I.　The Spirit, the word, and the light were the instruments used by God to generate life on the first day of His restoration and further creation for the fulfillment of His purpose; the Spirit, the word, and the light are all of life—Gen. 1:1-5; Rom. 8:2; Phil. 2:16; John 8:12b:

A.　Christ as the Spirit is the reality of God—Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Cor.3:17; John 16:13-15:

1.　The Spirit of God, as the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), came to brood over the waters of death in order to generate life, especially man, for God's purpose (Gen. 1:2; 2:7; 1:26).

2.　In spiritual experience the Spirit's coming is the first requirement for generating life—John 6:63a; 16:8-11.

B.　Christ as the Word is the speaking of God—1:1; Heb. 1:2:

1.　After the Spirit's brooding, the word of God came to bring in the light—Gen. 1:3; 2 Cor. 4:6; cf. Psa. 119:105, 130.

2.　In spiritual experience the coming of the word is the second requirement for generating life—John 5:24; 6:63b.

C.　Christ as the light is the shining of God (Gen. 1:3-5; John 1:1,4-5; 8:12a; 9:5); in spiritual experience the coming of the light is thethird requirement for generating life (Matt. 4:13-16; John 1:1-13).

D.　The separation of the light from the darkness for the purpose of discerning day from night is the fourth requirement for generating life—Gen. 1:4-5; 2 Cor. 6:14b.

II.　The separating of the waters by producing an expanse be- tween them on the second day, signifying, spiritually, the dividing of the heavenly things from the earthly things through the work of the cross, is the fifth requirement for generating life—Gen. 1:6-8; Col. 3:1-3; Heb. 4:12.

III.　The appearing of the dry land is the sixth requirement for generating life; this took place on the third day, corresponding to the day of resurrection—Gen. 1:9-13; 1 Cor. 15:4:

A.　In the Bible the sea represents death, and the land representsChrist as the generating source of life; after the land appeared,every kind of life—the plant life, the animal life, and even the human life—was produced out of the land (Gen. 1:11-12, 24-27;2:7); this typifies that the divine life with all its riches comes out of Christ.

B.　On the third day Christ came out of death in resurrection to generate life for the constituting of the church—John 12:24;1 Pet. 1:3.

C.　Dividing theland from the waters signifies separating life from death; from the second day (Gen. 1:6-7) God began to work to confine and limit the waters of death that covered the earth (cf. Jer. 5:22):

1.　Eventually, when God's workis completed, in thenew heaven and new earth there will be no more sea—Rev. 21:1 and footnote 3, Recovery Version.

2.　Furthermore, in the New Jerusalem there will be no more night—v. 25 and footnote 2.

3.　This means that both death and darkness will be eliminated.

D.　The plant life is the lowest form of life, a life without conscious- ness, corresponding to the earliest stage of the divine life in a newly regenerated believer—Gen. 1:11; cf. 1 Cor. 3:6:

1.　The countless varieties of the plant life typify the rich expression of the unsearchable riches of the life of Christ in their beauty for man's sight (Gen. 2:9), in their fragrance (S. S. 1:12-13), and in their nourishing man and animals (Gen. 1:29-30).

2.　The trees (2:9; Exo. 15:23-25; S. S. 2:3; 5:15; Isa. 11:1; John15:1; Rev. 22:2), the flowers (S. S. 1:14), and the grains as food for man (John 6:9, 13) and as offerings to God (Lev.2:1-3, 14) are all types of Christ.

IV.　The light-bearers appeared on the fourth day as the seventh requirement for generating life to produce the higher forms of life—Gen. 1:14-19:

A.　According to the revelation of the whole Bible, light is for life;light and life always go together—Psa. 36:9; Matt. 4:16; John1:4; 8:12; 1 John 1:1-7.

B.　Life depends on light, and the higher the light, the higher the life:

1.　The indefinite light of the first day (Gen. 1:3) was sufficient for generating the lowest forms of life; the more solid and more definite light from the light-bearers—the sun, the moon, and the stars (v. 16; Psa. 136:7-9)—on the fourth day was necessary for producing the higher forms of life, including the human life.

2.　This signifies that for our spiritual rebirth, the light of the "first day" is sufficient, but for the growth in the divine life unto maturity, more and stronger light, the light of the "fourth day," is needed.

3.　The light-bearers were for signs, seasons, days, and years(Gen. 1:14), which are all shadows of Christ—Col. 2:16-17.

C.　The sun (Psa. 136:8) signifies Christ (Mal. 4:2; Luke 1:78-79;Matt. 4:16; Eph. 5:14); the overcoming saints were also likened to the sun by the Lord Jesus (Matt. 13:43).

