REFLECTIONS ON SCRIPTURE: SEPARATED FOR A GREATER UNITY
Can you see Jesus in even the darkest and obscure of passages? This was a question that challenged me as I saw certain preachers and theologians expound on the primacy of Christ and how He’s the same God of the Old Testament. In their various ways, they pointed my wary mind to Christ. I had this prejudice against a lot of Christianity, and hence Christ, a prejudice I’m still growing out of, and it had a lot to do with God’s behavior in the Old Covenant, I didn’t trust Him there, and therefore I couldn’t fully trust Christ. Even now, I have arguments whether He even cares, whether this is a lie, but even as I ask ever more questions, I realize even more the all sufficiency of the answer: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)
I’m sure you are wondering how this relates to the title of this post. Well, a lot actually, if you were following the previous posts, you would realize that I’m still reflecting on Genesis 1. This bible reading is quite slow, lol, but it’s slow because it’s so beautiful, rushing it would ruin the experience. Last time we looked at our Home in Christ. Heaven and earth is our home in Christ, two separate domains, but two domains meant to unite, and Unite they did, in one man. It is an example of what God does with things He wants to glorify, He separates, then creates a greater unity.
The bible first introduces us to this in Genesis, we may not have noticed it before, but this reality of unity in distinction is very much a theme in the bible, and because of Jesus’ unique revelation, we can see the Old Testament in a new and far greater light than our predecessors in the Old Covenant could. First let’s unpack this part:
Gen 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (KJV)
If you read further, you would see God separating water of sky from water of sea, day from night, fish of the sea and birds, Eve from Adam, variety at the same time a greater unity. But if you look closer, you can see this process beginning much earlier. God creates heaven and earth, yet earth is the one without form, void, and submerged in deep water, not both heaven and earth. This is curious, and I think there’s a reason why. Heaven is God’s domain in Christ, and heaven is the blue print for earth, remember that Jesus said we should pray the Father’s will be done here on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10). So it’s not that much of a stretch to propose that earth was separated from Heaven for a greater unity. By being separated, it was in a state of “death” and darkness. We can see an image of this in Adam and Eve. I think it was the James Jordan of the Theopolis Institute who once noted in an article that the sleep Adam was in was a “Death sleep”. In this state he was pierced in His side (sound familiar?) and the contents that poured out (which in all likelihood included blood and water, apart from the rib) is what was formed into Eve, a separation into greater unity. In each case, the separated raw material was covered by liquid, whether water or blood or both.
The reason I can make such an assertion is the fact that Jesus fulfills such typology. I couldn’t see it apart from Him. He is the pierced one, and we, his Church and bride, are the Eve formed from his side.
This shows something about our pain. We tend to think, like Job, that God has abandoned us, especially when things don’t go our way, when we have crises, when there is pain. But pain is part of the plan, in many ways, it is a requirement, but the greater glory that results is worth the pain, in the end Jesus wins, and our pain turns to Joy.