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Scripture Reading: Acts 20:13-38
In 20:28 Paul charges the elders of the church in Ephesus “to shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood.” The Greek word translated “obtained” also means acquired or purchased. Whenever we purchase something, we acquire it, or obtain it. God acquired, obtained, the church by purchasing it In order to purchase anything, we need to pay the price for that thing. What was the price God paid to purchase the church? According to Paul’s word in 20:28, God obtained the church by paying the price of “His own blood.”
The phrase “His own blood” in verse 28 is very unusual. It is quite bothering. Can God have blood? God is God; He is not a man or a creature. How, then, can God, the Creator, have blood?
Some may try to explain this by saying that the blood in 20:28 is the blood of Jesus. But how can Jesus’ blood be God’s blood? The Lord Jesus is God, but 20:28 does not speak of Jesus; this verse speaks of God. As we consider this, we realize that it is very difficult to explain theologically.
More than two centuries ago, Charles Wesley wrote a hymn that speaks of God dying for us. In this hymn Wesley says:
Amazing love! how can it be That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
In this hymn Wesley goes on to say, “Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!” Here Wesley declares that God died for us. When I was translating this hymn into Chinese years ago, I was troubled by this. I was not sure whether to be so bold as to translate it literally to indicate that God died for us. Do you have the boldness to say that God died for you? Charles Wesley saw the vision concerning this and declared in his hymn that God died for us.
The God who died for us is not the God before incarnation. Prior to incarnation, God certainly did not have blood, and He could not have died for us. It was after the incarnation, in which God was mingled with humanity, that He died for us. Through incarnation, our God, the Creator, the eternal One, Jehovah, became mingled with man. As a result, He was no longer only God — He became a God-man. As the God-man, He surely had blood and was able to die for us.
When the God-man died on the cross, He died not only as man but also as God. The One who died on the cross was the One who had been conceived of God and born with God. Because He was a God-man, the very element of God was in Him. The divine element was mingled with His humanity.
In the conception of the Lord Jesus, the God-man, the divine essence out of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18-20; Luke 1:35) was generated in Mary’s womb. Such a conception of the Holy Spirit in the human virgin, accomplished with both the divine and human essences, constituted a mingling of the divine nature with the human nature and produced the God-man, One who is both the complete God and a perfect man, possessing the divine nature and the human nature distinctively, without a third nature being produced. This is the most wonderful and excellent Person of Jesus.
The conception and birth of the Lord Jesus was God’s incarnation (John 1:14), constituted of the divine essence added to the human essence, hence, producing the God-man of two natures — divinity and humanity. Through this, God joined Himself to humanity that He might be manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16) and might be the Savior (Luke 2:11) who died and shed His blood for us.
The blood that has redeemed fallen human beings is the blood of Jesus, the Son of God. As human beings, we need genuine human blood for our redemption. Because He was a man, the Lord Jesus could fulfill this requirement. As a man, He shed human blood to redeem fallen human beings. The Lord is also the Son of God, even God Himself. Therefore, with His blood there is the element of eternity, and this element ensures the eternal efficacy of His blood. Therefore, as a man He had genuine human blood, and as God He has the element that gives to His blood eternal efficacy.
First John 1:7 says that “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” The name “Jesus” denotes the Lord’s humanity, which was 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. Thus, “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 the divine surety for its eternal efficacy, an efficacy which is all-prevailing in space and everlasting in time.
The blood the Lord shed on the cross was the blood of Jesus, the Son of God. It was not only the blood of Jesus; it was also the blood of the Son of God. For this reason, the redemption accomplished by the God-man, by the One mingled with God, is eternal.
If the redemption accomplished on the cross was accomplished merely by a man, that redemption could not be eternally effective. Although it might be effective for the redemption of one person, it would not be effective for the redemption of millions of believers. Since a man is limited, a particular man cannot die for millions of others. However, although man is limited, God is not limited. Likewise, although man is temporal, God is eternal. Therefore, in Christ’s redemption there is the eternal and unlimited element of God. This is the reason that in Hebrews 9:12 this redemption is called an eternal redemption.
We need to see that the blood shed by the Lord Jesus on the cross is eternal blood. It is the blood not merely of a man but of a man mingled with the divine element. Hence, this blood, the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, is eternal. In Acts 20:28 Paul had the boldness to speak of this blood as being God’s own blood.
Some of today’s Christians have a concept of God that is very similar to the Jewish concept. The Jewish concept of God is that God is God and that there is no human element in Him. But according to the Bible, the very God in the Old Testament has become the God revealed in the New Testament. In the Old Testament God was merely God, without any human element. But in the New Testament we see the God-man. Through incarnation the God in the Old Testament put on human nature and became the God-man. As such, He became God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16).
God became the God-man by being conceived in the womb of a human virgin and then being born of that virgin. In this way the human element was added to His divine element. However, this does not mean that as the God-man the Savior has two persons. No, the Lord Jesus, the Savior, has one person with two natures — the divine nature and the human nature. Although this is very difficult to understand, it is nevertheless a fact revealed in the Bible.