D.　The moon (Psa. 136:9) can be considered a figure of the church, the wife of Christ (cf. Gen. 37:9; S. S. 6:10):

1.　The moon has no light of its own but shines in the night and reflects the light of the sun.

2.　Likewise, the church shines in the dark night of the church age by reflecting the divine light of Christ—2 Cor. 3:18; cf. Phil. 2:15.

E.　The stars first signify Christ and then the overcomers—Num.24:17; 2 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 22:16; Dan. 12:3:

1.　Although Christ is the real sun, He does not appear as the sun during the present age of night; rather, He shines as the bright morning star—Rev. 22:16.

2.　The stars also signify the overcoming saints—Dan. 12:3;cf. Rev. 1:20.

3.　The light from the stars is needed particularly when the moon wanes; likewise, the shining of the overcoming saints as the heavenly stars is needed particularly in the time of the church's degradation—2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21.

F.　The ruling of the fourth-day light-bearers also strengthened the separating of the light from the darkness in Genesis 1:4; both are requirements for the growth in life.

V.　The living creatures in the water and in the air were generated on the fifth day—vv. 20-23:

A.　This is the animal life with the lowest consciousness, corresponding to the first step in the believers' growth in life—cf. 1 John 2:13:

1.　The animal life in the sea typifies the riches of the life of Christ in the power that overcomes death (signified by the salt water) in His living; just as fish can live in salt water without becoming salty, Christ and His believers, who have the divine life, can live in the satanic world without being "salted" by the world's corruption—cf. John 14:30; 17:15-16.

2.　The animal life in the sea also shows the riches of Christ's life in feeding man with His riches—6:9a; 21:9.

B.　The bird life is higher than the fish life; fish can live in the death waters, but birds can transcend the death waters:

1.　By growing further in the divine life, the believers are able to transcend all the frustrations of the earth—Isa. 40:31.

2.　The bird life typifies the riches of the life of Christ as seen in His being the eagle for carrying God's redeemed to His destination (Exo. 19:4; Deut. 32:11-12; Rev. 12:14) and in His being the turtledoves or pigeons for offering to God for the sins of God's people (Lev. 1:14; 5:7).

VI.　The living creatures on the earth were generated on the sixth day—Gen. 1:24-31:

A.　The cattle and the animals on the earth are a higher life with a higher consciousness than that of the fish and the birds, a life that can accomplish something on the earth:

1.　The animals and the cattle on the land typify the riches of the life of Christ as seen in Christ as the conquering lion (Rev. 5:5) to fight for God's economy, as seen in Christ as the sheep and oxen for offering to God for the fulfillment of God's full redemption (Lev. 1:2-3, 10; 3:1, 6, 12; 4:3; 5:6; John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 5:6-9), and as seen in Christ as the ox to bear the responsibility and to labor faithfully for theaccomplishing of God's will (Matt. 20:28; John 5:17;6:38).

2.　Through further growth in the divine life the believers in Christ are able to live on the earth a life that is useful for the fulfilling of God's will—cf. Rom. 5:17; 1 Cor. 3:2; Gal.6:2; 1 Cor. 15:10, 58.

B.　The human life is the highest created life, the life that can ex- press God in His image and likeness and can exercise dominion for God:

1.　Adam, the first man, typifies Christ (Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor.15:45, 47; Psa. 8:4-8; Heb. 2:6-9) as the center of God's creation (Col. 1:16-17), as the Head of all creation (v. 15) and of all men (1 Cor. 11:3), as God's expression in God's image and likeness (Heb. 1:3; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15), and as God's representative to rule over all things created by God (Psa.8:6-8; Matt. 28:18).

2.　God's intention that man would express God in His image and represent God with His dominion is fulfilled not in Adam as the first man (1 Cor. 15:45a), the old man (Rom.6:6), but in Christ as the second man (1 Cor. 15:47b), the new man (Eph. 2:15), comprising Christ Himself as the Head andthe church as His Body (1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:12; Col.3:10-11).

3.　It is fully fulfilled in the overcoming believers, who live Christ for His corporate expression (Phil. 1:19-26) and will have authority over the nations and reign as co-kings with Christ in the millennium (Rev. 2:26-27; 20:4, 6).

4.　It will ultimately be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, which will express God's image, having His glory and bearing His appearance (4:3a; 21:11, 18a), and also exercise God's divine authority to maintain God's dominion over the entire universe for eternity (v. 24; 22:5).