Barrenness, Conception, Death-Resurrection, and Typology

I first encountered the idea of birth from barrenness as a type of resurrection from death in the thought of Warren Gage as my friends and I reviewed a book of his last year (link). This has been on my mind as our church has been recently blessed with a couple who have adopted a child, two child baptisms, another birth, and another pregnancy. All of this was a motivating factor as to why I wanted to provide a devotional on the birth of Samuel before the men in our church last month.

The above considerations gave me recent reason to revisit Gage's reasoning: Is it birth that is a kind of resurrection from death-barrenness, or is it conception? Or are both types of resurrection?

Prior to conception, a womb is a barren place, unfruitful and devoid of life (Proverbs 30:16, cf. 2 Kings 2:21). Conception normally occurs through natural means but, as with anything else, is ultimately caused by divine ordination. Specifically, God closes and opens wombs throughout Scripture (Genesis 20:18, 29:31, 30:22, 1 Samuel 1:5-6). Sex does not create life ipso facto or ex nihilo; in the case of conception nowadays, neither does God, but the point is that His power ultimately determines when and whether conception can happen (Ruth 4:13).  God Himself purposes to multiply the conception of the woman right after the Fall and protoevangelium (Genesis 3:15-16). Since a conceived child is treated in Scripture as a human life (Exodus 21:23, Job 3:16, Luke 1), this looked to me like conception could be resurrection in contrast to barrenness-death. 

Once I considered that possibility, I continued to think that once life has been created in the womb - once resurrection has occurred by divine power - the conceived child grows within the womb, being formed by God (Psalm 139:13ff., Jeremiah 1:5). That is, following death and resurrection, by the grace of God, comes progress and maturation. Granted that this is a physical conception and development in view, in a typological manner, this now appears to be a death-resurrection-sanctification pattern.

Because life starts and develops within the womb, an infant coming out of the womb is, in a way, like a second birth and, hence, a second resurrection. This makes birth to be like glorification. As we can see in the city pattern - which will make sense since our newborn selves are ready-made analogies to the tabernacle, [new] creation, etc. - there is an exodus from one life to another (Psalm 71:6, Isaiah 46:3-4) in which God delivers us. Our exodus and deliverance from an old world into a new creation is obvious in a physical sense as we exit the womb but also mirrors the spiritual dimension in which our glorification is yet another [kind of] birth (Romans 8:18-25, cf. Psalm 22:9-10, 1 Peter 1:3). Thus, from barrenness to birth, the child experiences a protological life cycle: death-resurrection-maturation-glorification. 

Pattern         Physical/Anthropological      Spiritual/Soteriological

death            - >     barrenness     ->            sin and guilt, death
resurrection  ->     conception     ->    regeneration, first resurrection
maturation   ->        growth         ->        progressive sanctification
glorification ->         birth           ->  glorification, second resurrection

There is more that can be said. As mentioned in my city pattern post:

I find that an implication of this excursus is that Christology, anthopology, ecclesiology, sociology, cosmology, and other -ologies of places and people at least tend to mirror one another from first things to last things, from the protological to eschatological. 

Above, anthropology and soteriology have been compared explicitly. Scriptural allusions to Christology and cosmology have also been made. Just like the themes in the city pattern, these could and should be explored more fully. But while it is on my mind, I wanted to extend how I see the barrenness-conception-womb-birth pattern plays out ecclesiastically.

I think Moses' question is rhetorical when he asks whether he conceived and begat all the Israelites for whom he was responsible; rather, the Lord conceived and begat His people, so Moses cries out for help from the Lord and receives it (Numbers 11:12ff.). [May our church leaders do the same!] As Paul says in an illustration that is pregnant with [pre]natal symbolism, especially in its context of city-building, Paul remarks that neither the planter nor waterer give increase, but only God, for only God has life in Himself  (1 Corinthians 3:6-7, cf. vss. 9-17 and 22, in which death, life, and the new world into which we will be born are all ours). In Christological-ecclesiastical union, the Son of God and the church were protected during as well as after pregnancy (Revelation 12). In short, we see the conception, growth, and birth of God's people over time. 

These narratives don't just describe what does and will continue to happen to the invisible church - the body of true believers whose source of life is in the Head of the members - but also the visible church. While it may be easy to view our circumstances myopically, within our own time and place, over time, God's kingdom has steadily visibly expanded across the globe. The visible church, being comprised of both true and false members, is in an ongoing process of maturation driven by true members (ecclesiology) just as a newly conceived infant in the womb steadily grows and acclimates to its surroundings before being ready to face a new world (anthropology). The same is true of individual believers (soteriology). The earthly realm itself is a womb to which the visible church is acclimating and growing within until we are a developed people. The God who resurrected us by exodus-deliverance from the death-curse of the ground-womb is forming us even now within this womb, readying us for a second resurrection-birth (Genesis 3, Romans 8).

At the same time, we cannot miss that sin has deeply twisted conception itself, a resurrection-life from death-barrenness, into a death-curse (Psalm 51:5, James 1:15), an unhappy and ironic result of our participation in the original sin of Adam (about which my friends and I will soon discuss on this this fascinating book I chose for this month's podcast). Original sin has caused a loss of original righteousness with which Adam was concreated, and therefore his progeny (us) require spiritual rebirth, which only happens as the Spirit unites us to the twice-baptized Christ. The physical twofold pattern of life-deliverances in conception and birth is matched by our twofold resurrection experiences of regeneration and glorification.

Now, I mentioned in the city post that the ebbs and flows in the killing of sin occurs over time, not all at once, both individually and corporately. This is true for the invisible body of believers. How much more true is it in the case of the visible church in which we can find deceitful leaders, unrepentant or false professors, or even corporate bodies whom our judge-elders must ex-communicate or disassociate with, cutting off rotting members to prune the olive tree? Such discipline is both for their judgment (an exodus-curse a la Genesis 3:24) and benefit (that they might see the gravity of their sin and repent). It is also a deliverance to the church whose worship, testimony, and prayerfulness are reborn (e.g. Numbers 21:4-9, 1 Corinthians 5).

Being engrafted into the [visible] church normally leads to life-abidance as one is surrounded by life. In fact, normally one cannot find life except in the visible church. However - and while believers in whom Christ is rooted will not fall away - because of the reality of sin and apostasy, death is able to spread even to the places where God forms His people. Death spreads to all men because all sinned (Romans 5:12), and therefore even infants sometimes tragically die in the secret place of the womb. Instead of ensured maturation, sin has made death where life once was a possibility with which we must deal - in the womb of a mother, the womb of the world, and even the womb of the visible church. Only being found in the Triune family are we ultimately secured unto eternal life. 

Hence, we sometimes see signs of life from those to whom the gospel has been proclaimed before they, like seed in rocky soil, wither against the heat of the Son. These apostates are sad cases - like infants who are stillborn, miscarried, or murdered in the womb - as are those who cause such a one to die (Psalm 58:8, Hosea 9). When we consider the judgment upon those who cause little ones to stumble in sin (Matthew 18:6), we must correspondingly consider those who abort or murder their own children or others and be afraid for them. This correspondence is all the more reason the visible church must be vigilant in opposing false teachings.