The Freshness of Christ Today as Portrayed by the Tree of Life in New Jerusalem
Revelation 22:2 tells us, “on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month.”
Twelve fruits and twelve months speaks of eternal perfection. At present we are living in time but we do have eternal life within. This Christ is unsearchably rich (Eph. 3:8) and He as our life can give us experiences with the freshness of New Jerusalem.
Before the New Jerusalem comes into being, we need to seek a new experience of life every month….We cannot live by the fruit of the tree of life from former months. Each month we must continue to have fresh fruit. Before God we must receive life continuously; we must receive Christ. Not only do we need fruit each month, we need a different kind of fruit each month. We cannot be satisfied before God only having a little portion, a certain part. We must learn to know the Lord in many aspects; we must bear all manner of fruits.*
When Paul wrote Philippians he had been a Christian for more than 25 years. He had many experiences of Christ, both in sufferings and in heavenly visions (2 Cor. 11:16–12:18). Yet His attitude was to seek more, to pursue “fresh fruit.”
“Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I pursue, if even I may lay hold of that for which I also have been laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal…” (Phil. 3:12-14).
May we all gain the same attitude, to set aside our past Christian experiences and seek New Jerusalem style fresh fruit every month!
* From chapter 5 of The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, available at www.ministrybooks.org/ and www.livingstream.com/en/the-church/8012401-glorious-church-the.html.
Posted by Don on August 19, 2022
The Freshness of Christ Today as Portrayed by the Tree of Life in New Jerusalem
