The final item of Christ in His death on the cross is in John 12:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Here the Lord Jesus likened Himself to a grain of wheat. If the grain of wheat does not fall into the earth and die, it remains one grain. But if it dies, it grows up into many grains. All the foregoing six items of Christ's death are involved with clearing up the negative things in the universe. This last item is altogether on the positive side to release the divine life. His death on the cross as a grain of wheat released the divine life from within Him to impart, to dispense, this life into all His believers. He died as the first six items to clear up the universe and to clear up the way that He might impart, that He might dispense, the divine life into you and me.
This grain of wheat is a grain of the eternal life. If He had died on the cross only as a man and not as God, He could not be such a grain of wheat. He died on the cross as the God-man. This man was the shell of the grain, and God was the inner life within the grain. Thus, the God-man is a grain of wheat having both the shell and the life within. He died as the grain of life to release the divine life from within Him to dispense God into all of us as the divine life. His all-inclusive death is altogether for the dispensing of God into His redeemed people.
We have seen that when Jesus was conceived and born of the Holy Spirit, He was constituted essentially with the divine essence. This essence as a part of His constitution can never be separated from Him. He went to the cross as such a person constituted with both the divine essence and the human essence. When He was twelve years old, He was a person of such a constitution; when He was thirty years old, He had such a constitution; and when He went to the cross to die, He still had such a constitution. It was the God-man who died on the cross. This is essential. But economically when He was thirty years old, after His baptism, the Father spoke from the heavens and the Spirit came to descend upon Him (Matt. 3:16-17). That was not essential but economical. When He went to the cross, He went essentially with the divine essence and with the human essence.
He was nailed on the cross for six hours. Mark 15:25 tells us that it was at the third hour, which is 9 a.m., that they crucified Him. He was on the cross from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Mark 15:33). These six hours are divided into two periods of time. The first period of time was from 9 a.m. to noon. In those three hours man persecuted Him, mocked Him, and ridiculed Him. That was His martyrdom, not His redemption. Man nailed Him on the cross, and for the first three hours, He suffered martyrdom. At noon, the sixth hour, "darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour" (Mark 15:33). At noon the entire universe became dark, which was a sign that God came in to judge Him (Isa. 53:4b, 10). In the final three hours of His crucifixion, this God-man in the eyes of God was the Lamb, the serpent, a man in the flesh, the last Adam, the Firstborn of all creation, and the Peacemaker. It was in these three hours that God condemned sin in the flesh, destroyed the serpent, and judged the power of death. It was during that period of time that God forsook Him economically, so at the ninth hour Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?" (Mark 15:34). Essentially, the divine essence could never leave this God-man. That divine essence had been constituted into His being and was part of His constitution. But economically God left Him. After His baptism, while He was standing in the water, the Spirit as a dove descended upon Him not essentially but economically. In the same way God forsook Him economically in the last three hours on the cross while God was judging Him as sin and as the brass serpent.
The One who was dying on the cross as our substitute was the God-man. The One who shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins was the God-man. First John 1:7 says, "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." To say the blood of Jesus is not adequate. First John 1:7 refers to the blood of Jesus His Son, the blood of Jesus, the Son of God. As our substitute to redeem us, Jesus died on the cross as a man. Only man's blood can redeem man. Jesus was a man, and His blood was the genuine human blood. But if He were only man, the efficacy of His blood is limited. He could have only died for one person and not for millions upon millions of people. How could the blood of the man Jesus redeem millions of people? Because He was not only man, but He was the God-man. Man is limited, but God is eternal. In time and space there is no limitation with God. As the God-man, He shed the genuine blood of man to redeem man, and yet this blood was God's own blood (Acts 20:28) to insure that the efficacy of His redemption is unlimited and eternal. The eternal efficacy of His blood is secured by the divine essence.
Hebrews 9:14 tells us that in His death He offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. As the God-man He was offering Himself to God, but He did it through the eternal Spirit. This is economical. When He began to minister, He needed the power of the Spirit, so the Spirit descended upon Him economically. Now He was going to die. For such a great commission He needed the power of the eternal Spirit to offer Himself as an offering to God.
John 19:34 tells us that two substances came out of the Lord's pierced side: blood and water. Blood is to wash away our sins for redemption, and water is to dispense the divine life into us for life impartation. We need to praise the Lord for the blood and the water. All the negative things have been dealt with, and God has been dispensed into us as the eternal life. The blood was typified by the blood of the passover Lamb (Exo. 12:7, 22; Rev. 12:11), and the water by the water that flowed out of the smitten rock (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4). The blood formed a fountain for the washing of sin (Zech. 13:1), and the water became the fountain of life (Psa. 36:9; Rev. 21:6). Based upon the cleansing blood we can now enjoy the eternal life as the living water. Thank the Lord for His marvelous all-inclusive death.