Scripture Reading: Ruth 1:16-17; 2:2, 11-12; 4:9-13
The book of Ruth tells us a very famous story. In this story the central role belongs to Ruth, and this role has ten statuses. Although I began to study this book more than sixty years ago and although I was taught by others regarding it, I have found it difficult to find out the various statuses of Ruth. Only recently have I seen a clear view of these statuses. In this message, therefore, I have the burden to speak a very brief word concerning Ruth’s ten statuses and concerning how they are a type of the statuses of the believers in Christ today.
Ruth’s first status was that of a God-created person who was very good (Gen. 1:27, 31). Second, she was a fallen person in Adam who was condemned by God and constituted a sinner before God (Rom. 5:18a, 19a). Third, she became an old man to be, by forsaking God as her Husband, an old husband to herself (Rom. 6:6a; 7:2) who brought her into indebtedness. Fourth, she became a debtor in the sin of her old husband. Fifth, she was a Moabitess, an incestuous Gentile abandoned by God (Deut. 23:3). Sixth, she became one who joined God’s elect, Israel, in partaking of God’s promises (Eph. 2:12-13; 3:6). Seventh, she was redeemed by her kinsman, Boaz, to be a new wife to him, her new husband (Ruth 4:5, 13). Eighth, she was one who kept the line of Christ’s incarnation (Matt. 1:5b). Ninth, she was the great-grandmother of David who brought forth the royal family of the God-ordained government on the earth. Tenth, she became a crucial ancestor of Christ who brought forth Christ, the embodiment of God, to men on earth.
We may summarize Ruth’s statuses by saying that she was a natural, God-created person; a fallen, corrupted person; an old wife to an old husband — a person in the old man involved with sin, with indebtedness; a person who joined God’s elect; a redeemed person; a new wife; a person who brought in the royal family of the divine government on earth; and one of the crucial ancestors of Christ who brought Christ to the human race. Stated simply, Ruth was a natural person, a fallen person, a person involved in sin, a redeemed person, a person united to a new husband, and a person who brought Christ to humanity.
Now we need to see that in her ten statuses Ruth typifies the believers in their statuses. First, as a God-created person with her status of a natural person with its rights by birth, Ruth typifies the believers as a natural man. Second, by her status as a fallen person — as a Moabitess, a descendant of an incestuous race — Ruth typifies the believers as the fallen man with all his corruption in nature. Third, in her status as the wife of her old husband with his indebtedness — that is, as a person involved with sin and indebted because of it — Ruth typifies the believers as the old man composed of the natural man and the fallen man. Fourth, in her status as a person redeemed by her kinsman, Ruth typifies the believers as those who have been terminated by the cross in the fallen part of their old man and redeemed back to God in the God-created part, with all the indebtedness of sin cleared up and with the birthright recovered. Fifth, in her status as the wife of Boaz in the marriage union, Ruth typifies the believers in God’s new creation as parts of the new man to be the counterpart of Christ in the organic union. Sixth, in her status as an ancestor of Christ to bring forth Christ to the human race and to minister Christ to all the people on earth, Ruth typifies the believers as ministers of Christ, who bring and present Christ to all men, supplying them with Christ universally.
From the typology of Ruth’s statuses, we can see that as a natural man, we became fallen and involved with sin. Because of this, we needed Christ as our Kinsman to be our Redeemer. After we were redeemed, we became a new wife to Christ, our new Husband in God’s new creation. As such, we have become the ministers of Christ.
May we all be impressed with the fact that in these great things Ruth typifies us, the believers in Christ: in God’s creation, in man’s fall, in the old man’s living, in Christ’s redemption, in God’s new creation, and in Christ’s ministry. Today we are ministers of Christ, bringing Christ forth and ministering Christ to people everywhere.
