It is through the death of Christ that the believers have been created into one new man. Christ’s death on the cross was not only for the accomplishment of redemption but also for the creation of the one new man. In order to create the new man, it was necessary for Christ to abolish through His cross the ordinances, the different ways of living and worshipping. “In His flesh,” which was typified by the separating veil in the temple, which was rent (Heb. 10:20), Christ terminated the negative things so that in Himself as the essence the one new man might be created. Therefore, our being created into one new man was through the cross of Christ.
Through the cross Christ created the one new man by abolishing the law of the commandments in ordinances, breaking down the middle wall of partition, and slaying the enmity between the Jews and the Gentiles to reconcile the two in one Body to God. The law of the commandments in ordinances is not the law of the moral commandments but the law of the ritual commandments, such as the ordinances of circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, and eating certain foods. By abolishing the law of the commandments in ordinances, Christ broke down “the middle wall of partition, the enmity” (Eph. 2:14). Due to the fall of mankind and the call of the chosen race, there was a separation between Israel and the Gentiles. Through Christ’s redemption this separation has been removed. The middle wall of partition broken down by Christ is the law of the commandments in ordinances. By abolishing the law of the commandments in ordinances Christ broke down this middle wall of partition.
Christ broke down the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles in order to “reconcile both in one Body to God through the cross” (Eph. 2:16). This one Body, the church (Eph. 1:22-23), is the one new man. It was in this one Body that both the Jews and the Gentiles were reconciled to God through the cross. We, the believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, were reconciled not only for the Body of Christ but also in the Body of Christ. Through the cross with the blood of Christ, we have been brought back to God in the one Body.
The believers have been made a new creation by being transferred. First, we have been transferred out of death into life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and will not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). Death is of the source of the tree of knowledge, and life is of the source of the tree of life (cf. Gen. 2:9, 17). Hence, to pass out of death into life is to change the source of living.
The Lord’s word in John 5:24 brings us back to the fall in the garden of Eden. After man was created, he was put before two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is related to death. Because of the fall, mankind was brought into death. For this reason, everyone born into Adam is born into death. When we repented of our sins and believed in the Lord Jesus, we were saved and regenerated. To be regenerated actually means to receive the tree of life, from which mankind was cut off through Adam’s fall. By repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus, spontaneously we received the divine life into us, and at that very moment we passed out of death into life. In this way we were transferred out of death into life.
First John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love abides in death.” Death is of the Devil, God’s enemy Satan, signified by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which brings death. Life is of God, the source of life, signified by the tree of life, which issues in life. Death and life are not only of these two sources, Satan and God; they are also two essences, two elements, and two spheres. To pass out of death is to pass out of the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of death into the source, the essence, the element, and sphere of life. This took place in us at our regeneration. We know this, we have the inner consciousness of this, because we love the brothers. Love toward the brothers is a strong evidence of this. Faith in the Lord Jesus is the way for us to pass out of death into life; love toward the brothers is the evidence that we have passed out of death into life. To have faith is to receive the eternal life; to love is to live by the eternal life and express it.