Christ the Mother of all living

“And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.” (Gen. 3:20).

In the great controversy we see in the Son of God the crowning of the kingdom, and the original “mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20) of “the whole family in heaven and earth” (Eph. 3:15). He created Adam kingly and with all earthly power and authority, formed in the spiritual image of His beloved Father (see 1 Corinthians 11:7). And, for the crowning work of Earth’s creation Christ made Eve with His own attributes. Beholding Eve we have seen the Son.

“… the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Cor. 11:3).

Jesus created the man and woman so that together they could better reveal the Fullness of the Godhead bodily before the angelic hosts and unfallen worlds. “The head of every man is Christ” (1 Cor. 11:3). God is the head of Christ, and Christ is the head of every king of His innumerable worlds. Christ specifically is the Mediator between God and the intelligent creations. He has been the Door through which have ever passed all of God’s selfless blessings to His universe, and through the same Door have returned all of His creation’s sacrifices of praise to the Father of all.

He is Mediator for our words to God, and He is also the word of God to us, therefore likewise, in order to represent Himself to the intelligent universe, He gave women a voice closer to the children’s frequency range, along with the mothers’ special proclivity for communication to teach the children their fathers’ will. The mothers’ reactionary tendency also mimics the Son of God, who could turn into a She-bear to teach His children to follow closely and to warn away predators if His children were in danger (see Matthew 16:23; Mark 9:16; Luke 19:45, 46; John 2:13-17). As mothers worry perpetually over their away or wayward loved ones, so Jesus could not rest until the human race was safe at His home again (see Luke 15:4-6; Matthew 26:29; John 14:3). “Jesus did not count heaven a place to be desired while we were lost.” The Desire of Ages, p. 416. Mothers’ hard-wired tendency to sympathize and, at any hour, to awaken to her children’s and her pets’ needs, reveal our High Priest who ever liveth to hear the cries of His earth-bound children. “He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry.” (Ps. 106:44). Every woman we see, their natural gentleness, their love and desire to please, their strength of attachment, surrounds us all with light from the throne of God. When we see women’s characteristics we have seen the Son’s.

“And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.” (Ruth 1:14).

In their tendency to serve and minister in exchange for love and affection, every member of the female gender has revealed the Son of God (see Matthew 20:28), causing much joy and inspiration to the heavenly hosts ― and also great horror and wrath among the hosts of hell. Mothers can endure any amount of poverty and stressors in life, any amount of sorrow and grief, any amount of physical and emotional trauma, so long as they can suffer with someone else, together in the company of friends or family, especially surrounded by husband and children. Were it not for Satan’s vehement jealousy of the Son, every woman and girl would have reigned in the earth as queens and princesses, mothers and sisters. But, to efface all evidence of Christ from Earth, the devil has abused and trampled upon, subjugated and excluded from the councils of men, the women’s advice of caution and tenderness as men’s necessary resource for balanced wisdom. Woman’s counsel mimics that of Daniel’s Christ-like advice of mercy, spoken from a warm spirit toward King Nebuchadnezzar’s harsh totalitarian measures, “Break off thy sins by righteousness...by shewing mercy to the poor.” (Dan. 4:27).

Human fathers’ naturally strong check against the children’s unruly natural has its purpose to protect the mothers’ work of mercy and the lessons needed for the children’s upbringing, especially toward the children with special needs. Were it not for the force and strength of the fathers, and were it not for the fear that the fathers’ naturally instill in their children toward the united front of both parents, the mothers would be overwhelmed in their work for ministering righteousness in the children. The mothers would be unable to punish the children and also teach them all their necessary lessons, especially the communication of the mothers’ mercy and tenderness. Much confusion would arise in the minds of the children toward justice and mercy. Much success in their upbringing would be lost, and much too often is lost because so many fathers have followed after intoxicating substances or are altogether missing, and do not fill their role as law-enforcement in the home. Likewise God the Father’s almighty power to strike fear in His kingdom for the promotion of His Law. His purpose in His omnipotence causing us fear is to ease the efforts of His Son by paving the way in the hearts of every creature for the truth taught by the Son, who is the truth. The Father of all has power unbounded that He uses, not for His family’s destruction, but for the efficiency of His principles’ inculcation into their hearts, which is the wonderful work of His Son, the great Master teacher.

