Ephesians 2:15 says, “...that He [Christ] might create the two in Himself into one new man.” The new man was created in Christ as the divine element. When we were the old man, we had the human element but did not have the divine element. Since God Himself has been imparted and added into us, we now have the divine element in us. Since we have the divine element, we have become something new. This new thing in its totality is the new man.
The new man was created through Christ’s death on the cross. Thousands of Christians have read Ephesians 2:15; 4:24; and Colossians 3:10, and they have seen the term the new man according to the letter, but they do not know what the new man is. Our becoming the new man was not merely a matter of our repenting and being sorry for our past and thereby becoming new. This is the teaching of Confucius; it is not the teaching of the Bible. In the creating of the new man, first our natural man was crucified by Christ on the cross, and then through the crossing out of the old man, Christ imparted God’s element into us. Thus, we became an entity that is different from the old man, because we have God’s element in us.
Ephesians 2:15 tells us that Christ did this creating work on the cross. We usually consider that Christ’s work on the cross was related only to negative things, to cross us out, to crucify us. But Ephesians 2:15 tells us that on the cross Christ did something positive, to generate us, not to put us to death. This divine thought is clearly seen in Ephesians 2:15. The cross of Christ not only destroys and kills; it also generates and brings in something divine.
The new man was created by Christ with two kinds of materials. The first is the redeemed created man; the second is the divine element. On the cross Christ put these two materials together to produce a new man. If a grain of wheat is sown into the earth, on the one hand the grain of wheat will die. While it is dying, it is growing. The death of the grain of wheat brings forth a new plant. What was once only a grain of wheat eventually becomes a new plant that bears many grains of wheat (John 12:24). Through the death of the grain of wheat, the grain of wheat is terminated. At the same time, something is germinated that grows up to be a new plant. This is an illustration of what was accomplished in Christ’s death. While He was on the cross, Christ was terminating, and He was also begetting.
First Peter 1:3 says that God the Father begot us through Christ’s resurrection. According to this view, we were crucified on the cross and were germinated in Christ’s resurrection. Thus, it may seem incorrect to say that Christ begot us on the cross. However, we should never separate resurrection from the cross. Christ’s death is always linked to His resurrection. His death brings in resurrection. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus said, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The one grain of wheat falls into the earth to die, but this death causes the grain to grow and become a hundred grains of wheat. In the death of the one grain we can see two things: the dying of the grain of wheat and the bringing forth of a new life. Similarly, when we receive Christ into us as our Savior and life, He is always with His death and resurrection.
Furthermore, the Lord’s resurrection includes His death. His death power is implied and included in His resurrection. His resurrection cannot be separated from His death. When we receive Him as our life, that life is resurrection (John 11:25), and in that life there is also the element of death. On the one hand, it imparts life to us, and at the same time, it crucifies us. Therefore, to be a believer as a God-man is not to cultivate anything of our natural life. We must realize that we have received Christ as our life (Col. 3:4a), and this life is in resurrection. Moreover, in that resurrection there is continually a putting to death.
We all know from our experience that the more we pray to the Lord, the more we contact the Lord, the more we allow the Lord to impart Himself into us, on the one hand, the more we become spiritually alive, and on the other hand, the more we desire to terminate our old self. After our proper prayer, the issue is always that we become living and at the same time are put to death. This kind of experience produces the new man. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:15 that Christ created the Jews and the Gentiles together on the cross into one new man. Therefore, Christ’s crucifixion was a creating.
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