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Scripture Reading: Gen. 3:15; Heb. 2:14; John 12:31; 16:11; 1 Pet. 2:24; Rom. 8:3; Gal. 6:14; 5:24; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Heb. 10:20
In the previous chapter we saw that God determined the positive function of the cross according to His eternal plan. Similarly, God determined the negative function of the cross according to His eternal plan. In order to accomplish the good pleasure of His will, God determined to release His life through the cross. At the same time, however, God knew that He would encounter the consequences of Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall in the process of accomplishing His eternal will. In order to solve these problems, God determined to terminate through the cross everything that would be contrary to Him. In its positive function the cross releases everything that is of God, and in its negative function the cross terminates everything that is not of God, everything that is contrary to God.
In the universe the first thing contrary to God is Satan. As the Daystar (Isa. 14:12), Satan was one of the earliest angels created by God at the “dawn” of the universe, and he was the first among God’s creation to rebel against God. He was the initiator of rebellion, the originator of sin in the universe (John 8:44). He then led a group of God-created angels to rebel against God (cf. Rev. 12:4, 9) and enticed the God-created man to forsake God (Gen. 3:1-7). He led astray a group of God-created angels in heaven, and he beguiled the God-created man on the earth. He infringed upon God’s glory and authority, damaged God’s arrangement and order, violated God’s holiness and righteousness, and defiled God’s creation and work. He wanted to frustrate God’s will and usurp His throne (Isa. 14:13-14). God’s uniquely honored name was blasphemed, and His divine dignity was insulted. Satan was the first problem that God encountered in accomplishing His will. Therefore, Satan was the first item that God had to deal with and terminate by the cross.
When Satan first appears in the Bible, he is in the form of a serpent, seeking to ensnare man in sin (Gen. 3:1-7). In His judgment on the serpent, God prophesied that the “seed” of the woman would “bruise” the serpent on the head (v. 15). Bruising a serpent’s head deals a fatal blow to the serpent and puts it to death. The seed of the woman is a reference to Christ in His first coming, for only He among mankind was “born of a woman” (Gal. 4:4; Matt. 1:23). God’s prophecy concerning Satan in Genesis 3:15 clearly indicates that Christ would come to put Satan to death.
Satan resented to the uttermost Christ’s coming to the earth, and at God’s appointed time Satan was allowed to inflict death upon Christ. Satan thought that he could cut Christ off from the earth. The wound inflicted upon Christ, however, merely bruised His heel and afflicted Him (v. 15). This bruising did not destroy Christ through death; rather, it gave Him an opportunity to destroy Satan, who had the might of death, through His death on the cross (Heb. 2:14). Before Christ died on the cross, He declared, “Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out” (John 12:31), and in Christ’s death on the cross, Satan, “the ruler of this world,” was judged (16:11). The cross of Christ terminated Satan.
The cross of Christ has a negative function of terminating Satan. The effect of the cross of Christ was a deathblow to Satan; he was destroyed on the cross. Wherever the cross is applied, Satan and his work are destroyed. Thus, he has no ground, and he cannot move.
When Satan rebelled against God, some of the other angels followed him (cf. Rev. 12:4). Thus, Satan also has “his angels” (Matt. 25:41). These corrupted angels are now the “world-rulers of this darkness,” “the rulers,” and “the authorities” in the heavenlies (Eph. 6:12), and Satan is “the ruler of the authority of the air” (2:2). When Christ destroyed Satan on the cross, He destroyed these satanic authorities of the air and their authority of darkness. Hence, Colossians 2:15 speaks of Christ “stripping off the rulers and the authorities” on the cross. The Greek word for stripping off means “to spoil, shake off, or put off,” that is, “to put away or terminate.” The cross of Christ spoiled Satan’s angelic followers and all the authority of darkness in the air by terminating them.
