Search
To have a clear understanding concerning the Triune God, concerning redemption, and concerning God’s full salvation, according to the revelation of the pure Word of God, is not a simple matter for us today. The hardship is always due to the traditional teachings we have received in the past concerning these matters. The teachings we have received in a traditional way have become a frustration to our vision.
To know Christ’s redemption we first need to know the Accomplisher of this redemption. If we know the Accomplisher, the Redeemer, then we surely know His redemption. We need to realize who Christ was at the very time He was condemned and put to death to suffer God’s just and righteous judgment. This matter needs to be considered very carefully because it involves the so-called theology concerning the Trinity and concerning Christology, the study of the Person of Christ. Our Redeemer, dying there to accomplish redemption for us, was the Head of all creation, the Firstborn of all creation, and also the image of the invisible God.
For Christ to be the Head of all creation involves the matter of Christ being the Firstborn of all creation. In Colossians 1:15, speaking of Christ as a portion allotted to us by God, Paul tells us firstly that Christ is the image of the invisible God and also that He is the Firstborn of all creation. In Colossians 1:15 we see, on the one hand, that Christ is related to God. He is the image of the invisible God, the expression of God, or the invisible God expressed.
On the other hand, Christ is related to all the creation, and He is the Firstborn of all creation. For Christ to be the Firstborn of all creation means that He is the first item of all the creatures. Due to the heresy of Arius, not many Bible teachers would take this point in Colossians 1:15 according to the literal meaning of the Greek. Arius taught that Christ was not divine, that He was not God, but was rather something created by God in eternity, and he based his heretical teaching on Colossians 1:15. According to history, Arius was condemned because of his heresy and cast out, even exiled, by the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. Due to this heretical teaching of Arius, from the time of the Council of Nicaea until today, most of the Bible teachers would not interpret Colossians 1:15 according to the literal translation, for fear that they might be condemned for heresy as Arius was.
We have studied this phrase, the Firstborn of all creation, carefully according to the Greek, and we have the assurance that this is an absolutely accurate translation. Some translators have even changed the translation to “the Firstborn before all creation.” Every Greek student, no need to say the Greek scholars, can recognize that this kind of translation is altogether inaccurate. To change the preposition from of to before would indicate that Christ is something apart from the creatures, but to use the preposition of indicates that Christ is one of the creatures. There is a big difference. The reason some teachers would change the translation is that they are afraid of being condemned if they say that Christ is one of the creatures, even the first one of the creatures. Therefore, they dare not say that Christ is the Firstborn of all creation.
Some teachers have even interpreted Christ being the Firstborn of all creation to mean merely that Christ was prior to all creation. They say that He was the Creator and that He could never be a creature. They avoid saying that Christ is one of the creatures.
One expositor says that according to the Greek, this phrase must be translated “the Firstborn of all creation,” and he says that the word of, as a preposition in Greek, indicates that the Firstborn is one of the many items of the creatures. Even though he admits that this is the meaning according to the Greek, he goes on to say that we must avoid saying that Christ is one of the creatures. His own word is contradictory. He did not have the courage to interpret this verse according to the literal meaning.
Since 1958 I have put out some writings to declare that our Christ is surely not only the Creator but also a creature because He is both God, as the Creator, and man, as a creature. If you say that Christ is God, surely He is the Creator. If you say that He is a man, surely He is a creature. The strange thing is this: Although a good number of Christian teachers admit that Christ is a man, they do not have the courage to admit that He is a creature. How could it be that there is a man who is not a creature? Such an interpretation is illogical, yet many teachers dare not say that Christ is a creature.
To deny that Christ is a creature is to fall into an error in the line of the heresy of the Docetists (A.D. 70—A.D. 170). The Docetists followed Gnosticism to say that all matter is evil, that every physical thing, including our flesh, is evil. The Docetists taught that Christ is holy, and, therefore, He could never become matter, He could never become a physical thing, and He could never become the flesh. Their heretical teaching was that Christ was not a genuine man but that as a man, He was merely a phantom. The teaching of Docetism was heresy.
Those who deny the truth that Christ as a man is a creature unknowingly make themselves Docetists, which is equal to saying that they do not confess that Christ has come in the flesh. John condemned such ones in chapter 4 of his first Epistle.
Christ is a man, a typical man with flesh, skin, bone, and blood. If you count these four items, you must admit that skin is something created and that bone, flesh, and blood are all something of the creatures. It would be ridiculous to say that Christ is a man but that He is not a creature. This is not a matter of doctrinal debate. We need to take care of the truth, and we need to know the facts.
The redemption accomplished by Christ is not only for man but also for all creation. Chapter 1 of Colossians first tells us that Christ is the Firstborn of all creation (v. 15) and then that through Christ’s redemption all the created things in heaven and on earth are reconciled to God (v. 20). Christ’s redemption is for all things. Hebrews 2:9 says clearly that Christ tasted death not only on behalf of every man but also on behalf of everything.
