We have seen that Christ's incarnation, human living, conception, and ministry are all related to God's economy. The man Jesus was a composition of the Triune God, the embodiment of the entire Triune God. He was with the Father, and He was fully constituted by the Holy Spirit. He was the embodiment of the Triune God, the very embodiment of life as the tree of life for us to eat that God may dispense Himself into us, His eaters. In this chapter, we want to fellowship concerning another crucial, excellent, and marvelous matter in the New Testament—the all-inclusive death of Christ. The death of Christ was not a common death but an all-inclusive death because Christ Himself is all-inclusive. As the all-inclusive One, He died an all-inclusive death.
We may ask why there was the need of such an all-inclusive death. When Christ came with the Father and by the Spirit there were many negative things existing in the universe. God's intention is to dispense Himself into man, but man was occupied, surrounded, and even utilized by negative things.
There are at least eight negative things in the universe which Christ needed to deal with on the cross. The first item of these negative things is Satan, the Devil, God's enemy, God's adversary. Man was created by God, and God intended to dispense Himself into man. But man was captured, taken over, and usurped by Satan. Satan took man as his captive and is keeping man under his usurping hand. Along with Satan, there is the negative item of the world. The world is a satanic system and organization that occupies God's people. The third item is sin. In this universe and on this earth, within and among men, is something personified, something living, and something powerful and very evil. This is sin. The fourth negative item is the flesh. Our flesh is evil, rotten, corrupted, ugly, and rebellious against God. The fifth negative item is the old man. Regardless of how young we are, we are still a part of the old man. The old creation is another negative item that Christ had to deal with through His death. All the items in the universe have become old. We can see the corruption in the entire creation; everything is dying or decaying. Seventh, on this earth among mankind there is no unity, no peace. There is an organization called the United Nations, but the nations are altogether not united. The nations of the world are fighting against one another, and this division comes from Babel. The final negative item, which is the last enemy (1 Cor. 15:26), is death. As the people made by God for His own purpose, we were all occupied, surrounded, and taken over by these eight things. For God to dispense Himself into man, He surely had to clear up and rid the universe of these eight items.
The only way that God could clear up these eight items was by Christ's marvelous death. This wonderful person, Jesus Christ, the very embodiment of God, died to rid the universe of all these negative things. By His death, He cleared up all these negative things, and this is why His death is all-inclusive. His death destroyed Satan, judged the world, condemned sin, crucified the flesh, crucified the old man, terminated the old creation, and abolished all the ordinances that caused divisions in the human race. His death has even destroyed death. Hallelujah for such an all-inclusive death!