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Concerning the status of the church, we have seen that the church is the assembly, the house of God, the kingdom of God, the Body of Christ, and the counterpart of Christ. In this message we come to the church as the new man.
The book of Ephesians reveals that the church is the Body of Christ (1:22-23), the kingdom of God, the household of God (2:19), and the temple, the dwelling place of God (2:21-22). In 2:15 and 4:24 we see that the church is the new man. Ephesians 2:15 says, “Having abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, making peace.” Ephesians 4:24 says, “And have put on the new man, which according to God was created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Furthermore, Colossians 3:10 says, “And having put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” The Greek word for church, ekklesia, means those called out for a gathering; hence, an assembly. This is the initial aspect of the church. From this aspect we need to go on to the aspects of the house of God and the kingdom of God. These are higher than the initial aspect but not as high as the aspect of the church as the Body of Christ. Yet the new man is still higher than the Body of Christ. Thus, the church is not just an assembly of believers, a kingdom of heavenly citizens, a household of God’s children, nor even a Body for Christ. In an even higher aspect, the church is the new man to accomplish God’s eternal purpose. The emphasis on the church being the Body of Christ is on life, whereas the emphasis on the church being the new man is on the person. As the Body of Christ, the church needs Christ as its life. As the new man, the church needs Christ as its person. The body without life is not a body but a corpse. However, when the body makes a move, it is decided not by life but by the person. Hence, in the new man we need to take Christ as our person. The new man as a corporate person should live a life as Jesus lived on earth, that is, a life of truth, expressing God and causing God to be realized as reality by man.
God’s creation of man in Genesis 1 is a picture of the new man in God’s new creation. This means that the old creation is a figure, a type, of the new creation. In God’s old creation the central character is man. It is the same in God’s new creation. Therefore, in both the old creation and the new creation man is the center.
God created man in His own image (Gen. 1:26) and then gave man His dominion. Image is for expression. God wants man to be His expression. Dominion, however, is a matter not of expression but of representation. God wants man to represent Him in His authority for His dominion. In the old creation man was created to have God’s image to express Him and also to have His dominion to represent Him.
The image refers to God’s positive intention, and dominion to God’s negative intention. God’s positive intention is that man would express Him, whereas God’s negative intention is that man would deal with God’s enemy, Satan, the Devil. In the universe God has a problem, the problem of dealing with His enemy. Since God’s enemy, the Devil, is a creature, God will not deal with him directly Himself; instead, He will deal with him by man, a creature of His creation. God deals with His enemy through man. Hence, in God’s creation of man there were two intentions. The positive intention is that man would bear God’s image for His expression; the negative intention is that man would have God’s dominion to represent Him to deal with His enemy.
In the old creation the dominion given to man was limited to the earth. This means that in the old creation the dealing with God’s enemy was restricted to the earth. However, in God’s new creation the dominion has been enlarged to the entire universe.
Eventually, the church as the new man is the man in God’s intention. God wanted a man, and in the old creation He created a figure, a type, not the real man. The real man is the man Christ created on the cross through His all-inclusive death. This man is called the new man.
The term “the new man” reminds us of the old man. The old man did not fulfill God’s dual purpose. However, the new man in God’s new creation does fulfill the twofold purpose of expressing God and dealing with God’s enemy.
Ephesians 2:15 reveals that the church as the new man was created by Christ. Christ created the one new man with God’s nature wrought into humanity. This action was something new. In the old creation God did not work His nature into any of His creatures, not even into man. In the creation of the one new man, however, God’s nature has been wrought into man to make His nature one entity with humanity.
The new creation, like the old creation, is not something individual but something corporate. In the old creation God did not create millions of men; on the contrary, He created one man, Adam, who includes all men. The principle is the same with God’s new creation. In the new creation we are all parts of the new man, the church, composed of the many sons of God.
There is a basic difference between the new creation and the old creation. God’s life and nature are not wrought into the old creation, but the new creation does possess the divine life and the divine nature. Although the old creation came into being through the work of the mighty God, He Himself does not reside in it. Hence, the first creation has no divine content. The divine nature does not dwell in the old creation, and that is why it has become old. Adam did not have the life of God or the nature of God. We can receive the divine life and the divine nature only by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and being regenerated by the Spirit. When we believed in Christ, God’s life and nature were imparted to us and made us a new creation.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.” Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old things of the flesh have passed away through the death of Christ, and all has become new in Christ’s resurrection. To be in Christ is to be one with Him in life and in nature. This is of God through our faith in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:26-28).
The words, “Behold, they have become new,” are a call to watch the marvelous change of the new creation. The word “they” refers to the old things. The old creation does not have the divine life and nature; however, the new creation, composed of the believers born again of God, does have the divine life and nature (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4). Hence, the believers are a new creation, not according to the old nature of the flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life.
The new creation is actually the old creation transformed by the divine life, by the processed Triune God. The old creation was old because God was not part of it; the new creation is new because God is in it. We who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God are still God’s creation, but we are now His new creation. However, this is real only when we live and walk by the Spirit. Whenever we live and walk by the flesh, we are in the old creation, not in the new creation. Anything in our daily life that does not have God in it is the old creation, but what has God in it is part of the new creation.
