One of the most critical books in the Bible if we can even say that, is Revelation. It is Christ’s revelation of the end of all things as we know them and He reveals that to us. The book is not only completely understandable, unlike so many in the church claim, but I would say that it is critical to make sure we do study Revelation and labor hard to comprehend what Jesus has revealed to us through it. There is a particular blessing given to the believer who makes sure he understands it. John tells us that in the beginning.
It is the testimony of Jesus we are told and we know from this very book that His testimony is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation is a book that is the culmination of the message of the entire Bible. In order to understand it well, we must first have known the entire Word extremely well; especially the prophets. The order and mysterious images John sees and records have all been seen and stated before. Revelation basically restates and pieces together, in order to form one unified message, all prophecy spoken through out the entire Word.
The Bible is mostly prophecy. Even when we don’t realize it as we are reading it. It is either stated in visions or messages or it is acted out in pattern through people. One fine example is the book of Ruth, but there are thousands of others. God has written the gospel in His Word, in History, in nations, in peoples, in events, in creation, in man, everywhere. The message of the redemption of His beloved creation, man, is EVERYWHERE. The whole message of the Word is that God loves us so much that He would come to indwell us making us into His very image, so that we would even be able to fellowship with such a glorious and beautiful Bridegroom.
I personally believe in my heart that the picture of Adam is actually God speaking of Himself. It is a pattern. I wrote about this in “Crucified” and it occurred to me as I wrote. All patterns in nature are lacking in some sense because we are looking at something created to see an uncreated truth. God created man. He looked and saw that there was no suitable companion for him and said that it was not good that man should be alone. So, He caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and from one of Adam’s ribs, he formed woman. Adam loved her. She became his wife. He said, this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. A more beautiful story I cannot dream of.
I believe and see all through it the entire gospel. But check that out for yourself. Some of my favorite teachers from long, long ago have stated this: The Father , the Son and the Holy Spirit need nothing. They are completely content within and among themselves. It is in His kindness that He formed man. He is perfect in contentment and needs nothing from us. I humbly disagree with my whole being. I have seen something else that I know is true. God is using Adam to show us a deeper spiritual truth. There is a secret in the Word that is hidden in plain sight.
God made man for His good pleasure. God wanted a companion that would suit Him. But she had to be a holy thing because He is holy. A thing so glorious that her radiance was too much for even Him to look at. Something so pure and spotless that sin was no longer a possibility. She would have to have pure thoughts like His so she could relate to Him and so they could be perfect company for each other; so God made mankind to be His companion. The glory of creation, the earth, the trees, flowers and sky were not enough. The beasts of the field were nice and beautiful but again, not enough. The angels in Heaven who praise Him day and night and serve Him forever were not enough. But mankind could be made to be perfectly suitable for God’s eternal and Holy companion. She would become the Bride of Christ, and Christ is God.
Man born once in the flesh is not able spiritually to see God or to fellowship with Him. A heart born once in the flesh cannot even comprehend God or ever know Him. A man’s heart must first be filled with God by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, in order to become His Bride, His eternal companion…born twice. Adam and Eve are a picture of the Bridegroom and the Bride of Christ and not the other way around. We don’t look at God and the Bride of Christ and say, oh that is just like a human groom and bride. No. It is the other way around.
This is why and how the marriage of a man and a woman perfectly represents and was created ONLY to reflect God’s relationship to redeemed mankind. So the human marriage is a picture to teach us a truth about God’s relationship to mankind (redeemed mankind). We have to be filled with God in order to relate to God. We need His mind and His heart.
The only possible way for God to enter and become part of man, was for Him to take on flesh, because He is Spirit. Then to die in payment for sin, in the man of Christ our Savior, who is God Himself, the Great I Am. Then by His Spirit to give me His very Mind, His very heart. Only then can a once sin filled heart, radiate with the very glory of God. It could only happen by man willfully laying down sin, dying to it, also being crucified with Christ, then he is suited for God and not ever till then, nor is there nay other way.
Satan tried to thwart the plan of God, by offering the Mind of God to Adam before redemption had occurred. This would have meant that man would have the power of the Mind of God but with the corrupted nature of the potential for sin. Disaster. Actually, Satan is a foggy image of that scenario. He does not have God’s Mind but he does have high supernatural knowledge and it has been a wicked disaster.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil then represents the Mind and Spirit of God. Man cannot possess it until God dies in the Person of Christ, and goes through the open door of the spirit of man willing to let God in.
God couldn’t even have created a being that was born with perfect capacity to be His bride. The angels were the closest picture of that but not suitable and never intended for that. They sinned as well.
God was not interested in creating a companion that He never gave the capacity to sin. There would be an emptiness there and a meaningless relationship; forced and held captive by it’s inability to choose to sin.
No. God’s bride would have to be just what we are; made in His image with complete and utter freedom to choose God or to choose sin, but choosing God. Complete and pure and Holy and perfect love is birthed in a man when he chooses to lay down his freedom to be what he is naturally, a sinner, but a free willed one; and to instead die also like Christ did and willfully choose to surrender to God’s infusing into us Hid Spirit, His Mind, His heart. It had to be an act of a free willed being.
It is the test of who the bride is. The bride loves the Bridegroom (God). She is the one who surrenders all she has been given by God only because she loves Him. But, she receives by her surrendering the most glorious gift of all. The Spirit of God, the indwelling of God, the infusing of God into the very fibers of who and what we now are.
There are volumes more to be written on this topic alone, but we will leave it there for pondering. This intro will set us up for a quick peek into the mysteries of Revelation next time.
A critical thought forgotten in the last email. “The two shall become one flesh…” sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Remember Jesus’ prayer to the Father, that we would be one in Him just as He is one in God, that we, the bride (meaning the collective church but ALSO AND MOSTLY the individual…God is the God of the individual) would be one with Him, God. Hidden with Christ, in God. “The two shall become one flesh.”
“I tell you a mystery, the two shall become one flesh, and I speak of the church…”
GLORY!
Love in Him,
C