Scripture Reading: Exo. 12:13; Rom. 6:6, 11
The imparting of life was not an afterthought on the part of God. God did not desire to impart the divine life to man only after the fall. This thought was in His very heart from the beginning. Even before the fall, God wanted to give His Son to man. God's eternal purpose is for there to be a race of beings who can share His uncreated life. He offered His life to Adam in the form of the tree of life before sin ever came in. Adam was innocent, being neither sinful nor holy. He was a man living by his natural life; he was a living soul. When sin came in, Adam and God were separated. Adam was afraid of meeting God. There was a need for redemption only after sin came in. Before the fall man's need could have been supplied by simply receiving life. But instead of receiving life, he chose something else. When sin came in, God had to do something in addition to His original purpose. Redemption is not an end in itself, but it is a necessary means to reach God's end because of sin.
The work of the Lord Jesus was twofold: (1) bringing about the purpose of God, and (2) bringing about the redemption of man. The latter aspect was remedial. The death of the Lord Jesus was not just remedial in nature. It also included a positive aspect quite apart from the matter of sin. Remedially, it dealt with what man had brought in, and positively, it carried out the original purpose of God.
There are four aspects of the Lord's death. Two of these four aspects are for the undoing of the devil's work and man's sin, and two are for the bringing about of God's purpose. These four aspects include: (1) the blood for remedy, (2) the crucifixion for remedy, (3) the flesh for God's purpose, and (4) the bearing of the cross for God's purpose.
What is man's need? As soon as disobedience came in, the question of guilt had to be addressed. Because of guilt, God and man became separated. A blockage came between them, and this gives Satan ground for attacking. Therefore, there is a need to have that guilt — the ground of attack and condemnation — removed so that man can be brought back into full fellowship with God. Before Adam sinned, he was a natural man; after the fall he became "the old man." We not only have "products" on the street, we also have a "factory" of sin. Sins have to be done away with so that there is no case before God, and I — the factory which produces the sins — also have to be done away with so that there will be no more cases! First, the blood is for sins. Second, the cross is for me. Third, the flesh releases His life into me (which was represented by the tree of life). Fourth, the bearing of the cross is the working of death that keeps the natural life or soul-life in its proper place.
The blood is toward God, man, and Satan. Primarily, the blood is for God, not for man. It is required by God, but if we do not realize the value of the blood to God, we will not realize its value to us. In the Old Testament the blood is mentioned over four hundred times, and in each case, it is always for God Himself. On the day of Atonement the blood was sprinkled before the Lord seven times, and no man except the high priest, typifying the Lord Jesus, was allowed to draw near to the Lord. In Egypt the blood was smeared on the outside of the door for God to see; those who were in the house could not see it. The life is in the blood, and God requires blood to satisfy His righteousness. The blood was God's portion and was never allowed to be eaten. Sometimes we feel our sins are more real than the blood, yet we have to accept God's valuation. We have to believe that the blood is precious to God. If God accepts it for our redemption, then we can believe that the debt is paid. First John 1:7 says, "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin." In the business world, if I pay a debt, the one to whom I pay the money has to see that the money is good! If God says the blood is enough to satisfy His requirements, then it must be. Our valuation of the blood must be in accordance with His valuation. The result will be that our hearts will be purified from an evil conscience (Heb. 9:14). (The blood cleanses our conscience, not our hearts.) We know how important it is to have a clear conscience, because without this we are unable to believe. If our conscience condemns us, faith leaks out. The temptation to many is to think they must live up to what they regard as God's standard before they can come with confidence to God. But the blood is the way of access, and our approach is always with boldness because it has nothing to do with our attainment or holiness. The blood is the only thing that is needed; it is absolutely sufficient. The first time we came to the Lord, we were made near by the blood, and every subsequent time that we come to Him, we are made near by the blood. Penance will not make our approach any easier. The blood is our only plea. Since our conscience is cleansed before God we have "no more conscience of sins." From this ground we can face the enemy and all of his efforts to bring us under condemnation. The blood puts God on our side, and we can be fearless. The fall brought in something which gave Satan some footing. Furthermore, man was put outside the garden, and God was outside of man. The blood restores us to God and God to us.
The blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses us not only from sin but from every sin. As He is in the light, we can walk in the light, and the blood will cleanse us from every sin — those which we think are unforgivable and even those which we are not conscious of. It is only as our conscience is clear that we can overcome Satan. His attacks are based on his accusations, and if we accept these accusations we will go down. Why do we come under his accusations and believe them? It is because we still hope to have some righteousness of our own. We often may be disappointed in ourselves, but God is never disappointed with us because He expects nothing from us! If we accept God's verdict that no good thing dwells in us, and judge ourselves to be worthy of nothing but death, and if we see that the blood more than pays every time, Satan will have no ground of attack. Our attitude only will be, "Lord, I cannot hope to be any better, but Your blood is always sufficient."
