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Scripture Reading: John 12:24; Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:25, 31-32; Luke 12:49-50
In this chapter and in the following two chapters we will consider the function of the cross. In other words, we will consider the purpose of the cross and what the cross accomplished. The function of the cross has a positive aspect and a negative aspect. On the negative side, the cross solves God’s problem, and on the positive side, the cross fulfills God’s purpose. Although we generally look at the negative aspect of a matter first and then look at the positive aspect, we will begin with God’s purpose to release and transmit life, which is the positive function of the cross.
According to the revelation in the Bible, God’s purpose is to release and impart His life into a group of people created by Him for this purpose. This purpose was determined in God in eternity according to His good pleasure (Eph. 1:5, 9). In order to fulfill this purpose, God made an eternal plan according to His will. Hence, His purpose is the purpose of His eternal plan.
The life of God is the eternal life. In the Bible the word eternal is related not only to time, having no beginning and no ending, but it is related also to measurement, being unlimited and immeasurable. Thus, when the Bible speaks of the eternal life of God (John 3:16), it is referring to the life that is not only without beginning and without ending but is also unlimited and immeasurable. In eternity it pleased God to release His unlimited life from within Himself into many people to be their life. This purpose pleases God because He desires to produce brothers for His Son with His life so that Christ would be glorified, and He would be expressed in Christ. The Bible reveals that God will fulfill this eternal purpose.
Life is released and transmitted through death. This is an important law revealed in the Bible: If a seed does not die, it cannot release its life, nor can it transmit its life to other seeds. Both plant life and animal life operate according to this law. If a silkworm does not pass through a death-like sleep, it will not turn into a moth, and it will not be able to release or transmit its life to produce more silkworms. If the shell of a chicken egg is not broken, a chicken cannot be produced, and it will not be able to release and transmit its life to produce more chickens.
In order for the life element of any living creature to enter as nutrients into human beings or into other animals, the living creature must die. God ordained that man would eat herbs, grains, and fruit as food for his sustenance (Gen. 1:29). However, all living plants must pass through death before the life element within them can become nutrients to us. Later, God gave animals to man in order to sustain his life (9:3), but the life element within an animal cannot enter into us as nutrients to sustain our life unless there is death. This is a requirement. If a cow, sheep, chicken, or duck does not die, it cannot enter into us as nutrients. In order for a living creature to become food for sustenance, it must die; otherwise, it cannot become our inner substance. This unchangeable law was ordained by God.
The tree of life in the garden of Eden typifies the life of God (2:9). God’s intention in putting Adam in front of the tree of life was for Adam to eat the fruit of the tree of life and receive the life contained in it. God put the man whom He had created in front of the tree of life so that man would receive His eternal life. According to the law mentioned above, if Adam had chosen to eat the fruit of the tree of life, it would have been necessary for the fruit of the tree of life to pass through death in order to become his substance. This means that God had to pass through death so that His life could enter into us to become our life. The revelation contained in the Bible strongly confirms this conclusion. Beginning with Genesis, the Bible reveals that the life of God must pass through death in order to enter into us to become our life. God had to pass through death so that His life could be released and imparted into us.
Life is released through death and transmitted through death. In order for the life of a living creature to enter into another creature, the first must pass through the process of death. This great law concerning life is a deep thought in the Bible. According to this law, in order for the highest life — the uncreated, eternal life of God — to enter into created man, God had to pass through the process of death. The Creator had to pass through death in order to release and transmit His life into His creatures. If God had not passed through death, He could not have released His life, and He could not have transmitted His life into us. Death released His life and also transmitted His life into us. Without death there is no release of life, and there is no transmission of life. The release and transmission of life always take place through death.
God’s eternal purpose is to release His life to man, but according to the law related to life, this life must pass through death in order to be released and transmitted. Hence, in order for God’s purpose to be fulfilled, there is a need for the cross. In order to carry out His eternal plan according to His purpose, God determined to have the cross. The positive function of the cross is to release His eternal life and to transmit it into man for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
Most Christians consider the function of the cross merely in relation to redeeming fallen people from their sins. Such Christians believe that if man had not sinned and fallen, there would be no need for the cross. To these Christians the cross of Christ exists only because man sinned and fell; that is, to them the cross is needed only for the redemption of sins. This is a natural human view. The Bible, however, reveals that the function of the cross is not only for the redemption of sins but also for the release and transmission of God’s life. The redemption of sins is not the positive function of the cross; rather, it is the negative function of the cross. The positive function of the cross is to release and transmit the life of God.
