The second item in God’s commission was the incarnation. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” In incarnation He brought God into man, that is, into His creation.

The third item of the commission of Christ, the anointed One, was the crucifixion. Crucifixion signifies the termination of the entire old creation (Col. 1:15, 20). God’s creation became old because of Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall. The angels and mankind were the two main items of God’s creation, the living creatures which God created for His purpose. The angels were in the heavens, and man was upon the earth. The Bible tells us that the leading angel rebelled and became Satan (Ezek. 28:14-18; Isa. 14:12-14). That rebellion contaminated the whole creation. This rebellious leader of the angelic race then tempted and seduced the head of mankind to fall. The contamination of Satan got into mankind, and man became contaminated. Both the angelic race and the human race became contaminated and evil. As a result, the entire creation became old. To be old is not a matter of age. God is the most ancient One, but He is never old. After we have been in eternity for so many years, we will be ancient, but we will never be old. The New Jerusalem will be ever new. It will be ancient but not old. Oldness is due to contamination, corruption, and vanity.

Romans 8:20 and 21 say that the whole creation is under the slavery of corruption, subjected to vanity. God as the ever new, ever fresh God, the “evergreen” God, could never use anything old. This corrupted old creation as something of vanity had to be terminated. Christ accomplished this in His crucifixion. Christ Himself created, and Christ Himself also terminated the old creation. This is the significance of crucifixion.

The fourth step of Christ’s commission was resurrection. Resurrection means germination. Christ terminated all the old creation in His crucifixion, and in His resurrection He germinated the crucified creation with the very God as the divine germ, the seed of life. God as the divine life has been wrought into the crucified man as a germ to germinate him. The created man who was crucified was also resurrected to become the new creation. Resurrection was the producing of the new creation.

After His resurrection, Christ ascended to the heavens. Christ’s ascension was His inauguration. After a president is elected, he must be inaugurated. Inauguration is to place the selected one into his position. Christ was appointed by God, but He was not officially inaugurated before His ascension. When Christ ascended to the heavens, God inaugurated Him officially, universally, and once for all, putting Him into His position. Acts 2:36 says, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-this Jesus whom you crucified.” Before the ascension, the Lord of the universe was only Jehovah or Elohim. But on the day of ascension a man by the name of Jesus, who was mingled with God, was inaugurated to be the Lord of all. Praise Him! Now the Christ is fully qualified, officially inaugurated. He is the Christ who created, who became incarnated, who was crucified, who was resurrected, and who ascended to the third heavens, inaugurated to be the Lord of the whole universe.

Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). When we answer, “You are the Christ,” we must know what we mean by “the Christ.” We must be able to give a long definition of the Christ. The revelation that I have presented in this chapter is only a small part of the Lord’s recovery of the Christ. In this chapter I am presenting only major points and lines of research. This is an outline which the young people must build upon. You must research all these matters. The laboratory for your research will be your group of companions.
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