Just as the cross of Christ terminated Satan, it also terminated his angels. At the cross Christ overcame Satan’s angels. Wherever the cross is applied, Satan’s angels, demons, and evil spirits are put to shame and have no ground to operate.
Sin originated with Satan, who rebelled against God. When he enticed man to disobey God, Satan’s sinful nature was injected into man, corrupting the man whom God had created to accomplish His eternal plan. When sin entered into man, it was mixed with man’s human life and nature, and it became a power that causes man to commit sins. Out from this sinful nature, man commits sins and has a record of sins before God. Now the power of sin is in our being, and our record of sins is before God. We are in sin (Psa. 51:5), having a share in sin and in the sinful things related to sin. It is impossible for us to deal with either our sinful nature or our sins. Who can wash away his sinful deeds and remove his record of sins before God? Who can overcome the power of indwelling sin? No one can do this. However, the cross of Christ dealt with and terminated our nature of sin and removed our record of sins.
God put our sinful deeds, the various sins that we have committed, upon the crucified Christ so that He could bear them for us and redeem us. Christ’s redemption satisfied God’s righteous requirement, removing our record of sins before God. Furthermore, when Christ died on the cross, He was crucified as a man, in the “likeness of the flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3); thus, the sin that dwells in man (7:17), together with its power, was judged and condemned in the flesh on the cross of Christ.
Just as the cross of Christ redeemed us from our sinful deeds, it condemned and dealt with our sinful nature and its power. Without the cross of Christ our record of sins could not have been put away, and the sin in our being could not have been dealt with. Without the cross of Christ our record of sin could not be removed, and the power of sin could not be terminated. Thank God that the cross of Christ has dealt with sin and everything related to sin! The cross removes our record of sins, and it deals with the power of sin. Because of the cross, there is no condemnation due to sins and no authority of sin.
After Satan enticed and beguiled man, he used the world to control and usurp man. On the one hand, Satan injected sin into man; on the other hand, he surrounded man with the world. Satan used sin to corrupt the man whom God had created for His plan, and then he used the world to usurp the man whom God had prepared for Himself. Sin originated with Satan, and he organized the world. Satan uses sin and the world to operate on man from within and without, bringing man under his control to prevent man from being gained by God (1 John 5:19). Both sin and the world create enmity with God (Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:21; James 4:4).
If no one can overcome the sin that has been injected into man, who can escape from the world that surrounds man? Many desire to escape from the world in order to be gained by God, just as they desire to overcome sin in order to please God. However, just as we cannot overcome sin no matter how much we endeavor, we also cannot escape from the world no matter how much we struggle. We cannot subdue sin or escape from the world. Therefore, just as God dealt with sin through the cross of Christ, He also dealt with the world through the cross of Christ. When Christ was lifted up on the cross, not only was the ruler of this world, Satan, cast out, but also the world was judged (John 12:31-32). Christ’s death on the cross judged and destroyed the ruler of this world, and it judged and destroyed the world that he rules.
The cross of Christ not only dealt with the sin that indwells us but also the world that surrounds us. It frees us not only from corrupting sin but also from the usurping world (Gal. 1:4). The cross separates us from the world. Hence, like Paul, we can declare that through the cross the world has been crucified to us and we to the world (6:14). Whoever receives the cross is freed from the usurpation of the world. The world has no authority over those who receive the cross.
Because Satan injected sin into the human body, our body was transmuted into the flesh (Gen. 6:3), which is full of passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24; cf. Col. 3:5). The flesh with its passions and its lusts collaborates with indwelling sin to deprive us of our freedom and to make us do what we do not will to do (Rom. 7:14-15). It causes us to indulge in sinful things and makes us children of wrath before God (Eph. 2:3). Even if we struggled with all our might, we could not rid ourselves of our transmuted flesh, the body of this death (Rom. 7:24).
