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1. A Shadow of the Church

a. Resurrected with Christ

What do we find after the resurrection? We see a new living. Noah and the seven other people had a new living. I would also like to call your attention to the fact that the number of people in the ark was eight. The number eight means resurrection. A week has seven days, and the beginning of a new week is the eighth day. Christ was resurrected on the first day of the week, that is, on the eighth day (John 20:1). So, the number eight signifies resurrection. In this new living, the people were in resurrection. Whatever they did was in resurrection.

Not many Christians realize the true significance of the type in this portion of the Word. We should understand this portion of the Word in the way of typology. All Christians agree that the ark was a type of Christ, and 1 Peter 3:20-21 tells us clearly that the passing through the flood was a prefigure of baptism. Based upon these two facts, we must realize that everything related to Noah and to the seven people that were with him after the flood must also be a part of the complete type, forming a full picture of the type. We should not stop with saying that the passing through the flood was a type of baptism and that the ark resting on the mountain was a type of Christ's resurrection. What about the life of the eight persons after the flood? In other words, what about the living of the people after the resurrection? What does the living of those eight people after the flood signify? It signifies the church life. The living of the resurrected people after the resurrection was the church life. This is absolutely logical. The eight persons in the ark signify us, the New Testament believers.

I would like to say a word to the young people. When I was a young Christian, I exercised my mentality very much about the statements in the Bible that say that we are in Christ. I tried to figure out how we could be in Christ. I could neither see the reality of this nor understand its significance. One day, as I was considering what Noah's ark passed through, the Lord showed me that the eight persons in the ark were a picture showing us how it is that we are in Christ. Those eight persons were in the ark when the ark passed through the flood. Thus, they also passed through the flood in the ark, but they themselves did not touch the flood. It was the ark that withstood the flood waters. This answers the questions of how Christ's crucifixion can be ours and how we were crucified in Christ. When the ark came out of the flood, the eight people in it also came out. When the ark rested upon the mountaintop, the eight persons also were resurrected and rested on the mountaintop in the ark. Ephesians 2:6 says that we were raised up together with Christ. Before we were born, we were resurrected. When Christ was resurrected out from the death waters, we were in Him. Therefore, in the church we are resurrected people.

If we look at the picture of the type, we shall see that the church is another community; it is not the old society. The old community and society have been buried. When we were baptized, we buried the old community and society. The flood came and buried Noah's old society, and only eight persons were resurrected. Now the living of those eight persons on the new line must be a type of the church life. We are the church people, and the church people are a resurrected people. We are another community, another society. The church life is a new community.

After the flood, the eight persons saved through the ark began to have a new living. Before the flood, they saw many evil and ungodly things. But they were saved, separated, resurrected, and ushered into a new living. That new living was a type of the church life. In addition to all the other seeds sown in the book of Genesis, the seed of the church life is also sown there. Every part of the living of the eight people was a prefigure of a part of the church life.


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Life-Study of Genesis   pg 205