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Scripture Reading: Col. 1:22; Eph. 2:15-16; Col. 2:9; 1 Tim. 3:16; Acts 20:28; John 8:29; 16:32; 1:29; Heb. 9:26, 28; 1 Cor. 15:3; Heb. 9:12; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20a; Heb. 2:14; John 12:31; Gal. 6:14; Heb. 2:9; Col. 1:20; 2:14-15; John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17
In this chapter we want to continue our fellowship concerning the crucifixion of Christ and answer a number of serious questions concerning this crucial part of the move of God in man.
First, we need to consider how we can say that the death of Christ was the death of God and how the Scriptures show us that Christ’s death was God’s death. We saw in the previous chapter that Christ was crucified in the flesh (Col. 1:22; Eph. 2:15-16) and that Christ in His body of flesh was the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9). Furthermore, the manifestation of Christ was the manifestation of God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). Therefore, the crucifixion of Christ was also God’s crucifixion.
Acts 20:28 is a strong verse showing that the crucifixion of Christ was God’s crucifixion. This verse says that God purchased the church with His own blood. In quoting the Bible to prove a point, it is always best to have two or three verses because this is a matter of testimony. The Bible presents a principle that two or three witnesses are required for a proper testimony (Deut. 19:15; 1 Tim. 5:19). Other scriptural evidence to show that Christ’s death was really God’s death are John 8:29 and 16:32. These verses show that God the Father was always one with the Son and never left Him alone. Also, 1 Timothy 3:16 says that Christ was God manifested in the flesh. Since the manifestation of Christ was the manifestation of God in the flesh, the crucifixion of Christ was also the crucifixion of God.
When the Lord appeared to Thomas in resurrection after His crucifixion, He said, “Bring your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas then answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:27-28). The Lord’s death is referred to here, and the title God is ascribed to this One who had died. The man Jesus who died on the cross was the very God.
In Christ’s incarnation God was there. In His human living God was there. Colossians 2:9 says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily. The Triune God — not only the Son but also the Father and the Spirit — lived in the man Jesus. In the same principle, God died on the cross in the Son’s death.
There is another verse in the Bible, however, which says that God forsook Christ on the cross. Matthew 27:46 says, “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” How can we reconcile this verse with the other verses in the Scriptures which show that Christ’s crucifixion was God’s crucifixion? At the very juncture when the Lord Jesus was going to give up His spirit, He cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” On the one hand, God never left the Son, but on the other hand, the Son cried out that God had forsaken Him.
In order to answer this question, we need to see the essential and economical aspects of the Divine Trinity. In the history of theology, the students of the Bible have seen two aspects of the Divine Trinity: the essential Trinity and the economical Trinity. The essential Trinity refers to the very intrinsic essence of the Trinity. In essence the three of the Trinity are one. The first dwells in the second, the second dwells in the third, and the third dwells in the first and the second. The three coinhere, dwell in each other, essentially. They are one and cannot be divided. But economically speaking, that is, according to God’s economy, God’s plan, and God’s accomplishing of His purpose, the three are distinct. If the three were not distinct, how could the first forsake the second?
Another picture of the economical Trinity can be seen at the Lord’s baptism. At the time of His baptism, the Father was in the heavens, the Son was in the water, and the Spirit was in the air like a dove. The Son in the water on the earth heard the Father in the heavens speaking (3:16-17). In this case the three of the Godhead were not only distinct; They were in three different locations.
In order to have a complete view of the Divine Trinity, we need to see His economical and essential aspects. In John 10:30 the Lord said, “I and the Father are one.” In John 14:11 the Son told the disciples, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” Are They separated? No. They are one essentially. But when They act to carry out Their economy, to finish Their plan, to accomplish Their purpose, quite often They are distinct. At the Son’s baptism the Father was distinct from the Son, and the Son was distinct from the Father. The Gospels also show us that the Son prayed to the Father, and when He prayed, He lifted up His eyes to heaven (John 17:1). Here we see that the Father and the Son are distinct economically. Essentially speaking, the crucifixion of Christ was God’s crucifixion, but at the juncture when Christ gave up His spirit, God forsook Him. God was there essentially, but He forsook Him economically. We need to realize that the study of the Divine Trinity is an endless matter.
