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In this message we shall begin to consider Christ’s person in the fulfillment of the types and figures of the Old Testament. In His wisdom God uses not only prophecies to predict the coming of Christ but also types and figures to portray Christ. Therefore, we can see Christ’s person both in the fulfillment of the prophecies and also in the fulfillment of the types and figures in the Old Testament. Because a figure is sometimes used in a prophecy, certain verses may be used both for the fulfillment of a prophecy and for the fulfillment of a figure. We need to learn how to understand the types and figures of Christ in the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the New Testament. We need to know what the Bible says concerning these matters, not according to the natural understanding but according to the spiritual denotation.
In Genesis 1:3 light is a figure of Christ: “God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Light is actually a way, or a means, by which God brings created things into existence. According to Genesis 1, after light came into being, the way was opened for God to bring other things into existence. Light is necessary for generating life. According to the revelation in the Bible, light is for life. All that God created and made is focused on life and is for life. Light and life go together. Thus, for God’s work of creation in Genesis 1, there was the need for light. God commanded the light to come, and the light came.
The light in Genesis 1:3 is a type of Christ as the real light. This is revealed especially in the Gospel of John. In John 1:4 and 5 we see that light is Christ, the living Word of God. When Christ comes as the real light to shine in the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome Him. In John 8:12 the Lord says, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” In John 9:5 He goes on to say, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” In Genesis light is for the old creation, but in John 1:8 and 12 light is for the new creation. The old creation was brought into existence through physical light, and the new creation is brought into being through Christ as spiritual light. The physical light in Genesis 1, therefore, is a type of Christ as the spiritual light for God’s new creation. When we received Christ, He became our life, and this life is now the light of life within us that brings us out of darkness. Furthermore, this light opens our eyes and gives us spiritual sight.
When we called on the name of the Lord Jesus, receiving Him into us, the divine life came into our being. As a result, we had the sense of something shining within, the shining of life. This shining is a strong confirmation that we have been born of God. Having received Christ, who is the expression of God, we now have Him as our life, and this life is the light shining within to enlighten us. Darkness cannot overcome this light or extinguish it; rather, Christ as light dispels the darkness. Christ truly is the light of life for the new creation.
Genesis 2:9 says, “Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Here the tree of life is not a type but a figure signifying God in Christ as our life. God’s desire to be our life cannot easily be expressed in plain words. Therefore, in Genesis 2:9 He uses a figure — the tree of life — to signify this desire. The tree of life signifies the Triune God in Christ to dispense Himself into His chosen people as their generating life. In Genesis 2 we have the figure, but in the New Testament we have the fulfillment of this figure.
The tree of life is the center of the universe. According to the purpose of God, the earth is the center of the universe, the Garden of Eden is the center of the earth, and the tree of life is the center of the Garden of Eden. Hence, the universe is centered on the tree of life. Nothing is more central and crucial to both God and man than the tree of life. The tree of life in the garden was an indicator that God desires to be our life in the form of food.
The New Testament reveals Christ as the fulfillment of the figure of the tree of life. Speaking of Christ, John 1:4 says, “In Him was life.” Since John 1:3 refers to the creation in Genesis 1, the mention of life in verse 4 should refer to the life indicated by the tree of life in Genesis 2. This is confirmed by John’s mention of the tree of life in Revelation 22. The life displayed by the tree of life in Genesis 2 was the life incarnated in Christ. The Lord told us that He Himself is life (John 14:6). Furthermore, John 15 reveals that Christ is a tree, the vine tree. On the one hand, He is a tree; on the other hand, He is life. If we put together John 1:4 and 15:5, we shall realize that Christ is the tree of life. The fact that He said in John 6 that He is the bread of life indicates that He has come to us as the tree of life in the form of food. Therefore, Christ, the embodiment of God, is the tree of life.