As fathers tend primarily to long-range needs and enterprises, and as mothers tend primarily to the children’s immediate needs and character building, likewise have the members of the Godhead. The Father of all has dealt with Earth’s rebellion in great justice with some mercy, as He is the bedrock of perfection for the safekeeping of the whole kingdom. But, He delegated to His Son the dissemination of His will, to give special focus on our one world, our needs and issues, issues that affect the whole great controversy of God. The Prince’s work for our rehabilitation has been often with a strong hand, but normatively in abundant mercy (see Joshua 4:24; Judges 2:15; 1 Samuel 5:6, 9; 7:13; Isaiah 5:25; 9:12, 17, 21; 10:4). Thus through the Godhead, Earth’s issues have been interwoven with the issues of the rest of Their vast kingdom, while we have had the undivided attention of the Son. The Lord God, as with every good mother, has been very close to all who will hear Him, instructing and disciplining, but also giving full-hearted compassion and grace to all. “Yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.” (Ps. 68:18). The law of kindness has been in His mouth, and all of His born-again children rise up and call Him blessed.

Thus, by Christ’s infinite wisdom and creativity, the Godhead was intended to be displayed by the holy pair of Eden. And their animal kingdom that stretched to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, fearing and loving their masters in Eden, revealed the Godhead’s intelligent creation in a new and living way.

As “God…created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9), so Adam would generate a race through Eve, and that without any pain. But, after sin entered the world, childbirth would mean much agonizing for women. “Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (Gen. 3:16). Likewise, the Father ruled very heavily over His Son because of Their Earth children. And the Son of God, the self-sacrificing “Mother of all living”, after His sorrows were greatly multiplied and His strength spent, brought us forth to our former Edenic life, “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible” (1 Pet. 1:23, cf 1 John 3:9, 10).

The Son died in hard labor to give to us a birth of a heavenly order, and life eternal. The consumed and dying Mother of all living named us “son of My sorrow”, but His victorious Father changed our name to “son of My right hand” (see Genesis 35:18, margin). At that dark, desperate moment of Christ’s expiration, His grieving, greater Father could look beyond the loss of His Son. He could “see of the travail of His [Son’s] soul, and…be satisfied” (Isa. 53:11), satisfied that by His Son’s throes of mental, physical, and spiritual agony many children would be converted, justified, and glorified. For “as many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12). Through His perfect sacrifice, the Father could see and accept His Son’s perfectly reconciled seed, and He would be able to bring Him back from death (see verse 10). “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21). Thus, the Father’s plan for our salvation would prosper in the hands of His faithful High Priest, Michael, “the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people.” (Dan. 12:1). Because of His hard labor for our delivery from sin, He ever lives for nothing more than to make intercession for His beloved children, to protect us and save us, pulling us out of the fire if necessary. As Jesus guaranteed that Eve and all her mothering female offspring could never forget their children because they would suffer so much to give them birth, likewise we see the same in Him. After His overwhelming, substitutionary damnation for our sakes, from Gethsemane to Golgotha, the Son of God will never forget the children of His agonies. Before the great God Christ’s proven intercession for us is guaranteed, carved in stone. And when we accept the repentance that comes from His sacrifice for our new birth, our forgiveness through Him is sure. Jesus says to us,

“A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.” (John 16:21).

“The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:23, 24).

“Thou art He that took me out of the womb: Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.

I was cast upon Thee from the womb: Thou art my God from my mother’s belly.” (Ps. 22:9, 10).

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” (Isa. 49:15).

“The LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.” (Jer. 31:22).

“Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth…. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.’” (Isa. 49:18, 20).

We behold God spiritually in every man and Jesus spiritually in every woman. As we see how God exalted His Son after His supernatural labor for our second birth, we should exalt mothers and wives, and say that the characteristics of Christ, the eternal Mother of all living, make all women beautiful. Regardless of size or shape, age or culture, appearance or color, all women are created specially in the image of Christ, the divine Mother who died to give us life. Without discrimination, every female’s self-sacrificial traits are all wonderfully beautiful, especially the tender-hearted mothers.