you place this life in any negative situation, that situation will be powerless to hold it down. The eternal life of God is an indestructible life, and nothing on earth, in heaven, or in hell can destroy it.
This is the life that Christ as the Spirit gives to us. It is much better than the religion that man has invented. In the Gospel of John this life is seen to overcome all kinds of human weaknesses and swallow up all kinds of death. In chapter three of John there is a religious person named Nicodemus. He wanted the Lord only to teach him to be moral and to be good. The Lord showed him that what was wrong with him was not his outward, wrong behavior, but a wrong life that he had. What he needed was another life—the divine life. This religious man had been born once of the human life, but now he needed to be born again of another life. The divine life does not improve our own life but regenerates us with another life.
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