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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1
Christ, the expression of God, and the church constitute the central thought of God. The central thought of God in this universe and in eternity is to have Christ as His expression through the church. If you apply this thought and realization to all the Scriptures that you read, the Scriptures will be opened to you. You will have the insight to understand the Word of God. Without this kind of realization concerning the central thought of God, it is hard for anyone to understand the Holy Bible, the divine record of God’s thought. If you desire to know the real meaning of the divine Word, you have to know the central thought of this Word, which is Christ as the expression of God through the church. The entire Bible is full of this thought.
The apostle Paul tells us that Christ and the church are the great mystery (Eph. 5:32). Christ as the expression of God and the church as the Body of Christ constitute the central thought of God. This is the greatest mystery in the whole universe. If you do not understand this mystery, you do not know the meaning of the universe and the meaning of your human life.
If we want to understand the thought, the meaning, of any book, we have to realize what it speaks of at the beginning and at the conclusion. It is exactly the same with the Bible. In this divine book, at the very beginning, there are two chapters revealing to us the principles and the outline with the main points of God’s eternal purpose. In the very beginning of the Holy Scriptures, in the first two chapters of Genesis, we have the outline of God’s central thought, the blueprint of God’s plan.
At the end of this divine book are the last two chapters, chapters 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation. In those two chapters we can see a picture of the consummation of God’s plan, a picture of the issue of what God has been doing through all the generations, and a picture of the realization of the central thought of God. We must carefully consider these four chapters — the first two chapters of Genesis at the beginning of the Bible and the last two chapters of Revelation at the end of the Bible.
First, we need to see Christ as the expression of God and the church as the Body of Christ in the first chapter of the Bible. Christ is everywhere and Christ is everything in the Scriptures. Christ can be seen in every day of the six days of creation. In the first chapter of Genesis we can also see the church and the believers, the saints. Genesis 1 reveals Christ as the expression of God and us as the members of the Lord’s Body, which is the church. The record of the divine thought in Genesis 1 and 2 was written in a figurative way. We have to see this record figuratively to get the right meaning.
Now let us consider the six days of God’s work. God’s work on the first day was, on the one hand, to send His Spirit to move upon, to brood over, the surface of the waters and, on the other hand, to call the light to shine (Gen. 1:2-3). Thus, on the first day there were the brooding Spirit and the shining light. With this brooding and shining came the separation of light from darkness (vv. 4-5). Before this, there was no light, so there was no division, no separation, between light and darkness. Please remember that with the work of the first day there were the Spirit and the light. The light separates. Where light is, there is the discernment, the separation, the division.
On the second day God made the firmament, the expanse (vv. 6-8). The expanse is space. God created the expanse to divide the waters under it from the waters above it. On the second day the expanse was the dividing element.
The work of the third day was to recover the land (vv. 9-13). The land had been created already but was buried by the deep waters. God brought the land out of the waters of death and caused the land to produce all kinds of life — the grass, the herbs, the trees, and so on.
On the fourth day there was the recovery of all the light-bearers — the sun, the moon, and the stars (vv. 14-19). There was the sun in the daytime and the moon and stars in the nighttime. On the fifth day the living creatures in the waters were created. Then the flying creatures in the air were created (vv. 20-23).
On the sixth day the living creatures on the land — the cattle, the beasts, and the creeping things — were created (vv. 24-25). Then man was created (vv. 26-27).
Now we need to see what these figures signify and reveal to us. At the beginning of Genesis 1 there are the Spirit of God and the light, and at the end there is man with the image and authority of God. In between there are the dividing between light and darkness, the dividing between the waters above and the waters underneath, and the dividing between the land and the waters. Without these dividings, it is impossible to have any kind of life. After all these dividings, the land emerged to produce different kinds of life and to become a place to live for the living creatures.
On the first day there was no life but there was light. Life always follows light. It is not life that comes first, but light. On the first day there was the Spirit with the light. On the second day there were the divisions. Then on the third day there was the producing of life. On the fourth day there were the bigger and more solid lights, the embodied lights, so after this there was more life. On the fifth day there was the animal life, the life in the waters and the life in the air. On the sixth day there was the life on the land. Eventually, there was the highest life of the creatures, which was the human life, a life with the image and authority of God, a life that could express God and represent God. The image of God is the expression of God, and the authority of God is the representation of God. If you have the authority of God, you are the representative of God.
Now we can see that the direction of God’s creation is toward life, and the goal of God’s creation is life. Scientists spend much time studying the universe, and others try to study the first chapters of the Bible according to scientific knowledge. They think that the story of creation in the Bible is unbelievable and untrustworthy. However, we have to know that this Bible is a book of life. God did not give us a record of the whole process concerning His creation. He gave us only a little bit to show us what His central thought is.
Similarly, the apostle John told us that, besides those things that were recorded in his Gospel, the Lord Jesus did many other things (21:25). The Lord did hundreds of miracles, yet the apostle John selected only a few and put them in his Gospel to prove and testify to us that Christ is the Son of God so that we may believe into Him and have life. This is the goal. This is the central thought of John.
God created the whole universe with myriads of things, yet He gave us a record of only two chapters concerning His creation. If He had given us the complete record of His creation, we would be overburdened. Actually, there is no need for us to know all these things. All these things are not God’s goal or central thought. His goal, His central thought, is a life matter. The purpose of the record of the creation of the universe is to lead us to know life.
Genesis 1 tells us that on the third day life was produced. The third day is a day of life out of death, a day of resurrection. The Lord Christ Himself was the very life buried by the waters of death. It was on the third day that He was recovered from death to produce life. The Lord is typified by the land buried by the waters of death and recovered by the life power of God. He was brought out of death to produce life; we all were regenerated, reborn, by the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3). When He was resurrected, we were raised up with Him from death (Eph. 2:6). We are like the plants produced out of the land. We are God’s farm, God’s cultivated land (1 Cor. 3:9b). By the resurrection of Christ, we were produced and made alive.
