In the fourth step, shown at the end of Genesis 2, the gold, pearl, and precious stones that were produced are collected and built together into a glorious counterpart. In Genesis 2 this counterpart was Eve, who came out of Adam. Adam typifies Christ, who is the unique male in the universe, the unique Bridegroom. Recall that John the Baptist testified that the Lord Jesus, while He was on the earth, was the Bridegroom, the One who had the bride (John 3:29a). As the universal Bridegroom, Christ will gain all those whom He created and redeemed to be His bride. These people whom He created and redeemed are being transformed in His life into precious materials. Furthermore, they are being joined to one another and coordinated together in Him as the Spirit of life to be built up into a mystical man to be His mystical counterpart. This counterpart will be the living image of God to express God in the universe, and it will have the authority of God to represent God on the earth, thereby accomplishing the eternal purpose of God concerning man.
In summary, God created man and put a spirit in man for him to receive God as his life. After God enters into man and becomes his life, He moves and flows in man, causing man to have the element of gold, to be transformed into pearl and precious stone, and eventually to be built together into a corporate man as God’s counterpart, having God’s image to express God and having God’s authority to represent God. This is the vision in the first two chapters of Genesis.
The vision set forth at the beginning of the Bible is like a blueprint at the beginning of a building instruction manual. This vision is a blueprint showing us the work that God intends to do, the goal that He wants to attain, and what He is after in this universe and among men. What He intends to do is to enter into the man He created out of clay that He might be his life. He intends to flow and move in man that man may be transformed to have the pure gold, become pearl and precious stone, and be built together into a mystical entity as His counterpart, having His image and His authority to express Him and represent Him. This is God’s blueprint. All of God’s work in the universe is to attain this goal.
What a pity, however, that in Genesis 3, before God started to do this work, God’s adversary Satan came in the form of a serpent and did a work of interruption. The serpent came in and brought in sin and death. This sin and death defiled and corrupted the man whom God wanted to gain to accomplish His goal. But praise God that although His intention was interrupted, He still intended to accomplish what He had planned. Therefore, when man fell, God came in to promise man that He Himself would come in Christ as the seed of the woman to bruise the head of the serpent and to fulfill righteousness, imparting righteousness to man so that he would have life through righteousness. The seed of the woman would annul the serpent, the righteousness He brought in would replace the sin brought in by the serpent, and the life brought in through Christ would swallow up the death brought in by the serpent. This process started in Genesis 3 and continues until Revelation 20. In Revelation we see that this old serpent will be bound and cast into the lake of fire and that death will also be judged and cast into the lake of fire. Christ will win a complete victory, having dealt with the serpent, sin, death, and all that is in enmity with God. At that time God’s work will be completed. The old heaven and the old earth will pass away, and the new heaven and the new earth will arrive. In the new heaven and the new earth the holy city New Jerusalem will appear. The city of the New Jerusalem at the end of the Bible is like a photo of the finished structure on the last page of a building instruction manual. If we compare this picture of the finished structure with the blueprint at the beginning of the manual, we will see that the two match each other and are exactly alike. In other words, if we compare the record of the last two chapters of Revelation with that of the first two chapters of Genesis, we will see that they are exactly the same.