I would like to present a very important sketch on the first two messages we have covered concerning the center of the gospel of God. This center is a person, Jesus Christ. He is a wonderful, all-inclusive, and all-extensive person with a marvelous work. With Christ’s person there are two aspects: the aspect of His divinity and the aspect of His humanity. Since He is one person with two elements, He is God and man.
Throughout the past twenty centuries, Jewish scholars and Christian teachers have studied and argued about who died on the cross. Jewish scholars say that the One who died on the cross was merely a Nazarene who came from a despised city in the despised province of Galilee. Of course, they are short-sighted. Many Christians would say that it was Jesus Christ our Savior who died on the cross. This is correct, but it is far from a complete answer. The One who died on the cross has two elements. The divine element is God, and the human element is man. Thus, the One who died on the cross is a man and also is God.
Being a man, a real man, a genuine man, Jesus Christ does have humanity, and this humanity was the flesh. The Word became flesh (John 1:14), not in a positive sense, but indirectly in a negative sense. This flesh, however, was only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, without the poison of sin (Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21a; Heb. 4:15). Still, we must realize that Christ became flesh. In His flesh He was an “old man” (Rom. 6:6). Thus, He belonged to the old creation (Col. 1:15b). The flesh had been poisoned by Satan, corrupted with sin, Satan’s nature, and usurped by the world, Satan’s cosmos. As such an all-inclusive person, Christ died on the cross. When He died on the cross, all six items—the old creation, the old man, the flesh, Satan, sin, and the world—were crucified on the cross. Thus, in the eyes of God, after Christ’s crucifixion, the entire universe has been cleared up.
Christ was dying on the cross as a human seed belonging to the old creation and as an old man. This old man includes you and me. Actually, we died with Christ on the cross nearly two thousand years ago, even though we were not yet born (Gal. 2:20a). We were there because we were in Adam (see Rom. 5:14, note 4). Many actually came to the United States a few centuries ago when their forefathers came, because they came in them (cf. Heb. 7:9-10 and note 91). In the same way, we were also in Adam as the old man when he was being crucified on the cross (Rom. 6:6).
Christ also died on the cross in the flesh. One thing in the whole universe that offends God to the uttermost is the flesh. The flesh is the embodiment of Satan. Satan and the flesh are one. Christ, of course, was only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, without the poison of sin and Satan, but because Christ died on the cross in the flesh, the flesh also died there.
Not only so, when Christ died, Satan was destroyed. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that Jesus partook of blood and flesh to die on the cross to destroy the devil. Three things are the most ugly things in the universe: the flesh, sin, and Satan. The flesh is the embodiment of Satan, and sin is the nature of Satan. This sin was condemned and terminated by the death of Christ. Romans 8:3 says that God sent His Son to condemn sin. The One who died on the cross also judged the world, the satanic cosmos, the evil system, which systematizes all the descendants of Adam. John 12:31 says that on the cross Christ would judge the world and cast out Satan, the ruler of this world.
Thus, Christ’s death on the cross as the seed of David in His humanity was with these six items: the old creation, the old man, the flesh, Satan, sin, and the world. This is why His death is the all-inclusive death. We should treasure such a message which unveils to us who Jesus Christ was. He was a man, but what kind of man was He? He was the seed of David. This seed was of the old creation and the old man. This seed had the flesh, which is involved with Satan, sin, and the world. So when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He brought all these items with Him to be crucified there. His all-inclusive death cleared up the entire universe.
Also, Christ’s flesh, His humanity, was the incarnation of God, so when this humanity was dying on the cross, God was also there. Hebrews 9:14 shows that Christ did not die on the cross merely as a man. He also offered Himself to God by the eternal Spirit. The eternal Spirit was with Him and strengthened Him to die.
Colossians 2 tells us that when Christ was dying on the cross with God, Satan sent his evil angels to frustrate Him. So while Christ was dying on the cross, God was stripping off all these evil angels (v. 15). The human eyes saw only how the Roman soldiers put up the cross and nailed Christ on it. Peter, Mary, and the disciples saw only this physical view. They did not see that Satan had sent his evil angels to disturb Christ in His death and that God was stripping them off. With the crucifixion there was a physical view and a spiritual view. This is the all-inclusive death of the person Jesus Christ, as the seed of David.