We must be deeply impressed that the New Testament reveals to us a wonderful Person for the divine dispensing. This Person is the Triune God incarnated to be a man (John 1:14). The Gospels show us this Person’s conception and birth. His conception was carried out by the Triune God. All three of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, joined and participated in this conception. Many of us have an inadequate concept about His conception. We used to think that this conception was merely the Son of God’s conception, yet we have to realize that both the Father and the Spirit joined in that conception. The Father’s divine essence was mingled with the human essence by the Spirit (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35). Therefore, all three of the Godhead participated in that conception which was carried out in the womb of a human virgin. This brought forth a child with two natures—the divine nature and the human nature. He was born as a God-man. From His birth He was the complete God (Rom. 9:5) and the perfect Man. From such a conception and birth we see the three of the Godhead in humanity. No human word can explain such a mysterious, excellent, and marvelous conception and birth. The Person that was produced by such a conception is also mysterious, excellent, and marvelous. In human history there has never been such a Person.
The New Testament then tells us that such an excellent and marvelous Person lived a life which was so mysterious, so excellent, and so marvelous. This life combined and mingled the human life with the divine life. In this life we can see all the divine attributes and all the human virtues, in this life we cannot find any trace of sin, and in this life there is no room left for Satan and no element of the world. This life is not only a mysterious, excellent, and marvelous life, but also a victorious life, a life of victory to the uttermost. Such a life accomplishes God’s eternal purpose and has been set up as a pattern, a model, for all the Christians to live. It is a full model for the church life.
In the previous chapters we have seen two basic items of God’s New Testament economy: the incarnation of the Word and the living of the Son. Now we come to the third item of God’s New Testament economy, the Son’s death. Whether or not a death is honorable, whether or not a death is dignified, depends on the source of this death. A mosquito’s death does not bear any significance, but the death of a king has a great significance. In the New Testament there is a death which is full of significance. It is mysterious, excellent, marvelous, and wonderful because it is the death of a mysterious, excellent, marvelous, and wonderful Person. This is the death of the God-man. This is the death of a Man who had God wrought into His intrinsic nature, a Man mingled with the Triune God. The Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, is all wrapped up with this Man, so this Man was a Triune God-man. Such a Man died a wonderful, excellent, mysterious, marvelous, and victorious death.
Now we need to see all the factors that required the death of this wonderful Person. The first factor was sin (John 1:29). In this universe sin came in (Rom. 5:12) between God and man. Out of sin came many sins (1 Pet. 2:24). Besides these two factors, another factor is that there was an enemy, who is not only the enemy of God, but also the enemy of man. This enemy is the Devil, Satan (Heb. 2:14). Satan produced a system called the world, which usurped the man whom God created for His purpose (John 12:31). The world is another factor that required the death of the God-man, Jesus. When this wonderful Man lived on this earth, He confronted the satanic system, the world. In addition to these factors, there is the old creation. Whatever God had created became old. When the Bible says old it denotes corruption. God’s creation became corrupted because the factor of death invaded and corrupted the creation. All the items in the universe became deteriorated through the invasion of death, causing everything to become old. The universe was created by God, but it was ruined by Satan and made old by death. This old creation included mankind (Rom. 6:6). We belong to the old creation. Another factor requiring the wonderful death of Christ is the religious regulations, rituals, and ordinances (Eph. 2:15). The religious ordinances became a separating factor between men. The Jews had many ordinances which separated them from the Gentiles.
The last factor requiring the death of Christ is a positive factor. He died in order to release the divine life (John 12:24). If His death had only taken away the six negative factors, it would have cleared up the entire universe, but the result would have just been emptiness. If sin and sins are gone, Satan is over, the world is finished, the old creation is terminated, and all religious ordinances are taken away, all that is left is emptiness. However, there is a wonderful, positive factor. The death of Christ released the divine life for the divine dispensing. If the divine life had never been released, it could never have been dispensed. Once the divine life is released, it is good for the divine dispensing. Sin, sins, Satan, the world, the old creation, the religious ordinances, and the release of the divine life are the seven factors requiring the wonderful death of Christ.