If Christ were only a man and not the Firstborn of all creation, the first item of all the creatures, how could He accomplish redemption for all the creatures? In the same way that it is necessary for Him to be a man to accomplish redemption for man, it is necessary for Him to be a creature to make a redemption for all the creatures. It is necessary for our Redeemer to be the first item of all creation in order for Him to redeem all creation; therefore, He is in the first place as the Firstborn of all creation. In the same principle, He is the last Adam, the Head of all mankind, and as such, He is qualified to be the Redeemer of mankind.
As the Firstborn of all creation, Christ is qualified to be the Redeemer of all creation, and as the last Adam of all mankind, He is qualified to be the Redeemer of mankind. However, if He were only the first item of all creatures and the last Adam of mankind, although He is altogether qualified to be the Redeemer, His redemption could not be eternally effective. If He were only one item of the creatures, how could one item die for all the creatures? If He were only a man, how could one man die for all men? In that case the effectiveness of His redemption could not be eternal and lasting. If Christ’s redemption were only a redemption accomplished by the first item of all the creatures and by the last Adam of mankind, His redemption would not be eternally and everlastingly effective. Such a redemption could never be eternal, because neither a creature nor a man is eternal. It is necessary for our Redeemer to have some further qualification. There must be some element that is eternal, and that element must be God Himself. It is necessary for our Redeemer to be the very God.
When our Redeemer died on the cross, He died there as the first item of all the creation, as the last Adam, that is, as the Head of all mankind, and as the very God. Because He died there as these three aspects, His redemption is called an eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12). The first two aspects qualified Him to be the Redeemer, and the last aspect ensures that His redemption is eternal, that it can cover everything, and also that it is everlasting. For this reason Christ is qualified to accomplish a redemption that is adequate and eternal.
When John says that the blood that cleanses us, or that redeems us, is the blood of Jesus, he adds the title His Son, the Son of God (1 John 1:7). The blood shed on the cross is the blood not only of the man Jesus but also of Jesus the Son of God. The blood of Jesus is the genuine blood of a man. Only man’s blood can redeem man. Of course, God does not have blood to shed, but even if He did have blood that He could shed, that blood would not be qualified to redeem man. Man should be redeemed by man’s blood. Therefore, the blood of Jesus is the genuine blood of a genuine man, which is altogether qualified to redeem man.
Nevertheless, if the blood of Jesus is only the blood of a man, it has nothing to ensure its eternal effectiveness. Therefore, in 1 John 1:7 the apostle John adds the title His Son, the Son of God, to indicate His divinity. This Jesus is not only the Son of Man to shed the blood of a genuine man, but He is also the Son of God to ensure the effectiveness of His blood for eternity.
The name Jesus denotes the Lord’s humanity, which is needed for the shedding of the redeeming blood, and the title His Son denotes the Lord’s divinity, which is needed for the eternal efficacy of the redeeming blood. Therefore, the blood of Jesus His Son indicates that this blood is the proper blood of a genuine man for redeeming God’s fallen creatures with divine surety for its eternal efficacy, an efficacy that is all-prevailing in space and everlasting in time.
Therefore, our Redeemer is the first item of all the creatures, the last Adam of mankind, and the very God Himself. This truth involves a number of points, which cause debate in theology. However, we do not care for debate; we care for the truth.
We need to see the essences, the constituents, of the being of this One who was crucified on the cross and whose name is Jesus Christ. We know that He was crucified on the cross as One constituted of the human and divine essences because He had been conceived and born of these two essences. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a human virgin, with the divine essence mingled with the human essence. He is not merely human, but He is essentially both human and divine because He has been constituted with these two essences. These two essences are His constitution, His intrinsic being.
When the Lord Jesus was baptized, He was baptized as One who possessed the divine essence and the human essence. All the others who were baptized were baptized as those who only possessed the human essence. There was only One by the name of Jesus who was baptized with two essences.
After His baptism the Holy Spirit came down and descended upon the Lord Jesus. Based upon this fact, Cerinthus taught his great heresy that Jesus Himself did not have the Holy Spirit, but He was only human. (See footnote 221 in 1 John 2, Recovery Version.) Cerinthus in his heresy separated the earthly man Jesus from the Christ who is divine. He taught that the holy dove was a sign of the Christ who is divine and that Christ as the holy dove, the Holy Spirit, descended upon the man Jesus after His baptism. He taught that this Christ as the divine dove was with Jesus from that time for three and a half years and that the divine dove left Jesus when He went to the cross and was crucified. In other words, in his heresy Cerinthus taught that Christ left Jesus.
