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Scripture Reading: Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:16; Gal. 4:4; John 1:1, 14; Matt. 1:23; Heb. 2:14; Matt. 1:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:53-57; Gen. 17:8; Gal. 3:16; Matt. 1:1-2a, 6; Gen. 12:3; Gal. 3:14; John 14:17-20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rom. 8:9; Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:14a; 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 22:42-45; Rom. 1:3; Rev. 22:16; Acts 2:30-31; Matt. 16:16-18; Acts 13:32-35; Isa. 55:3-4; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6
The Bible covers four ages between eternity past and eternity future: the age before the law, the age of the law, the age of grace, and the age of the kingdom. The age of grace covers the entire New Testament age, from Matthew 1 through Revelation 19. The last age, the kingdom age of one thousand years, recorded in Revelation 20, will consummate in the new heaven and new earth. It will be the introduction to the new heaven and new earth mentioned in Revelation 21—22.
The period of time from the creation of Adam to Christ’s first coming was about four thousand years. The first part of this period, from Genesis 1 through Exodus 19, is called the age before the law.
The first thing recorded in this period is God’s creation of man (Gen. 1:26; 2:7). Although the creation of many other things is recorded in Genesis 1 and 2, the most important thing according to the life-study of the Bible is the creation of man.
Genesis 1:1 is the only verse in the first two chapters that deals directly with the creation of the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1-2 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But the earth became waste and emptiness, and darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was brooding upon the surface of the waters.” The heavens and the earth were created, and the earth became waste and emptiness. This became the background for the creation of life. When the earth became waste and emptiness, God came as the Spirit to brood over the surface of the waters. This indicates the matter of life. The brooding of the Spirit in verse 2 is like the brooding of a hen over her eggs to warm them so that life can come forth.
The creation of the universe was the beginning of the creation of life. Genesis 1 is a record of the creation of life. In Genesis 1 the Spirit came in and began to do many marvelous things. First, God said, “Let there be light” (v. 3). This light was not just for the creation of the earth; it was for life. Second, God separated the waters above from the waters beneath by inserting an expanse (vv. 6-8). The air, which is needed by every living thing, was in this expanse. Third, God divided the land from the waters (vv. 9-10).
The most important thing on the earth is the different forms of life. I appreciate the grass, the flowers, and the trees. The plants and the trees are beautiful. Genesis 2:9 says that the trees were pleasant to the sight and good for food. Among the trees that were pleasant to the sight and good for food was the tree of life. This tree of life signifies Christ, who is both pleasant to the sight and good for food.
After the creation of the plants in Genesis 1:11-12, God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living animals, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of heaven” (v. 20). Next, God created the cattle, the creeping things, and the animals of the earth, such as the dogs, cats, lions, leopards, tigers, and bears (v. 24). In New Zealand one of the most impressive things is the countless flocks of sheep. In Brazil there are many different kinds of beautiful birds. The living creatures in the air, on the land, and in the water make the earth beautiful.
After the creation of the plants and animals God said, “Let Us make man” (v. 26). Man is the highest of all the created life. Yet the highest level of life is the divine life, signified by the tree of life (2:9). The record in Genesis progresses from the plant life to the animal life to the human life to the divine life. In the creation of the plants and animals God began from the lower forms and went to the higher forms. The record of creation in Genesis is a record of life. The entire Bible is a book of life.
Many Christians speak of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth in the first two chapters of Genesis, but they neglect the matter of life. God did not tell us how He created the planets or the stars, but He spent a great deal of time in Genesis 2 to give us a detailed picture. First, this picture portrays how God made a man from the dust (v. 7), similar to the way in which a child might make a doll out of clay. He then described in detail the tree of life with the river flowing beside it (vv. 9-14). At the flow of that river, which parted into four heads, there were three precious materials: gold, bdellium, and onyx stone (v. 12). God used many words to describe these things, but He gave no details concerning the things that scientists study today. This is because Genesis 1 and 2 are a record of life.
