In the foregoing messages we have considered in detail two very important matters: the incarnation of the Man-Savior and the jubilee. Now in this Life-study we want to cover two more vital matters—the Man-Savior’s resurrection and His ascension.
According to the Bible, three matters related to the Man-Savior are of particular importance. These matters are His death, resurrection, and ascension. Along with the Lord’s Person, these are clearly revealed in the Bible. However, they have not been covered adequately by most Christian teachers.
The Person of Christ is, of course, a great mystery. This mystery is related to and involves the Divine Trinity. This means that when we consider the Person of Christ, we cannot avoid the Divine Trinity.
Christ’s all-inclusive redemptive work includes His incarnation. His redemptive work began with His incarnation and was completed in His resurrection. All that Christ did during His thirty-three and a half years on the earth was part of His redemptive work. I believe that in this Life-study we have covered Christ’s incarnation rather thoroughly. In the Life-study messages on both Mark and Luke we have spoken much regarding Christ’s human living. Eventually, we were brought to the end of Christ’s redemptive work with the three vital and crucial matters of His death, resurrection, and ascension.
We have seen that when the Man-Savior died on the cross, He had a sevenfold status. This means that He died as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), a man in the flesh, a man in the old creation, the serpent (John 3:14), the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15), the Peacemaker (Eph. 2:15), and a grain of wheat (John 12:24).
A simple way to remember the aspects of the Man-Savior’s sevenfold status in His death is to recall the three aspects mentioned in the Gospel of John. First we are told that Christ was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world; second, that He was typified by the brass serpent; and third, that He was the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died. The Lamb of God took away our sin, the One typified by the brass serpent destroyed the old serpent, Satan, and the grain of wheat released the divine life. Hallelujah, sin has been taken away, Satan has been destroyed, and the divine life has been released!
Having seen these aspects from the Gospel of John, we may go on to consider the remaining four aspects. Christ died on the cross as the Firstborn of all creation. In this aspect of His status, He brought the entire old creation with Him to the cross. Christ also died as a man, the last Adam, bringing the old man to the cross. Furthermore, He was crucified as a man in the flesh. Second Corinthians 5:21 says that He was made sin for us. Sin is related to the flesh. Therefore, Romans 8:3 says that God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin. On the cross He condemned sin in the flesh. Finally, Christ died as the Peacemaker, the One who abolished the ordinances of human culture and living. Hence, on the cross Christ was the Lamb, the serpent, the grain of wheat, a man in the flesh made sin for us, the last Adam, that is, a man in the old creation, the Firstborn of creation, and the Peacemaker. In this sevenfold status He died as our Redeemer.
Just as we have considered the Man-Savior’s sevenfold status in His death, we also need to see a number of points concerning His resurrection and ascension. It is difficult to find a book that speaks of the Lord’s sevenfold status in His death. Likewise, it is also difficult to find a writing that covers all the various matters we shall see regarding the Lord’s resurrection and ascension. Many of these matters are neglected in today’s teachings. Hence, in the Lord’s recovery we have the burden to cover them. Nothing that we share in these messages is the product of our imagination. On the contrary, every point comes from the divine Word. All that we have seen concerning Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension comes from diligent study of the Word under the divine light.
When we consider the Man-Savior’s resurrection, we need to humble ourselves and empty ourselves of preoccupying thoughts. For example, we need to realize that Christ’s resurrection has nothing to do with the things of Easter, such as colored eggs.
Regarding the Lord’s resurrection, there are two main aspects: the objective aspect and the subjective aspect. With both the objective and subjective aspects there are a number of points. In this message and the message following we shall cover the objective aspect of Christ’s resurrection. Then we shall go on to consider the subjective aspect, the aspect of the Lord’s resurrection that involves something that needs to be wrought into our being.