Cerinthus might have used two verses as a base for this part of his heresy. First, Matthew 3:16 says that the Spirit of God descended like a dove upon Jesus after His baptism. It might have been based upon this fact that Cerinthus taught that Jesus had nothing divine before the descending of the holy dove. Then, when Jesus was crucified on the cross, at the beginning of the last three hours at noon, He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (27:46). It might have been based upon this verse that Cerinthus taught that the holy dove went away and left only the man Jesus on the cross.
It may seem that Cerinthus could be right on this point, that he could have some ground for his interpretation of these verses. However, we need to look into this matter further. According to the cry of the Lord Jesus Himself, it is true that God left Jesus on the cross for man’s sin. But we need to consider who was left on the cross. Was He merely a man of human essence? We need to see clearly that the One who was left on the cross was the same One already constituted of the human essence and the divine essence before His baptism. Before He was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, this One was divine already, constituted with the divine essence. This is a crucial point. Therefore, it was not merely a man who was baptized but a God-man who was baptized. In the same principle, it was not merely a man who was crucified but a God-man who was crucified.
Therefore, in our Redeemer, while He was crucified on the cross for us sinners, there was the human essence — He was a man as the first creature and as the last Adam, the Head of all mankind. In this Redeemer there was also the divine essence, because He is also God. With His human essence He was the first item of the creatures and the last Adam of mankind. With His divine essence He was God. God’s leaving Christ on the cross is another aspect. This is the same as the time that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him when He was standing there after His baptism. For the Holy Spirit to descend upon Him did not indicate that He did not yet have the divine essence, because He had been constituted of it already. He was conceived with the divine essence and born of the divine essence before the time of His baptism. In the same principle, for God to depart from Christ on the cross did not indicate that He was no longer constituted with the divine essence. These points may seem to be quite complicated, but I hope that they could be made clear to all of you.
At this juncture we need to go back to consider a further point concerning the sequence of the Trinity. In the Trinity we have seen the Father, we have seen the Son, Christ, and we have seen the Spirit. It is correct to say that in the Trinity the first is the Father, the second is the Son, and the third is the Spirit. However, we need to see that the sequence of the Trinity is changed when it comes to the matter of the application to us.
Not only in Revelation 1 does the third become the second (vv. 4-5), but the same principle has been applied elsewhere. In Ephesians 3 Paul says that he prays to the Father that He may strengthen you through His Spirit (here the Spirit is mentioned second) that Christ may make His home in your heart. In such an application, the third becomes the second, which is in principle the same as in Revelation 1. Furthermore, 1 Peter 1:2 indicates that we were chosen by the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ. Here again the Spirit is listed second. In addition, the sequence of the Trinity is also changed in 2 Corinthians 13:14, where Paul speaks of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. In this case the sequence is changed in the application to us with the second (Christ) listed first, and the first listed second.
These changes in the sequence of the Trinity indicate that function is one thing, and essence is another. In function the Trinity is mentioned in a sequence that is different from His sequence in essence. In addition, as we have seen in the matter of the seven Spirits, the Spirit is essentially one and economically seven. Because some early teachers discovered this principle, they invented terms such as the essential Trinity and the economical Trinity.
In the essential Trinity the three are all there without anything that we might call a succession or a progression. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all there at the same time in eternity, and They are here; They continue to exist simultaneously for eternity. This is in the essential Trinity, the Divine Trinity according to His essence.
However, in the economical Trinity, initially, the Father planned, He made His choice, His selection, and He predestinated. Following this planning of the Father, the Son came to accomplish what the Father had planned. Then, after the Son’s accomplishment, the Spirit came to apply what the Son had accomplished according to what the Father had planned. Here in this economy there is a succession, and there is a progression. Therefore, according to the essence of the Trinity, the three are equal, and there is no succession or progression. Nevertheless, in the economy of God there is what we might call a succession, a progression. There are three steps.
We need to realize that Christ’s redemption involves both God’s essence and God’s economy. For the Redeemer to be qualified, He needs two essences — the essence of man and the essence of God. However, when He accomplished redemption, economically speaking, there were some matters regarding the functioning Spirit. While the Redeemer was standing there after His baptism, the Holy Spirit came down upon Him economically. That descending of the Spirit was the functioning Spirit, the Spirit in function, or the Spirit in God’s economy. However, when He was conceived and born of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit there was the Holy Spirit in essence. These distinctions are important for our understanding, but they may not be easy for us to grasp.
When the Redeemer was crucified on the cross, God left Him economically but not essentially. God was essentially in the man Jesus from His conception, through His birth, through His human living, through His death, through His resurrection, and through eternity. However, after He was baptized to begin to minister, God came down upon Him to anoint Him economically. This economical Spirit was with Him all the time for three and a half years. Then, according to Hebrews 9:14, He offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. At the last period of time on the cross, when He became sin in the eyes of God, this Spirit left Him economically, not essentially. This means that God left Him economically, not essentially. It is in this way, essentially and economically, that He was qualified to redeem man and all creatures and also entitled to have the eternal efficacy for His redemption. Therefore, He is qualified to accomplish our redemption, and the eternal and everlasting effectiveness of His redemption is ensured. This is our vision concerning Christ’s redemption.
