Eve came out of Adam and was unto Adam, signifying that the church comes out of Christ and is unto Christ. Genesis 2:18-24 shows us that Eve was made from a rib taken from Adam. Before she was made, God saw that it was not good that man should be alone, so He brought every beast of the field, every fowl of the air, and all cattle to Adam. When Adam saw them, he gave each one a name, but he did not find a helpmeet among them. God then caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and took one of his ribs, and from it He made Eve. When Adam saw her, he said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh”; and he was joined to her, becoming one flesh with her, and he took her as his counterpart. This signifies that among all the living creatures that God created, there is not one that can be Christ’s counterpart. Only the church, which is produced out of Christ through His death, can be unto Christ as Christ’s counterpart and can be one with Christ.
The church comes out of Christ and is created by God with the essence of Christ, not with the earthly essence of man. Just as God took a rib from the sleeping Adam to make Eve, He also caused blood and water to issue forth from the side of Christ at the time of His death (John 19:34). The blood is for redemption (Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19); the water, typified by Adam’s rib, is for the imparting of God’s life (John 12:24) as the essence that produces the church. Eve received her life from Adam and had the same life and the same nature as Adam. Likewise, the church comes out of Christ and has the same life and the same nature as Christ. Eve was unto Adam that Adam might have a counterpart as his bride. In like manner, the church is unto Christ as His counterpart and His bride. Only Eve, who came out of Adam, could be unto Adam as his counterpart. Likewise, only the church, which comes out of Christ, can be unto Christ as His counterpart. Only that which comes out of Christ is worthy to be unto Christ. The church must be something that comes out of Christ, and it must be unto Christ.
Since Eve came out of Adam (1 Cor. 11:8), she was part of Adam; she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. Moreover, she was the overflow of Adam as Adam’s increase. This signifies that the church, being part of Christ, is Christ’s increase, which becomes His Body as His fullness (Eph. 1:22, 23) for His expression.
Under the arrangement in God’s creation, Eve was not an independent person, but was one who was subordinate to her husband and who was part of her husband. First Corinthians 11:8-9 says, “For man is not out of woman, but woman out of man; for also man was not created for the sake of the woman, but woman for the sake of the man.” Furthermore, according to the arrangement in God’s governmental administration in the universe, man is the head of the woman (1 Cor. 11:3). Therefore, Eve, a woman, was to take her husband as her head and was not to be her own head or to make her own decisions, but was to submit completely to her husband. However, the cunning old serpent, the devil, the rebellious Satan, tempted and deceived Eve concerning this very point (1 Tim. 2:14). He caused her to assume the headship and to put her husband aside, thus making herself an independent unit in making decisions. She fell into the devil’s scheme, violated God’s prohibition, and made her own decision. She even seduced her husband to follow her in eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which resulted in death. Thus, Adam received the poison of sin, and there was also a charge of sin against him before God. Consequently, all mankind was brought into sin and death.