photo credit: Gen. 1:10-11 – Google +, AngChee Lee
Genesis 1 is not recorded in the Bible as “a history of the creation” but rather it is showing us how we can experience Christ as life.
We start as “dead in sins and offenses” (Rom. 5:12) – corresponding to “the earth became waste and void” – and at one point, the Spirit of God was brooding upon us to generate life. As the Spirit was brooding upon us, the word of God came and spoke to us, bringing in some light to shine on our condition.
As the light shines, we have a separation of the things of God and the things of man, and the cross operates in us to divide the soul from the spirit. Then Christ as the good land appears, and He regenerates us through His resurrection on the third day, and from Christ all kinds of life forms come forth.
Firstly we are like “tender grass”, then we grow to be herbs yielding seed, then fruit bearing trees (the lowest of the life forms, with almost no consciousness), and then we grow toward maturity and the divine life in us develops to bring us forward until we become a full man in God’s image, expressing God and representing Him.
The entire chapter 1 of Genesis show us how we as human beings can receive God as life and experience Him as our life. Today we would like to see how God will eliminate sea and darkness, and how we receive God’s life to be plants in three stages (newly regenerated believers).
Darkness and Death and Sin and Curse will be No More!
photo credit: Cardiff Bay – my instagram
On the third day of His creation, God clearly separated the sea from the land, confining the sea (Gen. 1:6-7). The sea is the lodging place for the demons, and there are all kinds of rebellious being there. In its negative connotation, the sea is being limited and confined by God (Jer. 5:22), and eventually He will eliminate it forever!
Throughout the Bible we see how God works to eliminate the sea, darkness, death, and sin. He began His work in Gen. 1 and He will finish it in Rev. 22, where we see that there will be no more sea, no more night, no more curse, no more tears, and no more death (Rev. 21:1 and footnote 3)!
All this takes place because of God’s life operating in the universe and in man to eliminate God’s enemy and any of his effects on the creation.
God judged the world two times by water – the first time in the pre-Adamic age and the second time at the time of Noah – but He will never judge the earth with water again! Rather, God will judge and eliminate the sea and His enemy that dwells in the sea! Today we can proclaim the Word of God and clearly tell the enemy,
Satan, you have been terminated! Death, you have been eliminated! Darkness and curse, you have been finished! God will soon destroy you all under the feet of the church and you will be no more! Hallelujah!
The Plant Life as a Type of the Earliest Stage of the Divine Life in a Believer
On the third day the dry land appeared – Christ came forth in resurrection to generate life. As we grow in the Lord, we discern light from darkness, we separate the heavenly things from the earthly things, and we divide life from death. As the death waters are being separated and eliminated in our being, Christ as the life-generating dry land comes out and life appears.
In our family life, our church life, our work life, and our personal life, Christ as the dry land producing all kinds of rich forms of life needs to appear. When Christ as life comes in, death and darkness is eliminated and life is seen growing everywhere.
The first forms of life created by God on day 3 were the plant life: sprouting grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit bearing trees. These are the lowest forms of life with almost no consciousness – if you talk to a plant, a herb, or a tree, you don’t get a response or reaction. However, it is life sprouting, growing, and bearing fruit!
This is a picture of the initial growth, the budding, and the sprouting of the divine life in the believers. Christ is the good land, and out of Christ all kinds of plants come forth for man’s delight, pleasure, and nourishment. When the gospel is received and there’s a separation, Christ as the dry land appears and something beautiful is being displayed.
The newly saved believers are so sweet, fragrant, fresh, and nourishing, displaying initial forms of life and testifying to the beginning of the divine life in man! Many times we were nourished and encouraged by a short but very sweet testimony of a newly saved believer, who simply testified of God’s salvation and their initial simple experience of life…
The fact that there are three kinds of plant life – grass, herbs with seeds, and trees with fruits – shows that there’s a growth in life. It is normal for a newly saved believer to grow in life every day and to mature, from being a “grass” to being a “herb with seed” and then a “tree bearing fruit”.
These countless varieties of the plant life typify the rich expression of the unsearchable riches of the life of Christ in their beauty for man’s sight (see Gen. 2:9). Also, they richly express the riches of Christ in their fragrance (Song of Songs 1:12-13) and in their nourishing man and animals (Gen. 1:29-30).
If you carefully read the Bible you will see that all the plants created by God are a type of Christ as the source of life, the generating life, the green fresh life-producing, life-generating, life-imparting, and life-reproducing life! The trees (Gen. 2:9; Exo. 15:23-25; S.S. 2:3; 5:15; Isa. 11:1; John 15:1; Rev. 22:2), the flowers (S.S. 1:14), and the grains as food for man (John 6:9, 13) and as offerings to God (Lev. 2:1-3, 14) are all types of Christ, the all-inclusive One as the good land producing rich plant life for man to enjoy, eat, be satisfied with, and grow in life!
Lord, come as the Spirit to continue to brood over the surface of the death waters in many people on earth today. Cause life to be generated through the division of light from darkness, death from life, and the things above from the things on earth. Lord, cause more separation to happen in us so that life may be generated and grow! Grow in us as the divine life until we reach maturity. Lord, eliminate death from us more today, and grow in us as life unto maturity!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: bro. Minoru’s sharing in the message and portions in, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 4), 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.
- Buy this book (vol. 1) online here.
- Further reading: Gen. 1:10-11 and the footnotes in the Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Victory through Christ’s resurrection / The victory is won! / Praise Him for what He has done / The victory is won! / The victory over death, / Over Satan and the world / He defeated them triumphantly / For all to see, / Oh, what a victory!
# Our eyes have seen the vision: / The goal is now in view, / Christ has defeated Satan, / And sin and death are through. / The way is cut and open, / The paths are all made straight; / We’ve heard the call: Come forward! / We’ve laid aside each weight.
# Thus within the church-life garden / There’s a fruit-producing tree / Full of life and so available to eat. / So be simple, don’t be hardened, / Drop your concepts—eat that tree! / Take in Jesus every moment—He’s so sweet!
# The Lord, the seed of life, / Has sown Himself into our heart / To grow up into fullness / And become His counterpart. / The seed requires no rules or forms, / For water is its need— / By this the all-inclusive seed / Will grow in us indeed!
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