Ephesians 2:14-22 reveals that the new man was created by Christ. Ephesians 2 has another part, verses 4-10, which tells us that this new man created by Christ on the cross with Himself as the resurrection element needs a kind of intrinsic constitution. When we were the old man, we were dead in our offenses and sins (v. 1), but we were enlivened by God with Christ as life organically (vv. 5-6). We are speaking of things that the people in the world and even many Christians could not understand. Yet we are talking about the spiritual, divine realities and facts.
When Christ was creating the Jews and Gentiles into one new man, no doubt, He used His resurrection life as a kind of element to join all the parts together. Meanwhile, God also did something. Ephesians 2 tells us that two were working on the cross. First, it tells us that Christ was creating. Second, it tells us that God was imparting the divine life into these dead parts to make them alive. While Christ was creating, God was enlivening.
The second part of Ephesians 2 tells us only that Christ created us into one new man by crossing out the dirt of the old man and by sticking together all the parts with His resurrection life. But how did the divine life get into the new man? The first part of Ephesians 2 shows that while Christ was creating, God was enlivening. We were dead in trespasses and sins, so God made us alive together with Christ (v. 5). He raised us up together with Christ and seated us together with Christ in the heavenlies (v. 6). He subjected all things other than Christ under our feet and gave Christ to be the Head over everything for us, making us a part of the Head. This is God's enlivening. While Christ was creating, God was enlivening for the creation of the new man. This new man has been raised up and uplifted. All things have been subjected under the feet of this new man, and the Head of this new man is over all things. The new man in resurrection as the new creation is full of newness and full of life.
If we are the church, we should have nothing old. The church is altogether a new item. The oldness has all been crossed out, purged away by Christ's death, and Christ has put Himself as the resurrection life into the crossed out ones to be their divine element. Thus, all of us old antiques have become a new man. While Christ was creating, God came in to inject, to enliven, to dispense, Christ as life into us. Christ was creating, crossing out the old man, and God was putting in the new element, that is, Christ's resurrection life. While Christ was creating, God was enlivening by dispensing the resurrection life of Christ.
On the one hand, Christ crossed the old man out and created the new man in Himself as the sphere and element. On the other hand, God was working to inject, to dispense, the resurrected Christ as life in order to enliven the dead ones, to raise them up from the dead, to uplift them to the heavens, to subject all things under their feet, and to make them one with the Head, Christ, who is over all things. What is the church? The church is the new man. The old man has been crossed out, and Christ as the resurrection life has been added into us to make us a new man, not only having Christ as our life but also having Christ as our person. We are now one with Christ as a new man. He is our life, and He is our person.