God made man "male and female." No other creature of God has been fashioned as an incomplete being, dependent on another for the capacity to receive its inheritance.

Man, male and female, is made for union. We are useless as an individual. Before we can receive our inheritance we must be brought into oneness with Christ, and oneness with our fellow members of the Body of Christ as the Lord directs us.

The union of male and female in the present age is limited, only a vague shadow of union with God, being a union of dust and dust. But when God creates eternal substance in us we become capable of eternal union. There can never be an eternal union of creatures of dust—only of members of the new creation.

Jesus prayed in the seventeenth chapter of the Book of John that we may be one in the Son and in the Father. This is the union existing in the Holy Godhead.

The final result of the work of restoration will be the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the Wife of the Lamb. Here is God in Christ in the saints shining in the world as one Light, one Entity. Such a state of holy union in the Being of God is inconceivable, but it is the glorified fulfillment of which "male and female" was the forerunner.

To Adam and Eve were given the charge to be fruitful. To us also has been given the charge to be fruitful. If we are not fruitful we are cut out of the Vine, out of Christ, and thrown into the fire.

The Lord God is looking for fruit. That fruit is the image of His Son—Christ. Christ, the Vine, has been planted in the earth. We are the branches. God expects righteousness and praise to spring forth in us in the sight of the nations of the earth.

As we abide in Christ and are pruned periodically we bear fruit, and then much fruit.

To Adam and Eve were given the authority to rule the other forms of life God had created along with them. The concept of man ruling over the works of God's hands has been developed through the Scriptures until we understand that man—the image, the son, of God—is destined to rule, under Christ who is under God, all the creation. The angels in Heaven are commissioned by the Lord to minister to the heirs of this great salvation.

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)

A man and a woman in a garden. The Lord God walking in the garden. If only the first humans had realized what had been given to them! But the nature of man is such that he cannot appreciate or hold what is given to him so freely.

God knew they would fall because of their inexperience. The cross of Calvary, and the new heaven and earth reign of the Lord Jesus Christ as well, were finished in detail in God's mind before He created Adam and Eve. God is God.

To be continued.