Just as our flesh collaborates with sin inwardly, it also connects us with the world outwardly. As those who walk according to the age of this world, we also conduct ourselves in the lusts of our flesh (Eph. 2:2-3). Sin stirs up the flesh from within, and the world entices the flesh from without. The flesh is stirred up by sin and touched by the world. The flesh, sin, and the world become one and act as one to cause man to oppose God. Verses 7 and 8 of Romans 8 say, “The mind set on the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
The flesh is not just connected with Satan; it is the place from which and the instrument by which Satan works. Satan is operating within us, causing us to walk “according to the age of this world” and to conduct ourselves “in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts” (Eph. 2:2-3). James speaks of the lusts of the flesh, the world, and Satan as being three great enemies to our living of a godly life (4:1, 4, 7). Satan entices our flesh through the world and stirs up our flesh to love the world, causing us to walk according to the age of this world, to befriend this world, and to be at enmity with God. Thus, the flesh, the world, and Satan act as one to cause man to be at enmity with God.
Because of the corruption of sin and the stirring up by Satan, the flesh is so strong that our whole being obeys it, lives by it, and becomes “fleshly” (1 Cor. 3:3). Thus, we become flesh and are called “flesh” (Rom. 3:20). The flesh is weak in the things of God (8:3), and there is no profit from the flesh in our spiritual life (John 6:63). The nature of the flesh cannot change; the flesh is flesh (3:6); it cannot become anything else. God does not improve man’s flesh, nor does He have a desire to improve it. God wants to terminate the flesh by the cross of Christ. It is His will that our flesh with its passions and its lusts would be crucified on the cross of Christ. According to God’s determination and His way of salvation, the flesh does not need to be improved; it only needs to be crucified, and it has been crucified (Gal. 5:24). The cross of Christ has terminated the flesh and everything of the flesh. When the cross of Christ is received, the flesh and everything of the flesh are put to death.
God originally created man in His image (Gen. 1:26-27); thus, man’s life and nature were pure and good. However, his life and nature became defiled, evil, and old because of the corruption of sin (Eph. 4:22). Hence, when the Bible speaks of the old man, it is referring to our sin-corrupted life and nature. After the fall, our life and nature belong to sin, incline to sin, and cooperate easily with our “body of sin” (Rom. 6:6), in which sin dwells. Thus, they are old in God’s eyes. Our life and nature — the old man — are directed by sin and use our body of sin to commit sins. Therefore, sin lords it over us by directing our old man — our old life and nature — to use our body of sin to enslave us to sin. Our old man must be dealt with in order for us to be freed from the bondage of sin.
Romans 6:6 says, “Our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves.” God’s way of salvation is to crucify our old man on the cross of Christ. Once the old man is crucified, the body of sin is annulled so that we no longer need to serve sin as slaves but instead can be freed from the bondage of sin. Thus, the cross of Christ has terminated the old man — the old corrupted life and nature within us — which causes us to sin. When the cross of Christ is received, the old man, with his old life and nature, is put to death.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” The “I” in this verse refers to our whole being. Everything of our person is included in this “I,” whether good or bad. This “I” was terminated by the cross of Christ. Not only were Satan and his angels, sin and the world, and our flesh and the old man terminated by the cross, even our person, our “I,” was terminated by the cross.
Most of us think that our flesh is evil and should be crucified and that our old man is corrupt and should be terminated by the cross, but we do not necessarily think that our person, our “I,” is bad or displeasing to God. Consequently, we focus on improving ourselves rather than on being terminated. This was the view of the Galatians, and this is the view of many of us who do not know God’s salvation or ourselves. We think that we can please God, and we even believe that God wants us to please Him in ourselves. Little do we know that our whole being has been defiled and corrupted by sin, that nothing in our being pleases God, and that nothing from our being is acceptable to God. God does not expect us to do anything for Him; neither does He require anything of us. God has no desire that we would improve ourselves through our own efforts. His forethought was focused on our complete termination through the cross of Christ. In the eyes of God we have been crucified with Christ; our being was terminated on the cross (6:14; Rom. 6:6).
