Ruth Typifies the Church – Fallen, Redeemed, Joined to Christ, Bringing Christ forth

In the bright and aromatic story, we see in the book of Ruth, Ruth typifies the church in many wonderful ways – both in the negative and in the positive aspects.

On one hand, Boaz typifies Christ and those in whom Christ is being reproduced to live and be expressed through them. On the other hand, Ruth typifies the church in a rich and wonderful way.

We need to spend time with the Lord in His word, seeking to have the divine light as we read the Bible so that He would reveal to us in the intrinsic significance of the words in the Bible.

Merely reading the Bible and mentally understanding the types and figures is not enough; merely reading the ministry or a blog post that expounds these types to us is still not enough.

We need to be before the Lord, ask Him to shine on us, and in His light, we will see light; when the words in the Bible are shined on by the Lord in a fresh way, the words become Spirit and life, and we receive both nourishment and spiritual understanding.

We have seen that Boaz is a rich type of Christ and that we can be the Boazes of today.

Boaz was a rich and kind man, one who is bountifully rich and very generous, one who was willing to redeem the birthright of Ruth so that she would be part of God’s people.

Because of this, Boaz was married to Ruth, and from their union, the Lord had a way to continue the genealogy for the bringing forth of Christ.

What the Lord desires is for Him to be brought forth in humanity, for Him to be expressed and lived on through man.

But He can’t do this without our cooperation; without us cooperating with the Lord in prayer over all the matters in the Word of God that He shines on, we can’t be produced to be the Boazes of today.

He is faithful to arrange all kinds of things, situations, circumstances, and people around us so that all things would work together for good, for us to be conformed to the image of Christ, the Boaz who lives in our spirit (Rom. 8:28-29).

Hallelujah, we are in the process of becoming the same as Christ through regeneration, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification, and together we will become the Body of Christ, in reality, to express the all-inclusive Christ as the Head throughout the universe!

And in this process we experience all kinds of things, including the sufferings, trials, and problems that arise in our environment; in the midst of all these things we look not to ourselves or to others for answers – we look to the Lord, we trust in Him, we rely on Him, and we learn to live a life by faith in Him.

And the result is simply that we express the riches of the divine life of Christ for God’s building in life.

May this be our experience. May we pray this to the Lord so that He would bring us into the reality of what He is revealing to us in His word!

Ruth Typifies the Church: a Fallen Person, a Redeemed Person, One joined to her New Husband, and one who brought Christ to Humanity

In the bright and aromatic story seen in the book of Ruth, having the glasses of God’s economy on, we see how Ruth typifies the church in many wonderful ways.

This short book of four chapters is such a breath of fresh air and a white background in contrast to the black background seen in the book of Judges.

Ruth typifies the church in a very rich way; there are at least ten statuses in which Ruth typifies the church.

First, Ruth is a God-created person who was very good. She was a proper human being, and she chose in a proper way what she saw and realized based on what Naomi told her. We as the church are such ones – we are God-created persons who are very good, and then the fall came in.

Second, Ruth was a fallen person in Adam who was condemned by God and constituted a sinner. Ruth wasn’t only a good person; she was a fallen person, even one from the tribe of Moab, a tribe condemned by God and constituted sinners.

We were created to be good persons in our natural man, but we fell in Adam, and now we are condemned by God because of our sin, for we are constituted sinners (Rom. 5:18-19). Oh, Lord!

Our situation before our salvation was just like Ruth’s – we were dead in sins and offenses, and we were constituted sinners under God’s judgment and condemnation.

Third, Ruth became an old man by forsaking God as her husband – she became an old husband to herself. She became an old man to be that old husband to herself.

This is what happened to us also; through the fall we didn’t just become constituted sinners – we forsook and rejected God as our Husband and we became a husband to ourselves (Rom. 6:6; 7:2).

Instead of taking God as our Husband, we became a husband to ourselves, for all sinners live governed by their flesh and their self.

Fourth, Ruth became a debtor in the sin of her old husband. This is us: because we forsook Christ as our husband, we became debtors in the sin of our old husband, which is the old man.

We are debtors to God, and there’s no way for us to redeem ourselves or to pay our debt. We have a debt that we cannot pay.

Fifth, Ruth was a Moabitess, an incestuous Gentile abandoned by God (Deut. 23:3). Oh, Lord! Because of our sins, we are alienated from God and from the commonwealth of Israel, and we are under the condemnation of God. Sixth, Ruth became joined to God’s elect, Israel, in partaking in God’s promises.

Praise the Lord, though we were dead in sins and offenses, though we were alienated from God and from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world, through Christ Jesus, we have been brought near in the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:12-13; 3:6).

Hallelujah, now we are near to God, reconciled to God, joined to God’s people, and we partake of the promises of God.

When we heard the gospel, there was a spontaneous reaction in our spirit: we chose God.

