In order to see the one new man, we need to have a proper understanding of the old man. Before exhorting us to put on the new man, Paul tells us to put off the old man (4:22). After creating heaven and earth, God created man, not merely as an individual, but as a collective entity. Genesis 1:26 speaks of man both in the singular and in the plural: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion....” This reveals that God’s intention has always been to have one collective man. The corporate man created by God was damaged through the fall, and there is now the need for God to have a new man. In order to produce this new man, Christ had to deal not only with sin, the fallen nature of the old man, Satan, and the world, but as we have pointed out, He also had to abolish the ordinances. What most frustrates God from gaining the new man is ordinances. When Christ was crucified on the cross, our sins, our old man, Satan, and the world were not the only things crucified; all the ordinances were crucified also. The crucifixion of the ordinances was not for forgiveness, holiness, victory over Satan, or the imparting of life; rather, it was absolutely for the creation of the one new man.
We are familiar with such verses as John 1:1 and 3:16, but we are not familiar with Ephesians 2:15. This verse says, “Having abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, making peace.” When Christ’s flesh was nailed to the cross, He abolished the law of the commandments in ordinances so that He might create the two, the Jews and Gentiles, in Himself into one new man. When verse 15 is read along with verse 16, we see clearly that Christ abolished the ordinances through the cross and slew the enmity by the cross, not for the purpose of accomplishing redemption or of imparting life, but for creating the Jews and the Gentiles into one new man.
When Christ was nailed to the cross in the flesh, the entire old creation was involved, for all of creation was related to His flesh. According to Hebrews 10, Christ’s flesh was typified by the veil in the temple on which were embroidered cherubim, signifying the living creatures. Therefore, when Christ was nailed to the cross, the entire creation was nailed there with Him. Furthermore, when the veil in the temple was rent, the cherubim were rent also. This signifies that when the flesh of Christ was crucified on the cross, all the creatures were crucified. This is the biblical understanding of the crucifixion.
If you ask an unbelieving Jew who it was that was crucified on the cross, he will answer, “The man Jesus of Nazareth.” If you asked this question of a new believer, he would probably say that his Savior, Jesus Christ, died there. A more advanced Christian would reply that both he and the Savior were crucified on the cross. An even more advanced Christian would respond that the Savior, he himself, and the Devil were all crucified on the cross. Other Christians, those even further advanced than these, would say that on the cross the Savior, the self, the Devil, and the world were crucified. If we went on to inquire of a mature and enlightened Christian concerning who died on the cross, he would say that the Savior, the self, Satan, the world, and all the creatures were crucified there. If this question is addressed to us, we should include in our answer not only the five items already mentioned, but also the ordinances. Christ’s death terminated all of the old creation; every negative thing in the universe was terminated.
Christ abolished in His flesh the law of commandments in ordinances; but He did not create the new man in His flesh. No, in the flesh He terminated the negative things so that He might create the two, the Jews and the Gentiles, into one new man in Himself. The negative things were terminated in Christ’s flesh, whereas the new man, which, of course, is positive, was germinated in Christ Himself. We need to pay careful attention to two phrases in verse 15: “in His flesh” and “in Himself.” If I were to ask you where you are today, you should say, “Firstly, I was in Christ’s flesh; now I am in Christ Himself. In His flesh I was terminated on the cross, but in Christ Himself I was created as part of the one new man.”
Christ did not stop with the termination of the negative things. As we have pointed out again and again, death is the threshold of resurrection; it ushers us into resurrection. Although Christ in the flesh was crucified on the cross, this death brought Him into resurrection. In resurrection He is no longer in the flesh; rather, He is the wonderful Spirit. It was in His flesh that we, the old man, were terminated, but it is in the wonderful Spirit that we have been created into the one new man. When our old man and our old nature were crucified, the ordinances related to our fallen nature were slain. Then in Christ’s resurrection and in His wonderful Spirit, we were created into one new man. It does not seem reasonable to say that we were crucified before we were born. Nevertheless, it is a marvelous fact that we were terminated in the flesh of Christ on the cross. Moreover, before we were born, we were also created in the wonderful Spirit to be the one new man.