Message Three

The Vision of the New Man as the Masterpiece of God

Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26; Eph. 2:14-16; 4:22-24

1. God’s intention in His creation of man was to have a corporate man to express Him and to represent Him—Gen. 1:26; Eph. 2:15:
   1. God created man in His own image for His expression and gave man His dominion that man would represent Him to deal with His enemy—Gen. 1:26.
   2. The church as the new man in the new creation bears God’s image for God’s expression and fights against God’s enemy for God’s kingdom—Col. 3:10-11; Eph. 2:15; 4:24; 6:10-20.
   3. What was divided and scattered in the old man is recovered in the new man—Gen. 11:5-9; Acts 2:5-12; Col. 3:10-11.
2. The new man as the poem, the masterpiece, of God was created through Christ’s death on the cross— Eph. 2:10, 15-16:
   1. We need to pay careful attention to two phrases in verse 15: in His flesh and in Himself:
      1. “In His flesh” Christ terminated all the negative things in the universe (Satan, the devil, the enemy of God—Heb. 2:14; sin—Rom. 8:3; John 1:29; the flesh of fallen man—Gal. 5:24; the world, the cosmos, the evil system of Satan—John 12:31; the old creation represented by the old man—Rom. 6:6; and the separating ordinances of the law—Eph. 2:15).
      2. “In Himself” as the sphere, element, and essence, Christ created the Jews and the Gentiles into one new man:
         1. Christ is not only the Creator of the one new man, the church, but also the sphere in which and the element and essence with which the new man was created.
         2. He is the very element and essence of the one new man, making God’s divine nature one entity with humanity—cf. Col. 3:10-11.
   2. In the creating of the new man, first our natural man was crucified by Christ, and then through the crossing out of the old man, Christ imparted the divine element into us, causing us to become a new entity, a new invention of God—Rom. 6:6; 2 Cor. 5:17.
3. On the cross Christ created the new man in Himself by abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, the middle wall of partition— Eph. 2:14-15:
   1. The law spoken of in 2:15 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.
   2. Ordinances are the forms or ways of living and worship, which create enmity and division:
      1. On the cross Christ abolished all the regulations regarding living and worship, regulations that have divided the nations—v. 15; Col. 2:14.
      2. From the time of Babel, mankind has been divided by ordinances concerning the ways of living and worship; in God’s economy in the church life, we must overcome Babel—Gen. 11:1-9:
         1. Christ should be our only source; we should not allow anything of our background, culture, or nationality to be our source—cf. Col. 3:10-11.
         2. The worldly people regard cultural differences as a source of prestige, but in Christ we have lost this prestige; now our only prestige is Christ and the genuine oneness.
         3. If we are willing to let go of our cultural pride, it will be possible for the Lord to have the proper church life.
4. In the one new man, Christ is all the members and is in all the members—Col. 3:10-11:
   1. The Christ who dwells in us is the constituent of the one new man—1:27; 3:11:
      1. Because Christ is all the members of the new man, there is no possibility, no room, for any natural person (for any race, nationality, culture, or social status) in the new man—vv. 10-11.
      2. No matter what kind of person we may be, as far as the one new man is concerned, we all are nobodies.
      3. In the one new man there is only one person—the all-inclusive Christ—2:17; 3:4, 11.
   2. For the new man we all need to take Christ as our person—Eph. 2:15; 3:17a:
      1. As the Body of Christ, the church needs Christ as its life; as the one new man, the church needs Christ as its person.
      2. Christ is in all of us as one person; therefore, we all have only one person—Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17a.
      3. For the practical existence of the one new man, the total person of the old man must be put away, and we must live by our new person—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:22, 24; 3:17a:
         1. We need to live a life in the new man by taking Christ as our person, with Him as the One making all the decisions in us.
         2. Once we see that we are a part of the one new man, we will not be able to decide things merely by ourselves.
         3. We need to see that we are a corporate Body and a corporate new man and that both our living (person) and our moving (life) are corporate—1 Cor. 12:12; Rom. 12:4-5.
      4. We need to consider one new man in Ephesians 2:15 together with one mouth in Romans 15:6 and speak the same thing in 1 Corinthians 1:10:
         1. In the past there were too many mouths because there were too many persons.
         2. With one accord and with one mouth (Rom. 15:6) mean that even though we are many and all are speaking, we all speak the same thing (1 Cor. 1:10).
         3. Although we are many and come from many places, we all have one mouth and we all speak the same thing; this is because we all are the one new man having only one person—Eph. 2:15; 4:22-24; 3:17a; Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 1:10.