Man was not only created by God in the image of God, but also for God. Thus, God ordained that man should multiply. God's eternal purpose can never be fulfilled without man's multiplication. If you had asked Adam what he was doing, he probably would have answered, "Brother, I am living for God's purpose. I am begetting for the fulfillment of God's purpose. God doesn't need my work, He needs my begetting." What is begetting? Using a New Testament term, we may call it fruit-bearing. Begetting is fruit-bearing. Therefore, Adam was bearing fruit for God's purpose. He was being very fruitful. I have already mentioned that the word "lived" is used twice for each person. Now I wish to point out that the word "begat" is used three times for each. For example, Adam lived a hundred thirty years and begat Seth; after he begat Seth, he lived another eight hundred years and begat sons and daughters. This indicates that the people in Genesis 5 were simply living and begetting.
We are doing the same thing today. Do not say that you are teaching or working as a carpenter. You must say, "I am living in the presence of God and I am begetting, bearing fruit to fulfill God's purpose." As we have seen, the fulfillment of God's purpose depends upon our begetting. The more sons we beget, the more useful we are in God's hands. This was a physical matter with Adam, but it is a spiritual matter with us. We are living and begetting. Fifty years ago I was a single person. Now I have a large family composed of many children and grandchildren. Nevertheless, I am not as happy with my physical family as I am with my family in the churches. Under this little ministry I have been living and begetting a large family composed of thousands of persons. If you were to ask me what I have been doing for the past forty-three years, I would answer that I have been doing nothing except living and begetting.
Our profession is unique—it is living and begetting. When we say this, the worldly people simply cannot understand what we are talking about. However, it is very real. The things mentioned in Genesis 4 are vanity, but there is no vanity found in Genesis 5. If you read Genesis 5 along with Luke 3, you will see that the genealogy in Genesis 5 eventually brought forth the Lord Jesus. This genealogy began with God and issued in Christ. The living and begetting brought forth Jesus. When Genesis 5 and Luke 3 are put together, we see that all the dear ones in Genesis 5 were not living in vanity. They were living and begetting in a most meaningful way to bring forth Christ.
The record of the genealogy in Genesis 5 is wonderful as far as the people's living and begetting are concerned. However, it contains a black spot, that is, after the people lived and begat, they died. For them to live and beget was wonderful, but for them to die was not a pleasant thing. If you compare this genealogy with the genealogy in Matthew 1, you will see that in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 there is no death. Death remained in Adam's genealogy because Christ had not yet come. Since Christ has come, in the genealogy of Christ death has gone. Christ "nullified death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel" (2 Tim. 1:10).
Genesis 5 is a record of the saved people who lived with the expectation that Christ would come. But, in their time, Christ did not come. So they were still subject to death, and in their genealogy there was the mention of death, a negative matter. To live and to beget are good; to die is not. I do not want to die. Eight of the ten generations mentioned in Genesis 5 died. Death is the ultimate issue of man's fall. Although Genesis 5 is a wonderful record of the living and fruit-bearing ones, this chapter still shows that they were under the ultimate issue of man's fall, death. Is there a way to escape this death? What is the way? While this chapter reveals the living and begetting of the saints in the earliest days, it also unveils the way to escape the ultimate issue of man's fall. Among the records of the ten generations, we find that one generation escaped death. Enoch lived, begat, walked with God, begat, and did not die. God took Enoch away (Gen. 5:24). The reason that God took Enoch away was that he should not see death (Heb. 11:5). His being kept away from death was God's ultimate salvation. This is salvation in full. The other eight generations might have enjoyed ninety percent of God's salvation. They lived and begat for God's purpose, but they were not kept from the ultimate issue of man's fall. Only Enoch enjoyed and partook of God's salvation to the fullest.
Today we are living and begetting, but how about death? Death has a double application. Death is working and killing continually, and daily we are under its threatening. Physically, mentally, and spiritually we are under the killing of death. This is the first application. If the Lord delays His coming back, we shall all die physically. That is the second application of death. There will be no third application of death for us, because we shall not share in the so-called second death (Rev. 21:8). However, in two senses, we are presently under death: in the sense that death is continuously damaging us and doing a killing work within and upon us, and in the sense that this death power can bring our mortal body into actual death.
Do you know that there is a way to escape from death? Do you believe there is a way? The way was discovered by the seventh generation of mankind. Calling on the name of the Lord was discovered by the third generation, and, four generations later, the way to escape the ultimate issue of man's fall was discovered by the seventh generation, Enoch. Enoch lived in such a way that he was kept from death both literally and totally. Before Enoch was taken up by the Lord and while he was living and walking on earth, death had ceased to kill him. Enoch overcame the killing of death.
Enoch was the first person to be raptured. Today many Christians are fond of discussing prophecy and the rapture. Many say that the Lord Jesus will soon return and that we all shall be taken to the air. In a sense, this is according to the prophecy of the Scripture (1 Thes. 4:16-17). But, in another sense, I am afraid that most Christians apply this prophecy according to their human understanding. If you read the Bible carefully, with the divine light, you will see that the rapture revealed in the Bible is not in the way that so many Christians imagine. Since the first mention of a thing in the Bible establishes the principle for that thing, the case of Enoch, the first mention of the rapture, establishes the principle of the rapture. What is the principle of the rapture? It is to be matured in life by walking with God. Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and God took him away (Gen. 5:22-24).