We did not understand everything, we didn’t know what it all meant in full, but we chose God, even as He chose us. By choosing God, by choosing to be part of God’s people, we were brought near to God.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for not leaving us in our sins and offenses but coming to us to die for us, redeem us, and bring us back to God! Hallelujah, we who were once far off have been brought near through the blood of Jesus! Praise the Lord, we who were dead in sins and offenses have been redeemed and brought back to God to be part of the people of God, those who partake of the promises of God! We love You, Lord Jesus, and we choose You. We simply respond to Your love and kindness and say that we love You and we need You! Thank You for taking care of all our debts: we had a debt we could not pay, and You paid the death You did not owe! Hallelujah for our Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and our Savior!

Seventh, Ruth was redeemed by her kinsman, Boaz, to be a new wife to him, her new husband (Ruth 4:5, 13).

She was a widow of the dead husband, but she was redeemed by Boaz, who cleared the indebtedness of her dead husband for the recovery of the lost right of her dead husband’s property.

This shows that we as believers in Christ have been made dead to the law through the body of Christ so that we may be joined to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead, Jesus Christ, so that we might bear fruit to God (Rom. 7:4). Amen!

Christ came, died for us, was raised, and cleared all our debt. Christ cleared away the old man’s sin for the recovery of the lost right of our fallen natural man created by God.

Our old man has been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6); this is an accomplished fact. Hallelujah, through Christ’s crucifixion, our old man has been crucified, and the created part of our old man has been redeemed!

Our old man has two parts: the fallen part and the created part; the fallen part has been terminated, but the created part has been redeemed in order to be recovered.

God doesn’t want to terminate all that we are – He only crucifies what is fallen in sin, and He redeems what is created by Him, to uplift it, transform it, and conform it to God’s image.

Praise the Lord, Christ redeemed us, the persons, by terminating the fallen part of our old man and redeeming the part created by God.

And we became a new wife for Christ, our new Husband; Hallelujah, Christ is our Husband, and we are His wife!

Christ not only redeemed our God-created part and terminated our fallen being – He also married us! He redeemed us in order to marry us!

Now we are the wife of Christ, and He is our new Husband; we are betrothed to Him through the ministry of the apostles, and we are learning to live a married life together with Him, living a life in the organic union with the Lord. Hallelujah!

Eighth, Ruth was one who kept the line of God’s incarnation (Matt. 1:5). By her choosing to be with God’s people, exercising her right to eat of the good land, and being redeemed and married to Boaz, she became part of the genealogy of Christ.

As believers in Christ who have been redeemed by Him and married to Him, we are and should be part of the genealogy of Christ, that is, we should be part of the bringing forth of Christ.

Ninth, Ruth became the great-grandmother of David who brought forth the royal family of the God-ordained government on the earth.

Tenth, Ruth became a crucial ancestor of Christ who brought forth Christ, the embodiment of Christ, to men on earth.

These are the ten statuses of Ruth in which Ruth typifies the church.

Ruth was a natural, God-created person; she was a fallen, corrupted person, even an old wife to an old husband – a person in the old man involved with sin and indebtedness; she was a person who joined God’s elect and became a redeemed person, even a new wife, a person who brought in the royal family of the divine government on earth, one of the crucial ancestors of Christ who brought Christ to the human race.

Just like Ruth, we were a natural person, a fallen person, a person involved with sin, a redeemed person, a person united with Christ as our new Husband, and we are becoming a person who brings Christ to humanity. Amen!

Thank You, Lord, for dying for us to redeem us and become our new Husband! Hallelujah, we who were fallen and involved in sin have been redeemed and joined to Christ! Praise the Lord, we who were indebted because of our fallen being have been redeemed by Christ and joined to Him as our new Husband! Amen, Lord, we love You as our Husband, and we want to bring You to man! Make us part of Your corporate expression in man. Make us those who allow You to live in them so that You may be expressed and manifested in humanity! Yes, Lord, be expressed through us. Flow through us. Reach others through us to bring them also back to the enjoyment of God and in the marriage union with Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ruth (pp. 30-34), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 11, Boaz and Ruth Typifying Christ and the Church.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Ruth the Moabitess joined to God’s holy elect; / Boaz took care of her and redeemed all her debt. / First she gleaned from his land, / Then got married to him. / This is how she was joined to God’s eternal plan. / Lord, I love You and treasure You. / Lord, I choose You and respond to You. / You’re my everything, You’re above all, / You’re my Husband, and my rest, / And my all in all. (Song on, As a lily growing out of a bramble bush)
  – Our old man has been crucified with Christ; / Yes, all we are in oldness He sufficed / To bring to naught upon the cross that He / Himself as our new Husband fully be / Enjoyed by us. / Yes, all our strength of independence died, / For we with Christ were fully crucified. / Now we’re so glad to be His proper wife, / Dependently enjoying Him as life / Forevermore. (Hymns #1140)
  – I will sing of my Redeemer, / And His wondrous love to me; / On the cruel cross He suffered, / From the curse to set me free. / Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer, / With His blood He purchased me, / On the cross He sealed my pardon, / Paid the debt, and made me free. (Hymns #305)