If we would be in the new creation, we must enter into an organic union with the Triune God. Apart from such a union we shall remain in the old creation. But now, by the organic union with the Triune God, we are in the new creation. As believers in Christ, we are the new creation through an organic union with the Triune God.
In Adam we were born into the old creation, but in Christ we were regenerated into the new creation. Here in the new creation we are not only God’s assembly, God’s house, and God’s kingdom and not only Christ’s Body and counterpart — we are also the new man. God’s intention is to have a corporate, universal man. God wants such a man for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. On the one hand, we were created in God’s old creation and became the old man; on the other hand, we have been re-created in God’s new creation and have become the new man.
In Ephesians 2:15 we see that the new man was created by Christ in Himself. The phrase “in Himself” here is very significant. It indicates that Christ was not only the Creator of the one new man, the church, but also the sphere in which and the essence with which the one new man was created.
Christ is the element of the new man. Nothing of our old man was good for the creation of the new man, for our former essence was sinful. But in Christ there is a wonderful essence, in which the one new man has been created. This new man, created by Christ in Himself, is corporate and universal. There are many believers, but there is only one new man in the universe. All the believers are components of this one corporate and universal new man.
The new man was created by Christ in Himself in a particular way. This particular way was Christ’s death, for Christ created the new man when He was on the cross. While Christ was being put to death, He was working to create the one new man. In His death He created the different peoples into the new man. His death, therefore, was a tool used to work out the new creation.
The new man, unlike the old, was not created out of nothing. On the contrary, the new man was created out of the old man. This is indicated by the fact that, according to Ephesians 2:15, Christ brought the Jews and the Gentiles to the cross and there, through His death, created them into the one new man.
On the cross Christ created the new man in Himself by abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances (Eph. 2:14-15a). When Christ died on the cross, not only did He deal with sins, the old man, Satan, and the world; He also dealt with the ordinances. On the cross Christ abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances.
Ephesians 2:14 speaks of “the middle wall of partition.” This middle wall of partition is “the law of the commandments in ordinances” in verse 15, which was given because of man’s flesh. The first of these ordinances is circumcision to cut off man’s flesh. This became the middle wall of partition between the circumcision and the uncircumcision.
In Ephesians 2:14 Paul also speaks of “the enmity.” The middle wall of partition, which is the distinction (mainly made by circumcision) between the circumcision and the uncircumcision, became the enmity between the Jews and the Gentiles.
It is crucial for us to see that, for the creation of the one new man, Christ abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmity. Ephesians 2:14 and 15a say, “He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity, having abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances.” Here we see that Christ died on the cross to abolish all the ordinances among mankind. Due to man’s fall, among mankind there are many ordinances, many customs, habits, ways to live, and ways to worship. All these differences among peoples have divided, scattered, and confused mankind. Therefore, among the human race there is no peace. Christ died on the cross to abolish all these ordinances. In particular, He died to take away the partition between the Jews and the Gentiles. Not only was there a partition between the Jews and the Gentiles; there were also partitions between every nationality and race. Without the removal of these partitions, there would be no way for us to be one in Christ as the new man.
All the ordinances were abolished by Christ on the cross. When He was crucified, His death abolished, annulled, the different ordinances of human life and religion. Furthermore, the differences among the races and the differences of social rank have been abolished by the death of Christ.
Ephesians 2:14 says, “He Himself is our peace.” The word “our” refers to both Jewish and Gentile believers. Through the blood of Christ we have been brought near both to God and to God’s people. Christ, who has accomplished full redemption for both Jewish and Gentile believers, is Himself our peace, our harmony, in that He made both one. Because of the fall of mankind and the call of the chosen race, there was a separation between Israel and the Gentiles. Through Christ’s redemption, this separation has been removed. Now the two are one in the redeeming Christ, who is the bond of oneness.
In the law of Moses there were two kinds of commandments: moral commandments, such as the commandments concerning stealing and the honoring of parents, and ritual commandments, such as the commandments concerning the keeping of the Sabbath. The commandments regarding circumcision and the eating regulations were ritual commandments, not moral commandments. The moral commandments will never be abolished, not in this age nor in the millennium nor in eternity. The ritual commandments, on the contrary, are not permanent. By the middle wall of partition Paul meant the law of commandments in ordinances, the ritual commandments related to circumcision, the Sabbath, and diet. The law of ritual commandments was a middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles. Actually, any ordinance or ritual is a middle wall of partition.
In Ephesians 2:15 Paul tells us that Christ abolished “in His flesh” the law of commandments in ordinances. Because mankind became flesh (Gen. 6:3) and was thus kept from God and His purpose, God ordained His chosen people to be circumcised from the flesh. This ordinance was given because of man’s flesh. It was in the flesh that Christ was crucified. When He was crucified, His flesh, which was typified by the separating veil in the temple, was rent (Heb. 10:20). By breaking down the middle wall of partition on the cross, Christ has made peace.
Christ brought all the races and nationalities with their different kinds of ordinances, habits, and regulations, to the cross. Then on the cross He put the old creation to death and abolished all the ordinances among the old creation. This Christ did in order to create in Himself the one new man.
