The Highest Life Form Part 1

Do you recall that Jesus Christ was resurrected on the eighth day? In Scripture, the number one so often symbolizes God. The number eight symbolizes the resurrection. So, what is the Tree of Life? The Tree of Life is a picture of God’s Life, but it is God’s Life passed through death. Or to put it another way, it is a picture of Jesus Christ resurrected. Jesus Christ is the highest Life. He is the first-day Life. He is also the eighth-day Life. On the eighth day, He is first-day Life that has gone to death. He is then a Life; the Life of God not only passed through death, but having put death under him. It is God’s Life, and the other side of death, triumphant over its final enemy. And this is what you see when you see the Tree of Life, for the Tree of Life is the Life of Christ, the Life of resurrected, triumphant Lordship. Unquestionably, this eighth-day Life, the Life that pulsates within the Tree of Life, this is truly the highest life form of all.

Now, we’re beginning to understand a little what the scripture means when it speaks, in inspiration, of the word ‘Life’. The scripture began with a chronicle of forms of life. When Christ came to the Lord, he spoke of life as central. What was the point? What is life? What was our Lord driving that? Well, you know, if you’re like me as a Christian, when you first became a Christian, you heard a great deal of talk about this thing called Life. Someone once said something to me that was very wonderful about Life and quoted John 10:10 – I’ve come to you that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Now, when I heard this message, I’m sure you had heard something along the same lines, and you and I got excited and said, “Boy, I have life, and I have it abundantly.” Hallelujah. But the fact is, you don’t have the slightest idea of what you’re hallelujahing about. Right now, let’s find out what we’re hallelujahing over.

What is the Lord’s great point in the word ‘Life’? To answer it, and to answer it well, we have to talk about this term, ‘The Lord’s Eternal Purpose’, which is found in the book of Ephesians. Whatever that term means, whatever it says, there is one thing certain. God has a purpose. He has one thing in his heart that is closer than anything else. What is it? If you take a poll of Christians, and you were to say, “What’s central to God’s heart?” You know the answer you would get. Well, God’s main and highest purpose and thought is to save us from sin. Now, is that correct?

No, that is not correct. But how do I know? There are lots of ways. One of them is that to be saved from sin is not eternal. Being lost and getting saved is a temporal matter. There was a period before the fall when man was not lost, and there’s a period after the end of the ages, when salvation is over, and every trace of the fall and sin will have vanished. Getting saved will probably have vanished from our own thoughts. ‘Getting saved’ cannot be the eternal purpose of God, because there was this period right here on earth, when man wasn’t ‘unsaved’, when man was not in need of salvation. Do you realize this? He entered into history in an unfallen state; soul-winning was not being done in the Garden of Eden. You couldn’t have gotten Adam saved, no matter how hard you would have tried. Now this is important. I would like to say it’s important to get saved, but salvation is not God’s highest thought, nor his central goal, and it is not his eternal purpose.

Well, let me try a parable to illustrate this. Once upon a time, there was a spaceship, and it was supposed to journey to the nearest star from our own sun. It was going to take four years traveling at the speed of light. The voyage began, and the goal was to visit our nearest neighboring sun outside of our own planet’s sun. It was to surpass our nine planets, but the engine failed before it could get out of the solar system; it had to alter its course, and the ship had to detour to one of the satellites around Jupiter, or it was going to plunge into oblivion and be lost.

So, there was a little satellite out there tracing its way around Jupiter, and it became the salvation of those pioneering men who were going way out to another solar system. Well, they got off, and they looked around at the satellite, and they began to explore it, and it was really amazing. They started photographing mountains, analyzing the soil, measuring the temperatures, studying the typography, recording the geography, speculating on the origins of the little satellite, plotting meteorology, and lots of things.

Soon, they’re sending reports back. You’ve got to see this satellite that traces its way around Jupiter; it’s the most beautiful thing in our universe. If you’ve never been to this satellite, oh, you’ve just never seen anything. You ought to come join us here on this satellite around Jupiter.

They stayed so long, exploring the satellite, rejoicing in its beauty, and praising it, that they’d forgotten where they were going. As wonderful as it is, that little planetary body encircling Jupiter was not their original goal. There was, in fact, a detour, an unexpected detour caused by unexpected trouble. A nice place: a place that saved their lives, but not part of the original plan. A detour. Absolutely! The goal is something else.

Now, that’s what salvation is to us; I believe you see that. The fall – salvation from that fall, with a detour – salvation was unplanned. After man started out to fulfill God’s eternal purpose, Man was lost. God then came up – then came up – with a plan to save man, to put him back on his course.

Let’s say I’m going from New York to California. A bridge is out, so I take a detour. Terrible. Finally, I find a good route, it’s going through beautiful country. I love the scenery. I enjoy it. I stay for several days enjoying the scenery, but I am on a detour. I may have been in New York, and I’m supposed to be going to California. The route I am taking is a side issue to the whole matter.

If you were to clip out Genesis 1 and 2, then where would the scripture begin? Chapter 3: …And Satan. Well, that’s a terrible place to begin. If all you find is the fall and sinfulness and rebellion and all of that, such tragedy, then salvation needs to be central. Alright, then you turn to the last part of the Bible. The old serpent is finally cast into hell. Well, that’s wonderful, but if that’s our Bible, salvation is central, but we have four more chapters. In the first two, man is innocent, flawless, no sin, no fall, no need of salvation. Salvation was a step down from where man was in Genesis 1 and 2, a great step down. Reading Revelation 21 and 22, there is no fall either, thank God. Salvation is over; man is back on course. He is accomplishing God’s eternal purpose in Revelation 21 and 22; the last vestige of the fall is over. Man is on God’s course to God’s ultimate purpose. There is something greater than salvation in the destiny of man. There is something greater than salvation in your destiny.

When I was a young Christian growing up, I grew up in a denomination. I’m really fond of it, and I respect it, but its greatest emphasis was on salvation. That’s all we knew. We were an evangelistic, evangelical people. Every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, we preached on salvation. People got converted. We talked about winning people to the Lord. We rejoiced in others’ salvation, but almost all that we did, except perhaps giving comfort and a few doctrinal messages, pointed toward salvation, and we were grateful to have been saved.