Now we need to consider how we can prove that God in Christ died for everything. Christ’s death was not only for us sinners but also for everything, including all creation with the angels. Hebrews 2:9 says that Christ tasted death on behalf of everything. This means that He died for everything. The word everything is very strong in Greek. Everyone means every man, but Hebrews 2:9 says that Christ tasted death not for everyone but for everything. The Lord Jesus’ redemption was accomplished not only for people but for everything created by God.
Colossians 1:20 says, “Through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross — through Him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.” This is the second verse that proves Christ’s death was for all things. Not only the things on the earth but also the things in the heavens needed to be reconciled to God through Christ’s blood. God reconciled all things to Himself through Christ. Hebrews 2:9 and Colossians 1:20 show that Christ died for everything, for the whole creation.
Romans 8:21 says, “In hope that the creation itself will also be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” The whole creation needs to be freed from the slavery of corruption, so the whole creation needs Christ’s redemption. Everything in the old creation is corrupting, decaying, dying. Everything created in the whole universe needs redemption. Eventually, the millennium will be a time of the restoration of all things. Restoration implies degradation, and degradation came from sin.
In the universe two rebellions brought in death, corruption, and degradation to the entire creation. One was the satanic rebellion, and the other was man’s rebellion. Before man’s rebellion there was a satanic rebellion, which contaminated the heavens. Satan’s rebellion contaminated, made filthy, all the heavenly things. Such a contaminated, degraded universe can be restored only through Christ’s redemption. Before the creation can be restored, it has to be redeemed. Christ died on the cross for all the items of the creation so that He could reconcile all these items back to God. Christ’s redemption is a foundation laid for the upcoming restoration. When the restoration comes, the slavery of corruption will be over. Today the entire creation is under the slavery of corruption, so the entire creation is groaning. Everything is groaning because everything is under the slavery of corruption.
Hebrews 9:21-24 shows that Christ’s blood was for the purification of all the heavenly things. The tabernacle and all things pertaining to it were sprinkled with and purified by the blood of goats and bulls. That was a figure showing that the heavenly things needed to be purified by the blood of better sacrifices, which are the sacrifices of Christ (7:27; 9:14, 28; 10:10, 12, 14). Christ offered Himself as the one sacrifice (9:14; 10:12). This one sacrifice, viewed from its various aspects, can be considered many sacrifices. Heaven and all things in heaven were defiled by the rebellion of Satan and the fallen angels, who followed Satan in his rebellion against God. So all the heavenly things needed to be purified. Christ accomplished this purification with His own blood when He entered into heaven itself.
Christ’s tasting death on behalf of everything and reconciling all things to God is clearly typified by the redemption accomplished through Noah’s ark, in which not only eight persons but also all living things created by God were saved (Gen. 7:13-23). Noah’s ark saved not only eight people but also all the creatures.
Another type of Christ dying for all things is the veil in the temple being rent when the Lord died. When Christ died, the veil of the temple was split in two from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51). On the veil there were cherubim embroidered (Exo. 26:31). According to Ezekiel 1:5, 10 and 10:14-15, cherubim are living creatures. The cherubim on the veil, then, indicated the living creatures. When the veil was rent, all the creatures were rent also. That means when Christ died on the cross, all the creatures died with Him.
Now we need to consider how we can prove that when Christ was suffering death on the cross, God was busy there. Colossians 2:14 says that when Christ was being crucified on the cross, God was wiping out the handwriting in ordinances, which was against us, which was contrary to us, nailing it to the cross. Verse 15 says that He also stripped off the rulers and the authorities and made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross.
When Christ was suffering death on the cross, God was busy. He was busy in wiping out the handwriting in ordinances by nailing it to the cross. The handwriting in ordinances refers to the law. If you still love the law, what you love was nailed to the cross. Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances. While Christ was suffering in being nailed to the cross, God was also busy nailing the law there.
While Christ was being crucified, the evil angels came in to frustrate God, and there was a struggle between them. There was a group of evil angels who came to frustrate God from working on the cross, so God stripped them off and made a display of them openly. Stripping off in Colossians 2:15 also means “putting off,” as the putting off of the old man mentioned in 3:9. On the cross God was nailing the law, and He was putting off many evil angels. He was busy on the cross according to the invisible scene. This is the intrinsic significance and understanding of the Lord’s death. We must have the spiritual eyes, the heavenly view, to see an invisible scene every day.
