The primary matter concerning the church is building; without God’s building, there is no church. On the one hand, the church is produced by regeneration; on the other hand, the Bible clearly reveals that the church is produced by being built up. The Bible rarely speaks of begetting the church, but in many places it speaks of the building up of the church. God not only spends much time and effort in the building of the church, but He also speaks much concerning how He builds the church.
In order for God to build up His church in us, He must first do a tearing down work in us. This is altogether related to the tearing down of the old creation. It is the tearing down of everything that does not belong to Christ and God, that does not match God, that cannot be mingled with Christ, and that usurps, occupies, and replaces the position of Christ in us. All of these things must be torn down by God. In addition to this, everything that can match God and be mingled with Christ must also be torn down. In other words, everything that is natural in us, whether it is good or bad, able or unable to match God, must be torn down by God.
A person who knows God will see that every item used for God’s building must be torn down; even the humanity that the Lord Jesus put on in His incarnation needed to be torn down. The Lord’s entering into death signifies that the humanity He put on was torn down. Even the sinless humanity our Lord put on was brought into death and passed through death. The Lord was not only incarnated, but He also died and resurrected. In His incarnation He put on human nature; in His death this human nature was completely torn down. Whatever the Lord put on in His incarnation was brought into death and torn down completely. We all know that death is a tearing down in the strongest sense. Whatever dies becomes nothing. The Lord’s entering into death resulted in the tearing down of His humanity.
In reading the records concerning the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus in Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Matthew 27, and John 19, we can see that when the incarnated One died on the cross, everything that He put on was completely torn down. On the cross we see a man at His death. There was not one man whose circumstances at death were more severe than that of the Lord Jesus. Hebrews 2:9 says that when He died, He tasted death on behalf of everything. When a man dies, he simply dies, but when our Lord died on the cross, the process He went through was very thorough. On the cross death did everything it could do to a man. Death may not have done all that it can in some people, but death exhausted everything it could do on the Lord Jesus. The humanity that our Lord put on was truly torn down by death.
However, our Lord did not remain in death. He died and resurrected. The Lord’s resurrection brought everything into God that was torn down by death. All who know God’s redemption realize that the Lord’s greatest work consisted of two steps. The first step was His incarnation; that is, God came into humanity. The Lord’s incarnation was divinity putting on humanity. In simple words, it was God entering into humanity, God mingling with man. However, if there was only the step of incarnation, we would see God entering into man, but we would not see man entering into God. If there was only incarnation, we would see God mingled with man, but we would not see man mingled with God.
We must be clear that God’s entering into man is one matter, and man’s entering into God is another matter. Although these are two aspects of one thing, these two aspects are still distinct. God’s mingling with man is different from man’s mingling with God. For example, I may love Brother Huang, but I also want him to love me. If I love him as a brother but he does not love me, there is a problem. Therefore, these are two different matters. Incarnation brought God into man. If God’s work stopped with incarnation, God would have entered into man, but man would be unable to enter into God. Therefore, the Lord Jesus had to pass through death and resurrection.
The principle of death and resurrection is to bring man into God. Our Lord was incarnated so that divinity could enter into humanity. Then through His death and resurrection He brought humanity into divinity. In His incarnation, prior to His resurrection, we could point to Him and say that there was a man on earth who had divinity within Him. After His resurrection and ascension into heaven, we can point to Him and say that there is One in heaven who has humanity within Him; that is, humanity has entered into God. Through His incarnation man on the earth could have divinity within him; through His death and resurrection God in heaven has humanity within Him. Through incarnation the Lord Jesus brought God to earth; through resurrection the Lord Jesus brought man to heaven.
Before the Lord Jesus was incarnated, God could not be found in man on earth. Before the Lord Jesus died and resurrected, man could not be found in God in heaven. But the Lord has been incarnated, and He has died and resurrected. His incarnation brought God to earth and into man. His death and resurrection brought man to heaven and into God. We can now say that man on earth has God within him and that God in heaven has man within Him. The Lord Jesus’ incarnation brought God into man, causing God to be mingled with man; the Lord Jesus’ resurrection from death brought man into God, causing man to be mingled with God. Here we see two basic principles. In order for God to enter into man, there is the need of incarnation, and in order for man to enter into God, there is the need of death and resurrection. These are two basic principles.