(4)
Scripture Reading: Mark 15:16-41
In this message we shall consider what was accomplished through Christ’s redeeming death. However, before we come to this matter, I would like to say a further word concerning the Trinity.
In chapter three of Matthew we see the Three of the Trinity as distinct units: the Father in the heavens, the Son on earth, and the Spirit descending as a dove from the air. But in chapter one of Matthew there is a definite indication that these Three are one.
According to Matthew 1, Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit. This corresponds to John 1:14, a verse that tells us that the Word became flesh. According to the Gospel of John, the Word is the Son of God. When the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Spirit in Mary’s womb, that was the incarnation of the Son of God, the Word becoming flesh. Therefore, 1 Timothy 3:16 speaks of the greatness of the mystery of godliness, which is God manifested in the flesh.
Matt. 1:18 and Matt. 1:20; John 1:14, and 1 Tim. 3:16 all refer to the same matter. The conceiving of the Lord Jesus of the Holy Spirit is the incarnation of the Son of God, and the incarnation of the Son of God is God manifested in the flesh. When we put these verses together, we have the Holy Spirit for the conception of Jesus, the Son for the incarnation, and God for the manifestation. This indicates that the Spirit, the Son of God, and God Himself are one.
On the one hand, the Three of the Trinity are three; on the other hand, the Three are one. This is the reason we speak of God as triune, as three-one. Our God is the Triune God, the three-one God.
Because Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, He is a God-man. With Him there is the mingling of divinity with humanity. Hence, when He was baptized, He was baptized as a God-man. In the same principle, when He died on the cross, He died as a God-man.
First John 1:7 says that the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from every 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 was needed for the eternal efficacy of the redeeming blood. Thus, the blood of Jesus, the Son of God, indicates that this blood is the proper blood of a genuine man for redeeming God’s fallen creatures, with divine surety as to its eternal efficacy, an efficacy which is all-prevailing in space and everlasting in time.
Man’s sin needs human blood for its cleansing. The blood of Jesus is the blood of a genuine man. However, the very Jesus who shed His blood for our redemption is the Son of God. He has both humanity and divinity. His humanity qualified Him to die for us. Because He was a man, He had the blood to shed for the cleansing of our sins. Nevertheless, He is also the Son of God. His divinity insures the eternal effectiveness of His redeeming blood. Therefore, His humanity qualifies Him to be our Redeemer and our Substitute; His divinity gives eternal power to this qualification. If Christ were not a man, He could not be qualified to be our Substitute. Praise the Lord that He was qualified by His humanity to be our Substitute and that His genuine human blood has the qualification to cleanse our sins! This qualification needs something to insure its effectiveness, and this assurance is the Lord’s divinity. His divinity insures the eternal effectiveness of His qualification.
First John 1:7 indicates that the One who died on the cross and shed His blood was the man Jesus, and that this One is the Son of God, the divine Being. He died on the cross as a God-man, the One with both the human nature and the divine nature. As the God-man, He was crucified as our Redeemer.
What the Lord has shown us concerning these matters from His holy Word is somewhat different from traditional teachings. For this reason, there is a measure of conflict between our teaching and the traditional teaching. Concerning this, you need to exercise your discernment to see which teachings are based on the pure Word of God and which are based on traditional doctrine that has been passed on from generation to generation.
Let us now consider what the death of Christ accomplished. First, Christ’s death solved the problem of our sins, the problem of our offenses, transgressions, and sinful deeds. His death has solved the problem of our sins, and it has solved this problem eternally. Concerning this, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3, “For I delivered to you, among the first things, that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Furthermore, 1 Peter 2:24 says that Christ “Himself carried up our sins in His body onto the tree.”
Second, the death of Christ, an all-inclusive death, has dealt with sin. Although it is easy to explain what sins are, it is difficult to define sin. Sins refer to deeds, offenses, trespasses, and transgressions. But what is sin? Romans 8:3 says that God sent His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin and condemned sin in the flesh. In order to condemn sin, Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin. John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
According to the Bible and also according to our experience, we have seen that sin is actually the sinful nature of Satan. Satan is the source of sin. Sin is Satan’s invention, and Satan himself is the element of sin. Actually, in the sight of God, sin is Satan.
According to the book of Romans, sin is something living, something that can make us do things that we do not want to do, something that can dwell in us, deceive us, and even kill us (Rom. 6:14; 7:8, 11, 17). What is this thing living within us that does all these things? It is Satan.
At the time of man’s fall, Satan’s sinful nature was injected into mankind. This means that when man ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he took into him the sinful nature of Satan.
In the universe there is something that is called sin in the Scriptures. Sin is not merely objective, outside of us; it is also subjective, within us, in our flesh. Therefore, outwardly we have sins, offenses, trespasses, and transgressions. Inwardly we have the basic problem of sin. Praise the Lord that Christ’s all-inclusive death has not only solved the problem of our sins, but has also judged and condemned sin!