Now we need to ask what was accomplished on the cross. We have to answer this question intrinsically. First, Christ took away the sin of the world for God’s eternal redemption. Sin in John 1:29 is a total term, including the sin within in our nature and the sins without in our conduct. Hebrews 9:26 says that Christ put away sin through the sacrifice of Himself, and then verse 28 says that He was offered once to bear the sins of many. These verses refer to sin (singular) and to sins (plural). Sin does have these two aspects: the inward aspect, the sin in our nature, and the outward aspect, the sin in our conduct.
In our preaching of the gospel, to some extent, we should make this clear to our contacts. Even if you think you have no sins in your conduct, you are still sinful because in your nature you have sin. Sin is a factor of your constitution, your being. Your being, your person, has been constituted a sinner with sin. As an illustration, we call a certain drink orange juice because this juice is constituted with oranges. The orange is the essence, the nature, of this juice. In the same way, we are sinners by constitution, not by transgressions. In our constitution we are sinners. A newborn babe is a sinner because within him there is the constituting factor, the essence, of sin (Psa. 51:5). Sin is the essence of our natural constitution, so we are sinners.
Christ died on the cross not only for our transgressions, wrongdoings, mistakes, and offenses but also for our sinful nature. There is an element or essence in our constitution, in our being, that is the inward sin. We are not only sinners; we are sin. Christ died for us as such persons (2 Cor. 5:14-15). This is what I call the intrinsic significance and the intrinsic understanding of the death of Christ. We need to be brought into the intrinsic understanding of all the matters related to the death of Christ.
On the cross Christ died for all of us (vv. 14-15), He crucified our old man (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20a), and He destroyed the devil (Heb. 2:14). When we say that Christ destroyed the devil on the cross, someone may ask us how the devil can continue to work. First Peter 5:8 tells us that Satan, as a roaring lion, still walks about, seeking someone to devour. Christ did destroy Satan on the cross, but Satan still lives and acts.
In order to explain this, we can use what happens in a law court as an illustration. The verdict of the law court is one thing, but the execution of the verdict, the sentence, the judgment, is another thing. According to the verdict, someone may be condemned to death, but he is still living because there has not yet been an execution of the verdict, the judgment. Satan has been judged to be cast into the lake of fire. This is the verdict upon him. But the execution of this verdict, this judgment, is in the process of being carried out.
Today how do we apply God’s judgment, God’s verdict, upon His enemy? This depends on our spiritual condition and the spiritual degree of maturity that we have. A person recently saved has not grown up and has not been perfected, or properly, spiritually educated, so he does not know anything about God’s judgment, His verdict, upon Satan. But those who have been in the Lord for years know that Satan has been judged and that God has pronounced, or proclaimed, His verdict. Now in our spirit with a strong spiritual condition and situation, we can execute God’s judgment over Satan. We can tell him, “Satan, you have been judged. The place where you should be is the lake of fire. Don’t stay here.” We have to execute God’s judgment over Satan continually until the day that he is actually cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). In order to fight the spiritual warfare in this way, we need much teaching, perfecting, and growth in the divine life. Although we are under Satan’s attack, we are cooperating with the Lord to execute God’s judgment upon him, and the Lord’s recovery is still going on.
In His crucifixion Christ also judged and crucified the world (John 12:31). In Galatians 6:14 the apostle Paul says that the world was crucified to him and he to the world. In the eyes of the worldly people, including many of our relatives, our schoolmates, and our friends, we are finished. We are crucified. We do not count as being anything in their sight. To them we know only Jesus, God, and the Bible. This means that to the world we are crucified persons. The world is also crucified to us. We no longer have any interest in the world with its attractions and entertainment. Our unique interest is Christ Himself.
On the cross Christ also tasted death on behalf of everything and reconciled all things to God (Heb. 2:9; Col. 1:20). Furthermore, He abolished the law in ordinances and slew the enmity between peoples (Eph. 2:15-16). Finally, in the positive aspect of His death, He released the divine life for the producing of the believers to constitute the Body of Christ (John 12:24). We need to learn to know all these things concerning the crucifixion of Christ in an intrinsic way.
