“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept:
and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.”
“The woman was not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. . . . . In this, Adam was a figure of him that was to come; for out of the side of Christ, the second Adam, his spouse the church was formed, when he slept the sleep, the deep sleep, of death upon the cross, in order to which his side was opened, and there came out blood and water, blood to purchase his church and water to purify it to Himself.” (Insightful words from Matthew Henry’s Commentary)
In 1775 Rev. Augustus Toplady was sheltering from a violent thunderstorm in a cleft of rock in Burrington Coombe, near Cheddar, when the following words came to him, which he quickly jotted down on the back of a playing card.
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in Thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy riven side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
cleanse me from its guilt and power.
The blood of Jesus Christ has bought salvation for all mankind, but the Church, the Bride of Christ, is set apart from all others. Those who belong to this unique calling are indeed “members of His body, of His flesh and His bones”. This is why the Lord forbad the breaking of any bone in the Paschal Lamb, and why Jesus died before the soldiers came to break the legs of the crucified men. This is why, when the soldier lanced Jesus’ right side, there flowed both water and blood. John says, “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,” and Paul tells us that we are “washed by the water of His word.”
To despise the Genesis account of the creation of Eve is to deny the very salvation revealed by these amazing verses from God’s Word. Have you been cleansed from sin by His precious blood, and washed clean by the water of His Word? If so, you are a member of His Bride, and you will reside by His side, have His strong arm around you, know of His deep love, His very heart-beats, and be sheltered and protected from all spiritual harm. Eternal security.
References. Gen.2:21-22, John 19:34, Exodus 12:46, 1 John 5:6, Psalm 34:20, Eph.5:26, 30, Rev.1:5