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In this message we shall see more concerning the church as the counterpart of Christ.
The church as the counterpart of Christ is typified by Eve as the counterpart of Adam (Eph. 5:31-32). Adam in Genesis 2 was a type, a prefigure (Rom. 5:14), of Christ. Speaking figuratively, we may say that Adam was Christ. When we see Adam in Genesis 2, we see Christ. Apparently Eve was only a woman, Adam’s wife, his counterpart. However, if we have the spiritual vision from Ephesians 5, we shall see that Eve in the garden was a type, a prefigure, of the church. If we have this perspective, we shall realize that whatever happened to Adam in Genesis 2 was an experience of Christ and that whatever happened to Eve was related to the church. In figure, Adam was Christ and Eve was the church.
God created the heavens, which are for the earth, and the earth, which is for man. Then He created man, who is for God, with a spirit to receive Him. Adam typifies God in Christ as the real, universal Husband who is seeking a wife for Himself.
After Adam was created, God said of him, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his complement” (Gen. 2:18, Heb.). Although Adam was perfect, he was not complete. The principle was the same with God in Christ as the real Husband. Although God is absolutely and eternally perfect, He is not complete. To say that God is imperfect is to speak blasphemy. Our God is eternally perfect. Nevertheless, without the church, He is incomplete. Therefore, when God said that it was not good for Adam to be alone, it indicated that God Himself was incomplete and that it was not good for Him to be alone. Adam’s need for a wife as his counterpart typifies and portrays Christ’s need to have the church as His counterpart. If we see this, every aspect of Genesis 2 will be clear.
The first couple in the Bible, Adam and Eve, presents a significant and complete picture of Christ and the church. According to the book of Genesis, God did not create man and woman at the same time and in the same way. First, God formed man’s body from the dust of the ground. Then He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). After creating man, God declared that it was not good for the man to be alone and that He would make a counterpart for him. The animals and the fowl were brought to Adam, and Adam named them. But for Adam “there was not found a help meet for him” (Gen. 2:20). Within Adam there was the desire to have a counterpart, to have someone to match him. But among the cattle, the beasts, and the fowl, there was no counterpart to Adam. In order to produce such a counterpart, “the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam” (Gen. 2:21). While Adam slept, the Lord took one of Adam’s ribs and used it for the building of a woman (Gen. 2:22, Heb.). In life, nature, and form the woman was the same as the man. Therefore, when God brought the woman to Adam, Adam exclaimed, “This time it is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23, Heb.). Adam knew that at last he had found his counterpart.
Because there was no counterpart for Christ in the created universe, God caused Christ to die on the cross. His death was typified by the deep sleep that God caused to fall upon Adam. As the Lord Jesus “slept” on the cross, His side was opened, and blood and water came forth (John 19:34). Because in Genesis 2 the problem of sin had not come in, that chapter mentions only the rib that was taken out of Adam; it says nothing about blood. But John 19 speaks of blood, which solves the problem of sin. The water signifies the flowing life of Christ, the eternal life, which produces the church. This life is also typified by the rib that was taken out of Adam’s side. According to John 19, not one of the Lord’s bones was broken when He was on the cross. The unbroken bone of Christ signifies Christ’s unbreakable eternal life. Hence, Adam’s rib typifies the unbreakable life of Christ. It is with this eternal life that the church is built up as the counterpart prepared for Christ. In this building up of His counterpart, Christ gains the church as a match for Himself. Just as Eve, the counterpart of Adam, was a part of Adam, so the church, the counterpart of Christ, is a part of Christ.
After the woman had been built from his rib and brought to him, Adam exclaimed, “This time it is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (v. 23a). In typology, this indicates that the church is a part of Christ; it is nothing less than Christ Himself.
The church, Christ’s counterpart, is the element of Christ in the believers. When this element in so many believers is added together, it equals the church. This indicates that the church is not a composition of people of different races, nationalities, and cultures. On the contrary, the church is the totality of the Christ who is in all His believers. Although we are regenerated people, if we live and act according to the natural man, we are not in reality members of Christ, parts of His counterpart. A member of Christ is a person produced with the element of Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. Christ as the life-giving Spirit indwells His believers. When this Christ in His believers is added together, the sum equals the church, His counterpart, which is actually a part of Christ Himself.
Eve was a part of Adam because she came out of Adam. Likewise, the church as the counterpart of Christ is a part of Christ because she has come out of Christ. Genesis 2:22a says, “And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, built he a woman” (lit.). Here we see that the rib, the bone, taken out of Adam was built into a woman, Eve, Adam’s counterpart. Ephesians 5 indicates that this is a type of Christ producing the church. As Eve came out of the side of Adam, so the church comes out of the side of Christ.
The bone in Genesis 2 is a type of the Lord’s resurrection life, which is unbreakable and which was released through His death. This unbreakable resurrection life is for the producing of the church, the spiritual Eve, the spiritual wife to match Christ.