Concerning Christ as the fulfillment of the figure of the tree of life in Genesis 2:9, Revelation 2:7 says, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” It was God’s original intention that man should eat of the tree of life. Due to the fall, the tree of life was closed to man (Gen. 3:22-24). Through the redemption of Christ, the way to touch the tree of life, which is God Himself in Christ as life to man, has been opened again (Heb. 10:19-20). However, in the church’s degradation religion crept in with its knowledge to distract the believers in Christ from eating Him as the tree of life. Hence, in Revelation 2:7 the Lord promises to grant the overcomers to eat of Himself as the tree of life. The word for “tree” in Revelation 2:7, as in 1 Peter 2:24, is “wood” in Greek, not the usual word used for tree. We have seen that the tree of life refers to Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God to be our life in the form of food. Here in Revelation 2:7 this expression refers to the crucified (implied in the tree as a piece of wood — 1 Peter 2:24) and resurrected (implied in the zoe life — John 11:25) Christ who is in the church today, the consummation of which will be the New Jerusalem, in which the crucified and resurrected Christ will be the tree of life for the enjoyment of all God’s redeemed people for eternity (Rev. 22:2, 14). The eating of the tree of life not only was God’s original intention concerning man; it will also be the eternal issue of Christ’s redemption. For eternity God’s redeemed people will enjoy the tree of life as their portion.
Revelation 22:2 says, “On this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life.” The tree of life growing on the two sides of the river indicates that the tree of life is a vine, spreading and proceeding along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy. It fulfills, for eternity, what God intended from the beginning. In eternity God’s redeemed people will enjoy the tree of life; that is, they will enjoy Christ, the Son of God, the redeeming Lamb, as their eternal life supply.
Revelation 22:14a says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life.” After his creation, man was put before the tree of life as an indication that he was privileged to partake of this tree. But because of the fall of man, the way to the tree of life was shut to man by God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness (Gen. 3:24). Through Christ’s redemption, which has fulfilled the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness, the way to the tree of life has been opened again to the believers. Hence, the believers who wash their robes in the redeeming blood of Christ have the right to enjoy the tree of life as their eternal portion.
Adam is a type of Christ (Gen. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:45, 47; Rom. 5:14). In Romans 5:14 we are told that Adam was a “type of the coming One,” Christ. Adam was the head of the old collective man (mankind). Whatever he did and whatever happened to him is participated in by all mankind. In this respect he is the type of Christ, who is the Head of the new corporate man (the church, Eph. 2:15-16). Whatever He did and whatever happened to Him is also participated in by all the members of His Body, the church (Eph. 1:22-23).
Adam was the first man (1 Cor. 15:47) and also the first Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). Adam was created by God and had nothing of the life and nature of God. He was merely God’s creation, a work of His hand.
Christ is the second Man and the last Adam (45, 1 Cor. 15:47). He is the last man, and after Him there is no third man, for the second Man is the last Adam. Following Him there is not a third Adam. This second Man was not created by God. Rather, He is a man mingled with God. He is God incarnated to be a man. The first man had nothing of the nature and life of God, for He was merely God’s creation. The second Man is the mingling of God with His creature, full of the nature and life of God. He is a man mingled with God, a God-man. The fullness of the Godhead is embodied in Him (Col. 2:9; John 1:16).
As the last Adam Christ is the end of the old race, the end of mankind in the old creation. As the second Man Christ is the beginning of another race, the start of a new man. There is no second Adam, only the last Adam. In the sight of God there is one Adam beginning from Adam and ending with the man Jesus. Therefore, the first Adam is the beginning of mankind, and the last Adam is the ending of mankind.
The time from Christ’s incarnation until His resurrection was a transitory period involving a transition from the old man or race to the new race. The second Man was born through incarnation, but He was reborn through resurrection. In incarnation Christ was born to be the second Man and also took upon Himself the old man. Then the old man was terminated at the cross, and the second Man was reborn in resurrection. It is for this reason that we may speak of Christ first as being the last Adam and then as the second Man.
In the fulfillment of the types and figures of the Old Testament Christ is the sacrifice affording the coats of skins for Adam and Eve. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). In this verse we see an anticipation of the redemption that was to be accomplished thousands of years later. Adam and Eve were in a situation that needed redemption. Knowing that they were fallen and sinful, they tried to cover themselves with garments made of fig leaves (Gen. 3:7). Then God came in to deal with the situation, promising that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent (v. 15). Then God made coats of skins and clothed them. The expression “coats of skins” implies that some kind of sacrifice, probably a lamb, was slain for them. That sacrifice was a type of Christ as our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30) to cover us with Himself.
