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Scripture Reading: Col. 1:22; John 3:14; Rom. 8:3; Eph. 2:15; Luke 1:35; John 1:14; Rom. 9:5; Matt. 27:45-46; 1 John 1:7; John 12:24, 31-33; 12, Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19-20; Rev. 13:8
We must be deeply impressed that the New Testament reveals to us a wonderful person for the divine dispensing. This person is the Triune God incarnated to be a man (John 1:14). The Gospels show this person’s conception and birth. His conception was carried out by the Triune God. All three of the Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — joined and participated in this conception. Many of us have an inadequate concept about His conception. We used to think that this conception was merely the Son of God’s conception, yet we have to realize that both the Father and the Spirit joined in that conception. The Father’s divine essence was mingled with the human essence by the Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35). Therefore, all three of the Godhead participated in that conception, which was carried out in the womb of a human virgin. This brought forth a child with two natures — the divine nature and the human nature. He was born as a God-man. From His birth He was the complete God (Rom. 9:5) and the perfect man. From such a conception and birth we see the three of the Godhead in humanity. No human word can explain such a mysterious, excellent, and marvelous conception and birth. The person who was produced by such a conception is also mysterious, excellent, and marvelous. In human history there has never been such a person.
The New Testament then tells us that such an excellent and marvelous person lived a life that was so mysterious, so excellent, and so marvelous. This life combined and mingled the human life with the divine life. In this life we can see all the divine attributes and all the human virtues, in this life we cannot find any trace of sin, and in this life there is no room left for Satan and no element of the world. This life is not only a mysterious, excellent, and marvelous life but also a victorious life, a life of victory to the uttermost. Such a life accomplishes God’s eternal purpose and has been set up as a pattern, a model, for all Christians to live. It is a full model for the church life.
In the previous chapters we have seen two basic items of God’s New Testament economy: the incarnation of the Word and the living of the Son. Now we come to the third item of God’s New Testament economy — the Son’s death. Whether or not a death is honorable, whether or not a death is dignified, depends on the source of that death. A mosquito’s death does not bear any significance, but the death of a king has a great significance. In the New Testament there is a death that is full of significance. It is mysterious, excellent, marvelous, and wonderful because it is the death of a mysterious, excellent, marvelous, and wonderful person. This is the death of the God-man. This is the death of a man who had God wrought into His intrinsic nature, a man mingled with the Triune God. The Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — was all wrapped up with this man, so this man was a Triune God-man. Such a man died a wonderful, excellent, mysterious, marvelous, and victorious death.
Now we need to see all the factors that required the death of this wonderful person. The first factor is sin (John 1:29). In this universe sin came in (Rom. 5:12) between God and man. Out of sin came many sins (1 Pet. 2:24). Besides these two factors, another factor is that there is an enemy, who is not only the enemy of God but also the enemy of man. This enemy is the devil, Satan (Heb. 2:14). Satan produced a system called the world, which usurped the man whom God created for His purpose (John 12:31). The world is another factor that required the death of the God-man Jesus. When this wonderful man lived on this earth, He confronted the satanic system, the world. In addition to these factors, there is the old creation. Whatever God had created became old. In the Bible old denotes corruption. God’s creation became corrupted because the factor of death invaded and corrupted the creation. All the items in the universe became deteriorated through the invasion of death, causing everything to become old. The universe was created by God, but it was ruined by Satan and made old by death. This old creation included mankind (Rom. 6:6). We belong to the old creation. Another factor requiring the wonderful death of Christ is the religious regulations, rituals, and ordinances (Eph. 2:15). The religious ordinances became a separating factor between men. The Jews had many ordinances that separated them from the Gentiles.
The last factor requiring the death of Christ is a positive factor. He died in order to release the divine life (John 12:24). If His death had only taken away the six negative factors, it would have cleared up the entire universe, but the result would have just been emptiness. If sin and sins are gone, Satan is over, the world is finished, the old creation is terminated, and all religious ordinances are taken away, all that is left is emptiness. However, there is a wonderful, positive factor. The death of Christ released the divine life for the divine dispensing. If the divine life had never been released, it could never have been dispensed. Once the divine life is released, it is good for the divine dispensing. Sin, sins, Satan, the world, the old creation, the religious ordinances, and the release of the divine life are the seven factors requiring the wonderful death of Christ.
