We have seen in the foregoing message that the Man-Savior was put to death as our Substitute, as our Redeemer, by God. Now we need to see that the Lord Jesus died an all-inclusive death. His death on the cross was not merely vicarious; it was also all-inclusive. Because the Man-Savior is an all-inclusive Person, on the cross He died an all-inclusive death. Let us now go on to consider different aspects of the Lord’s all-inclusive death.
According to the record of the entire New Testament, when the Man-Savior died on the cross, He died as seven items. First, He died as the Lamb of God to deal with sin and sins. John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Here the world denotes mankind. From 1 Corinthians 15:3, 1 Peter 2:24, and Hebrews 9:28 we see that as the Lamb of God the Lord Jesus died for our sins. Furthermore, according to 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Hebrews 9:26, His death dealt with sin. Therefore, both sin and sins were dealt with by the Lamb of God, who was under God’s judgment on the cross.
When the Man-Savior died on the cross, He also died as a man in the flesh. As the Word which was with God and which is God, He became flesh (John 1:1, 14). First Peter 3:18 tells us that He was “put to death in flesh.” As a man in the flesh, He had only the likeness, the form, of a fallen man; He did not have the nature of a fallen man. This means that He was in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3), but He did not have the actual nature of sin. Because the Man-Savior died as a man in the flesh, His death dealt with the fallen flesh. Praise the Lord that sin, sins, and the fallen flesh have been dealt with by the death of the Man-Savior!
The Lord Jesus also died as a man in the old creation. This is the reason Romans 6:6 says that our old man was crucified with Him. Because the Lord died on the cross as a man in the old creation, our old man was dealt with through His death.
It may come as a great surprise to hear that the Man-Savior died on the cross even as the serpent. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Here the Lord Jesus applies to Himself the type of the brass serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness (Num. 21:4-9).
No doubt, the Lord Jesus was crucified as a serpent in form in order to deal with Satan, the Devil, the old serpent. As fallen human beings, we all have been bitten by this serpent. Do you know when we were bitten? We were bitten in the Garden of Eden when Adam was bitten by the serpent and poisoned by him. Therefore, it was necessary for our Savior to be crucified as the serpent in form in order to deal with the old serpent.
It was through being crucified as the serpent that the Lord Jesus crushed the head of the old serpent, the Devil (Gen. 3:15). In this way, He judged the ruler of this world. Concerning this, John 12:31 says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the ruler of this world be cast out.” By His death on the cross, the Man-Savior destroyed the Devil, who had the power of death (Heb. 2:14). Therefore, as the One who died as a serpent under God’s judgment, the Man-Savior dealt with the Devil and with his world, the satanic system.