For God to make coats of skins for Adam and Eve and clothe them means that He justified them. To be justified means to be covered with the righteousness of God, which is Christ Himself. For Adam and Eve to be under the coats of skins signified that they were in Christ, for the coat is a clear type of Christ as God’s righteousness (Phil. 3:9) to cover us. Therefore, figuratively speaking, Adam and Eve were in Christ.
The sacrifice that produced the coats of skins to Adam and Eve was slain as their substitute. The putting on of the coats of skins was based on the shedding of the blood of the sacrifice. The sacrificial lamb was their substitute. Then after God covered them with a coat of lamb’s skins, they became one with the lamb. As sinners they became one with the substitute. This is a matter of union, and union brings about the effectiveness of substitution, for without union substitution stands alone. Substitution does not have anything to do with us until we enter into a union with the substitute. Once we participate in such a union, whatever the substitute has accomplished is ours. Christ has done everything for us on the cross, but without union all that He has accomplished is not related to us. But when we become one with Christ through believing in Him, whatever He accomplished on the cross becomes ours. Therefore, union brings in the effectiveness of substitution.
In Galatians 2:17 and 3:27 we have the fulfillment of the type in Genesis 3:21. Galatians 2:17 speaks of “seeking to be justified in Christ.” Galatians 3:27 says, “As many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” To believe is to believe into Christ (John 3:16), and to be baptized is to be baptized also into Christ. By both faith and baptism we have been immersed into Christ, having thus put on Christ and become identified with Him.
To put on Christ by being baptized into Christ is to clothe ourselves with Christ, to put on Christ as a garment. On the one hand, in baptism we are immersed into Christ; on the other hand, in baptism we put on Christ. When a person is immersed into Christ, he automatically puts on Christ as his clothing. This means that the baptized one has become one with Christ, having been immersed into Him and having become clothed with Him.
To be baptized into Christ is to enter into an organic union with the Triune God. In order to experience this organic union, we need to believe into Christ and to be baptized into Him. Believing and being baptized are two parts of one step. First we believe into Christ, then we are baptized into Him. By believing in Christ we enter into Him. We believe ourselves into Him and thereby experience an organic union with Him, becoming one spirit with Him. In addition to believing into Christ, which is inward and subjective, we also need to be baptized into Him, an act which is outward and objective. Through the inward action of believing and the outward action of being baptized we make one complete step to enter into the Triune God. The step which begins with believing into Christ is completed by being baptized into Him. In this way there takes place in full an organic union between the believers and the Triune God. In this union we are truly clothed with Christ.
According to 1 Peter 3:20-21, the ark made by Noah and into which he and his family entered is a type of Christ. In Genesis 6:14-16 we see that the ark had three stories, that it was made of gopher wood, and that it was pitched within and without with pitch. The ark’s three stories signify the Triune God. Hence, in the ark we have a type of the Three of the Godhead. This indicates that the Triune God is in Christ, mingled with human nature typified by the wood used in the ark’s construction.
The ark was made of gopher wood, which is a cypress full of resin. This resinous wood can withstand the attack of water. In the Scriptures cypress signifies the crucified Christ, who can withstand the waters of death. He tasted death, and death could not damage Him. The ark made of gopher wood passed through the waters, but no damage was incurred. This signifies the solidness of Christ as the crucified One. Christ is the real gopher wood, the real cypress full of resin and strong to withstand the waters of death.
The ark made by Noah was pitched within and without with pitch (Gen. 6:14). The Hebrew for “pitch” has the same root as the Hebrew word for atonement. The main meaning of this Hebrew word is to cover. The word for the cover of the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat, also comes from this same root. The entire ark was pitched with atonement. This indicates that in Christ, who fulfills the type of the ark, we have the full covering of His redemption.
Genesis 7:13 says, “In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark.” Noah and his family could not have been saved outside of the ark. They were saved because they entered into the ark. The entering in of Noah and his family into the ark is a type of our entering into Christ. Only by entering into Christ can we be saved.
The ark was for the salvation not only of man but also for the salvation of all living creatures (Gen. 7:13-23). According to Hebrews 2:9, Christ tasted death “on behalf of everything.” This reveals that Christ’s redemption was accomplished not only for mankind but for everything created by God. For this reason, Colossians 1:20 says that God has reconciled all things to Himself through Christ. This is clearly typified by the redemption of Noah’s ark, in which not only eight persons but also the living things created by God were saved. The fact that creatures as well as human beings were in the ark indicates that Christ accomplished an all-inclusive death for every creature. Therefore, the ark was not only for the salvation of man but for the salvation of all living creatures.
