The second step in God’s project was the crucifixion. After He lived as Emmanuel on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, He was crucified on the cross. What is the meaning of crucifixion? Most people would say that He was crucified on the cross for our sins. This is true, but we must realize that crucifixion not only means the taking away of sins, but also the termination of everything! Incarnation means mingling, and crucifixion means termination. When He was crucified on the cross, all the negative things were terminated. Even we were terminated there! Do you know when and where you were terminated? Praise the Lord! We were all terminated on the cross with Christ. When He was crucified, we were terminated. All the negative things were terminated on the cross. If you have a bad temper, don’t be bothered by that. Tell all the demons that your temper was terminated on the cross. The world was terminated there. Sin was terminated there. The devil with all his fallen angels and demons were terminated there. Our flesh, our self, our fallen nature, our soul, our old man, our everything was terminated there. Our husband, our wife, our children, our brother, our sister were all terminated. Everything of the old creation was terminated on the cross! Crucifixion means termination, and termination means the end. This is the second step.
But praise the Lord! He has taken a third step. Following crucifixion, there is resurrection. Hallelujah! Christ was crucified and buried, but He rose from the dead. Around Him there was nothing but death, but death could not hold Him. He was not captured by death. He took a tour to see death, to visit it for a while, but He walked out of death! He walked in, and He walked out. That was resurrection, and resurrection means germination. First we were terminated, then we were germinated. Termination ends the old creation, and germination starts the new creation. Many of us love our wife; but if we would let our wife be terminated on the cross, she would be germinated. Then we would have a new wife in the new creation. The same is true regarding the sisters. I am sure that all the sisters would rather have their husband in the new creation than in the old creation. They are terminated, and then they are germinated with a new life. Crucifixion means termination, and resurrection means germination.
The fourth step is ascension. Ascension means inauguration. Whenever a new president of this country is elected, there is the need of an inauguration. Before the inauguration he is the president-elect, but by his inauguration he becomes the official president. The same is true of the ascension of Jesus. By ascending to the heavens, He was inaugurated into His post as Lord of all (Acts 2:36). God Himself has always been Lord of all, but by the ascension of Jesus, a man became the Lord of all! Do you realize that the little Nazarene, Jesus, is now Lord of all? He was not simply put into the lead, but He was inaugurated into the lead. At the time of His ascension, God prepared the whole universe for Jesus of Nazareth to become Lord of all. He is also the Christ, as well as the King of kings. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16). He is the Head of all things (Eph. 1:22). Hallelujah! What an inauguration He had! When the president of this country is inaugurated, thousands of people parade through Washington D. C. I do not know how many angels were parading when Jesus of Nazareth was inaugurated in the presence of God to be the Lord of all. He was made the Lord of lords and the Head of all things. This is the meaning of the fourth step, the ascension.
Then, after His inauguration, He descended to baptize His Body. This is the fifth step. On the day of Pentecost He collected together all the Jewish members of His Body and put them into Himself who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Later, in the house of Cornelius, He collected all the Gentile members of His Body and put them into Himself. By this step of baptism, He baptized both Jews and Gentiles into one Body.
When were you baptized by the Spirit into the Body? If you are a Jew, you were baptized at Pentecost. If you are a Gentile, you were baptized at the house of Cornelius. Even before we were born, we were all baptized into one Body. We were all terminated on the cross before we were born, and we were all baptized into one Body before we were born. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished one crucifixion, one resurrection, and one baptism. This is why 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, “For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free: and were all made to drink of one Spirit.” Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, we have all been baptized already.
We were chosen before the foundation of the world, and at Christ’s ascension, God gave all of us to Christ. In fact, at the ascension, God gave Christ four main things: His people, His life, His Spirit, and all the functions of the Spirit. Then on the day of Pentecost and at the house of Cornelius Christ put all of God’s chosen people into Himself to make them His members. This was all accomplished once and for all.
After this, we have the indwelling, which is the sixth step. After He put us all into Himself, then He came into us to indwell us. All the other steps which we have mentioned— incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and baptism— were accomplished once and for all. But the indwelling is not like that. It is not once and for all. From the day that Christ came into us and began to indwell us, there are many things that must be done. This is why we need at least 20 messages to cover this matter of the indwelling of Christ.
After the indwelling, there will be the second coming of Christ. This is the advent, which is also once and for all. So altogether we can see seven steps: incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, baptism, indwelling, and the advent. Incarnation means mingling, crucifixion means termination, resurrection means germination, ascension means inauguration, baptism means being put into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19, “in” in Greek is “into”), indwelling means transformation, and advent means transfiguration. When the Lord comes back, He will transfigure our outward body like unto His glorious body (Phil. 3:21). At this time, from within and without, we will all be absolutely the same as He is (1 John 3:2), we will be fully one with Him. Hallelujah! These are the seven steps which God has taken to accomplish His purpose.