The first point in the record of life in the Bible is man’s creation, and the second point is man’s fall (3:1-6). When man fell, God came immediately to give man the promise of the seed of the woman (v. 15). After Adam and Eve sinned, they were afraid of God (v. 10) and tried their best to cover themselves (v. 7). So God called to Adam and said, “Where are you?” (v. 9). This was the first sentence spoken by the creating God to the fallen man. Eventually, God found Adam and Eve and had a gospel visit with them. This was the first gospel visitation. According to this pattern set up by God, I would strongly encourage you to go to visit people with the gospel.
Immediately after man’s fall, God came from the heavens to the earth to visit fallen man, and He began to preach the gospel to him. First, God questioned Adam concerning whether or not he had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (v. 11). Adam answered, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate” (v. 12). Adam blamed God for giving the woman to him. God did not rebuke Adam; instead, He turned to the woman and asked her what had happened. The woman responded, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (v. 13). Then God turned to the serpent and cursed him (vv. 14-15). Within the curse on the subtle one, a promise was implied. Genesis 3:15 says, “I will put enmity / Between you and the woman / And between your seed and her seed; / He will bruise you on the head, / But you will bruise him on the heel.” To bruise the head means to put to death. When He said that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, God was saying, “Serpent, you have used the woman to spoil the man I have created. But I will use the woman to produce the seed that will bruise your head to put you to death.”
The first item in the record of the Bible is God’s creation, the second item is the fall of man, and the third item is God’s anticipation of His redemption and salvation for fallen man. Immediately after the fall of man, God anticipated that He would bring in His redemption and salvation for man. When God said that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, Adam and Eve were happy. Adam might have turned to Eve and said, “Eve, this is very good! You will bring forth a seed that will bruise the head of that subtle one, the serpent.” God’s word concerning the seed of the woman was both a promise and a prophecy. All the promises are prophecies, but not all the prophecies are promises. The best prophecies are always promises. Zechariah, a book that is full of prophecies (9:1—14:21), proves this. All the top prophecies in Zechariah are also promises. Zechariah 13:1 says, “In that day there will be an opened fountain for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.” This word is both a promise and a prophecy.
The anticipation of God’s redemption and salvation lasted for four thousand years. The promise and prophecy concerning the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 was given four thousand years before Christ. During those four thousand years God did nothing to accomplish His redemption for man’s salvation. Then, at the end of that period of anticipation, John the Baptist came out to announce to Israel the good news that Jehovah, the very God, was appearing to accomplish redemption for them (Isa. 40:3-5; cf. Luke 3:4-6). Eventually, that redemption would consummate in their salvation.
Adam and Eve, who had become fallen sinners, believed God’s promise and prophecy that the seed of the woman would come. So when Adam and Eve gave birth to their first son, Eve said, “I have acquired a man, Jehovah” (Gen. 4:1). They named the child Cain, which means “acquired,” because they thought that their first son was the fulfillment of the promise in Genesis 3:15. Cain, however, was not the seed of the woman; he was the seed of the serpent. Adam and Eve were mistaken, because the seed of the woman was the coming Christ.
Thirty-three hundred years from the time of Adam and Eve, the prophet Isaiah repeated the promise given to them by God. Isaiah 7:14 says, “Behold, the virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.” This prophecy was fully fulfilled in the first book of the New Testament, in Matthew 1:23. Jesus is the fulfillment of Immanuel, promised in Isaiah 7:14. He was a human boy, but His name was Mighty God (9:6). He is God with us.
The period from Adam to the present time is approximately six thousand years. This period can be divided into three sections of approximately two thousand years each: from Adam to Abraham, from Abraham to Christ, and from Christ to our present time. The law was given during the two thousand years between Abraham and Christ. The period of time from God’s promise to Abraham until the decree of the law by Moses was about four hundred thirty years (Gal. 3:17). Thus, according to the entire history of the Bible, the law came very late. The law decreed by God through Moses in Exodus 20 at Mount Sinai came approximately fifteen hundred years before Christ. Then from Christ’s first coming until today is a period of nearly two thousand years. From Genesis 3:15 to the time of Moses was about twenty-five hundred years. During this long period before the fulfillment of His redemption and salvation, while He was waiting and anticipating, God gave His people the law in order to test them, try them, and expose them to the uttermost.
