Genesis 1 and 2 show us in picture how we can experience Christ as life. These two chapters are not a complete record of how God created the heavens and the earth, but they are written for us to see how we can experience Christ as our life in our daily life.
First of all, the Spirit is brooding upon the death waters in our being, and the Word of God reaches us to bring in God’s light, who generates the divine life in us. As a result of the Spirit’s brooding, the Word speaking, and the light shining, there is a separation of light and darkness: we see God, and we reject sin!
As the Spirit convicts us inwardly, the word speaks to us and we understand our condition and situation, and the light shines on us to expose us of our sin, we repent and turn to the Lord, and the divine life comes in. Here we have the first “division” or separation – the separation of light from darkness, a requirement for generating life (see Gen. 1:4-5; 2 Cor. 6:14).
The record of the creation goes on with a further separation – God separated the waters by producing an expanse between them (day 2, Gen. 1:6-8). This further separation typifies the dividing of the heavenly things from the earthly things through the work of the cross so that the divine life in us may be generated and grow.
On the third day – the day of resurrection – the dry land appeared, typifying Christ as the generating source of life (see Gen. 1:11-12, 24-27; 2:7). Hallelujah, Christ is the One who came out of death into resurrection on the third day, and we were all regenerated on the third day in His resurrection to constitute the church, the Body of Christ (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3).
The Separating of the Heavenly Things from the Earthly Things Through the Work of the Cross
On day two of the process of God’s creation, He made the expanse and separated the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse, and God called the expanse Heaven (Gen. 1:7-8).
This separation of the waters by producing an expanse between them has a spiritual significance – it indicates the dividing of the heavenly things from the earthly things through the work of the cross (see Col. 3:1-3; Heb. 4:12). This is all for generating life and for growth in life.
This “expanse” called heaven is what helps life generate and be maintained on earth. Neither the moon nor any other planet has this expanse, and therefore there is no life there. In our being there needs to be a separation as a result of God’s light shining on us – the earthly things need to be separated from the heavenly things!
We need to clearly discern what things are pleasing to God and what is not acceptable to Him. Through the work of the cross in our being we see what is natural and what is spiritual, what is holy and what is common, what is heavenly and what is earthly, and what is pleasing to God and what is not acceptable to Him. We will be exposed and reminded:
Is this from God? Is God the source of this? Is this from the Spirit with your spirit? Or is it something merely moral, ethical, and good?
Spiritually speaking, only what comes out from God as the source is acceptable to God and is for generating and maintaining life. The more this separation and division is clear in us, the more life can be generated.
The cross is the great separating line, the dividing line, excluding anything and anyone that is not of God and including only God and His people who are regenerated with His life.
In our experience we need to have the clear dividing of the soulish and spiritual things, the things of God and what is not of Him, and the things from above from the things of the earth – through the work of the cross. This is so that life may be generated and grow in us to a greater extent.
How much we need a clear separation, a clear division, in our whole being! The clearer and bigger this separation is, the more life can be generated and grow in us!
Christ Came out in Resurrection on the Third Day to Generate Life
On day three of the process of God’s creation God gathered together the waters under the heavens and dry land appeared (Gen. 1:9). The appearing of the dry land is a requirement for generating life, and the fact that it appeared on the third day – just as the Lord Jesus resurrected on the third day – it typifies Christ as the rich land for generating life (see 1 Cor. 15:4).
After the dry land appeared, all kinds of life forms were generated (the plant life, the animal life, and even the human life, see Gen. 1:11-27). The divine life with all its riches comes out of Christ!
As Peter tells us in 1 Pet. 1:3, all the believers in Christ were regenerated with God’s life in Christ’s resurrection for the constituting of the church, the Body of Christ. Christ is the good land, emerging out of the dead sea waters, conquering and subduing death, and He regenerated with His divine life millions of believers for the Body of Christ, God’s new creation.
You could even say that all the other things God did until now was for this, for life to be generated. God was brooding over our death situation as the Spirit, He spoke the word of God to us and shined as the divine light on us, He clearly showed us there’s light and we’re in darkness, He operated through the cross in us to divide the things of God and the things of man, and now Christ comes in as the good land to generate life on the third day – the day of resurrection, the day of our regeneration!
The sea in the Bible has a negative connotation, since the demons are in the sea and there’s much rebellion against God in the sea. God drew a line to limit the sea (Jer. 5:22), and eventually, God will eliminate the sea forever (Rev. 21:1)! Today God is operating to eliminate the sea (the kingdom of Satan) from the earth by regenerating man and growing in man as life until man deals with His enemy and defeats him forever!
Lord Jesus, keep shining on us and in us until we have a clear division of the soul and the spirit, the heavenly things and the earthly things, the spiritual things and the merely “good” things! Operate in our being through the work of the cross to expose and divide anything that’s not of God, anything of the earth, and anything common, so that we may be clear concerning the spiritual things, the heavenly things, and the holy things. Lord Jesus, may there be a clear division of these things in us so that life may be generated and grow!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: bro. Minoru’s sharing in the message and portions in, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 3), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization Study of Genesis (1), week / msg 3, The Experience of Christ as Life Portrayed in Genesis 1.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh, how the Word doth penetrate, / Spirit and soul divide, / Revealing every hidden weight / For us to lay aside.
# Then the waters He did split; / An expanse between them fit, / Earthly things from heavenly, / Separated hence they’d be. / On the third day God designed / That the waters be confined. / In our lives dry land must be; / No more death and no more sea!
# By the cross discern the spirit / And within the spirit move; / As good land, on Christ e’er labor, / And His riches thou wilt prove.
