CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION
ACCOMPLISHING
THE ETERNAL REDEMPTION OF GOD
At the end of His life on earth, the Lord Jesus went to the cross, and He died there. Christ’s crucifixion accomplished the eternal redemption of God. Through His death on the cross, Christ terminated all the negative things in the old creation and even the entire old creation itself, and He redeemed the part of the old creation that God had chosen. Not only so, through that death He released the divine life concealed in His human body.
IN HIS RESURRECTION
CHRIST REGENERATING GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE
TO BE THE MANY SONS OF GOD
AS THE MEMBERS OF CHRIST
TO CONSTITUTE HIS BODY
After Christ finished His work on the cross, He went to sleep and rested (although He did a number of things between His death and resurrection). Then He rose up from the dead; He resurrected. Through His resurrection He brought His humanity into divinity (Rom. 1:3-4). He was also born to be the firstborn Son of God to be the leading One of the many sons of God. In His resurrection He also became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). In other words, through death and resurrection He was consummated to be "the Spirit" (John 7:39). Furthermore, in the resurrection of Christ, all those who were chosen by God were regenerated to be the many sons of God (1 Pet. 1:3).
These many sons of God have become the members of Christ to constitute His Body, which is the church of God (Eph. 1:22b-23). This Body is the new man in the new creation, and Christ is every member of this new man (Col. 3:10-11). This Body, this new man, is a mysterious organism for the processed and consummated Triune God. Eventually, this entity will be enlarged and consummated to be the New Jerusalem as the fullness, the corporate expression, of God for eternity. In the New Jerusalem we can see the mingling of God with man, so that God and man become one corporate entity. In the New Jerusalem we can also see the divine attributes expressed through the virtues of humanity for eternity.
THE SPIRIT BEING
THE CONSUMMATION OF THE TRIUNE GOD
All these matters are involved with the Triune God. In Genesis 1 and 2 we see God as Jehovah Elohim and we also see His Spirit (1:1-2; 2:7). But at the end of the Bible, the One mentioned in Revelation 22:17 is the Spirit. Jehovah Elohim is still there, but now He is the Spirit. The name of the Spirit is Jesus Christ. When we say, "Lord Jesus, I love You," we get the Spirit. Jesus Christ is the name, and the Spirit is the person.
In the New Testament there are many divine titles, such as Father, Lord, Master, Redeemer, Savior, the Lord of all, and the King of kings. All these titles refer to the one person of the Spirit. In a certain regard, the title may be Father, and in another regard the title may be Redeemer or Savior. The point here is that all the divine titles refer, in some regard, to the person of the Spirit—the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God.
(Life-Study of Job, Chapter 16, by Witness Lee)