The books of Isaiah and Jeremiah itemize all the sins of the fallen Israelites. Isaiah’s list of their sins includes idolatry—the worshipping of idols and the making of idols. This indicates that they broke the first three commandments (Exo. 20:1-7). Jeremiah condemned them for their breaking of the Sabbath, which was their breaking of the fourth commandment (v. 8). According to Jeremiah, they also did not honor their parents, thus breaking the fifth commandment (v. 12). Eventually, Jeremiah shouted that there was no justice in their society. This indicates that they broke the last five commandments (vv. 13-17). Hence, they broke all the Ten Commandments to the uttermost. Eventually, the entire nation of Israel was captured, except for a small remnant. Jeremiah warned this remnant, but they would not repent. At first, they begged Jeremiah to give them the word of the Lord, but when Jeremiah received the word and gave it to them, they rejected him. Instead of receiving his word, they told him that they would go down into Egypt, and there they continued in their idolatry by worshipping the queen of heaven (the wife of Nimrod).
Eventually, God Himself came in the form of a man. When He came to the earth, Israel was full of sin. Wherever He went, the people were possessed by demons because they worshipped idols. Demon possession is an indication of idol worship. Israel’s history shows that no one can keep the Ten Commandments. Thus, while God was waiting in anticipation of His coming redemption and salvation, He did only one thing: He gave people the law to test them and expose them.
The promises given by God concerning Christ as our Redeemer and Savior are all regarding a seed: the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, and the seed of David. This is expressed in Hymns, #191, where the first three stanzas portray Christ as the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, and the seed of David. These three seeds are promised in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, Christ as the fulfillment of these seeds has come. Matthew 1:1 says, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Both David and Abraham are mentioned at the beginning of Christ’s genealogy, and Mary is mentioned at the end (v. 16). Many names are mentioned in this genealogy, but Jesus is called only the seed of the woman (Mary), the seed of David, and the seed of Abraham.
The divine economy and the divine dispensing are seen in the promises of God’s anticipated redemption and salvation.
The first promise is the promise of the seed of the woman, who was the son born of a virgin (Gen. 3:15; Isa. 7:14). The promise of the seed of the woman was given immediately after Adam’s fall. After that, God remained silent for thirty-three hundred years. He then used Isaiah to repeat His earlier promise given in Genesis 3:15. In Genesis God promised that the seed of the woman would come, but in Isaiah 7:14 He said that a virgin would conceive and bring forth a son. This son brought forth would be the real seed promised by God in Genesis 3:15. Between these two promises, for thirty-three centuries man fell through four successive steps until he had fallen to the uttermost, into idolatry, at Babel (see Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 18—36).
The promise of the seed of the woman refers to the incarnated Christ (Matt. 1:16; Gal. 4:4). Mary, a female descendant of King David, became the mother of the promised Christ and the mother of the seed of the woman. Galatians 4:4 says that Christ was “born of a woman.”
Christ as the seed of the woman implies that the complete God became a perfect man through the dispensing of Himself into humanity (John 1:1, 14; Matt. 1:23). God’s incarnation was a dispensing. In eternity past God remained in Himself. But at one point He made a counsel not to remain in Himself any longer. He desired to bring His divinity into humanity, and He prophesied concerning His desire in Genesis 3:15. However, this promise was not fulfilled until Mary conceived in Matthew 1. Because He was very patient, our God was silent for four thousand years.
At the time of the Lord’s incarnation, God did not come to visit man as He had done with Adam. This time He entered into the womb of a virgin, remained there for nine months, and was born of her to be a God-man. As a man, He is Emmanuel (v. 23), God with us. Through incarnation God dispensed Himself into humanity. From the day of His incarnation, God no longer remained only in His divinity. He now remains in both divinity and humanity. The incarnation of Christ was the dispensing of God Himself into humanity. Christ is a real man, a perfect man, yet within Him is also the complete God. Hence, He is the God-man.
