The most remarkable fact in this subject is the extraordinary number and variety of the figures which are used in reference to the Son of God. And indeed this is a striking evidence of the exhaustless affluence of Him that filleth all in all—that God has drawn upon all the resources of the universe, bringing forth every object the most useful or beautiful, and advancing it to convey to us something of the varied and manifold aspects of the person, offices, and achievements of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each figure gives some fresh aspect—like the turning of a celestial kaleidoscope—and so many fresh aspects are there to be conveyed, that everything lovely and beneficent which surrounds us has been invested with a halo of consecration by this sacred association. And thus anyone having fair knowledge of the scriptures cannot pass through the world without every moment seeing some object that reminds him of Christ or His work—a star, a mountain, a stone, a lion, a door, a lamb, even a nail,—things humble and serviceable, as well as the most dignified and splendid. Even were such a man blind, as Milton describes himself, with “wisdom at one entrance quite shut out,” yet would the voice of the Ancient of days speak to him from the “noise of many waters:” and were this gate of the ear closed also, the genial warmth of the sun's ray, the fragrance of lily or rose, the very bread he conveys to his mouth, have been consecrated by the Holy Ghost as symbols of Immanuel. Throughout this earthly life these lights gleam—most brightly of all in the darkness of adversity—until, over the dying bed, the medicine that assuages his pain, and the physician that administers it are found to have been appropriated, as emblems of the work of that great Physician who came to heal those that are sick and wrest them from the grasp of death.
Amongst the earliest of these emblematic objects is Adam, who is typical of the “last Adam,” mainly in that He is appointed God's vice-regent in His image and likeness to rule in the earth. And of subordinate points of resemblance, the following seem chief. As Adam was head of the human family, so Christ is head of the whole race of the redeemed; as Adam was put to the test of temptation, so also Christ; as Adam's one act affected his whole posterity, so Christ's one act affects those of which He is head; as Adam receives a bride, bone of his bone, formed as the result of his having been cast into the deep sleep—the semblance of death, and presented to him when he awaked—the semblance of resurrection, so from the death of Christ results the formation of the spiritual bride, presented to Him, without spot or blemish, in His resurrection. As with his bride he is brought into a relationship of unity in love, involving protection and devotion on his part, and submission and fidelity on hers; so the Bride is to be associated with Him in sorrow and dishonor as well as in dignity and happiness; and this unity is so complete that they are both included in one name, “He called their name Adam;” and in 1 Cor. 12:1212For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12) the Head and the body, the church, are included in the one title Christ. That there should be points of divergence too is to be expected: the shadow is “not the very image.” There is no type nor symbol able to express fully even one aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ. At least they fail somewhere, for the simple reason that He immeasurably surpasses in every particular anything which the universe could afford to illustrate that aspect. So in regard to His second point—a formal definite testing by temptation—Adam falls, in a paradise and under the most favorable circumstances; whereas Christ withstands in a wilderness, and under the most unfavorable circumstances.
Immediately that Christ (in type) treads the earth rest succeeds; and so the Sabbath directly follows (Gen. 2). Just so, when in redemption the Israelites get across to the wilderness, the manna appears (Christ on the earth) and the Sabbath is directly connected therewith. There is this difference however, that Adam represents the Lord on earth ruling and therefore brings rest in the way of authority, something as it will be in the millennium; while the manna represents Christ in humiliation, in the character of the Gospels, yet giving rest; humbled and outcast, yet able to say,” Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” In one form or another rest is always characteristic of Him; but probably the most beautiful of all phases is that whereof the type is now before us—God resting in Him in divine satisfaction and complacency. Of course those who read this paper will know that the antitype of the Sabbath is not the “Lord's day” of the present dispensation, but that it is still in the future (Heb. 4:99There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9)). “There remaineth therefore a keeping of Sabbath—σαββατισμὸς—to the people of God.” To keep Sabbath in that sense now would be to dissociate it, from Christ, which is to miss its whole connection. Spiritually the same principle is true; it is only as Christ is apprehended that the soul has rest with God.
It is noteworthy too as being the seventh day. As a practical musician detects a distinct character in each note of the scale, from the solemn repose of the “first” to the piercing expectancy of the “seventh,” so the scripture student recognizes a peculiar meaning in the, numbers used, which meaning is often the key to unlock the signification of a whole passage. Besides its other well-known characteristics, it is well to remark that 7 is composed of the union of the earthly number 4 and the heavenly number 3 (the sevens of scripture are nearly always thus divided); it is the union of heaven with earth. No longer now Elohim, but Jehovah Elohim: relationship is established.
This progress had now reached a final stage. The material creation steadily develops till its “diapason closes full in man.” There is nothing more correct than development: nothing more incorrect than evolution, which is being now quietly relinquished by those who most warmly supported it a very few years ago. And as there was no physical object to be subsequently created (here) higher than Adam—and indeed there does not seem to be a single species of plant or animals of any sort since his time—so there never has been nor can be any spiritual development higher than the last Adam. God rests in Him.
Then we see a bridegroom and bride in a paradise, the subject of celestial benediction, the objects of divine complacency; the center of the organized system— “he for God only; she for God in him.” This, and infinitely more, is true concerning the anti-type. Concerning the type we may well say O si sic omnia! But it was the devil's province to bring evil into good; as God's is to bring good out of the evil.