In human history there was only one person who was qualified to die such a death — the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He died such a death in His humanity. He was the Son of God, having the divine life (1:4; 14:6). He was God (1:1), even the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), the aggregate of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit. In Him was life, and this life was released through His death. However, if He were only the complete God and not a man, He could not die for man. To die for man, to accomplish redemption for man, He had to be a man with a man’s blood (Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:22), since only a man’s blood can redeem man. Therefore, He was not only the Son of God but the man Jesus Christ. God has the divine life, but He does not have the human blood. God, by Himself, is qualified for everything, but He is not qualified by Himself for man’s redemption. Man’s redemption needs the genuine blood of a genuine man.
Praise the Lord that there was such a mysterious, excellent, marvelous, and wonderful One who was both God and man! He had the divine life, and He had the human blood. Our Savior, our Redeemer, was the complete God and the perfect man. As the complete God, He had the divine life, and as the perfect man, He had the human blood. Because He had the divine life, He could release the divine life for the divine dispensing, and His human blood qualified Him to be our Redeemer, to die a vicarious death for us. This God-man’s death takes away our sin and sins (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:3), and His blood cleanses us from every sin (1 John 1:7). He accomplished His redemption for us, the sinful man, in His humanity, that is, in His flesh (Col. 1:22).
When God became a man, He did not become a new man. John 1:14 does not say that the Word became a man; it says that the Word became flesh. When the Son of God became a man, man had become old, and man had become flesh. In the Bible, especially in the New Testament, flesh denotes fallen man. The Bible tells us that God created man, but God did not create the flesh. Genesis 1 tells us that after God created man, He “saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good” (v. 31), indicating that the man God created was very good. In Genesis 3, however, this God-created man fell, and in Genesis 6 this fallen man became the corrupted, fallen flesh through sin (v. 3). Romans 3:20 says that out of the works of the law “no flesh shall be justified before Him.” Flesh here refers to fallen man. In the eyes of God, fallen mankind is simply flesh.
Although John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh, in our understanding, we always say that the Word became a man. There is a big difference between the God-created man and the flesh, which denotes the fallen man. The reason God sent the flood in Noah’s time was because man had become flesh. Because the God-created man had become flesh, God’s will was to destroy him (Gen. 6:7).
Romans 8:3 says, “That which the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. Even though Christ was only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, we still must realize that this flesh was something related to sin. In John 1:14 only the flesh is mentioned. John does not give us any modifier for the flesh. Paul, however, uses the term the likeness of the flesh of sin. Three items are here in Romans 8:3 — the likeness, flesh, and sin. If Paul had said that God sent His Son to come in the likeness of an angel, this would not give anyone a problem. But God sent His Son to come in the likeness of the flesh of sin.
In John 1:14 we see the flesh, and in John 3:14 we see the serpent. John 3:14 says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” In this verse Christ is typified as a serpent. Verse 15 says, “That everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life.” The Bible likens Christ to a serpent. In John 1:29 Christ is typified as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb is a type of Christ, and the bronze serpent is also a type of Christ. Numbers 21 tells us that Moses did not lift up a real serpent with poison; he lifted up a bronze serpent (vv. 4-9).
If there were a serpent in our bedroom, I do not think that most of us would be able to sleep so well. Even if you gave me a golden serpent, I still would not put it in my room. Gold is precious, but I do not care for gold in the form of a snake. Have you ever realized that the Bible likens Christ to a serpent? The very flesh that Christ became is related to this serpent. The old serpent is in our flesh. Christ became flesh, and Satan, the serpent, is related to this flesh. In the eyes of God, when Christ was crucified on the cross, He was like a serpent only in form, in likeness, without the poisonous, sinful nature. For Christ to be in the form of the serpent is the same as saying that He was in the likeness of the flesh of sin.
Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and in this flesh was Satan. To say that Christ became flesh and that in His flesh was Satan is heretical. However, to say that Christ became flesh and that in the flesh (not Christ’s flesh) was Satan is correct. To teach the truth we must learn of the attorneys. They use many modifiers in their speech, and they are very careful, cautious, and detailed. For example, the Bible says that the Word became flesh, but this does not mean that the Word became something sinful. The Bible also likens Christ to a serpent, but this does not mean that the Bible likens Christ to something having the poisonous nature. In Romans 8:3 Paul modifies the flesh. He says that God sent His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. Also, the serpent in John 3:14 is defined in Numbers 21. The very serpent lifted up by Moses was a bronze serpent. It had only the form, the likeness, of the serpent, without the poisonous nature.
Christ as the Son of God became a man in the likeness of the flesh of sin. The fallen man had sin, but Christ did not have sin (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:21-22). He was in the likeness of the fallen man, but He did not have the fallen nature of the fallen man. When He became flesh, He became a part of the old creation, since flesh is a part of the old creation. As a result, His death was the death of the old creation.
This wonderful One was qualified in three ways to die a marvelous, all-inclusive death. As the Son of God, He was qualified to release the divine life; as a man, He was qualified to shed genuine human blood; and as the flesh, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) of the old creation, He was qualified to terminate the old creation, including the old man (Rom. 6:6).
We must also realize that God’s enemy, Satan, got into man’s fallen flesh through the fall. In the fallen flesh of man there was Satan, and with Satan was the satanic system, the world. It was in the likeness of this fallen flesh that Christ died on the cross as a man. Hence, through His death in the flesh He destroyed the devil, Satan (Heb. 2:14), and judged his world (John 12:31-33).
We have already said that Christ became flesh (1:14) and that in the flesh (not Christ’s flesh) was Satan. If we said that Satan was in the flesh of Christ, that would be heretical. However, some of us may still have a problem regarding the statement that Christ became flesh and that in the flesh was Satan. The diagram in this chapter showing the sphere of the flesh with Satan as personified sin in it according to Romans 7 may help us.
Based upon Romans 7 we say that Satan and sin are in the flesh. Romans 7 tells us that sin is in our flesh, and in Romans 7 sin is personified. This chapter shows that sin can deceive and kill people (v. 11) and that it can dwell in people and do things against their will (vv. 17, 20). It is quite alive (v. 9) and exceedingly active; so it must be the evil nature of Satan, the evil one, dwelling, acting, and working in fallen mankind. Sin in Romans 7 is a person. This person is the source of sin, the origin of sin. This sin who is Satan still remains in our flesh, where he lives, works, and moves, even after we have been saved. The sin in our flesh is a person, just as the divine life in our spirit is a person. This person who is our life is Christ (Col. 3:4), the embodiment of the Triune God. The Triune God as life is in our spirit, and Satan as sin is in our flesh. If we saved ones are not on the alert, and do not watch and pray, this evil one can instigate us to do sinful things. In our flesh there is lust (Gal. 5:16), and this lust is related to Satan in our flesh.
One day the Word became flesh. Remember that Jesus was not born of a human father but of a human mother (Matt. 1:18). His humanity is flesh; however, His humanity is not of the male but of the female. Our flesh is a sinful flesh because it is of the male with the female. But the flesh of Jesus is only of the female, not of the male; therefore, His flesh is not sinful. Our flesh is not only flesh but sinful flesh, but the flesh of Christ, having nothing to do with the male, is not sinful flesh. Jesus’ flesh is surely joined to the sinful flesh as the diagram on the next page indicates. However, the element of sin is in the sphere of the flesh below the dotted line but not in the spot above the dotted line. Within the part above the dotted line is God. In the sphere of the flesh below the dotted line is Satan, but in the sphere of the flesh above the dotted line is God.
The diagram shows that these two spheres are joined together with a dotted line separating them. Since God was in the sphere of the flesh above the dotted line, sin could not penetrate through this line, because God is too strong for His enemy, Satan. Satan was restricted within the realm, the sphere, of the flesh below the dotted line. Satan tried again and again to enter into the flesh of Jesus, but he could not get through. The Spirit even led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After having fasted forty days and forty nights, He was tempted by the devil three times (Matt. 4:1-11). Satan tried three times to enter into the flesh of Jesus, but he could not get through.
