THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians
Message Five—The Great Mystery of Christ and the Church
Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:18-25; Eph. 5:23-32
I. Christ and the church are a great mystery—Eph. 5:32; cf. 1 Tim. 3:15-16a: (2001 WT, msg. 10)
A. God is a mystery, and Christ, as the embodiment of God to express Him is the mystery of God—Col. 2:2. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
B. Christ also is a mystery, and the church, as the Body of Christ to express Him is the mystery of Christ—Eph. 3:4. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
C. Christ and the church as one spirit, typified by a husband and wife as one flesh, are the great mystery—1 Cor. 6:17. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
II. Ephesians 5 reveals that the first couple in the Bible, Adam and Eve, present a significant and complete picture, a mysterious type, of Christ and the church—Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:23-32: (2001 WT, msg. 10)
A. Adam is a type of God in Christ as our Husband, who is seeking a wife for Himself—Rom. 5:14; John 3:29; Matt. 9:14-15; 2 Cor. 11:2: (2001 WT, msg. 10)
B. Just as it was not good for man to be alone, it was not good for God to be alone, showing that God needed to have a complement, a counterpart—Gen. 2:18-20; Isa. 54:5. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
C. A husband and a wife as a complete unit are a marvelous picture of Christ and the church as one entity—Gen. 5:2; Eph. 5:28-32. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
III. Ephesians 5:25-27 reveals Christ in three stages so that the church may be produced and built up to become His bride; this is seen typologically with Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:18-25: (2001 WT, msg. 10)
A. In the past the incarnated Christ, the last Adam, died on the cross as our loving Redeemer in accomplishing God’s judicial redemption for the purchasing of the church—Eph. 5:25; Cor.15:45b; Heb. 9:22; Acts 20:28: (2001 WT, msg. 10)
1. God becoming man, the last Adam, was typified by the creation of man, the first Adam—Gen. 1:26; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
2. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; his sleep is a type of Christ’s death for producing the church through the accomplishment of God’s judicial redemption—Gen. 2:21; 1 Cor. 15:18; 1 Thes. 4:13-16; John 11:11-14. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
a. The forgiveness of sins—Luke 24:47. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
b. The washing of sins—Heb. 1:3. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
c. Justification by God—Rom. 3:24-25. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
d. Reconciliation to God—Rom. 5:10a. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
e. Positional sanctification unto God—Heb. 13:12. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
B. In the present Christ as the sanctifying life-giving Spirit is saturating us for our organic salvation with Himself as the flowing, divine, unbreakable life for the building of the church as the real Eve—Eph. 5:26; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 5:10: (2001 WT, msg. 10)
1. The Lord’s pierced side was prefigured by Adam’s opened side, out from which Eve was produced—Gen. 2:21-22; John 19:34: (2001 WT, msg. 10)
a. The blood out of the Lord’s side was for purchasing the church; the water out of His side is the flow of His divine life, which produces, builds up, and prepares the church to be His bride—Zech. 13:1. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
b. The rib out of Adam’s side typifies the unbreakable, resurrection life that is signified by the water flowing out of Christ’s side—Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 19:31-33. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
c. Just as God built a woman with the rib of Adam, God builds up the church with the resurrection life of Christ—Gen. 2:22; Matt. 16:18. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
d. This life flows within us, transforms us, and builds us up to be the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem as the ultimate Eve—Rev. 21:2. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
2. The church comes out of Christ, as Eve came out of Adam; it has the same life and nature as Christ and becomes one with Him as His counterpart, even as Eve became one flesh with Adam —Gen. 2:21-22, 24. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
a. Only that which came out of Adam could return to Adam as his counterpart; in like manner, only that which comes out of Christ can return to Christ to be His bride—1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
b. The church is a pure product out of Christ; the church is a part of Christ and is nothing less than Christ Himself—cf. Eph. 5:28-30. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
3. The church is being beautified through the process of sanctification by Christ as the life-giving Spirit cleansing us by the washing of the water as the flowing life of God in the word—Eph. 5: 26. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
a. The cleansing by the washing of the water of life is in the word of Christ; this indicates that in the word of Christ is the water of life. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
b. The Greek word rendered “word” in verse 26 is not logos, the constant word, but rhema, which denotes the instant word, the word the Lord presently speaks to us. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
c. Christ’s speaking is the Spirit; it is the very presence of the life-giving Spirit—John 6:63; Eph. 6:17. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
d. The indwelling Christ as the life-giving Spirit is always speaking an instant, present, living word to metabolically cleanse away the old and replace it with the new, causing an inward transformation. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
e. Through such a washing process, we are saturated with Christ and transformed by Christ to be His holy, beautiful, God-expressing bride, a bride without blemish or imperfection—Rev. 19:7; cf. S. S. 6:13; 8:13-14. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
C. In the future Christ as the holy Bridegroom will present us to Himself as His counterpart for His marriage just as God presented Eve to Adam as his counterpart for his marriage— Eph. 5:27, 31-32; Gen. 2:22-24;Rev. 19:7-9: (2001 WT, msg. 10)
1. Ephesians 5:27 reveals the beauty of the bride, saying that Christ will “present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish”: (2001 WT, msg. 10)
2. The beauty of the bride comes from the very Christ who is wrought into the church and who is then expressed through the church—Rev. 19:7. (2001 WT, msg. 10)
3. The Lord’s recovery is for the preparation of the bride of Christ, who is composed of all His overcomers—Rev. 19: 7-9; Gen. 2:22; Matt. 16:18. (2001 WT, msg. 10)