The Lord also died so that we might die. As the last Adam, the representative of the whole Adamic creation, He gathered every son of Adam into Himself, and in His death He brought the whole race to an end as far as God was concerned.
Note the order in Romans 6. We know and then we are able to reckon. With some there is an undue emphasis on "reckon" in verse 11, suggesting that we must reckon in order to produce the death which we must have, and that it all begins with us. But the Lord included us in His death. He has done something, and we are included in His crucifixion. The order is: "Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him...reckon yourselves to be dead." We do not reckon in order to be dead. When we see that we are dead, we are in the position to witness to it by baptism. What is the most common thing to do with a dead body? Bury it! (Some use burial as a means to die. We should never be baptized unless we have seen we have died. Our burial is our answer to the death on the cross; everything is based on this. Unless we see this as a basis, everything we do will be in the nature of works.) Baptism is not a testimony of our faith in Christ for our salvation, but a revelation of our union with Him in death and resurrection. God included us in the death of His Son so that we could be identified with Him "in Christ." "Of Him you are in Christ Jesus" (1 Cor. 1:30). God put us into Christ just as I might put a piece of paper into a book. Our old man has been crucified. We can look in vain for any reference to future crucifixion. Now it is a matter of faith. The secret of reckoning is the revelation of what the Lord has already done. It is not reckoning toward death, but reckoning from the fact of death. The way to reckon is to be in Christ Jesus.
The two remedial aspects of the Lord's death — removing our sins before God and removing ourselves from us — deal with everything that came in with Adam. Through these two aspects, man is brought back to Adam's state before the fall.
In Genesis we have Adam, Eve, and the rib (2:18-19, 21-24). In Ephesians we have Christ, the church, and the water (5:23, 25-27, 29-32). In John we have water, blood, and the side (19:34).
God wants more than a remedy for what came in with Adam, He wants to have a race into whom He can impart His own life. For them to have His very life and to be one with Him in life is the only thing that will satisfy Him. It is the only thing that will defeat any possible uprising of the enemy.
Ephesians 5 is the only chapter which tries to explain Genesis 2, and in Ephesians we also have something rather peculiar. We have been taught that we are sinners and need salvation, but God wants more than just a remedy for what came in with Adam. He wants a people who possess His own life. We have thought that saved sinners are the church, but saved sinners as such are not the church, because they bring in something negative from the past. The church is the Body of Christ: "The church which is His Body." Sin is not mentioned in connection with it. Christ has to have a Body which can express His life. In Ephesians we have one aspect of His death which is quite different from other places in the Scripture. The "love" that is spoken of in Ephesians 5 is the love of a husband for a wife, not the love of Christ for sinners. It is the church which is in view and not sinners. Paul uses Genesis 2 to illustrate the point. If our eyes are opened to this we will certainly worship. In the Old Testament we have many types of the death of the Lord, but in Ephesians 5 Paul used only the one in Genesis 2. This is the one type which has nothing to do with sin because it was before sin came in. Adam was not put to sleep because someone had done something wrong; he was put to sleep in order that something might be taken out of him and be made into someone. The creation of Eve was in view when a rib was taken out of him. This aspect of the Lord's death has nothing to do with atonement or remedy. This aspect is for the purpose of creating the church for the bringing in of the Body for the expression of His own life. Eve is a type of the church. Adam was put to sleep. This aspect of the death of the Lord relates to sleep. Christians sleep; we do not die. Whenever death is mentioned, sin is in the background. Adam's sleep refers to a death with no sin in it. It came before Genesis 3, before the introduction of sin.
Eve was taken out of Adam. She was not a separate creation. Eve is a type of the church taken out of the body of the last Adam to be His bride. Putting it another way, God is seeking to turn His only begotten Son into the Firstborn among many brothers. He is seeking to turn a grain of wheat into many grains. God's heart's desire is to have many sons.
John 19:34 speaks of a pierced side and of blood and water. The blood speaks of the atoning death of Christ, and the water speaks of the life released by the non-propitiating aspect of His death. It came from His side, His heart. God's purpose is that we should all share His life.
The blood came in to blot out sins, whereas the cross came in to blot out us. Furthermore, we were not created to be redeemed. Redemption was only necessary to bring us back to the eternal purpose of God, which is sonship — the sharing of God's life. The Lord Jesus brought us back to God's purpose by His death, and in His death He released His life. In accepting the Lord Jesus, we receive something which Adam never had! For Adam never had the life of God as represented by the tree of life.