The diagram below illustrates the two parts of the flesh. The main part is sinful, and the small part is not sinful. In the main part is Satan; in the small part is God. During the thirty-three and a half years of the life of Jesus, Satan was fighting to get through the border line into the flesh of Jesus. However, he could never get through, because God was always resisting him, and God is stronger than he is. When the Word became flesh, He joined Himself to the flesh. Then when Christ went to the cross, He put the entire sphere of the flesh to death, which included Satan and sin, by injecting death into the flesh. When Jesus brought His flesh to the cross, He brought Satan and sin, which are in the flesh, to the cross also, and He injected death into the flesh, which included Satan and sin, the flesh to which He had been joined. Satan had no way to reject this death. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that the death of Jesus on the cross destroyed the devil who has the might of death. This marvelous, wonderful, all-inclusive, victorious death killed the flesh in which Satan and sin were residing.
Christ died on the cross not only as the Lamb of God to take away our sin but also as a grain of wheat to release the divine life from within Him (John 12:24). He also died as the serpent to destroy the old serpent, the devil (Heb. 2:14). He destroyed Satan by dying in the flesh. Within the flesh was Satan, so when Jesus died in the flesh, His death destroyed Satan. His death is all-inclusive.
Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “Him [Christ] who did not know sin He [God] made sin on our behalf.” It should have been in the last three hours, from twelve noon to three o’clock in the afternoon (Matt. 27:45), while He was dying the vicarious death for us sinners who are flesh, that God made Christ sin on our behalf, and through His death in His flesh condemned sin (Rom. 8:3), which is in man’s flesh. When God condemned Christ on the cross in His flesh, God condemned sin in the flesh. When His flesh was condemned, Satan who was in man’s flesh was also destroyed.
When Jesus the man was crucified on the cross, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all involved. The Son’s death was with the Father and by the Spirit. Yes, it was in His humanity, in the flesh, that Christ died on the cross. However, He also died with His divinity. When Christ was dying on the cross, He was not only the Son of Man but also the Son of God. We must remember that He was one person with two natures — the human nature and the divine nature. We cannot say that when Christ was dying on the cross, the divine nature was taken away, because the very person who was dying on the cross, as both the Son of Man and the Son of God, still possessed the divine nature and the human nature. This was His very being, and this was related to His intrinsic nature.
For example, a person may take away the jacket that I am wearing, but he cannot take away my intrinsic nature. The intrinsic nature of Jesus was the nature of both the Son of Man and the Son of God. Jesus as a person was both the Son of Man and the Son of God. When He was walking and living on the earth, when He was arrested, when He was judged, when He was crucified on the cross, He was always both the Son of Man and the Son of God. On the cross He was dying as both the Son of Man and the Son of God.
He was the Son of God through the conceiving of the Holy Spirit essentially (Luke 1:35). Essentially means “intrinsically.” A person’s intrinsic nature cannot be changed. Just because a German puts on a Japanese kimono does not make him Japanese; he is still a German. Essentially, he is German. Economically, he is wearing Japanese clothing. Jesus was born to be the Son of God essentially because He was conceived of the Spirit of God. Nothing can change His essential nature.
His conception was God’s incarnation (John 1:14); hence, He was God (Rom. 9:5). Jesus was God when He was in the manger as a little babe. Isaiah 9:6 tells us that a child is born to us, and His name will be called the mighty God. The little babe in the manger was God essentially. Can we say that when He was put on the cross, He was no longer God? To say that He was no longer God on the cross is not logical, since nothing can change His essence. He was always with the Father and by the Spirit.
Essentially, on the cross Christ was God. Economically, God left Him while He was dying His vicarious death for sinners (Matt. 27:45-46). Many Christians have never seen the difference between the essential and economical aspects of the Trinity. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and the divine element of the Holy Spirit became His very essence. From His birth the Holy Spirit was all the time in His being, but when He was thirty, after His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him as a dove (3:16). Before the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, He had the Holy Spirit as His intrinsic essence essentially (1:18, 20). Why then did the Holy Spirit still need to come down upon Him? The reason is that essentially Jesus already had the Spirit of life for His existence, but economically for His ministry He did not have the Spirit of power yet. He had the Holy Spirit as His life essence already, but He did not have the Holy Spirit as His power. At the time of His baptism the Holy Spirit came upon Him economically, and this economical Spirit remained with Him for three and a half years until the time He was crucified to die for us, the sinners. At this juncture God left Him economically (27:45-46), just as God came to Him by the Spirit as power economically three and a half years earlier.
