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From the types in the previous lesson we see that the significance of God’s focusing on man in His creation of the universe and all things is that He desired to prepare for Christ a counterpart, that is, the church. In order to become the church as the counterpart of Christ, the God-created yet fallen man needs to be redeemed, to be saved, and to live before God by Christ as a burnt offering to God for God’s sweet satisfaction. Therefore, in the revelation of the Bible, following the type of Adam and Eve for Christ and the church, there are the initial types of Christ’s redemption and salvation.
In the Bible, God used the skins of the sacrifices with which God made coats for the fallen Adam and Eve to put on, the sheep with their fat which Abel offered to God, the burnt offerings which Noah offered to God, and the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of the serpent, as the primitive types concerning Christ’s redemption and His salvation. These may be called the initial types of Christ’s redemption and His salvation.
Before the fall, Adam and Eve, the first ancestors of mankind, were in a state of innocence; they were sinless and had no consciousness of sin. Therefore, although they were both naked, they were not ashamed (Gen. 2:25).
Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent, Satan the subtle one, and disobeyed God’s command so that they rejected the tree of life, which signifies God as life, and took in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which signifies Satan as the source of sin and death (Gen. 2:8-9, 17; 3:1-7). Thus, they sinned before God. Their offense and disobedience (Rom. 5:18-19) constituted their sinful conduct. Furthermore, the evil nature of Satan, which they received into them by their committing sin and by their fall, became their sinful nature (Rom. 5:12, 19). After they had sinned in this way, they became sinners, having the sinful conduct outwardly, the sinful nature inwardly, and the consciousness of sin.
After they sinned, the fallen Adam and Eve became conscious of their sin and realized the shame of their nakedness. Hence, they took the leaves of a fig tree to make skirts for themselves to cover their shame. This indicates that sinful men tried to remove the shame of their sin by the works of their own hands and by the human cultivation of their conduct. However, in doing this they were not able to cover their nakedness in the eyes of God. After the fall men needed a bleeding sacrifice for redemption. Thus, their attempt to cover their shame with a product of the vegetable life could never work.
Since the skirts of fig leaves which fallen men made for themselves could not cover their shame, God came to seek them and clothed them with garments made of the skins of a slain sacrifice for their covering. This slain, bleeding sacrifice typifies Christ as the substituting Lamb for sinners (John 1:29), who was killed and who shed His blood to make propitiation for the sins of man before God. On the cross He was man’s Substitute and bore man’s sins. He, the righteous One, was judged on behalf of the unrighteous (1 Pet. 3:18) by the righteous God according to His righteousness, that He might remove the barrier of man’s sins, to save man and bring him to God.
God clothed Adam and Eve with the garments which He made of the skins of sacrifices to cover their shame before God that they might be not only justified but also redeemed by God. The skin of the sacrifice is a type of Christ as God’s righteousness, who has become the righteousness of the sinners who believe in Him that they may be justified and live before God. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Sin came from Satan, who rebelled against God. This sin, which came out of the evil one, entered into man (Rom. 5:12) and made man not only a sinner but sin itself under God’s judgment. Hence, through incarnation Christ became one with us in the flesh and was made sin on our behalf to be judged by God (Rom. 8:3). Moreover, in resurrection He joined us to Himself and made us the righteousness of God in Him. It is through this righteousness that we live before God.
Abel was the second son of Adam and Eve. He inherited the way of redemption which was accomplished by God and passed down to him by his parents, and he lived before God by offering sacrifices. His presenting of sacrifices was not his own invention, nor was it according to his own concept, thought, or way, but according to God’s revelation. He realized that as a fallen man he could not cover his sin with his own work and by his own conduct. He needed to depend on the bleeding sacrifice to satisfy God’s righteous requirement that he might be accepted by God and live before God to have fellowship with God.
The sacrifices offered by Abel to God were the firstlings of his flock (Gen. 4:4). According to Numbers 18:17, the firstling of a sheep was not to be eaten by the Israelites; it had to be offered to God. Hence, the firstlings of the flock offered by Abel were a type of Christ, who is unto God, who lives for God, and who is gentle and tender. Christ, as the eternal Son of the living God, became flesh to be the Son of Man. As such, He is One who is unto God, who lives for God, and who is gentle and tender. On the cross He offered Himself without blemish to God to accomplish God’s will, and He became a sweet savor to satisfy God’s desire. Furthermore, He offered Himself once for all as the one sacrifice for sins (Heb. 9:14; 10:12) to take away the sins of the world (9:28) and accomplish an eternal redemption for us (v. 12). We believers, whose sins He bore and whom He redeemed, are in Him, and through our union with Him, He has become our living to satisfy God’s desire and be accepted by God.
In addition to the firstlings of the flock, Abel offered the fat of the sheep to God (Gen. 4:4). The fat he offered was altogether for God’s satisfaction. The fat is the sweetness of the sheep; it is a type of the tender merits of Christ offered to God for His satisfaction.
Abel was accepted by God and lived before God by offering the firstlings of the sheep and the fat of the sheep, which were types of Christ, according to God’s way of redemption. This indicates that we sinners who have been redeemed by Christ should live before God by such a Christ. When we live Him through our union with Him, we are altogether unto God and live for God so that, like Him, we may be accepted by God and may satisfy God.