Romans 8:3 reveals that when Christ was dying on the cross, sin in the flesh was condemned. We may use the condemnation of an unsafe building as an illustration. When a building is in such pitiful condition that it must be torn down, the government may condemn that building. In a similar way, sin in the flesh has been condemned through Christ’s all-inclusive death. By His eternal death, the death of a God-man, sin has been condemned.
The third matter dealt with by Christ’s death is our old man. Romans 6:6 says, “Our old man has been crucified with Him.” Similarly, Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” Because the marvelous death of the God-man was all-inclusive, it included us. We were put into Christ by God, and we were in Him when He was crucified. Hence, we are included in His all-inclusive eternal death.
Because our old man was crucified with Christ, the entire old creation was crucified also. As human beings, we are the leading ones of the old creation and represent the old creation. When man, the representative of the old creation, was crucified, the entire old creation was crucified.
In addition, the eternal death of Christ has destroyed Satan. Concerning this, Hebrews 2:14 says, “Since therefore the children have partaken of blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the Devil.” This indicates that in His humanity and through His death in the flesh, Christ destroyed Satan, the one who has the power of death. This means that Satan has been crucified. Whether we understand this or not, it is nevertheless a fact that through the death of Christ Satan was crucified.
The Bible reveals that Satan has formed a satanic system called the world. Through the world, the satanic cosmos, Satan has systematized fallen mankind under his usurping hand. But this evil world system has been judged.
Because the world system is connected to Satan, when he, the ruler of the world was judged, the world was judged as well. Regarding this, the Lord Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the ruler of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). The ruler of this world was cast out when Satan was destroyed on the cross. Simultaneously, the world system related to Satan was judged.
This judgment can be compared to the crucifixion of the old creation when our old man was crucified. When the old man was crucified, the entire old creation was crucified. Likewise, when Satan was destroyed through Christ’s death, the world was judged.
Another matter dealt with by Christ’s all-inclusive death is mentioned in Ephesians 2:15: “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.” Here we see that when Christ was crucified, His eternal 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 eternal death of Christ.
In addition to dealing with so many negative things, the death of Christ also has a positive aspect. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus speaks concerning this: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” This refers to Christ’s death. His all-inclusive death released the divine life that was within Him, and this life has produced many grains.
On the negative side, Christ’s all-inclusive death has solved the problems of sins, sin, the old man, the old creation, Satan, the world, and the ordinances. On the positive side, Christ’s eternal death released the divine life from within Him.
If we see the significance of the all-inclusive death of Christ, we shall see that His death was a greater event than that of the creation of the universe. Regarding the death of Christ, the Triune God determined in His divine plan in eternity past that the Son, the Second of the divine Trinity, should be incarnated and die on the cross to accomplish eternal redemption for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. In the words of Peter spoken on the day of Pentecost, Christ was “delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23).
Because of this determined counsel of God, the Second of the divine Trinity was ordained to be the Lamb of God (John 1:29) before the foundation of the world, that is, in eternity past (1 Pet. 1:19-20). In the sight of God, He as the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world, that is, from the existence of God’s fallen creatures (Rev. 13:8).
From the time of man’s fall, lambs, sheep, and calves were used by God’s chosen people as types (Gen. 3:21; 4:4; 8:20; 22:13; Exo. 12:3-8; Lev. 1:2). These types point to Christ who was to come as the real Lamb foreordained by God. In the fullness of time the Triune God sent the Second of the divine Trinity, the Son of God, to come through incarnation to take a human body (Heb. 10:5) that He might be offered to God on the cross (Heb. 9:14; 10:12) to do the will of the Triune God (Heb. 10:7), that is, to replace the sacrifices and offerings, which were types, with Himself in His humanity as the unique sacrifice and offering for the sanctification of God’s chosen people. Therefore, it was the will of God for Christ to die an all-inclusive eternal death.
How great is the death of Christ! This death has cleared up all the negative things in the universe and has released the eternal life to produce the new man, who will be the ultimate consummation of the seed of the kingdom, the kingdom gene, an ultimate consummation that will be God’s eternal kingdom.
We need to be impressed with the fact that the death of Christ recorded in Mark 15:16-41 is an exceedingly great matter. We need to realize that the death of Christ was the eternal death of the God-man. The One who died as our Substitute was not merely a man; He was the God-man. Therefore, His death is an eternal death. This eternal death is greater than God’s work of creation.
When we read the account of Christ’s death in the Gospel of Mark, we should not read it in a superficial way. Rather, we need to realize that the One who died according to the record in Mark was a God-man and that His death was not common or ordinary. This extraordinary death, an eternal death, was the death of the God-man. Therefore, Christ’s death cleared away all the negative things and released the divine life to produce the new man. Eventually, this new man will become the eternal kingdom of God as the full development of the gene of the kingdom.
