The Highest Life Form Part 1:The Highest Life Form: What It Means to Live by Christ

Now, what about the other tree, the Tree of Life? Fortunately, that’s a wonderful story. Now, is the tree of life also a form of life created on the eighth day? No. Well, then, is it a form of life that belongs to the earth? No. Is it a form of life created on the first day, like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, coming from the creative activity of the first day? No. Then what is it?

Well, it’s none of these things. In fact, like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the Tree of Life does come and is native to the heavenly places. And like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it is not native to earth. It is a life form native to the place where God dwells, but there, the similarities end. From there on, everything is different.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is created. The Tree of Life is not created. There is created life in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; there is uncreated life in the Tree of Life. This is not a life form that God created on the first day of the week. This is not a life form God created in the heavenlies. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil – created on the first day, when everything was created in the heavenlies, whatever they may have been. But the Tree of Life is not created at all. It’s not even part of creation. Well, what is it then? It cannot be part of creation because it is uncreated life. This form of life was there before creation itself began. Created life is the beginning. God created it, but here is life that God never created.

Well, now, that’s impossible. No, it isn’t. The tree of life is nothing less than the very Life of God. Or put it another way, the tree of life represents to you and me the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is not created; He precedes creation. He is before even eternal times. He always was. He was never created. He is. He was in God. He is the life form of God himself.

Jesus Christ is the life of God. Therefore, on the eighth day, the very uncreated life of God dwelling in heavenly places came out of the heavenly places and visited and was placed here on the earth in the form of the tree of life. What an event, what an invasion. On the eighth day, two forms of life from other realms came to dwell on the earth. One of them was a fallen life, and the other was the very life of God.

Now, this just again shows us that the book of Genesis opens with the chronicle of the creating of life forms. Before the first day, before the creation of the heavens itself, there was a form of life. Then, on the first day, in invisible realms, God created angels, angelic life, and then he moved to earth and for five and a half days God created plant life, then a little higher life, sea life, then yet a higher life, life in the air, and then a much higher life, animal life, and finally the highest form of life native to the earth: man. Then on the eighth day, a form of life came out of the heavenly, a first day life, a fallen heavenly life: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil came to the visible realm, and another life came also from heaven, but it was an uncreated life: the Tree of Life. Well, it looks like Earth was, by the eighth day, was getting very crowded with an awful lot of different life forms. I think you understand everything about the forms of life that we’ve discussed, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the Tree of Life.

Therefore, let’s look at them a little more closely. To do this, we’re going to have to study biology. Biology from the viewpoint of man, and then biology from the viewpoint of God. Alright, let’s go to a science class and say to a scientist, “Let’s see your chart of life forms.” He will start off probably with a chart, and he says, Well, let’s see, you start down here on this plant life, and you move all the way up, and then there’s man, and he’s the highest life form you’ll see on the chart. Go to the scripture, and you will see a classification very similar to that. God starts with plant life, then he adds other forms of life, which we’ve seen, sea life, and bird life, and you realize that the two are very similar. Except that when you get to man, God doesn’t stop on his way up; in fact, God says that man is not in first place – the scientist does – God says that man is in third place. Man is the highest life form on earth, yes, but when you include the whole universe, both realms, then he only comes in third.

Did you know this? You are a third-rate life. But that leaves the question: What are the other two forms of life? What’s higher than you are? Let’s take a look at what’s in second place. According to the book of Hebrews, angels are placed above man, for man has been made a little lower than angels. So, angels are in second place, and we’re in third. Put a man in an arena with an angel to wrestle with him or whatever, and the man will be bested by the angel because he is dealing with a higher form of life. Now, that’s true even if that angel happens to be a fallen angel. Okay, that’s second-rate life, the second-highest life.

What is the highest form of life in the universe? Well, of course, it is God. We have a truly accurate classification of life forms in the scripture. The lowest life form is planet life. Then sea life after plant life, then bird life, then cattle, and then other land animals, dogs, sheep, and things like that. And then there’s man, but he’s still the third-highest form of life. Then the angels: they are the highest created life ever created. Then the highest life, uncreated life: God. He is at the top of the chart. This is biology from God’s viewpoint.

Now, where does the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and where does the Tree of Life fit on this chart? Well, to understand the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and where it fits on this chart, we look at the angels. Now, there are two kinds of angels. The innocent ones, the elected ones, the unfallen ones. Then there are the rebellious angels. The unchosen ones. God threw the fallen angels out of the heavenlies. Now, they can no longer reside there; they have to reside in the physical realm. They can no longer make a home in heavenly realms. Now, I realize that one of them might be able to visit there, but he can’t stay there. They are now forced to live in the same realm to which we ourselves are captive.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents, therefore, fallen angel life, the second to the highest form of life in creation, or in the universe, in universal history. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a picture of the highest created form of life, angel life, and the second-highest form of life there is. Except, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil shows us angel life in a fallen state.

Now, this leaves us the Tree of Life. This tree was a life form: God. When you open the scripture, the story you read is a six-day record of life. On the first day, the life you meet is the Life of God. On the first day, you meet the highest form of Life. On the sixth day, you meet human life. But then, on the eighth day, you meet the Tree of Life. What is this? Well, this is God’s Life again. On the first day, the first thing you met was the Life of God, and on the eighth day, you meet God’s Life again, but on the eighth day, you encounter a more exalted state of the Life of God than it was on the first day. Now, how so? How is that possible?