Role Model - Part 2

             With the choice clearly planted in place via the two trees, God completes His creation agenda with another unique creature. It, too, is a beautiful prophetic shadow of things to come, and it has to do with His only begotten Son.
            The word begotten literally means to bring forth from one’s own being. God next brings forth the woman from out of the man (Gen. 2:18-25). They are separate in one sense, yet one in the ultimate sense. That is why Mark 10:8 describes marriage as two separate beings being made one.
            The unique relationship is a prophetic picture of God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, being united with the Body of Christ. It’s the Bridegroom and His Bride joined as one. It’s the power of complete unity and perfect love.
            God is prophetically establishing the principle by which the plan shall succeed.  God “has appointed a Day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” It is the rapture moment when the two become united as One New Man, the Body perfectly conformed to the Head.
            Revelation 13:8 calls Jesus “the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.” The all-knowing God knows the choice that is about to be made before Adam and Eve make it. He has the remedy in place even before He started the work of making earth habitable!
            We may be tempted to scream, “Why on earth would you create it then, knowing the havoc that Satan’s evil would wreak among mankind and on this planet?” That is because we’re reacting to the scene from our limited viewpoint on earth. God is looking at the situation from Heaven’s perspective, seeing the whole picture and the cosmic ramifications.
            You see, God’s plan deals with a previous choice. A prideful rebellion, to be exact. This previous rebellion is what sets up mankind for our own fall and prideful rebellion. But God already has the Answer, and He is sitting on the throne of Heaven!
 
            The Chronos Lesson: We can trust the plan, no matter how things appear in the biblical story and in our own story. We can also trust the plan no matter how things appear on earth in these last Days. Remember, we were created to execute His plan. For now, we do so in part—looking in a mirror dimly—by preaching the Gospel and making disciples.
            Yet part of being in Christ is being joint-heirs with Him (Rom. 8:17). The purpose of the rapture is to gather the Head and the Body together so that we can execute the next stage in God’s plan at the appointed time—God’s vengeance against evil. It comes at the start of the 7th great Day.     Now we are living in the final few years of this present age. We are nearing the end of the 6th day. We were born for such a time as this. In a sense, we are in boot-camp, training for reigning. Then, at the dawn of the 7th Day, we shall be raptured.
            We are rapture to be seated as the immortal, heavenly court with Jesus, by virtue of having overcome death just like our Lord. He overcame death (being birthed from death) on the 3rd day; we shall overcome and be birthed from death on the 3rd Day (when counting from Christ). The plan cannot be changed. But our assignment will change as we step into the hope of our calling as the heavenly Esthers and thwart the evil plans of Satan’s followers.