Paul went on to show us that before we were saved, we were not only dead, but uncircumcised. In the eyes of the circumcised Jews, we, the uncircumcised Gentiles, were defiled and unclean, like swine and like dogs. We were separated from God’s chosen people and from the covenants of God’s promise, we were without Christ, and we had no hope and were without God (Eph. 2:11-12). However, Christ came and brought all of us poor people to the cross, so that in His all-inclusive death, the chosen Jews and the chosen Gentiles all died there. The circumcised Jews and the uncircumcised Gentiles were all crucified there. After such an all-inclusive crucifixion, the distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles was removed.
After this, Christ resurrected from the dead. This can be illustrated by a grain of wheat. When it is planted into the earth, on one hand it dies. But on the other hand, it continues to work in death. When Christ was crucified on the cross, in a superficial sense, He died. But actually He was working to release the divine life. When the divine life was fully manifested, that was resurrection. Hence, resurrection is in fact a process. In this process, Christ passed through death, and through His work of death the divine life encased in His human shell was released. When the Lord was on the cross, on the one hand, He was dying there, but on the other hand, His death was His work. At the end of His work on the cross, the Lord said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). This means that in the six hours prior to that time, the Lord had been working.
Even after He died, in Hades the Lord was still working. After His work in Hades was completed, He walked out of Hades and told death and Hades goodbye. He did not run away from death and Hades; rather, He walked out of death and Hades and entered into resurrection. Through His death and resurrection, the Lord accomplished one work, which was to create the chosen Jews and the chosen Gentiles, in Himself, into one new man (Eph. 2:15). Hence, this work of death and resurrection was a creating work. On one hand, God’s coming to us in the life of His Son, breathing into us a breath, enlivening us, the dead ones, raising us up together, and seating us together in the heavenlies in Christ, has made us a universal poem and God’s masterpiece to be sung by the angels to the praise of God. On the other hand, God’s masterpiece also became a new man created through Christ’s death and resurrection. On the cross Christ dealt with His chosen Jews and chosen Gentiles. He also used death as a process through which, with His own element, He created all of us in Himself into one new man so that we can bear remaining fruit and so that the Body of Christ can propagate continually to be an expanding church and an expanding Body to accomplish God’s eternal economy on earth. In this new man there is no more distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles (Col. 3:10-11). This new man causes all of us, the Jewish and the Gentile believers, to be fully reconciled to God in one Body and to enjoy Christ as the peace among us and between us and God (Eph. 2:16-17). Now we, the Jewish and the Gentile believers, have no problem with each other, and we have no problem with God. We are together in the church, the Body of Christ, accomplishing God’s eternal economy.
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