Now we come to the critical point of the Christian faith; it is the peak of the salvation of God. We want to see how Christ can be our life in a subjective way.
In order that we may know and contact Him, God was incarnated to become a man. Through this man we come to realize what God is like. This man was none other than Jesus of Nazareth. He was God clothed with humanity.
Physically speaking, the body of Jesus was no different from ours. But the life within Him was absolutely of another category. His life was purely the life of God. It had the characteristics of God. God bestows to those who are in Christ the very same life that was embodied in Jesus of Nazareth.
However, when Jesus was walking on the earth, the life that He possessed could not be imparted into us. His life was bound by time and space. It was confined to Himself. It could not enter into the believers to be their new source of existence. Therefore, Christ had to die in the flesh. When He died, the bondage of the flesh was shattered and His life was released.
In John 12:24 the Lord said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." The Lord compared Himself to a grain of wheat. There is life embodied in the seed. When the grain falls into the ground and dies, the life within is released, and much fruit is brought forth.
Hence, God did not stop at incarnation. He went through death in order that His life would be freed from the flesh and released into the Holy Spirit. He is no longer limited by time and space. His life can now be dispensed unreservedly to all who believe. The death of Christ on the cross was not merely for redemption of sin but also for the release of divine life. The latter is the primary goal, while the former is only a remedial necessity.
However, before we could receive this life, God also had to solve our problem of sin. Hence, the death of Christ had the aspect of redemption with it. Now God has a just ground upon which He can dispense life to us, and we also have a proper standing to receive boldly this new life from God.
There is a passage in the Bible with which we are quite familiar. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life." I wish to point out two things in this verse.
First, it does not say that God loves sinners; it says that God loves the world. The world denotes humanity in general and has a higher sense than sinners. I do not mean to say that God does not love sinners. But the purpose of God in this verse—the bestowing of eternal life—is not granted to sinners. Sinners are at a lower level than God's basic requirement for humanity. There is a basic standard upon which God can freely dispense life. But a sinner is below that standard. Hence, before anything could be realized, God had to forgive and deal with our sins. The death of Christ paid the ransom for sin. Now we need no longer be sinners.