Today in the heavens He is still a man. The subject of Hymns, #62 is Christ’s humanity, and the fourth stanza of this hymn indicates that in the heavens Christ is still a man:
Stephen saw Christ as the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God after His ascension (Acts 7:56). In His second coming, Christ will be a man (Matt. 26:64). Christ has also been appointed by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). Because He is a man, God has given Him the authority to judge men (John 5:22, 27). According to the New Testament, God has authorized the man Jesus to judge the living at His coming, before the millennium on His throne of glory (Matt. 25:31-46), and the dead after the millennium on the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15). In eternity He will still be a man (John 1:51).
Today on the earth the dispensing of God Himself into humanity includes not only Christ but also all His believers. Hallelujah, Christ is the God-man, and we also are God-men! Jesus is the dispensing of God Himself into humanity, and we too are the dispensing of God Himself into humanity.
The purpose of the seed of the woman, the son born of a virgin, was to destroy Satan and to save the believers in Christ from sin and death (Heb. 2:14; Matt. 1:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:53-57). To bruise the head of the serpent is to destroy the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Through His death Christ destroyed the devil (Heb. 2:14). Since Adam’s fall three things have bothered mankind: Satan, sin, and death. These three things are one. Thus, in His death and resurrection Christ destroyed Satan and saved His believers from sin and death.
The divine economy and the divine dispensing are also shown in the promise of the seed of Abraham (Gen. 17:8; Gal. 3:16; Matt. 1:1-2a). In the beginning God created man in His own image and according to His own likeness. But man fell through four successive steps until he came to Babel, a place full of idols. Eventually, God was chased away from the earth by man’s idolatry. History tells us that every brick of the tower of Babel had the name of an idol on it. Abraham was born in that land of idolatry (Josh. 24:2-3). One day while Abraham was worshipping idols, the God of glory appeared to him and called him (Acts 7:2-3). God called Abraham out of the place called Shinar, the base of Babylon, and brought him into the good land of Canaan. Once Abraham arrived in the land of Canaan, God appeared to him and made a promise to him concerning a seed (Gen. 12:7).
The seed of Abraham is for the blessing to all the families of the earth (v. 3). Although He prophesied concerning the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15, God did not do anything immediately to fulfill His promise. Instead, He allowed man to fall again and again until he reached the bottom of the fall at Babel. Then God called out one person, Abraham. In Genesis 12:2-3 His speaking to Abraham indicated only a little concerning His intention. God said that He would make Abraham great and that all the families of the earth would be blessed in him. Then in Genesis 17:7 God told Abraham that He would make a covenant with Abraham and with his seed. This word concerning the seed is explained clearly by Paul in Galatians 3:16 when he says, “To Abraham were the promises spoken and to his seed. He does not say, And to the seeds, as concerning many, but as concerning one: ‘And to your seed,’ who is Christ.”
Today we must thank the Lord that we are more clear than Abraham was concerning the promise of the seed. Abraham might have understood only that God would give him a good piece of land, a land flowing with milk and honey. It is doubtful that Abraham understood that through many centuries, through forty generations, a virgin would bring forth a boy who would be the real seed and the One through whom the earth would be blessed. Not only did Abraham not understand these things in his time; the Jews still do not understand this promise. Paul was a Jew and did not understand this matter before becoming a Christian. Eventually, after some years, Paul wrote Galatians 3, in which he says that God’s promise to Abraham was His preaching of the gospel to Abraham and that the blessing of Abraham was the Spirit (vv. 8, 14). God did not promise Abraham a piece of land. The promise to Abraham was that he would receive the processed God as the all-inclusive consummated Spirit.
The blessing of Abraham refers to the promised Spirit, who is the reality of Christ (v. 14; John 14:17-20). The one seed of Abraham became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).
The Spirit, as the consummation of the Triune God for the dispensing of Himself into the believers of Christ, is the seed of Abraham (v. 45b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Rom. 8:9). The last Adam mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:45 is the seed of Abraham. This seed became not only our Redeemer and Savior but also the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is a transfigured descendant of Abraham. The top blessing, the consummate blessing, to us sinners is God Himself as the life-giving Spirit. On the one hand, the life-giving Spirit is a transfigured descendant of Abraham, and on the other hand, He is the very Triune God. This life-giving Spirit is the consummated Spirit who is the consummation of the processed Triune God. This is the real blessing.
