Scripture Reading: Ruth 2:1, 14-16; 3:15; 4:9-10, 13
In these messages on Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, my emphasis has been on our gaining Christ, experiencing Christ, and enjoying Christ so that we may be the church. In this message we will consider how Boaz and Ruth typify Christ and the church. Boaz is a type of Christ, and Ruth is a type not only of the seeking saints but of the church. Ultimately, Ruth typifies the church.
At the beginning and at the end of the portion of Israel’s history from Joshua to Ruth are two prominent persons typifying Christ (Josh. 1:1; Ruth 4:21). These persons are Joshua and Boaz, who signify two aspects of one person.
At the beginning Joshua typifies Christ in bringing God’s chosen people into God’s ordained blessings (Josh. 1:2-4; Eph. 1:3-14). As typified by Joshua, Christ has brought us into the good land, has taken possession of the land for us, and has allotted the land to us as our inheritance for our enjoyment. Christ has gained the good land for us, and eventually He is the good land for us to enjoy.
At the end Boaz typifies Christ in other aspects. In particular, he typifies Christ as our Husband for our satisfaction.
Boaz typifies Christ in two aspects.
As a man, rich in wealth and generous in giving (Ruth 2:1, 14-16; 3:15), Boaz typifies Christ, whose divine riches are unsearchable and who takes care of God’s needy people with His bountiful supply (Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 12:9; Phil. 1:19b).
Sadly, in their experience many of today’s Christians do not have Christ in His riches, and they do not have Him as the Husband. In the church we have Christ as our riches, and we also have Him as our Husband. In Ephesians Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ (3:8). He speaks also of Christ as the Husband of the church (5:23-32). In Revelation our Husband is unveiled as the Lamb, the redeeming God (21:2, 9). The Bible reveals, therefore, that Christ with His unsearchable riches is our Husband. In the last two chapters of the Bible, we see that Christ, the Lamb, is our Husband and that we, the believers in Christ, are the Lamb’s wife.
As a kinsman of Mahlon, the dead husband of Ruth, who redeemed the lost right of Mahlon’s property and took Mahlon’s widow, Ruth, as his wife for the producing of the needed heirs (Ruth 4:9-10, 13), Boaz typifies Christ in redeeming the church and making the church His counterpart for His increase (Eph. 5:23-32; John 3:29-30).
Ruth, being a woman in Adam in God’s creation and a Moabitess in man’s fall, thus becoming an old man with these two aspects, typifies the church, before her salvation, as men in God’s creation and sinners in man’s fall being “our old man” (Rom. 6:6). Ruth became a Moabitess not because of man’s fall but in man’s fall. The Moabites, an incestuous people, typify all sinners, because all sinners were born of incest (John 8:41, 44a). This means that Ruth was not the only one with an incestuous background. We all have the same background. Adam and Eve joined themselves to Satan; that is, they married Satan. As human beings created by God, we should have married our Creator, taking Him as our Husband (Isa. 54:5), but instead we married a fellow creature, Satan. This is incest.
Ruth, being the widow of the dead husband, redeemed by Boaz, who cleared the indebtedness of her dead husband for the recovery of the lost right of her dead husband’s property, typifies the church with her old man as her crucified husband (Rom. 7:4a) redeemed by Christ, who cleared away her old man’s sin for the recovery of the lost right of her fallen natural man created by God.
We need to realize that the believers’ old man consists of a natural part created by God and a fallen part corrupted by sin. In God’s creation we are good — we are “doves”; but in the fallen Adam we are evil — we are “serpents.” The natural part is good and desires to do what is good, whereas the fallen part practices what is evil (Rom. 7:19, 21). From this we see that in the old man typified by Ruth, we have two natures and that one of these natures is good and the other is evil. The evil nature, acting with the good one, assumed to be the husband, and together they became the old man, our incestuous husband.
Our old man has been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6). Christ’s crucifixion destroyed the fallen part of our old man, but it redeemed the created part. Christ did not redeem the fallen part of our old man; on the contrary, He terminated it. However, He redeemed our created part in order to recover us. Therefore, Christ’s death on the cross terminated the fallen part of our old man and redeemed the part created by God.