John 12 and Luke 12 make it clear that there is an aspect of death which is only for the release of life. One alone had God's life, and He had to die in order to release His life. There was life in the grain of wheat, but it had to die in order to produce many grains. The death of the first grain is not to propitiate for the other grains but to produce them.
Luke 12:50 says, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am pressed until it is accomplished!" The Lord was pressed, squeezed, and held up. What was the way out? "I have a baptism to be baptized with." The Lord had to release Himself by death so that we could receive Him. He said He came to send fire on the earth, that is, the fire of the Holy Spirit, so that all might have His Spirit in them. Christ is not only with us but in us.
There is another aspect of the flesh. In the eating of the Passover lamb, the blood was for God and the flesh was for the household. The blood was not to be eaten; it was for God to see. But under the blood we need to take the flesh to prepare for the wilderness, so that we might have the strength to go out. In the Levitical offerings the flesh was always meant for the priests and Levites. John 6 puts the emphasis on the flesh, not on the blood. Of the four instances in which the flesh and the blood are spoken of together, the flesh is spoken of first. In these four instances, "eat" is spoken of first, not "drink"; the emphasis is on the flesh. The flesh in this chapter is something positive, "And the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world" (John 6:51).
Bread is something related to the purpose of God, whereas blood is related to the remedy of God. We always talk about the Lord's supper as the breaking of bread, not as the drinking of the cup. The bread is always put before the wine because the bread is according to the purpose of God, whereas the wine is remedial. The flesh includes the blood. If there had been no blood on the door, there could have been no flesh in the house.
The Lord said, "So he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me" (John 6:57). To "live because of Me" means to live on account of Me. Do we know anything of this? Outside of Him we have no life, we cannot do anything. He is always trying to strip us and put us in difficult situations so that we can learn to live by Him. Some of us have a keen mind and brain, and we have never learned the lesson that we cannot understand God's Word without God. He has to strip us of our wisdom, our mental powers, our keen brain, etc. Then we can learn to live by Him and because of Him. We have to take life from Him even for our body. We live because of Him. The Lord drew the parallel, by saying, "As...I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me." God does not give us power to be strong; rather, the Lord's life in us makes us strong. Difficulties multiply for the sole purpose of stripping us of our own resources. When we are put into hopeless situations, we ask for the situations to be removed. But the Lord wants us to learn, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Cor. 12:9). Our grace is not sufficient, but "My" grace is sufficient. Paul was always weak. The Lord has to bring us to a place where we say, "Lord, I simply cannot exist." A brother once said, "The Lord is always trying to knock the bottom out from under me." Through one experience after another we learn to live by the Lord. When the Lord puts us into the most difficult situations, we may try to meet them, but eventually we are brought to the place where we cannot do anything about them. Our attitude should be, "I cannot; therefore, I am not going to try. I refuse to do anything about it. Lord, You must do it for me." In this way we can learn to live by Him. It is He who has done it, and as we multiply this experience, daily it becomes our life attitude. God's life is not merely a parcel or a sum of capital. First John 5:12 says, "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." The life is in the Son and nowhere else; it cannot be possessed apart from Him. If we have a proper relationship to the living Lord, His life will become ours automatically.
There are people who believe that all of our salvation and holiness lie in the blood. Some go further and believe that God will deliver us from the old man. There are others who feel that we must consecrate ourselves to the Lord. We must have the blood, our old man must be dealt with on the cross, and we must give ourselves over to the Lord to produce in us what He wants. Our attitude should be, "Lord, I trust You to create in me whatever I need and to be whatever I need." Faith brings Him in. Faith says, "Lord, I cannot do it; be to me whatever I need."
First Corinthians 1:30 tells us that Christ Jesus is made unto us all that we need. He is our patience, etc. God does not give us a dose of sanctification. Holiness is simply the Lord living His holy life in us. We must believe this. The secret is not trying but trusting. The difference between trying and trusting is the difference between heaven and hell! We say, "Lord, I cannot; therefore, I will not try. I trust You to do this." This is drawing our life from Him. It is not passivity, because it involves active cooperation and faith.
The fourth aspect of Christ's death is allowing the cross to be the ruling principle of our life, daily allowing it to undercut our natural life and power (Matt. 10:34-39; Mark 8:32-35; Luke 17:32-34; John 12:24-26; 2 Cor. 4:10-11; Phil. 3:10). In this way the natural life and power will not act according to itself or assert itself. In order to touch the very core of our problem, we must deal with the question of the soul. In this way the dying or killing of the Lord Jesus will release and manifest His life in us.
