THE INCARNATED, CRUCIFIED, AND RESURRECTED GOD-MAN BECOMING OUR LIFE
Figure 5 shows us another man. The first Adam was the first man, who became corrupted by the fall. The second man is the last Adam, who is Christ (1 Cor. 15:45b). What kind of man is Christ? Christ is a God-man, a real man, yet the incarnation of God. Since this second man is a real man, He also has a spirit, soul, and body. He is the same as the created man, but there is still a difference. Within the created man there was nothing of God, but within this God-man is God Himself, as represented by the golden star. This man is the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a very meaningful figure.
Figure 6 shows how this God-man, at the time that He was crucified on the cross, became the Sin-bearer. At that time, He bore all our sins as the Lamb of God. According to the record of the Gospels, a change came over the universe at the third hour of His crucifixion (Matt. 27:45). All the sins of mankind were put upon the Lord Jesus for a period of three hours, from noon until three o’clock in the afternoon, when He cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (v. 46). When the Lord was on this earth, He said that the Father was always with Him; the Father never left Him alone. During these three hours, however, the Father forsook Christ because He put all our sins upon Him as the Sin-bearer. In this way, the God-man, God incarnated, bore our sins and dealt with them.
After Christ’s crucifixion, He was resurrected, and in resurrection He is living forever. If we compare the resurrected Christ (Figure 7) with the incarnated God-man (Figure 5), we can see that in His resurrection He was transfigured in His entire being with the divine nature. When Christ was incarnated, He took upon Himself the human nature, and in resurrection He transfigured, or transformed, His entire human nature with the divine nature. By becoming the God-man He brought God into man, and by being resurrected He brought man into God. By incarnation He joined and mingled God with man, and by resurrection He joined and mingled man with God. Every part of His being still has the human nature, yet it is now in the divine nature. He has a human spirit, soul, and body which are mingled with the divine nature. Divinity and humanity are mingled as one. As such, He is the model, the example; each one of us gradually will be exactly the same as this One.
Figure 8 shows that in Him, that is, in this incarnated, crucified, and resurrected One, there is life. Life is in Him, and this life is none other than Christ Himself (Col. 3:4). First John 5:11 says, “God gave to us eternal life and this life is in His Son.” This Son is the incarnated, crucified, and resurrected God-man, who is life to us.
A TRANSFER THROUGH THE CROSS
Figure 9 is not simple. Here are two spheres, the sphere of Adam on the one hand, and the sphere of Christ on the other hand. In the sphere of Adam there is nothing but sin and death, while in the sphere of Christ there is the eternal life. Between these two spheres is the cross. If one is on the left side of the cross, he is in the sphere of sin and death; if one has passed through the cross, he is in the sphere of life.
We have been delivered out of the sphere of sin and death and have been transferred into the sphere of life (Col. 1:13). We can say this because we believe in the One who was crucified on the cross for our sins, and we have accepted all the wonderful facts which have been accomplished by the Lord Jesus on the cross. Therefore, we have passed through the cross and are no longer in the sphere of sin and death. Rather, we are now in the glorious sphere of the eternal life. However, how much are we in this sphere? We may be in this sphere in only a small part of our being.
REGENERATION
We have now been regenerated in our human spirit (Figure 10). At the very time we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He came into our spirit as the Spirit and gives life to us. First John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” Praise the Lord, if we have the Son, we have the life, because the Son is life! However, at the time of regeneration we received life only to a small degree. We received the divine life in only a limited part of our being.
(Basic Principles of the Experience of Life, Chapter 17, by Witness Lee)
