Part One - The Two Divine Institutions 

From the very beginning, God placed two divine institutions in place for mankind. They were to be essential integral parts of God’s plan for humanity and insured our continual health and happiness. Since these were in place prior to man’s fall to sin in Eden, their divine necessity was not reliant upon or causative by sin but transcended its beginning. They were given to ensure man’s survival and happiness for all time. These institutions were Marriage and the Sabbath and were given in that order. Initially most think of them as two very distinct institutions but the truth is that they are integrally tied together as one great institution. We will see that they are in fact two facets of one great eternal truth. Marriage bears the truth of our intimate oneness with each other and the Sabbath bears the truth about our intimate marriage, together as one, with Christ.  

When Christ finished from all the work that He had done, He rested and sanctified the Sabbath hours. But what was this all about. What was God’s intent for mankind and what were these hours about. To understand this we must understand what God was establishing when he created mankind.

“And God said; Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Gen 1:26-27)

What does it mean when God said, let US make man in OUR image and after OUR likeness? A major clue is given in the very next verse when we are told that male and female created he them. Eve was taken from Adams side, to be a helpmate for him. She was part of him. That is why they were two and yet one and the bible says, Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and CALLED THEIR NAME ADAM.

The importance of this is that they was created in the image of God. In the ions of eternity past, God brought forth a Son from himself much in the same way. That Son, was by substance like his Father and the two created all things together. (See Proverbs chapter 8) We will not go into this point much because the study on this subject can be found in various books by many authors. But John states when referring to the beginning of the creation of all things, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Joh 1:1)

What we need to understand is that Christ was born with the substance of God, and thus was God by son ship and able to enter into all the counsels with his Father. They were intimately close and shared perfect love with each other. When they created Adam and Eve in their image, they were created with that same intimacy with each other, and were to as one unified creature named “Adam” share that intimacy with God through His Son.

 Although the bible does not use this next phrase, I want to express it and then explore its nature in the bible.  “IN THE BEGINNING WAS EVE AND EVE WAS WITH ADAM AND EVE WAS ADAM. Is this what the Bible teaches? Strange as it may sound, this is what the bible says.  You can begin to see how being created in the image of God meant much more then that we had the same shape. So we must look deeper as there is a great lesson for us to behold about the two institutions of marriage (Intimacy with each other) and the Sabbath. (Our intimacy with God)  

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