God caused Adam to sleep, opened his side, took one of his ribs out of him, and built it into a woman who was fully qualified to be Adam’s counterpart (Gen. 2:21-22). This indicates that God put Christ to death and from His pierced side flowed blood for redemption and water for dispensing of life to produce the church to match Christ as His counterpart (John 19:34). This is a very crucial point and a great type. Adam did not find anyone to match him to be his counterpart, so God caused Adam to sleep, opened up his side, took out one of his ribs, and built this rib into a woman. Genesis 2:22 in the Hebrew does not say that God made a woman of this rib but that He built this rib into a woman. This woman is fully described in the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem will be Christ’s wife, Christ’s counterpart.
This wife came from Christ’s side, which was pierced to flow out blood and water. The living water typifies Christ’s resurrection life, which is also typified by the bone, the rib, in Genesis 2. Nothing can break the Lord’s resurrection life. The Lord’s side was pierced on the cross, but not one of His bones was broken (John 19:33, 36). Only Christ’s life is unbreakable, just as His bones were not broken. All other lives are breakable. The rib of Adam taken out of him signifies the unbreakable life of Christ, which flows as the living water of life.
This greatest and highest vision unveils God’s new creation as the second section of His creation in resurrection, out of His old creation as the first section of His creation in nature. The first section is the old creation, so it is in nature, natural. But the second section refers to the new creation of God in resurrection. Everything in the new creation has passed through death and resurrection. Eve was produced through Adam’s sleep, signifying death, and through Adam’s rib, signifying resurrection. This shows that the church comes out of Christ’s death plus Christ’s resurrection.
The greatest and highest vision equals the entire revelation of the entire Bible, from God’s creation (Gen. 1) through His incarnation to present Himself as the tree of life to all the fallen people for the producing of the church, through His death, resurrection, and transforming work for the building up of His organic Body to match Christ as His counterpart, unto the consummation in the New Jerusalem as a couple of the redeeming God and the redeemed people for God’s enlarged expression for eternity with the divine glory manifested in humanity. We should notice that in the previous long sentence, there are the words from, through, and unto. The Bible’s record begins from God’s creation. Then the record of the Bible goes on through God’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and transforming work for the building up of Christ’s Body. This is unto the New Jerusalem.
The Old Testament in Genesis speaks of God’s creation. The following thirty-eight books of the Old Testament are full of types and prophecies of Christ and the church. The main prophecies concerning Christ are in Isaiah, which says that a virgin will bring forth a son whose name will be called Immanuel (7:14). This is a prophecy of Christ’s incarnation. Isaiah 53 gives us a clear, detailed record of Christ’s death. At the end of Isaiah 53, there is a short section referring to Christ’s resurrection (vv. 10-12). Isaiah also refers to the new heaven and new earth where the New Jerusalem will be (65:17; 66:22). Eventually, all the types and prophecies are fulfilled through the coming of Christ in the New Testament to carry out His eternal economy.
Genesis 1 and 2 present not just the facts of God’s creation, not just revelations from God’s creation, but a big vision, the unique vision, the greatest and the highest vision of God’s entire economy. God’s entire economy comprises two parts: God’s old creation and God’s new creation. The old creation occupies only Genesis 1. The picture of God’s new creation starts from Genesis 2 with God making a spirit for man and putting man in front of the tree of life. Then the life of God flows out of the regenerated believers to transform them into precious materials for the building of God. The building of God is of two parts. First there is the Body of Christ as the origin, and second, the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation.
According to Genesis 1 and 2, God’s economy comprises only four main things. The first is God’s creation, the old creation. The second is God’s making man a spirit with which man can receive Him as the tree of life to be man’s life. The third is the flowing river which signifies that the life of God flows out of the believers to produce three kinds of precious materials for God’s building as God’s goal. The fourth is that nothing natural is qualified to be Christ’s counterpart. Only the life that comes out of Christ is built into a wife to match Christ as His counterpart. This building is a woman, built with Christ’s unbreakable resurrection life for God’s eternal enlargement and expression. Eventually, the building of God is the New Jerusalem. On the one hand, the New Jerusalem is built with the precious materials in the flow of God’s life. On the other hand, the New Jerusalem is built with Christ’s unbreakable resurrection life. This is the greatest and highest vision in the Bible, and this is God’s economy.
God’s moves in all the ages are motivated by all the contents of this greatest and highest vision.
God made Adam out of the dust of the ground, and made a spirit for him on the sixth day. Genesis 1 also says that on the sixth day God created man and woman. But we also need to see that the Bible is a particular book even in the way that it records things. The facts are one thing in the Bible, whereas the record is another thing. Quite often God counts on the record, not just on the facts, to unveil something.
As an illustration of this, let us consider the case of Melchisedec in Hebrews 7. This chapter says that he was without father, without mother, and without genealogy (v. 3). Surely the Melchisedec in Genesis 14 had a father and mother, but in God’s record nothing is mentioned about his father, his mother, or his genealogy. This is because God wanted to use him to typify Christ as the One from eternity. The record in Genesis 1 and 2 is similar to this because God wants to use the two sections of the record of His creation to show us something. The creation of Adam’s spirit and the building of Eve were recorded not in the first section of the old creation, but in the second section, which displays the new creation. This is very meaningful.
(The Triune God's Revelation and His Move, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)