Noah inherited the God-given spiritual blessings from his forefathers, such as Adam, Abel, Enosh, and Enoch. Furthermore, by faith he became one whom God considered righteous (Heb. 11:7), and he walked with God in the midst of an adulterous and corrupt generation. He received the revelation from God, and he believed and obeyed this revelation. He worked together with God to build the ark, which signifies God’s salvation, so that he was not only delivered through the ark from God’s judgment but also saved through water from the old age of corruption into the new age of restoration.
After Noah came out of the ark, recognizing that the redemption and the living experienced by his forefathers was acceptable to God, he built an altar and offered different kinds of clean cattle and birds as burnt offerings to be a sweet-smelling savor to God. By this he satisfied God’s heart so that the earth could remain before God (Gen. 8:20-22).
The altar is a type of the cross of Christ. The burnt offering is a type of the perfect Christ, signifying that those who have been redeemed by Him and who live by Him may become a sweet-smelling savor for God’s satisfaction. Ephesians 5:2 says that Christ “gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.” Christ, as One who is perfect and without blemish and who lives absolutely for God, gave Himself up for us as a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. When we experience Christ in His experience and offer the Christ whom we have experienced, presenting Him to God as our burnt offering according to our experience of Him, we also will become a sweet-smelling savor before God for God’s satisfaction.
Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices as burnt offerings, which gave a sweet-smelling savor that satisfied God’s desire and, at the same time, made it possible for the earth to remain before God. That the earth might remain before God signifies that the earth might minister to God that He might carry out on the earth His eternal plan, which He purposed in Christ, that is, to produce a group of people who can make God’s heart feel sweet and become the church for His satisfaction, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as His full expression on the new earth for eternity.
The record in the Bible concerning the fall of Adam and Eve shows us not only the initial types of Christ’s redemption but also the types of Christ’s salvation.
In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent, and as a result they sinned and became fallen. However, God did not reject them; instead, He began to carry out His salvation for them. He promised them that the seed of the woman would come as the one who would save them from the corruption and bondage of the serpent. This seed of the woman is the incarnated Christ, who was born of a woman, even a virgin (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23; Gal. 4:4), to be the Savior of fallen men.
In Genesis 3:15 God told the serpent that the seed of the woman would bruise its head. When Christ as the seed of the woman was on the earth, He exercised authority to bind the strong man, that is, the serpent, Satan—the evil one—and plunder his goods, the fallen people, who are under his bondage and for his use (Matt. 12:29). Eventually, Christ bruised the head of the ancient serpent through His death on the cross and destroyed the devil, who has the might of death, altogether abolishing him and bringing him to nought (Heb. 2:14). Since Christ destroyed Satan in our flesh and also destroyed the power of sin, which is the sinful nature of Satan in us, He saves us from the slavery of death and releases us (Heb. 2:15).
In Genesis 3 the serpent in the garden of Eden as the embodiment of the evil one signifies the subtle one, the devil, Satan. He was a murderer from the beginning and is also a liar (John 8:44). He is called “the tempter” (Matt. 4:3), who in a subtle and crafty way seduced the God-created man and thereby caused him to sin and fall. By doing this, Satan injected himself into man and caused man to have the serpentine poison, the evil nature, in the flesh, possessing the serpentine nature. Thus, man became a serpent and belonged to Satan (Matt. 23:33; 3:7). When Christ was lifted up on the cross in the form of the flesh of sin, the ancient serpent, Satan, was judged and completely destroyed through the Lord’s death.
When Christ as the seed of the woman bruised the head of the ancient serpent, Satan, through His death in the flesh on the cross, the serpent also bruised His heel. This refers to Satan’s hurting of the Lord Jesus by nailing His feet to the cross (Psa. 22:16). For the accomplishing of God’s redemption, Christ tasted death for us, the fallen sinners, to cause the death of Satan and destroy the serpentine nature in our flesh that we may be freed altogether from Satan’s poison. What a salvation this is!
In the Bible, God used the skins of the sacrifices with which He made coats for the fallen Adam and Eve to put on, the sheep with their fat which Abel offered to God, the burnt offerings which Noah offered to God, and the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of the serpent, as the primitive types concerning Christ’s redemption and His salvation. God’s clothing Adam and Eve with coats made of the skins of sacrifices typifies that God caused Christ to be sacrificed for sinners as the substituting Lamb. Thus, Christ was made the righteousness of the sinners who believe in Him, and the sinners are justified and may live before God. The firstlings of the flock offered by Abel were a type of Christ, who is unto God, who lives for God, and who is gentle and tender, that He might be the living of the believers, whose sins He bore and whom He redeemed, to satisfy God’s desire and be accepted by God. The fat which Abel offered is a type of the tender merits of Christ offered to God for His satisfaction. This indicates that we sinners who have been redeemed by Christ should live before God by such a Christ so that, like Him, we may be accepted by God. After Noah was saved by God from the old age of corruption into the new age of restoration, he built an altar to offer sacrifices as burnt offerings to be a sweet-smelling savor to God. By doing this, he satisfied God’s heart that the earth might remain before God. This is the completion of the initial types of Christ’s redemption.
In the fall of Adam and Eve there are not only the initial types of Christ’s redemption but also the types of Christ’s salvation. God promised them that the seed of the woman would come to save man from the corruption and bondage of the serpent. This seed of the woman is a type of Christ, who was born of a virgin, as the Savior of fallen men.