Ruth, after being redeemed by Boaz, becoming a new wife to him typifies the church, after being saved, through the regeneration of the church’s natural man, becoming the counterpart of Christ (Rom. 7:4b). Just as the redeemed Ruth became a new wife to Boaz, so the saved and regenerated church has become His new wife, His counterpart, in the organic union with Him.
Ruth being united to Boaz typifies the Gentile sinners being attached to Christ that they may partake of the inheritance of God’s promise (Eph. 3:6).
The more we consider these aspects of Ruth as a type of the church, the more we can know our status as believers in Christ today. First, we were created by God. Second, we became fallen persons. Third, we were redeemed by Christ. Fourth, we were regenerated by the pneumatic Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Thus, we may summarize our status in four words: created, fallen, redeemed, and regenerated.
Let us now consider further how, in typology, the various aspects of Ruth’s situation apply to us today. In God’s creation Ruth was good, but she became fallen in Adam. When she turned to Israel, she believed in the saving God and was redeemed. Then, having become a new person, she married Boaz and became his new wife.
As signified by the type of Ruth and her dead husband, Ruth’s natural part created by God and her fallen part cooperated to assume to be the husband, forsaking God as the Husband. This husband was the main part of her old man, which was composed of her God-created part and her fallen part. The old man as the illegal husband made many mistakes and incurred a great deal of debt, thereby selling himself and losing his right as a God-created being because of his sins. After Ruth’s husband died, she was not only a widow but was also in a condition of indebtedness. The only way out of this condition was to be united in marriage to the proper person. When Ruth married Boaz, she was redeemed from her indebtedness, and she became his new wife for the producing of the needed heirs.
This is a picture of our situation today. Christ, our Husband, died to redeem us and to clear the indebtedness caused by the sins of our old man. Then in resurrection He, as the life-giving Spirit, regenerated us to make us, as created, fallen, and redeemed persons, a new creation married to Him. Now, in the organic union between Christ and us, we can bring forth Christ and spread Christ for His increase.
At this juncture, I would ask you to note the following five matters related to Ruth typifying the church. I hope that these matters will help us to grasp the intrinsic significance of Ruth as a type of the church.
1) The believers’ old man is composed of two parts: the natural part created by God and the fallen part corrupted by sin. This old man of ours has been crucified with Christ. This crucifixion of Christ has redeemed our natural created part and destroyed our fallen part and cleared our sin caused by this fallen part.
2) Our natural man was created by God to be God’s counterpart taking God as our Husband and Head, but in our fall our natural man put God aside and made himself our husband and head, thus becoming the main part of our old man.
3) After being redeemed and regenerated, our natural man, not including our fallen part, becomes our new man and takes Christ as our new Husband in the divine organic union with Him (Rom. 7:4).
4) Ruth’s old husband typifies our fallen part of our old man, and his indebtedness typifies our sin caused by our fallen part. Ruth herself typifies our natural man created by God and redeemed and regenerated to be the new man as the counterpart of Christ.
5) The first kinsman of Ruth’s husband typifies our natural man who cannot and will not redeem us from the indebtedness (sin) of our old man. Boaz, the second kinsman of Ruth’s husband, typifies Christ, who partook of blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14) to be our Kinsman and who can redeem us from our sin, recover the lost right of our natural man in God’s creation, be our new Husband in His divine organic union with us, and take us for His counterpart for His increase.
Some may say that Christ has redeemed our fallen man, but this kind of speaking is ambiguous. Actually, Christ will not redeem anything that is fallen. Within fallen man is a part that was created by God and that can still be used by Him. Christ redeemed this God-created part of the old man, destroying the fallen part and clearing away the sin caused by this fallen part. Therefore, with respect to the believers’ old man, Christ’s crucifixion accomplished three things. It redeemed the God-created part of our being, it destroyed the fallen part of our being, and it cleared away our sin, which was caused by this fallen part.
Christ can be regarded as our Kinsman because He partook of blood and flesh to be a man. However, as our Kinsman He is not as close to us as our self, our natural man — our first kinsman. The natural man created by God is the first kinsman, and Christ is the second. Because the first kinsman, typified by Ruth’s closest kinsman, did not have the capacity to redeem us, Christ came as the second one to redeem us, to recover our lost birthright, to become our new Husband in the divine organic union, and to take us for His counterpart for His increase.
