The truths concerning the accomplishments of Christ have been made shallow by the majority of today’s Christian teachers. Perhaps some will say that Christianity also preaches the gospel and speaks about the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion, shedding of blood, forgiveness of sins, and accomplishment of redemption, as well as His resurrection and ascension. It is true that the fundamentalists speak about all these matters, but what they speak is very shallow and too common. As a result, these shallow, common things occupy people’s inner being and hinder them from receiving the deeper truths. If you talk to Christians about what the Bible teaches concerning Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, you will discover that they have no ear or heart to hear. This proves that the taste within them has been spoiled so that they have no ear to hear. Mothers know that they should not give just any kind of food to their children; otherwise, they will spoil their children’s taste, and their children will not take the proper, nutritious food. Many truths taught in Christianity are just candies; they are not only shallow but also damaging to people’s taste.
On the other hand, I hope that you will change your concept. Do not be so proud to think that you know everything. The main revelation of the New Testament is the three accomplishments of Christ: His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. This is not to say that His incarnation and His human living are insignificant. They are also profound but easier to explain. The death of Christ is not only profound but also hard to preach because it involves many complicated items and includes many details. The same is true with His resurrection and ascension.
Concerning the accomplishments of Christ, we have already covered three items: creating all things, becoming flesh, and passing through human life. Now we will go on to consider the fourth point: passing through death-dealing with sin, Satan, the world, the flesh, the old man, and the old creation with its ordinances and releasing the divine life to accomplish redemption.
The matter of the death of the Lord Jesus is covered in the New Testament from the Gospels to Revelation. The Old Testament also contains many types and prophecies concerning this matter. The first type, which is also a prophecy, is the seed of the woman. This is recorded in Genesis 3:15, where God said to the serpent, “He [the seed of the woman] will bruise you on the head, / But you will bruise him on the heel.” This refers to the death of Christ. Although we cannot see the word death here, it indeed implies the death of Christ. Furthermore, after their transgression, Adam and Eve immediately had the consciousness of sin and were ashamed of their nakedness, so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. What they did, however, was according to their own way and was ineffective. Therefore, God made them coats of skins for their covering (vv. 6-7, 21). We know that skins imply a great deal. Skins were taken from oxen or sheep. Before the skins were taken, the oxen or sheep had to die. Therefore, skins imply death. The oxen or sheep had to be killed before their skins could be made into clothing to cover man’s shame. This shows us a type of the substituting death, the death that covers man’s sin.
Then we go on to chapter four, where the Bible says that Cain presented an offering to God from the fruit of the ground (v. 3). There was no shedding of blood with the fruit of the ground because it did not pass through death. Abel, however, presented an offering from the firstlings of his flock, that is, from their fat portions; in this we can see death. The lamb sacrificed by Abel typifies Christ, who as the Lamb of God (John 1:29) was slain on the cross by the righteous God and who through death shed His precious blood to redeem us (1 Pet. 1:18-19) and to cover us with Himself as our righteousness (cf. Luke 15:22). Here it is implied that a sacrifice was slain and blood was shed; this typifies Christ’s death. Hence, we can see everywhere in the Bible the matter concerning the death of Christ.
Let us cite three prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the death of Christ. First, Isaiah 53:7 says, “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter / And like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, / So He did not open His mouth.” Second, Daniel 9:25-26 says, “From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks....And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off.” This tells us that the year of Christ’s death would be the seventh year of the sixty-ninth week. Third, Zechariah 12:10 says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications; and they will look upon Me, whom they have pierced.” Then 13:6 says, “And someone will say to Him, What are these wounds between Your arms? And He will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of those who love Me.” The One “whom they have pierced” is Christ, and the “wounds between [His] arms” denote the spear wound He suffered on the cross (John 19:34). All these are prophecies concerning Christ’s death.
The New Testament is filled even more with words concerning the death of Christ. For example, Romans 8:3 says, “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Paul did not directly mention the death of Christ; instead, he said “condemned sin.” To condemn sin is to judge sin. This judgment is not carried out before the judgment seat but in the death of Christ on the cross. This implies Christ’s death. By these illustrations you can realize that many passages in the Bible refer to the death of Christ.
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