We have to see that all the things in the old creation created by God are not the real things but are figures and types of Christ. During the initial years of my Christian life, I did not have such a realization. However, the more I have been following the Lord, the more I have realized, on the one hand by experience and on the other hand by the revelation of the holy Word, that all the things of this universe in the old creation are nothing but figures and types of Christ. Figures and types are not the real things. The photo of a certain person is not the real person. Christ is the reality of all the positive things in creation.
There are two creations: the first creation, which is the old creation, and the second creation, which is the new creation. The old creation is a figure, a type, and the new creation is the reality. Within all the things of the old creation there is nothing of Christ, but with everything in the new creation, Christ is within as the essence, substance, and reality. For instance, we were made in the old creation according to the image of Christ, so we had the form and the image of Christ, but at that time we did not have the nature of Christ. We did not have anything real of Christ. But when we were regenerated, re-created in a new way, we received Christ into us. Now we have not only the form, the appearance, and the image of Christ but also the essence, substance, nature, life, and person of Christ within us. Furthermore, we are looking to the day when the whole universe will be full of Christ in the new heaven and new earth.
Man in the old creation was but a form, an empty vessel, to contain Christ. If man would take Christ, then even the animals would have taken Him. If man would reject Christ, then the animals would also reject Him. This is because man is the head of the old creation. Also, we Christians as regenerated persons are the firstfruits of the new creation (James 1:18). We were put into a position to take the lead to receive Christ as our life. The whole old creation is a form, an empty vessel, to contain Christ, with man as the center and as the leader.
Genesis 1 shows that God created the whole universe as an empty vessel in form, in image, in appearance, without anything as the content. We can use a glove as an illustration. A glove is an empty vessel to contain a hand. In every respect a glove has the form of the hand, yet it does not have the hand within as its content. In the first chapter of Genesis you have only the empty glove, the empty form, the empty universe.
In Genesis 2 we are told that man as the leader, the center, and the head of the old creation was made in a way to receive something else. After the creation of man, God told him only how to eat. This simply means that man has to receive something else, something that he does not have, and this very thing will become himself. Dietitians say that we are what we eat. What we eat is what we become. Man was created to receive the Triune God as his spiritual food so that God could become his constitution.
If we draw a picture of the universe, we can show thousands of items as the environment with man in the center, and this man has a mouth to receive the tree of life. After the creation of man as the center, this center with a mouth was put in front of the tree of life, which was edible. The tree of life is a symbol of the Triune God to be our life and life supply. Man is in the center to take the lead to receive the Triune God for the whole universe, just as our mouth takes the lead to receive food for our whole body. After our mouth receives the food, our whole body also receives it. God created the heavens and the earth, with the vegetable life, the animal life, and thousands of things as an environment. In the very center God prepared a garden. In the center of the garden there was the tree of life, and man was put there as the center of the old creation with a mouth to receive something he did not have. Moreover, this very thing which he was to receive would become himself. Thus, man is an empty vessel, an empty container, with an opening to receive the Triune God, who is symbolized by the tree of life. After man receives the Triune God, the Triune God will be digested by him to become his very essence.
Opposite the tree of life, there was another tree-the tree of the knowledge of good and evil-as a test to man. We have to be careful about what we are going to receive. If we receive the tree of life, we will have God as our life and life supply. If we receive the other tree, the tree of knowledge, we will have Satan, the enemy of God, and death. There are two possibilities for one mouth. There is the possibility to receive God or to receive Satan.
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