Now we can see that our God is the God revealed in the New Testament and not merely the God as He is revealed in the Old Testament. The Jews, however, have God only as He is seen in the Old Testament. What is the difference between the Jewish God and our God? The difference is that the Jewish God is merely God without a human element, whereas, according to the New Testament, our God is no longer merely God — He is a God-man. Our God has two natures, the divine nature and the human nature. This means that our God, the God-man, is both the complete God and a perfect man. However, He is not two persons; rather, the God-man is one person.
Although we have always believed and taught that the God-man, Jesus Christ, is one person with the divine nature and the human nature and that He is both the complete God and a perfect man, certain opposers have falsely accused us of teaching that Christ was neither fully God nor fully man. They accuse us of saying that the two natures, the divine nature and the human nature, are mingled in Christ to produce a third nature. This accusation is utterly false and baseless, and we repudiate it.
Those who have made this false accusation against us do so by twisting our word in the booklet The Four Major Steps of Christ. In that booklet we say clearly and emphatically that our Savior is both the real God and the true man. Through incarnation neither the divine nature nor the human nature is lost. On the contrary, although the divine and human natures are mingled to form the God-man, both the divine nature and the human nature remain, and a third nature is by no means produced. Although this truth was clearly defined and presented, it was twisted in an evil way in an attempt to accuse us of heresy concerning the Person of Christ. According to the Scriptures, we definitely believe that our Savior, who shed His blood for our redemption, died on the cross as the God-man.
Since we have pointed out that the Lord Jesus died on the cross as the God-man, some may wonder about Mark 15:34: “At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?” This was the Lord’s cry during the time He was bearing our sins (1 Pet. 2:24), being made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21), and taking the place of sinners (1 Pet. 3:18). This means that God judged Him as our Substitute for our sins. In the sight of God, Christ became a great sinner. Because Christ was our Substitute and was made sin in the sight of God, God judged Him and even forsook Him.
According to Matthew 1 and Luke 1, the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Later, for His ministry, He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, who descended upon Him (Luke 3:22). We need to realize that before the anointing Spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus economically, He already had, essentially, the begetting Spirit as the divine essence within Him as one of the two essences of His being. Now we need to see that the begetting Spirit as the divine essence never left Him essentially. Even when He was on the cross crying out, “My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?” He still had the begetting Spirit as the divine essence. Then who left Him? It was the anointing Spirit through whom He presented Himself to God (Heb. 9:14) who left Him economically. After God accepted Christ as the all-inclusive offering, the anointing Spirit left Him. But although the anointing Spirit left Him economically, He still had the begetting Spirit essentially.
When the Lord Jesus, the God-man, died on the cross under God’s judgment, He had God within Him essentially as His divine being. Nevertheless, He was forsaken by the righteous and judging God economically. He was conceived and born of the Holy Spirit essentially and therefore the Holy Spirit was one of the essences of His being. As the Lord Jesus grew up and lived on earth, He had the Holy Spirit within Him essentially. Later, when He was baptized, He already had the Holy Spirit as an essential part of His being. However, at the time of His baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Him economically. This means that the Lord Jesus had the Holy Spirit as one of the essences of His being essentially and also that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him economically. This does not mean, of course, that there are two Holy Spirits. It means that the one Holy Spirit has two aspects — the essential and the economical. The essential aspect was for the being, the existence, of the Lord Jesus, and the economical aspect was for His work, His ministry.
We need to be impressed with the fact that when the Lord Jesus was on the cross dying for our sins, God was in Him essentially. Therefore, the One who died for our sins was the God-man. But at a certain point the righteous God, while judging this God-man, left Him economically. God’s forsaking of Christ was an economical matter related to the carrying out of God’s judgment.
Because the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and was born of God and with God, He had the Holy Spirit as the intrinsic essence of His divine being. Therefore, it was not possible for God to leave, to forsake, Him essentially. Nevertheless, He was forsaken by God economically when the Spirit, who had descended upon Him as the economical power for the carrying out of His ministry, left Him. But the essence of God remained in His being. Therefore, He died on the cross as the God-man, and the blood He shed there for our redemption was the blood not only of the man Jesus, but also the blood of the God-man. Therefore, this blood, through which God obtained the church, is God’s own blood.
Let us read Acts 20:28 again: “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood.” Here, in His charge to the elders of the church in Ephesus, Paul speaks both of the Holy Spirit and of God’s own blood in order to indicate his feeling concerning the preciousness of the church. According to Paul’s understanding, the church is altogether precious. The church is under the care of the Holy Spirit, and the church has been bought by God with His own blood. Hence, the church is a treasure in the sight of God. Paul treasured the church even as God does.
In 20:28 Paul charged the elders to treasure the church as God does and he did. The fact that God purchased the church with His own blood indicates the preciousness of the church in His sight. Having paid such a price for the church, the church surely is dear to Him. Moreover, the church is under the care of the Holy Spirit. According to Paul’s word in verse 28, the elders should consider the church very precious, regarding it as a treasure in the sight of God. The elders, in shepherding the church, should have the same feeling about the church that God has.