The Lord has taken great care to show us that we can live only by His life. Trials and difficulties are brought in to prove this point to us. The real meaning of the Christian life is nothing less than Christ. He is the life.
What does it mean to live under law? It means that God demands something from us and we try to do it. What does it mean to live under grace? It means that God still demands something, but Christ does it in us. This life is not an end in itself, but a means to fully secure God's purpose.
We need to distinguish between the "old man," the sin producer, and the soul, that is the natural power and ability to act according to one's self independent of God. Self is not necessarily sinful, but it always stands apart from the will of God. There are times when the self is quite righteous, almost holy! If our sins and our "old man" have been dealt with, we are back to where Adam was before the fall. Our problem then becomes Adam's original problem — the problem of the soul acting independent of God.
What is the soul? Jesus Christ was a sinless man, but He had a separate personality from God: "I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 5:30). The real significance of the Lord's temptation was Satan's efforts to make Him act according to Himself and thus relinquish His complete dependence upon God. When man acts according to himself, that is the soul. "The Son can do nothing from Himself" (John 5:19). This means that nothing originated from Him. The matter of the soul is not related to sins as such; it is related to independence — something we do without the help of God. The danger for us is that we can live by our own power: "I can plan, and I can decide." Therefore, God shows us another aspect of the cross which deals with the soul through the bearing of the cross daily.
We need to distinguish between the two sides of the cross: (1) the crucifixion of the cross which dealt with the flesh, and (2) the bearing of the cross, which deals with the self in a daily process. This second aspect of the cross deals with the soul. The cross is brought to bear on the soul so that the mold of death, the mark of the cross, is constantly conforming the soul into subjection to the Spirit.
Matthew 10:37-39 indicates that the soul is the seat of our affections. Many actions and decisions are influenced by our affections. As a consequence, the Lord said, "He who loves father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me," and "He who loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it." We have to lose our soul-life. This means that we cannot fulfill its wishes. We have to ignore what the soul is asking for. Some secret love may cause us to deviate from our course of fully following the Lord.
In Mark 8:32-35 Peter said to the Lord, in effect, "Have mercy upon Yourself!" The Lord's reply was a strong rebuke. The soul's desire is self-preservation; but in order to go on with God, we have to go against ourselves. Are we afraid of the will of God? Do we like the will of God? Miss Barber once said, "Lord, I am willing to break my heart so that I can have Your heart." When there is no mixture of soul and spirit, and everything is out from the Spirit, then God's will is all, and we will shed no tears in sympathy for our soul-life!
The soul-life is occupied by the things of the earth (Luke 17:32-34). What will be our reaction to the claims of our home, the interests of our service, etc.? If we are living according to the soul-life, our reaction will not be proper.
Fruitfulness comes from the loss of our soul (John 12:24-26). What part of us must be lost before there can be "much fruit"? The soul! There is so little expression of the life within us because the power of the soul is wrapping and enveloping it. We are living, doing, and acting out from ourselves. The cross must come in before the soul-life can be lost. Verse 25 is in connection with the losing of the soul. In times of temptation, the self wants to resist, but any victory won on this basis is a counterfeit victory. Only what the Lord does in us is real deliverance. Our attitude should be: "Lord, I cannot do anything. Therefore, I will not try to do anything. Lord, You do it."
This dredging up of the natural life begins with a definite crisis. Some souls are stronger than others. But the Lord must come in to break all of them until no self-confidence is left. As long as there is anything for us to confide in, we will have self-confidence. This is why God must dredge up all the ground of self-confidence. Brokenness is only possible when we lose our self-confidence. Moses was once "powerful in his words and works" (Acts 7:22). Yet he had to be brought to the place where he confessed, "I am not eloquent" (Exo. 4:10). Those whose soul-lives have been dealt with by the cross are marked by a spirit of fear and trembling. They are certain of nothing but the Lord, and they walk very softly with Him.
We cannot know Him and the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10) unless we are willing to allow the stamp of death — the cross — to be sealed to our soul-life. We must be brought to the place where we have no confidence in our self. This is a life process, a daily taking up of the cross. All self-trust must go.
Any teaching on holiness or victory is inconsequential unless the self, the soul-energy, is first dealt with. The Lord is after utter dependence. He does not want anyone to act independently of Him. He is not asking us to do something for Him. God is the only Doer, the only Originator. Our part is simply to concur. We can do nothing else.
We must know His death in its fullness in all four aspects. In the cross we see God's true estimate of us. We are only fit for death; therefore, we should not even try to please God. This is not passivity; it is active faith. We refuse to live out from our self. We choose to live in complete dependence upon God, and we will allow the cross to do an ever deeper dredging work in us so that we will be "conformed to His death."