Thus, even if man had not sinned, there would still have been a need for the cross, because God had to pass through death in order to release and transmit His life. In other words, regardless of whether man needs to be redeemed from his sins, God had to pass through the death of the cross because His eternal purpose is to release and transmit His life. His eternal intention is to release and transmit His life through His death on the cross. Nevertheless, God in His foreknowledge knew that man would sin, and so He planned that the cross also would be for the redemption of sins. However, God’s primary purpose is to release and transmit His life through the cross; His secondary purpose is the redemption of sins through the cross. God’s primary intention with regard to the cross is not to redeem man from sins but to release and transmit His life. The positive function of the cross is to release and transmit God’s life, and the negative function of the cross is to redeem man from sins.
The primary function of the cross does not depreciate or lessen the value of the cross in the Lord’s redemptive work. We value and treasure the Lord’s redemptive work and acknowledge the value of the cross in regard to our redemption from our sins. However, we are stressing the fact that there are two aspects to the function of the cross. It is easy to value the cross’s function in redeeming us from sins and to neglect its function of releasing and transmitting the life of God. Hence, we are burdened to point out that the redemption of sins speaks only of the negative function of the cross. The positive function of the cross is to release and transmit the life of God. Both the positive and the negative aspects of the function of the cross are precious.
In John 12:24 the Lord spoke of the positive function of the cross, the releasing and transmitting of life, saying, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” There is life inside a grain of wheat, but if the grain does not die, the life within it cannot be released to produce other grains. If the grain dies, the life within it will be released and transmitted into many grains. The grain of wheat that the Lord referred to was Himself. Within the shell of Jesus’ humanity was the eternal, unlimited life of God. The Lord Jesus came to the earth in order to impart the life within Him into man and for man to receive this life. The only way that the life within Him could be imparted into man was through death. It was possible for His life to be released and transmitted only through death. He could not bypass this law.
If the Lord Jesus had not died, the life of God would have remained in Him and would not have been released from within Him in order to enter into many people. If the Lord Jesus had not been incarnated as a man and had not then died as a man, only He, as God’s only begotten Son, would have had the life of God, but He would not have been able to share the life of God with others so that they could become God’s many sons. The Lord Jesus had to die, just like a grain of wheat, so that the life within Him could be released and transmitted to those who are joined to Him through faith. On the positive side, His death released and transmitted the eternal, unlimited life of God from within Him. This is the positive function of the cross, and it is also God’s intention for the cross.
Many saints neglect the life-releasing and life-transmitting death in John 12:24. They know that the Lord’s death redeemed them from their sins, but they do not know that the Lord’s death released and transmitted the life of God. These saints overemphasize the redemptive aspect of the Lord’s death, and they neglect the life-releasing aspect of the Lord’s death. The Lord’s word in verse 24, however, clearly reveals the life-releasing aspect of His death. If we consider the Lord’s death as it is portrayed in this verse, there is no mention of the relationship between the Lord’s death and the redemption of sins. The Lord spoke of a grain of wheat dying only in relation to the release and transmission of life. Although the Lord’s death is for the redemption of sins, we must be clear that the Lord’s death is not only for the redemption of sins but also for the release of His life. The Lord’s death has both a redemptive aspect and a life-releasing aspect. The Lord’s death has a redemptive element and a life-releasing element. We should value the life-releasing element of the Lord’s death just as much as we value the redemptive element of His death.
There is a type in the Old Testament that gives a thorough portrayal of the life-releasing and life-transmitting aspect of the Lord’s death. This type is the building of Eve. Eve was not created by God apart from Adam. Rather, she was built out of a rib that was taken from Adam’s side when God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him (Gen. 2:21-22). Eve was produced out of Adam and was a part of Adam. Because she shared one life with Adam, she was one flesh with Adam (vv. 23-24). Ephesians 5 reveals that the type of Adam and Eve speaks of the mystery of Christ and the church (v. 32). God caused Adam to fall asleep and opened his side to produce Eve. In Adam’s sleep, which typifies the death of Christ, there was no thought of sin or of redeeming Eve from sins. Adam’s side was opened when he slept, and a rib was taken from his side. Similarly, when Christ died on the cross, His side was opened, and blood and water flowed out (John 19:34).