Many in Christianity today consider the cross to be a matter of suffering and believe that its purpose is to make people suffer; hence, they regard the significance of the cross merely to be suffering. This view comes from man’s traditional or natural concept. Many who are saved hold this view before they even read the Bible or hear a spiritual truth. As soon as the cross is mentioned, many brothers and sisters think that it involves a heavy burden of suffering. However, this view is wrong, and it hinders us from properly understanding the significance of the cross. Many are veiled by this view and do not have light concerning the cross of Christ. We must remove this concept of suffering completely in order to properly understand the significance of the cross.
According to the Bible, the main significance of the cross is not suffering but death. The ancient Roman Empire used the cross not merely as a cruel punishment but as a capital punishment, not merely to inflict suffering but to put to death. The punishment of the cross did have an element of suffering, but its ultimate purpose was to put a person to death. In the Bible the cross is spoken of in relation to putting people into death, not in relation to merely suffering. A person who is crucified dies. The cross is a mark of death, not merely a sign of suffering. Whenever the cross is mentioned, we should think of death rather than suffering. The effect of the cross on man is death. When the Jews rejected the Lord Jesus, they cried out, “Take Him away! Take Him away! Crucify Him!” (John 19:15). To be taken away is to be terminated. Whoever is crucified is terminated. Hence, the significance of the cross is related to being put to death.
The teachings of many religions in the world, especially Hinduism and Buddhism, are centered on suffering, and their practice is nothing more than the acceptance and endurance of suffering, including penance and austerity. Even Catholicism brought in this mixture of pagan things. The proper and pure Christian faith does not involve the acceptance and endurance of suffering, but it does involve the experience of Christ’s death. Suffering is not the way of salvation given by God; instead, it is a method of cultivation originating from man. God’s way of salvation involves only death; it does not involve man’s suffering. God’s way of salvation involves man’s termination through the death of Christ on the cross. According to the revelation in the Bible, Christ’s death on the cross is God’s great salvation to man; death, like life, is an important item revealed in the Bible.
Many Christians regard sickness, hardship, unemployment, or poverty as a “cross” to bear. Many also regard a wife, husband, children, parents, servants, employees, or anything unsatisfactory as a “cross” to bear. If we have a realization that difficult persons, matters, and things are used by the Holy Spirit to bring us into the experience of the death of the cross so that an element in us would be put to death, it is not wrong to associate these things with the cross. However, if we associate these difficult things with the cross only because of the sufferings and heavy burdens inflicted by them, then this is not a correct understanding of the cross. God allows us to encounter unsatisfactory matters and difficult persons so that we would experience the termination of the cross in a certain aspect of our being, not for the sake of afflicting us in a certain matter or trying us on a certain point. God has terminated us through the death of Christ on the cross, but now the Spirit must bring us into the experience of the termination of His death through the people and things that we encounter.
God has ordained for us to die, and in God’s valuation of us, we are worthy only of death. What He did on the cross in reality, He wants to do in us practically. The cross terminated our whole being, but through our experience of the cross, God looks forward to our saying, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). We have been terminated; hence, we should no longer live.
Due to Satan’s rebellion and Adam’s disobedience, all creation has been defiled and corrupted. As the representative of all creation, Satan was appointed to rule over the preadamic world. When he rebelled, everything that he ruled over and represented was defiled and corrupted. Not only was the earth and everything in it affected by his rebellion, even the heavens and everything in them were defiled and corrupted. Thus, all things needed to be terminated. As the representative of all creation after God’s restoration of the universe, Adam was appointed to rule over all things on the earth (Gen. 1:26). When he disobeyed, everything that he ruled over and represented was defiled and corrupted (Rom. 5:12-19). Thus, the heavens and the earth and everything in them needed God’s termination. Based on His foreknowledge, God determined to meet this need with the cross of Christ in His eternal plan. Hence, the cross of Christ terminated all things in the heavens and on the earth in the old creation in addition to the other negative things.
