If we want to clearly know what the church is and what God desires to do in the church, we need to understand Ephesians 2:13-16, Colossians 3:10-11, and 1 Corinthians 12:12-13. Many people have a wrong understanding of Ephesians 2; they think that it concerns the Gentiles’ relationship with God. In actuality, it concerns the Gentiles and the Jews becoming one new man in Christ. Verse 13 says, “You who were once far off.” This indicates that in addition to the Gentiles being far off from God, they were also far off from the Jews. The Gentiles and the Jews were in two absolutely different realms in the old creation, in the flesh. According to the old creation, the Jews were in one realm, and the Gentiles were in another; people in these two realms could never become near. They were so far off that they could not come near or have contact with one another.
In Ephesians 2 the apostle shows that these two, who could not come near and who were far off from one another, have become one new man in Christ. Thus, verse 13 says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near in the blood of Christ.” You who were far off refers to the Gentiles. The Gentiles were once far off from the Jews, but now through the redemption of Christ with the shedding of His blood, they have come near to the Jews. Verse 14 says, “For He Himself is our peace, He who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity.” Both does not refer to God and man, or to God and the Gentiles, but to the Gentiles and the Jews. Christ accomplished redemption on the cross so that both—the Gentiles and the Jews—could become one. He also broke down the middle wall of partition. What is “the middle wall of partition”? Verse 15 says, “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.” The middle wall of partition is the law of the commandments in ordinances. The law does not allow the Jews to have any dealings with the Gentiles, and because of this, there was a middle wall, there was enmity. But Christ crucified the law and abolished the enmity on the cross so that He might create the two in Himself into one new man. Christ has created the two in Himself into one new man.
In the New Testament the new man does not refer to an individual; there is no individual new man. The new man is a corporate new man. In other words, in the New Testament there is only one new man, not many new men, just as there is only one old man, not many old men (cf. Gen. 1:26; 1 Cor. 15:47). There are millions of people on earth, but there are not millions of old men; there is only one old man. In the same way, there is also only one new man. Hence, Ephesians 2:15 clearly says that Christ created “the two in Himself into one new man.” The two refers to the Gentiles and the Jews. Formerly, they were separated by the law, but now the middle wall of partition has been broken down through the crucifixion of Christ. Thus, the two were created in Christ into one new man.
Verse 16 says, “And might reconcile both in one Body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it.” This clearly shows that through the cross Christ broke down the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles in the old creation and created the two in Himself into one new man; as a result, the two are one Body. Formerly there were Jews and Gentiles, but now the two have been created in Christ into one new man.
In Colossians 3:10 Paul uses the phrase put on the new man. This is not a charge that we put off the old man and put on the new man; rather, it refers to an accomplished fact. In Christ, we have put off the old man and put on the new man. We must read Colossians 3:10 with Ephesians 2:15, which says that Christ has created the Gentiles and the Jews in Himself into one new man; Colossians says that in Christ the old man has been put off, and the new man has been put on.
To put on the new man does not mean that you put on a new man, I put on a new man, and millions of believers put on millions of new men. There is only one new man, just as there is only one old man. The old man is Adam, who is in millions of people in the world. Adam, who is in millions of his descendants, is the old man. Hence, there are not millions of Adams or millions of old men; there is only one Adam, one old man. Christ, the One who is in millions of Christians, is the new man. There is only one new man. The old man is Adam; the new man is Christ. Before we were saved, we were in Adam, the old man; when we were saved, we came out of Adam, put off the old man, and put on Christ, the new man.
Although we have put on Christ and Christ is in us, the new man has not yet been manifested through us. According to Colossians 3:10, the new man “is being renewed unto full knowledge.” When we are saved, Christ enters into us and we put Him on (Gal. 3:27). However, we do not have sufficient knowledge of Christ. Thus, from the day of our salvation, we are being renewed unto full knowledge. The more we believe, the more knowledge we receive; the more we believe, the more thorough our knowledge becomes; and the more we believe, the fuller our knowledge will be. This gradual renewing is according to the image of the Lord; this means that Christ has put us in Him and created us into one new man. From the day we are saved, we have put on the new man, and this new man is the same as the Lord. However, because of our inadequate knowledge of this new man, our living still does not bear the full image of the Lord.
From the day of our salvation, the new man is being renewed unto full knowledge, and this renewing is according to the image of Him who created him. We have put on the new man once for all, but our knowledge of the new man is being renewed gradually, and this gradual process of renewing is according to the image of the Lord. As we know the Lord more, the new man will be renewed more and more, and the image of the Lord will be manifested more.
Colossians 3:11 says, “Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” Where refers to the new man. In the new man there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free man. All such distinctions are in the old man; they have all vanished in the new man. The church is not something of the old creation; the church is a new creation, and this new creation is the new man whom Christ created in Himself.