Such a Christ who knew no sin, yet was made sin, was the very embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead of the Triune God when He lived on this earth in His incarnation. We may make such a statement based upon Colossians 2:9: “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Such a One was conceived and born of God with the divine essence mingled with the human essence. He was born of these two essences through the Holy Spirit and through the chaste virgin (Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-35; 2:1-7). Through the Holy Spirit He received the divine essence, and through the human virgin He received the human essence. The divine conception was a mingling. These two essences, the divine and the human, became mingled together in His divine conception.
Mingling means that two elements are joined and mingled together, but the two elements do not lose their particular natures. Their two natures retain their distinction, and they are not joined together to produce a third nature. Therefore, such a One was born to be a God-man who is both the complete God and the perfect man, possessing two natures and two lives, the divine nature and the divine life, and the human nature and the human life, mingled together as one but without any confusion, without any loss of their distinctive natures, and without anything produced to be a third nature or a third element. Such a short definition helps us to be clear about the incarnation of Christ and His person in two natures with two kinds of life.
After He passed through conception and birth, such a wonderful Christ lived on this earth for more than thirty-three years. After fully tasting the human life, He entered into and passed through an all-inclusive death with a number of aspects.
Firstly, Christ died as the Lamb of God to take away the sin (the totality of sin, including sins) of the world, that is, of mankind (John 1:29).
Secondly, Christ died as a Man in the flesh causing sin to be condemned in the flesh by God (Rom. 8:3).
Thirdly, Christ died as the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45b) Adam, the head of all mankind, made himself with all his descendants a fallen man in God’s old creation through his fall. Christ, as the last Adam, as the conclusion of the old man, brought the old man to the cross to be crucified. When He was crucified our old man was crucified with Him (Rom. 6:6).
Fourthly, Christ died as a creature. Christ was the Firstborn, the first item, of all the old creation (Col. 1:15b). Christ as the first item of the old creation brought also the entire old creation to the cross to be terminated. This is based upon Colossians 1:20 where it says that all things were reconciled to God through Christ.
Fifthly, Christ died as a serpent in form (John 3:14) as typified by the brass serpent in Numbers 21:9. In this aspect Christ died not only to be a substitute of the fallen men who had been bitten by the old serpent (Rev. 12:9), but also to destroy the old serpent, the Devil, who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14).
Sixthly, Christ died on the cross also as the Peacemaker (Eph. 2:14-16). Due to man’s fall, among mankind there are many ordinances, many customs, many habits, many different ways to live, and many different ways to worship. All these are the differences among peoples that have divided, scattered, and confused mankind. Therefore, among the human race there is no peace. Christ died on the cross as the Peacemaker to abolish all the ordinances to make God’s chosen people and redeemed ones one new man.