According to the revelation in the Bible, everything in the old heavens and old earth — the old creation — was terminated on the cross of Christ. When Christ died on the cross, He died there not only in and with humanity but also with all creation. Hence, Christ’s death on the cross involved not only man’s death but also the termination of all creation.
According to Matthew 27:51, when Christ died on the cross, “the veil of the temple was split in two from top to bottom.” Hebrews 10:20 says that this veil is Christ’s flesh. Therefore, the splitting of the veil symbolizes the death of Christ’s physical body. This veil was embroidered with cherubim (Exo. 26:31), and when it was split, the cherubim on the veil were split as well. According to Ezekiel, cherubim typify creatures (10:1-22; 1:5-14). The four living creatures in Revelation 4:6 and 7 are like cherubim in appearance (Ezek. 10:14-15; 1:5-10). With respect to having six wings (Rev. 4:8), they are also like the seraphim in Isaiah 6:2. We may say that the four living creatures, representing creation before God (Rev. 4:6-7), are cherubim plus seraphim. Hence, the veil with the cherubim typifies Christ with all creation. The splitting of the cherubim on the veil, along with the veil itself, typifies that all creation died together with Christ. The picture of the splitting of the veil with the cherubim indicates that when Christ died, all creation died with Him. Hence, Christ’s death terminated everything of creation.
The death of Christ is an all-inclusive death. In order to accomplish this all-inclusive death, Christ had to be joined with all things through incarnation. His being joined with all things enabled Him, positively, to give God’s uncreated life to the created man and, negatively, to terminate all creation. He became flesh to be joined with all things in order to give God’s uncreated life to the created man and to terminate all creation through His death.
Man is the head and representative of all creation on earth, and by being joined to man, Christ was joined to all creation, as represented by man. Strictly speaking, Christ was joined to man; generally speaking, He was joined to all creation. Christ’s incarnation was God’s entering into creation to be joined with creation. When Christ put on humanity, He put on all creation. Just as the veil in the temple had cherubim on it, Christ had creation on Him. Just as Adam represented the entire human race and bore all of creation, as indicated by Genesis 1 and Romans 5, Christ was joined to man and bore everything of creation. All things were joined to and borne by the incarnated Christ. In a sense, Bethlehem, the place of incarnation, is representative of the universe, and Jesus the Nazarene is representative of all things. He entered into the universe and put on all things; all things are in Him. Therefore, His death was the death of all things. Everything borne by Him was included in His death. He took all things to the cross to die with Him. Therefore, the death of Christ was an all-inclusive death.
Although the death of Christ is extensive, people have limited views of His death. To a person who does not know God’s salvation, Jesus was merely a Jew who died on a cross. To a new believer, Jesus died on the cross as a Substitute for our sins in order to be our Savior. To a believer who has some growth in the divine life, Jesus also destroyed Satan and terminated his angels, the world, the flesh, the old man, and the self on the cross. However, to a believer with even more growth, Jesus terminated all things on the cross. Jesus died on the cross as both God and man, as both Creator and creature, and as both man and all creation. He dealt with sins, the flesh, the old man, Satan, the world under Satan, and all the corrupted angels, demons, and evil spirits. All these things died on the cross. Everything that was not of God died on the cross. Thus, Christ’s terminating death on the cross was an all-inclusive death.
May we truly see Christ’s all-inclusive death on the cross. All things were terminated on the cross of Christ. Everything contrary to God, incompatible with God, in opposition to God, offensive to God, and not of God — whether Satan, demons, sin, the world, the flesh, the old man, the self, or all creation — was terminated on the cross. Everything of Satan and the world, everything of sin and the flesh, and everything that belonged to them and to all creation, whether good or bad, were terminated on the cross. The cross of Christ is a great termination, a great clearing up. Everything that God does not want was terminated there.