Whether God came economically or left Him economically did not change His intrinsic essence or nature. Whether I put on a jacket or take off a jacket does not change my essence. God came upon Him at His baptism economically, and God also left Him on the cross economically. This did not change His essence. When He was standing in the water of baptism, He was the Son of Man and the Son of God. When He was crucified on the cross, He was still both the Son of Man and the Son of God. Essentially there was no change, but economically there was some change. At His baptism God came upon Him, and on the cross God left Him. But this economical coming and this economical leaving did not change His essence. When Jesus was dying on the cross, God was dying there. Two lines from a famous hymn by Charles Wesley say, “Amazing love! how can it be / That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” (Hymns, #296). Jesus was God, and He died on the cross not only as a man but also as God. Therefore, even when He was on the cross, He was still the Son with the Father by the Spirit.
The Triune God was there at the conception of Jesus. The Triune God lived on the earth, and the Triune God was also dying on the cross. The Triune God was involved with the conception of Jesus, with the living of Jesus on this earth, and with the death of Jesus on the cross. The Triune God was altogether wrapped up with Jesus.
The death of Jesus on the cross as a man provided the human blood necessary for our forgiveness in redemption. But if He had died merely as a man, the effectiveness of His death would not be eternal. The efficacy of Jesus’ death is eternal, without limit in space and without limit in time. His efficacious death can cover millions of believers. His humanity qualified Him to die for us, and His divinity secured the eternal efficacy of His death.
An eternal redemption was accomplished by the blood of the Son of God through the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:12, 14; 1 John 1:7). The blood He shed on the cross was not only the blood of Jesus the man but also of the Son of God. First John 1:7 tells us that the blood of Jesus the Son of God cleanses us from every sin. The blood of Jesus the man qualified His redemption for us as men. He was a genuine man who died for us and shed genuine blood for us. But the efficacy of His redemption was secured by His divinity, and it has been secured for eternity by Him as the Son of God. Therefore, His redemption is an eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12) because this redemption was accomplished not only by the blood of Jesus the man but also by the blood of Jesus the Son of God, which the apostle Paul even calls God’s “own blood” (Acts 20:28). This is marvelous!
The Son’s death was also through the Spirit (Heb. 9:14). He offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. He died with the Father in the nature of the Triune God, and He offered Himself to death through the Spirit. Again, this indicates that even in His death as the Son of God, He was with the Father and by the Spirit. Hence, His death accomplished an eternal redemption by the blood of the Son of God and through the eternal Spirit. This eternal redemption has no time element. As the redeeming Lamb, He was foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:19-20) and was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). In our eyes Christ died two thousand years ago, but in the eyes of God He was slain from the foundation of the world. His death is eternal without any element of time.
Such an all-inclusive death has been compounded into the all-inclusive Spirit (Phil. 1:19). Our intention is to see, to know, and to realize the compound Spirit because the elements of Christ’s conception, of Christ’s human living, and of Christ’s death are all compounded in this Spirit. When we apply the all-inclusive Spirit to ourselves, this all-inclusive death is ours. This death was not merely a human death but also a divine death. This was the death of the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the man. In this death sin is condemned, Satan is destroyed, the world is judged, and man with the flesh of sin is crucified. This is a mysterious, excellent, marvelous, wonderful, and victorious death. We must treasure this death since it is a great inheritance to us. It is one of the great bequests of the New Testament. God the Father has bequeathed to us the treasure of Christ (2 Cor. 4:7) with His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8). Among these unsearchable riches is His wonderful death. May the Lord grant us a proper view and a proper knowledge of this marvelous, all-inclusive, wonderful death so that we may be able to be brought into the enjoyment of our New Testament inheritance.