Another type of Christ is Melchisedec (Gen. 14:18-20). Genesis 14:18 says, “Melchisedec king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.” Salem means “peace,” and Melchisedec means “king of righteousness.” Melchisedec is a type of Christ as God’s High Priest. This is not revealed in Genesis 14, but it is found in Psalm 110, where we are told that God’s anointed One, the Christ, is the Priest according to the order of Melchisedec, an order that is prior to that of Aaron. The Aaronic priesthood dealt with sin, taking care of things on the negative side. The ministry of Melchisedec, on the contrary, is positive. Melchisedec did not appear to Abraham with an offering to take away sin, but with bread and wine to nourish him. Nearly all Christians consider Christ as the High Priest who takes away sin, but few pay attention to Christ as the High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec. As such a High Priest, Christ does not take away sin, but ministers to us the processed God, signified by the bread and wine, as our nourishment.
In Hebrews 6:20—7:3 we have the fulfillment of the type in Genesis 14:18-20. Christ is “forever a High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 6:20). Christ’s purification of sins is typified by the work of Aaron, whereas His sitting down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3) is according to the order of Melchisedec (Psa. 110:1, 4). Christ’s work on the cross typified by the work of Aaron affords us forgiveness of sin. His ministry on the throne in heaven ministers to us the heavenly supply for the overcoming of sin.
Whenever most Christians speak about Christ as our High Priest, they have the concept that He is the High Priest who sacrifices to God for our sins. This, of course, is correct, but it is on the negative side. Christ as the High Priest offering sacrifices to God is typified by Aaron. That was in the past. Today Christ is no longer offering sacrifices for sin; instead, He is ministering the Triune God to us as our supply. In the past Christ offered sacrifices to God for our sins as typified by Aaron. Today He is ministering the Triune God to us as our supply according to the order of Melchisedec. This is proved by the coming of Melchisedec to Abraham. As the priest of the Most High God, Melchisedec did not offer sacrifices to God for Abraham’s sin; he ministered bread and wine to him. As indicated by the symbols of the Lord’s table, in the Bible bread and wine signify the processed God as our supply. Our High Priest, Christ, is not according to the order of Aaron offering sacrifices to God. He is according to the order of Melchisedec ministering the processed God to us.
Melchisedec was a king, and his name means king of righteousness. In Isaiah 32:1 this title refers to the Lord Jesus. Christ is the King of righteousness, today’s Melchisedec. As the King of righteousness Christ has made all things right with God and with one another. He has reconciled us to God and has appeased God for us. Righteousness issues in peace (Isa. 32:17). By His righteousness Christ has brought forth the fruit of peace.
Melchisedec is also the king of Salem, which means the king of peace, signifying that Christ is also the King of peace (Isa. 9:6). As the King of peace through righteousness, Christ has brought in peace between God and us. In peace He fulfills the ministry of His priesthood, ministering God to us for our enjoyment.
According to the type in Genesis 14, after Melchisedec, the king of righteousness and the king of peace, came, there was righteousness and peace. In such an environment and condition of righteousness and peace Melchisedec ministered the bread and wine to the victor. This portrays the ministry of Christ, our kingly High Priest.
Our kingly High Priest is perpetual, eternal, without beginning or ending. Hebrews 7:3 says of Melchisedec that he is “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, abides a priest perpetually.” Because our Melchisedec is eternal, He has no genealogy. This also is a fulfillment of the type in Genesis 14. For all the important persons in Genesis there is a genealogy, but not for Melchisedec. In the divine writing the Holy Spirit sovereignly gave no account of the beginning of his days or of the end of his life so that he might be a proper type of Christ as the eternal One to be our High Priest perpetually. This is like the presentation in the Gospel of John of the Son of God, who, being eternal, has no genealogy (John 1:1). But as the Son of Man Christ has a genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38). It is such a Christ who is the High Priest ministering the processed God to us as our daily supply. He is the perpetual One, the constant One, the eternal One, having no beginning of days nor end of life.
