The phrase “in Himself” is very significant. It indicates that Christ was not only the Creator of the one new man, the church, but also the sphere in which and the essence with which the one new man was created. He is the very element of the new man. After we were terminated, in Him we received the new essence. Christ Himself became this new element to us. Nothing of our old man was good for the creation of the new man, for our former essence was sinful. But in Him there is a wonderful essence, in which the one new man has been created.
Christ created the one new man, the church, with God’s nature wrought into humanity. This divine work was something new. In the old creation God did not work His nature into any of His creatures, not even into man. In the creation of the one new man, however, God’s nature has been wrought into man to make His divine nature one entity with humanity.
The demons and evil angels know that the one new man has been created in the divine essence. This fact terrifies them. For this reason, the demonic powers would try to keep Christians from seeing the fact of the creation of the one new man. Hence, we must fight the battle for this truth. We need to pray for a clear and sober mind to perceive that not only have we been terminated on the cross, but that by means of this termination we have been transferred into Christ. In Christ, with His divine essence, we have been created into the one new man.
It is essential to believe that before we were born we were created into the one new man and that a new essence has been wrought into our being. If you believe that Christ died on the cross to take away your sins, then you must also believe that through His death you have been put into Him and that in Him you have been created, with His divine essence, into the new man. Have you ever heard before that in His crucifixion Christ terminated you in His flesh and then in His resurrection put you into Himself in order to create you, with the divine essence, into the new man? This concept is beyond our natural understanding. Nevertheless, according to the Word, it is a fact. If we read 2:15 carefully and with prayer, the light will come in. We shall see that we and all the creatures, signified by the cherubim on the veil, were crucified in the flesh of Christ on the cross. Since death ushers us into resurrection, in His resurrection Christ put us into Himself. Then with His divine essence He created us in Himself into the one new man.
Ephesians 2:15 does not say, “That He might create the two into one new man.” Do not ignore the phrase “in Himself.” Apart from being in Him, we could not have been created into the new man, because in ourselves we do not have the divine essence which is the element of the new man. Only in the divine essence and with the divine essence were we created into the new man. It is possible to have this essence only in Christ. In fact, Christ Himself is this essence, this element. Hence, in Himself Christ created the two into one new man. We all need to be profoundly impressed with the fact that we, the believers, have been created into one new man in Christ.
As those who have been saved and regenerated, we now must put off the old man and put on the new man. Although the new man has already been created, we still need to put him on. Hardly any Christians know how to put off the old man, much less how to put on the new man. Most Christians think that to put off the old man is to put off the old nature or the old self and that to put on the new man is to put on the new nature. Those who hold this concept are utterly mistaken. Since the new man in 2:15 is a corporate man, the new man in 4:24 must also be corporate. According to 4:24, we need to put on the very new man that has already been created in Christ.
The way to put on the new man is found in 4:23: “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” This word indicates that to be renewed in the spirit of our mind is to put on the new man. Now we must see what it means to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Admittedly, this is a strange expression. If I had been the writer of this Epistle, I would have said “the mind of the spirit” instead of “the spirit of the mind.” To me, that would have been more logical. Nevertheless, Paul spoke here of the spirit of the mind.