CHRIST IN GENESIS 1
We have also seen Christ typified in Genesis 1. On the first day are the Spirit of Christ, Christ as the word, and Christ as the light. On the second day is the cross of Christ. On the third day is the all-inclusive Christ as the land with all the riches and beauties of life. On the fourth day is Christ as the sun with the moon, including all the stars as a corporate, collective reflector of Christ. On the fifth day is the stronger life for the expression of Christ, and on the sixth day is an even stronger aspect of Christ as life. Eventually, there is a man as the all-inclusive figure of Christ. Christ as a man is the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45).
Adam was created in the image of God. God is invisible, yet He has an image. His image is Christ Himself (Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4). Thus, Adam was created according to Christ. Adam was copied according to Christ, so he was a copy of Christ. The image of God is the expression of God. Christ as the image of God is the declaration, the expression, of God. He declares God and expresses God (John 1:18). Because Adam was created according to Christ and is a copy of Christ, we may say that he was the duplication and multiplication of Christ.
As the descendants of Adam, we are duplicates of Christ because we were made in the image of God. This means that we were made according to Christ in the expression of God. We are the copies, the duplication, the multiplication, of Christ. God created man because He had the intention to have Christ multiplied, increased, copied, duplicated. This is the very thought of God.
God’s intention, God’s desire, is to duplicate, to multiply, Christ, the expression of God. Christ was the only begotten Son of God from eternity, and in resurrection He became the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). He was the very image of God, but now He is the first one of many images of God. After God’s creation, there is the duplication, the multiplication, of Christ. God created man, and that man is Christ in image and likeness.
Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2:6-9 show that the man referred to in Genesis 1 is Christ. Christ is a man. God is mindful of man and remembers man because man is the figure of Christ and the multiplication of Christ. God remembers nothing but Christ. God remembers you because you are the image, the expression, of Christ. God is mindful of you because you are one aspect of Christ, a duplicate of Christ, a copy of Christ. God remembers you not because of yourself but because of Christ. If you have nothing to do with Christ, God has no interest in you and will discard you. But God has a lot of interest in you because of Christ. The first time the Bible mentions something about man is in Genesis 1:26-28. Later on, in Hebrews 2:6-9, we are told that the man mentioned in Genesis 1 is Christ Himself. This is something mysterious. We have to see the central thought of God; then we will know what man is.
Man as a duplicate and figure of Christ was committed with the authority of God. God is the Head with the headship, but God committed His headship to this very man. He put everything under the control of this man, and this man in figure is Christ, who is the expression of God and the authority of God, the representative of God.
Why do we Christians have to realize the order of God’s headship? Simply because we know something about man. Man is the duplicate and multiplication of Christ. With Christ, there is the authority of God, so we are under authority and have the order of authority. If you are not under authority, you can never exercise authority. If you are going to be the authority, you have to be under authority. If you can subject yourself to the authority of God, you can exercise the authority of God. Christ is the expression of God and the representative of God with the full authority of God’s headship.
At the time of Genesis 1 God did not gain the real man of His desire. When the church is brought into existence, the church with the Head, Christ, is that real man. Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10 tell us that the real man is the new man. The church as the new man is the real man created according to the image of God.
Adam was just a figure, not the real man. The real man is the church. Adam had the form of Christ, but he did not have the life of Christ. Adam was just a photograph of Christ, without the life of Christ. Today the church has not only the form, the appearance, of Christ but also Christ as the living One, as life. The church with Christ as life is the real man God is after.
(The Central Thought of God, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