Someone wrote a hymn with the following lines: “There is sunshine in my soul today, / More glorious and bright / Than glows in any earthly sky, / For Jesus is my light” (Hymns, #343). After we are regenerated, we enjoy Christ as our light. After the third day, there were the sun, the moon, and the stars on the fourth day. After we have been regenerated, we have Christ as the sun shining within us to make us as the moon reflecting the light of the sun and to make us the shining stars. The fourth-day lights are the sun, the moon, and the stars. In the first chapter of Genesis the believers are typified by the stars (v. 16c). Daniel 12:3 says that those who turn many to righteousness shine like stars. In Revelation the messengers of the churches, the spiritual ones who bear the responsibility of the testimony of Jesus, are the shining stars (1:16, 20; 2:1; 3:1). In Genesis 1 the church is typified by the moon (v. 16b), and Christ is typified by the sun, the greatest light-bearer (v. 16a). Just as the moon is the reflection of the sun, so the church is the reflection of Christ. This typifies Christ with His Body, including all the members.
After this shining of Christ within us, we become like a fish or a bird. We can live in an environment that is impossible for others to live in. We can live in a situation of death. The water always kills, yet we can live and move in it. We are the “fish” because we have life. The water is salty, yet we are not salty. The water is full of death, full of sin, yet we are full of life, with nothing salty, nothing sinful. Moreover, sometimes we can fly in the air like the birds. We have the flying element in the divine life. Many times, oppressions, trials, and temptations come to us, but we can declare to them, “All of these things are under my feet. There is no need for me to fight with you. I will fly above you.” Following this, we have the more abundant life, a life that can work for God, that can do the will of God, that can move on this earth. Eventually, we have the life with the image of God to express God and the authority of God to represent God. This shows us that the goal, the direction, of God’s record, which is also the central thought of God, is Christ and the church with the matter of life.
Now let us consider what Christ is in the first chapter of Genesis. First, there is the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2 is the Spirit of Christ, who is Christ Himself (Rom. 8:9-10). When the Spirit came, He brought the Word of God, and the Word of God is Christ Himself (John 1:1). Then there is the light. This is also Christ Himself (v. 4; 8:12). The Spirit, the Word, and the light are all Christ Himself.
On the second day there was the firmament, the dividing element. This is the cross, the death of Christ. Where the cross is, there is always the dividing. At Calvary, on the day of the Lord’s crucifixion, the cross was in the middle dividing the saved one from the perishing one (Luke 23:32-33, 39-43). Whenever we receive Christ and His cross, there is always a dividing element within us to divide the things above, the heavenly things, from the things underneath, the earthly things (Col. 3:1-3).
Then, as we have pointed out, on the third day there was the land. The good land of Canaan is the all-inclusive type of Christ (Josh. 14:1; Col. 1:12). God’s bringing the people of Israel into this land is a type of His saving us from the world and bringing us into Christ. Christ is the land in which we walk, that is, in which we live, act, behave, and have our being (2:6).
Christ is also typified by the trees. In Genesis 2:9 the tree of life is a type of Christ. In Exodus 15:23-25 we see another tree. When the children of Israel came to Marah, they could not drink of the bitter waters. Jehovah told Moses to cast a tree into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. That tree is also a type of Christ. In Song of Songs 2:3 the apple tree, which some think is a sort of orange tree, is also a type of Christ. Ezekiel 34:29 mentions “a plant of renown” (KJV). This famous plant is Christ. Isaiah 11:1 says that “a sprout will come forth from the stump of Jesse, / And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” Both the sprout and the branch signify Christ. Then in John 15 the Lord told us that He is the vine tree (vv. 1, 5). Christ is the reality of the trees.
On the fourth day we see that the sun as a type of Christ. Christ is the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2) with the church, His Body, as the moon reflecting His light and all His members as stars (cf. Gen. 37:9-11).
Then on the fifth day there were the fish and the birds. Christ is typified by the birds. In Leviticus we are told that sometimes the burnt offerings had to be offered with turtledoves or young pigeons (1:14), which are types of Christ. Moreover, Christ is also signified by the fish. In John 6 the Lord fed five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish (vv. 1-15). The barley loaves are of the vegetable life and signify Christ as the generating life. Fish are of the animal life and signify Christ as the redeeming life. Thus, the living creatures in the water also typify Christ.
On the sixth day there were the beasts, the cattle, and the creeping things on the earth. Revelation 5:5 tells us that Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is also the Lamb (John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 22:1, 3). The creeping things, with the serpent as the leading one, represent the enemy of Christ, but even Christ Himself came in the form of the serpent. John 3:14 says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” When Christ was crucified on the cross, He was in the form of the serpent but was without the serpent’s poison.
Eventually, there was the man Adam. The first Adam is a figure of the last Adam, who is Christ (1 Cor. 15:45; Rom. 5:14). Moreover, Adam as the first man is a figure of Christ as the second man (1 Cor. 15:47).
This gives us a hint concerning how many items in Genesis 1 refer to Christ. The central thought of God is that Christ will be the expression of God through His church, shining all the time in life. Adam was a prefigure, a type, of Christ. Christ is the last Adam. Adam had the image of God (v. 26), and 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that Christ is the image of God. Christ as the image of God is the expression of God.
Furthermore, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ (Matt. 28:18). Genesis 1 is related to Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2. In Psalm 8 the psalmist referred to Genesis 1, and in Hebrews 2 the apostle spoke the same thing. The man in these portions of the Word points to Christ. Christ is the very man with the image of God and with the authority of God. He expresses God and represents God. He is everything.