If today we had only a Redeemer who died for us on the cross and only a Savior who stretches out His hand to pull us out of the “water” of our troubles, this would not be sufficient. The Savior we need today is the One who can enter into us. We need the life-giving Spirit who dwells in our spirit and who is one spirit with us (6:17). When we fall into the “water,” He falls in with us. He is buoyant. If we did not have the life-giving Spirit in our spirit, we would sink in the “water” because we are not buoyant. But, praise the Lord, we do have a buoyant One within us. The third stanza of Hymns, #505 expresses this thought: “There’s a Man in the glory / Whose Life is for me. / ...He’s strong and in vigor, / How buoyant is He!” Where is Christ buoyant? He is buoyant in our spirit. He has been buoyant within me for sixty-five years. Because of this buoyant One, I can boast that I have been kept from falling. The life-giving Spirit as the seed of Abraham and as the consummation of the processed Triune God is the top blessing. As such a One, He can be in us with both His divinity and His humanity. How wonderful this is! The totality of what He is, is called the Spirit. The good land given to Abraham was a type of this Spirit. The Spirit is the blessing God promised Abraham.
The seed of Abraham is for the believers in Christ, who are Abraham’s seed, to inherit the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God, as their divine inheritance — their spiritual blessing for eternity (Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:14a; Gal. 3:14). Christ is the seed of Abraham, and all His believers are also the seed of Abraham (v. 29). Now as believers, we are no longer merely descendants of Americans, Chinese, or Japanese. We are Abraham’s seed. We are all one family, and our surname is Abraham, because Abraham is our father (Rom. 4:12).
Our spiritual blessing for eternity is to inherit the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God, as our inheritance. In the new heaven and new earth in the New Jerusalem, we will enjoy the processed Triune God, who is the all-inclusive, consummated, life-giving Spirit. This is our blessing. Even today the most enjoyable thing to us is the indwelling Spirit.
The divine economy and the divine dispensing are also seen in the promise of the seed of David (2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 1:1, 6; 22:42-45; Rom. 1:3; Rev. 22:16). The seed of David refers to the resurrected Christ, who carries out God’s New Testament economy for the dispensing of the processed Triune God into the members of His Body (Acts 2:30-31; Matt. 16:16-18).
The resurrected Christ is God’s sure mercies, of which Christ is the center and reality, shown to David through his descendant Mary, the mother of Christ (Matt. 1:16), for the dispensing of God Himself into all the believers of Christ in His resurrection (Acts 13:32-35; Isa. 55:3-4). According to Paul’s understanding in Acts 13:34 and 35 (see footnote 1 on v. 34, Recovery Version), the sure mercies shown to David are Christ Himself in resurrection. In Christ as the sure mercies, God reaches us in His grace to be our enjoyment. Because our situation was miserable and could not match God’s grace, Christ not only took the step of incarnation to bring God as grace to us, but He also took the further step of death and resurrection in order to become the sure mercies to us in resurrection. Through His death and resurrection Christ, the embodiment of God’s grace, became the sure mercies, and through these mercies we are now in the proper position to match God and to receive Him as grace.
Christ as God’s sure mercies shown to David is for the dispensing of God Himself into all the believers of Christ in His resurrection. This is for the believers in Christ to share His kingship in His resurrection in the eternal kingdom of God (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6).
The divine economy and the divine dispensing in the promises of the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, and the seed of David have a threefold purpose: first, to destroy Satan and to save us from sin and death; second, to cause us to inherit the consummated Triune God as our blessing and inheritance; and third, to cause us to share Christ’s kingship. These three items cover God’s full salvation in a complete way. God’s full salvation is to deliver us out of the hand of Satan and out of sin and death, to bring us into the full inheritance of God Himself as our blessing, and to cause us to share the kingship with Christ as His co-kings in the kingdom age.
The seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, and the seed of David all indicate the divine dispensing. All three of these seeds are just one seed — a human being with God dispensed into Him. Christ, the God-man, is the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, and the seed of David. Now in Him God and man, man and God, are blended and mingled together as one entity. This entity is fully signified in, with, and by the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the totality of God’s dispensing of Himself into humanity.