At this point, I would say a brief word concerning the reason we have no trust in the traditional teachings. We have a vision with much deeper truth. Because the Lord has shown us something in a much deeper way, we simply cannot follow the teachings that are superficial.
It is not easy to speak concerning our vision of redemption, nor is it easy to speak concerning the vision of God’s salvation. However, once you are enlightened to see this vision, you would be beside yourself. Compared to the full salvation revealed in the Word of God, if we are short of enlightenment and short of vision in this matter, our speaking may be somewhat like the speaking of an uneducated person about a highly technical subject.
In the first stage of our vision concerning God’s full salvation, we were enlightened to see the assurance of salvation. We were beside ourselves. Wherever we went, we would ask people, “Have you been saved? Do you know that you have been saved?” We especially liked to ask the pastors, elders, preachers, deacons, or deaconesses these questions. At that time I was somewhat like a young tiger, afraid of nothing and not knowing much. We offended many people. When I was a young man, about twenty-five years old, I questioned a pastor about sixty-five years old, asking him, “Do you know that you have been saved?” No doubt he was offended and wondered how such a young person dared to ask him such a question. Actually, he did not know that he was saved. We met a number of cases like this.
On one occasion in 1933, I was invited to preach to the students at a Presbyterian hospital nursing school with nearly one hundred students and nurses. The pastor, the only older one present, sat at the back of the chapel behind all the students, while I was standing in the front preaching the assurance of salvation. He was offended quite a few times while I was speaking and shook his head in disagreement. The students, however, were happy to hear what I had to say, and they nodded their heads in agreement. As I said, at that time I was young and very bold, but I did not know much. Today, if I were preaching the assurance of salvation, I would not ask people, “Have you been saved?” In fact, if you were to ask me whether I have been saved, today I would ask you what you mean, because I have come to realize that God’s salvation is not a simple matter.
Because God’s salvation is not a simple matter or a matter that can be summarized in a brief way, it is necessary to explain what we mean when we speak of being saved. There are a number of stages involved in God’s full salvation.
For example, in chapter 1 of Philippians Paul says that he was in prison, and he indicates that through the prayer of the saints the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ would be salvation unto him (v. 19). This meant that Paul had not been saved yet but that he would be saved by the saints’ prayer and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we can see that it is necessary to explain specifically what we mean when we ask, “Have you been saved?” We need to understand the stages of God’s salvation in full.
I would like to ask each of you whether or not you have been saved, and then I would ask whether you have been saved from the unhappy expression on your wife’s face, and whether you have been saved from all your worries. Therefore, we would say again that God’s salvation is not a simple matter, and it is a salvation in stages. To be saved from God’s condemnation is one thing, but to be saved from Satan’s usurpation is something else. To be saved from environmental botherings is another matter, and to be saved from God’s punishment, from His discipline, is still another matter.
Furthermore, man has three parts, and every part has become fallen. As a tripartite man with a spirit, soul, and body, you need to be saved in every part. Your body needs to be saved out of its fallen condition. Your soul and your spirit likewise need to be saved out of the fall. The two things the fall mainly brought to you are sin and death. Therefore, to be saved you need to be saved from sin, and you need to be saved from death.
How many items we need to be saved from! You need to consider all the things you need to be saved from. You need to be saved from God’s condemnation, which includes saving you from hell, or from the lake of fire; you need to be saved from Satan’s usurpation; and you need to be saved from environmental troubles. You also need to be saved from God’s punishment, His discipline. You need to have your body saved from sin and death, you need to have your soul saved from corruption and death, and you need to have your spirit saved from death. Even with such a list of items, there are many more things involved in God’s salvation that we have not mentioned yet. God’s salvation is full and all-inclusive. When you try to explain what we have seen of God’s full salvation, it is necessary for you to cover all the aforementioned points.
God’s salvation is a compositional matter for the salvation of our spirit, our soul, and our body. It is composed with the forgiveness and washing away of sins, then with justification, reconciliation, redemption, regeneration, sanctification, transformation, transfiguration, conformation, and glorification. These items composed together equal salvation. Such a compositional salvation saves us from God’s condemnation and from so many negative things.
First, this compositional salvation saves your spirit. To save your spirit is the initial stage of God’s saving by regeneration. Then from this initial stage God’s compositional salvation goes on to save your soul by sanctification and transformation. Then this compositional salvation goes on to save your body by transfiguration, including conformation and glorification, which makes you no longer different from the Lord. It is necessary to cover all these points to have the vision of God’s full salvation.