Adam’s sleep and his side being opened were for the release of the life within him and for the transmitting of his life into Eve. Without this sleep, Adam’s life could not have been released to produce Eve. This indicates that the death of Christ and the piercing of His side on the cross were for the releasing of His life and the transmitting of this life as water to the church. Without His death, Christ’s life could not have been released to produce the church. In order to produce the church, Christ had to die. Therefore, the building of Eve and the imparting of Adam’s life into Eve indicate that the Creator had to die to impart His life into us. Christ’s body was broken so that the life within Him could be released. This aspect of Christ’s death has nothing to do with the redemption of sins; it is altogether for the release and transmission of life. The positive aspect of Christ’s death is for releasing the unlimited, divine life within Him and for imparting this life into us to make us the church. As the church, we share the life of Christ in order to become one with Him as His mysterious Body, just as Eve shared the life of Adam to become one flesh with him (Eph. 5:31-32).
The death of Christ on the cross released the life that was within Him; hence, this death was actually His release. The Lord Jesus came to the earth through incarnation — full of the unlimited life of God (John 1:14) — in order to impart His life into many people. His unlimited life was constrained within the outer shell of His humanity. Therefore, His outer shell needed to be broken through death so that the life concealed within Him could be released. In terms of the life concealed in Him, the Lord Jesus was constrained even before His outer shell was broken through death. In Luke 12:50 the Lord Jesus said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am pressed until it is accomplished!” The baptism with which the Lord was to be baptized was His death on the cross. Before this death was accomplished, He was pressed in the shell of the humanity that He had put on in incarnation. He said, “How I am pressed!” A grain of wheat is a good example of this. If a grain of wheat does not pass through death, the life within it is constrained within its outer shell. If a grain of wheat could speak, it would probably shout, “I have a death to pass through, and how I am constrained!” If a grain of wheat had any feeling, it would long to pass through death so that the life within it could be released. As soon as a grain dies, the life and fullness within it are released. The life that is released is able to multiply and bring forth many grains. However, until the grain dies, it is constrained within its outer shell. This was the situation when Christ, the Lord of life, was on the earth. Before He went to the cross to die, His unlimited, immeasurable divine life that transcends time and space was constrained within the man Jesus the Nazarene. In this sense, the Lord Jesus longed to die; He desired that the death of the cross would come quickly and that His baptism would be accomplished sooner so that He could be released and glorified (cf. John 17:1). Without death the Lord Jesus could neither be released nor glorified. When He died, He was released and He was glorified.
The purpose of Christ coming to the earth and becoming flesh was to die on the cross. Incarnation alone was not the purpose of His coming to the earth; death was the ultimate purpose of His coming to the world. He became flesh for the sake of death. The Lord’s word in Luke 12:50 indicates that He longed to die, because through death He would be released and would enter into glory. When the death of the cross was imminent, the Lord prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (John 17:1). When the Lord appeared to two of His disciples on their way to Emmaus after His death and resurrection, He pointed out that His death was for Him to enter into glory (Luke 24:26).
The life, glory, and beauty within a grain of wheat are released through death. Likewise, the life and glory within Christ were released through His death. The life in Christ is rich, bright, and glorious, but there was no way, apart from death, for the glorious life within Him to be released. When the Lord Jesus died, the life within Him was released, and He entered into glory.
The glorious life in Christ was released like a fire, and it kindled a fire in whomever it entered (12:49). This fire of life was kindled in Peter, John, and the other apostles. This fire of life continues to burn without ceasing even until today. The past two thousand years of church history prove that this released fire changed the little Galilean fishermen into bold and powerful men, and it has also changed cowardly and filthy sinners into strong and sanctified witnesses. This fire of life cannot be suppressed by any environment, force, opposition, or attack. This fire of life was released through the death of Christ on the cross. We must see and remember that the positive function and the central purpose of the cross are to release the life of Christ. Christ’s death on the cross was His release.
