After the woman had been built from his rib and brought to him, Adam exclaimed, “This time it is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (v. 23a). In typology, this indicates that the church is a part of Christ; it is nothing less than Christ Himself.
The church, Christ’s counterpart, is the element of Christ in the believers. When this element in so many believers is added together, it equals the church. This indicates that the church is not a composition of people of different races, nationalities, and cultures. On the contrary, the church is the totality of the Christ who is in all His believers. Although we are regenerated people, if we live and act according to the natural man, we are not in reality members of Christ, parts of His counterpart. A member of Christ is a person produced with the element of Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. Christ as the life-giving Spirit indwells His believers. When this Christ in His believers is added together, the sum equals the church, His counterpart, which is actually a part of Christ Himself.
Eve was a part of Adam because she came out of Adam. Likewise, the church as the counterpart of Christ is a part of Christ because she has come out of Christ. Genesis 2:22a says, “And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, built he a woman” (lit.). Here we see that the rib, the bone, taken out of Adam was built into a woman, Eve, Adam’s counterpart. Ephesians 5 indicates that this is a type of Christ producing the church. As Eve came out of the side of Adam, so the church comes out of the side of Christ.
The bone in Genesis 2 is a type of the Lord’s resurrection life, which is unbreakable and which was released through His death. This unbreakable resurrection life is for the producing of the church, the spiritual Eve, the spiritual wife to match Christ.
Every aspect of the Lord’s death was according to God’s sovereignty. Under God’s sovereignty, not one of the Lord’s bones was broken (John 19:31-33, 36). The Lord’s having none of His bones broken was typified by the bones of the Passover lamb. In the institution of the Passover, God ordained that none of the lamb’s bones should be broken (Exo. 12:46; Num. 9:11-12). This was a wonderful type. Later, in Psalm 34:20 this was also prophesied. Both the type and the prophecy were fulfilled in the Lord’s death on the cross.
In Genesis 2:21-23 we have the Scripture’s first mention of “bone,” which was a rib taken out of Adam for producing and building Eve as a match for Adam. Eve was a type of the church produced with Christ’s resurrection life, which was released out of Him through death. In other words, the church comes out of the resurrection life, the unbroken life, of Christ. His is the life that can never be hurt, damaged, or broken. As Eve came out of Adam’s bone, so the church comes out of Christ’s resurrection life, typified by Adam’s bone. Eve was made from a bone, and the church is produced by the divine life.
The Lord’s side was pierced, but not one of His bones was broken. This signifies that although the Lord’s physical life was killed, His resurrection life, the divine life, could not be hurt or damaged. This is the life with which the church is produced and built.
After Eve had come out of Adam, she was presented to him. Adam said of her, “She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23b). This clearly reveals that Eve came out of Adam. In typology, this indicates that the church as Christ’s counterpart comes out of Christ.
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