Every aspect of the Lord’s death was according to God’s sovereignty. Under God’s sovereignty, not one of the Lord’s bones was broken (John 19:31-33, 36). The Lord’s having none of His bones broken was typified by the bones of the Passover lamb. In the institution of the Passover, God ordained that none of the lamb’s bones should be broken (Exo. 12:46; Num. 9:11-12). This was a wonderful type. Later, in Psalm 34:20 this was also prophesied. Both the type and the prophecy were fulfilled in the Lord’s death on the cross.
In Genesis 2:21-23 we have the Scripture’s first mention of “bone,” which was a rib taken out of Adam for producing and building Eve as a match for Adam. Eve was a type of the church produced with Christ’s resurrection life, which was released out of Him through death. In other words, the church comes out of the resurrection life, the unbroken life, of Christ. His is the life that can never be hurt, damaged, or broken. As Eve came out of Adam’s bone, so the church comes out of Christ’s resurrection life, typified by Adam’s bone. Eve was made from a bone, and the church is produced by the divine life.
The Lord’s side was pierced, but not one of His bones was broken. This signifies that although the Lord’s physical life was killed, His resurrection life, the divine life, could not be hurt or damaged. This is the life with which the church is produced and built.
After Eve had come out of Adam, she was presented to him. Adam said of her, “She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23b). This clearly reveals that Eve came out of Adam. In typology, this indicates that the church as Christ’s counterpart comes out of Christ.
After Eve, a part of Adam, came out of Adam, she returned to Adam. This is indicated in Genesis 2:22b, where we are told that the Lord God “brought her unto the man.” In typology this indicates that the church, which is a part of Christ and which has come out of Christ, returns to Christ. Only that which comes out of Christ can be recognized by Christ. Only that which comes out of Christ can return to Christ and match Him. Only that which comes out of the resurrection life of Christ can be His complement, His counterpart. Only that which comes out of Christ and which is actually Christ Himself can be one with Him as His counterpart.
Genesis 2:24 says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Adam and Eve eventually became one flesh, one complete unit. By this we see that the wife, Eve, was the complement to her husband, Adam. Without Eve, Adam was incomplete. Eve was taken out of Adam and returned to Adam so that the two of them might become one flesh. This is a figure of God in Christ as the Husband and His redeemed people as His counterpart being joined as one. In typology, Adam and Eve became one flesh. In actuality, Christ and the church are one spirit, because he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). According to Paul’s word in Ephesians 5, the marriage union between husband and wife signifies the great mystery concerning Christ and the church.
God’s desire is to be one with man. This goal has been reached through Christ’s death and resurrection, which produced the church. The church represents the proper humanity to match God in Christ as the Husband. In this union, which will last for eternity, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed humanity is one with divinity. The coming New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth will be the ultimate consummation of the union of the processed Triune God with His redeemed people, for the New Jerusalem will be a living, complete unit composed of divinity and humanity.
Together Adam and Eve made a complete unit. In the same principle, Christ and the church make a complete unit. We may say that the church is Christ’s “other half.” Without the Lord, we are not complete. Likewise, without the church, Christ is not complete. It is a marvelous fact that Christ and the church have been joined to make a complete unit.
Because Eve was a part of Adam, having come out of Adam, she possessed the life and nature of Adam. Since Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 are a type of Christ and the church, this signifies that the church has the same life and nature that Christ has.
In the church as the counterpart of Christ, there is no place for our natural life and fallen human nature. The human life and nature are not adequate to match Christ. In order to be His counterpart, we need to be one with Christ in life and in nature. This means that Christ and the church as one unit have the same life and nature. We should not merely know this as a doctrine but see it as a heavenly vision. We need to see why we must receive Christ as our life and partake of His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Because the church is the counterpart of Christ, we who compose the church must experience Christ as our life and partake of His divine nature.
Eve, who had the life and nature of Adam, also had the image of Adam. This indicates that the church bears the same image as Christ. Moreover, in stature Eve was very nearly the same as Adam. This indicates that the church should have the same stature as Christ. If we see this as a heavenly vision, we shall realize why we need to be “transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). We shall also realize why the church must attain to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). Because we are to be Christ’s counterpart, we need to be fully transformed into His image, and we need to be fully grown until we arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
The result of Adam’s sleep in which his side was opened to release a rib was that he gained Eve as his counterpart, his complement, to match him. This signifies that the result of Christ’s death with His side pierced to release His divine life was that He obtained the church as His counterpart, His complement. Henceforth, God is no longer alone, for Christ has gained a counterpart to match Him. Therefore, chapters twenty-one and twenty-two of Revelation show us that the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the church will be the wife of Christ for His full complement to match Him eternally.
May we all see the heavenly vision of the church as Christ’s counterpart. The church, the counterpart of Christ, is part of Christ, has come out of Christ, and is built up with Christ. Eventually, the church returns to Christ and becomes one with Him, possessing His life, nature, image, and form. In this way the church becomes the counterpart of Christ, His complement.
