church; His purpose is to "let them have dominion" (1:26); it is to have a
enlightenment and fresh power again and again—1 John 2:7-8; 3:11, 23; cf. John 13:34. G. The Body builds itself up in love to become Christ's bride (Eph. 4:16); our
God-given, regenerated spirit is a spirit of love; we need a burning spirit of love to conquer the degradation of today's church (2 Tim. 1:7). H. "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up" (1 Cor. 8:1b; cf. 2 Cor. 3:6); loving
one another is a sign that we belong to Christ (John 13:34-35); loving to be first in the church is versus loving all the brothers (3 John 9). I. Just as the Lord Jesus laid down His soul-life so that we might have the
divine life, we need to lose our soul-life and deny the self to love the brothers and minister life to them in the practice of the Body life for the preparation of Christ's bride—1 John 3:16; 4:17 and footnote 5; John 10:11, 17-18; 15:13; Eph. 4:29—5:2; 2 Cor. 12:15; Rom. 12:9-13. J. Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything or do anything for the
building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ—1 Cor. 12:31b— 13:8a. ‹‹ Day 4 ›› III. We need to see what God did in order to produce a counterpart for Himself;
Genesis 2 reveals a picture of Christ and His bride in the types of Adam and Eve:
A. Adam typifies God in Christ as the real, universal Husband, who is seeking a
wife for Himself—Rom. 5:14; cf. John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:9-11. B. "Jehovah God said, It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a
helper as his counterpart"—Gen. 2:18:
1. Adam's need for a wife typifies and portrays God's need, in His economy, to have a wife as His counterpart, His complement (lit., His parallel); although God, Christ, is absolutely and eternally perfect, He is not complete without the church as His wife. 2. God desires to have both Adam, typifying Christ, and Eve, typifying the church; His purpose is to "let them have dominion" (1:26); it is to have a victorious Christ plus a victorious church, a Christ who has overcome the work of the devil plus a church which has overthrown the work of the devil; God wants Christ and the church to have dominion (Rom. 5:17; 16:20; Eph. 1:22-23).