photo credit: People – God Created Man in His Own Image
God’s purpose is accomplished by life, and in Genesis 1 we see in type the experience of Christ as life and the growth in life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
God as the Spirit came to brood upon our dead situation, and He spoke something to us, bringing light in our inner being, and we were regenerated with Christ as the divine life. As the Lord increased His shining, there was a definite and strong separation between light and darkness, day and night, and the things above from the things of the earth.
As we grow in life by allowing Christ to shine in us and grow in us, we experience Christ as the grass, the herbs, and the trees – stage by stage, we grow in life.
After a more definite light shining on us through Christ as the sun, the church as the moon, and the overcoming believers as the stars, we grow in life further to defeat the death around us (the fish) and even overcome and soar above any frustration and death situation (the birds). However, there is more!
We need to grow in life step by step and day by day by experiencing Christ as life so that we may become “the cattle” and the “animals” on the earth (day 6). The animals and the cattle have a higher consciousness and they live a life with a purpose, accomplishing something on the earth.
But there is even more: we need to go further in our growth in life until we bear God’s image and represent Him with His dominion so that His purpose would be fully accomplished (typified by the creation of man). Today we as the church, the Body of Christ, fulfill God’s eternal purpose by expressing God and representing Him on the earth.
Hallelujah for the growth in life! We need to daily grow in life until we become one with Christ and even Christ Himself by experiencing Him as life, so that corporately and one with Christ we would fulfill God’s purpose!
The Living Creatures on the Earth – Living a Life Useful for the Fulfilling of God’s Will
On the sixth day God created the living creatures on the earth (see Gen. 1:24-31). The cattle and the animals created by God have a higher life with a higher consciousness than that of the fish, birds, and any plants. They live a life that can accomplish something on the earth, and the animals typify Christ!
We need to grow in life and enjoy the riches of the life of Christ so that we may experience Him as the conquering lion (see Rev. 5:5) fighting for God’s economy, as the sheep and oxen useful for offering to God (Lev. 1:2-3, 10; 3:1, 6, 12; 4:3; 5:6; John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 5:6-9), and as the ox to bear the responsibility and to labor faithfully for the accomplishing of God’s will (see Matt. 20:28; John 5:17; 6:38).
The accomplishing of God’s will in us is an automatic and spontaneous consequence of our further growth in life. As we grow in life by further experiencing Christ as life, we will live a life for God’s purpose.
We will not only be saved from the death situation but we will reign in life (as typified by the lion), and we will become good for God’s satisfaction in the way of offerings (not merely being for ourselves but being offerings to God – as lambs and oxen – in a more substantial way).
We need to let Christ grow in us to such an extent that we will bear the responsibility to labor faithfully to accomplish God’s will (as typified by the ox, see 1 Cor. 3:2). As we grow in life by experiencing Christ as life and allowing Him to grow in us, we will become Christ in His many aspects as typified by the cattle and the animals.
Hallelujah for the growth in life! Lord Jesus, grow in us more and more today. We pray for a further growth in life until we live a life for the accomplishment of Your will on earth!
The Human Life – the Highest Created Life, a Life which Expresses God and Represents God
photo credit: AngChee Lee via Google Plus
There is still more! In every stage of our growth in life we need to aspire, desire, and pray for further growth in life until we arrive at the highest peak of God’s intention – expressing God in His image and representing Him with His dominion!
In the last part of the sixth day, God created man in a wonderful way – not according to “man’s kind”, but in the image of God and with the likeness of God (see Gen. 1:26). Man has the highest created life, a life with the highest consciousness, with a spirit, a soul, and a body.
Man was created to express God in His image and to represent Him with His dominion over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth! The highest peak of our experience of Christ as life is that we corporately express God in His image and represent God with His dominion over all the earth.
Adam, the first man, typifies Christ (see Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:45, 47; Psa. 8:4-8; Heb. 2:6-9) as the center of God’s creation (Col. 1:16-17), as the Head of all creation (v. 15) and of all men (1 Cor. 11:3), as God’s expression in God’s image and likeness (Heb. 1:3; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15), and as God’s representative to rule over all things created by God (Psa. 8:6-8; Matt. 28:18).
As we experience Christ as life we need to become Christ in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
God’s intention is that man would express God in His image and represent Him with His dominion, and this intention was fulfilled not in Adam as the first man (1 Cor. 15:45), the old man (Rom. 6:6), but in Christ as the second man (1 Cor. 15:47), the new man (Eph. 2:15). Christ as the Head and the church as His Body is the One who fulfills God’s eternal intention (Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11).
Also, throughout the history God’s intention has been fulfilled in the overcoming believers, those who live Christ for His corporate expression (see Phil. 1:19-26), those who will have authority over the nations and reign as co-kings with Christ in the millennium (see Rev. 2:26-27; 20:4, 6).
Ultimately and for eternity, God’s eternal intention and purpose will be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, which will express God in His image, having the glory of God and bearing His appearance (Rev. 4:3; 21:11, 18), and also exercise God’s authority to maintain God’s dominion over the entire universe for eternity (Rev. 21:24; 22:5).
Hallelujah! We need to grow in life unto maturity by experiencing Christ to such an extent that God’s purpose is fulfilled in us!
Lord Jesus, show us Christ as our life and how to experience Christ as our life daily. May we see that Your divine life in us is everything, and it is only by Your life that Your central thought and original intention can be fulfilled in us. Lord, we want to experience You as life so that You may gain Your expression and representation on the earth. Make us persons of life, believers who experience life, churches in life, and a recovery in life. Lord, grow in us! May Your divine life in us grow further until we fully express You and represent You corporately for the fulfillment of Your purpose!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: bro. Minoru’s sharing in the message and portions in, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 7-8), 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.
- Further reading: recommending Gen. 1:24-24 with the footnotes in the Recovery Version Bible.
- Hymns on this topic:
# We express Him as a lion / Conquering every enemy; / As an ox obedient, lowly, / Faithful in His ministry. / We express Him as an eagle, / So transcendent, soaring high; / Never held by fear or flatter, / He above it all does fly.
# Deep in God’s heart there’s been, / Before the time began, / God’s desire to be expressed, / This He planned in eternal past. / God eternal had a purpose / In eternal past. / He created man in His image / that man would God express.
# The Church is Christ’s expression full, / In her Christ dwelleth bodily; / She is His duplication true, / And man in her Himself may see. / The Church the image has of Christ, / She is His increase and His spread; / Christ’s very self is found in her / The Body, she, to Christ the Head.
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