In order to bring grace and reality to man, the Triune God needed not only to become flesh in the Son and to pass through human living in humanity, but also to pass through the death of the cross in humanity. His death was not the death of an ordinary man; it was the death of a God-man, and it was all-inclusive. He died on the cross with a sevenfold status to accomplish an all-inclusive death for all men and for everything that He redeemed. This death is of two aspects: the aspect of redemption and the aspect of life impartation, which are signified by the blood and water that came out of His side when He was pierced on the cross (John 19:34).
First, He died as the Lamb of God to deal with the totality of sin, including our sinful nature and sinful deeds (John 1:29; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:26, 28; 1 Cor. 15:3).
Second, He died as One who became flesh (John 1:14), in the likeness of the flesh of sin, in the form of fallen man, to cause sin to be condemned and to deal with the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3).
Third, He died as the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45b), as a man in the old creation, for us, who are in the old creation, crucifying our old man on the cross (Rom. 6:6).
Fourth, as the brass serpent, having the serpent’s form but not the serpent’s poison, He was lifted up, and through His death on the cross He bruised the head of the ancient serpent (Gen. 3:15; Rev. 12:9), destroying Satan (Heb. 2:14) and his world (John 12:31), thus causing all those who believe in Him to have eternal life (John 3:14-15).
Fifth, as the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15), He died on the cross in the old creation to terminate the entire old creation, thus reconciling all created things to God (Col. 1:20).
Sixth, as the Peacemaker, He abolished, through the cross, all the regulating and separating ordinances of the law, such as those concerning circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, and eating certain foods, and including the different ways of living, different customs, different habits, and different ways of worship, which cause separations in human society. Thus He created all His believers, both Jews and Gentiles, in Himself into one new man (Eph. 2:14-16).
The six items above are on the negative side, the side of redemption, and solve all problems for us, the fallen sinners.
Seventh, on the positive side, the side of life impartation, He, as a grain of wheat, fell into the ground and died to release the divine life (John 12:24) for multiplication and increase that we, like Him, may become the many grains of wheat to be formed into one loaf as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:17a), which is the church, to be God’s corporate expression. Thus, He accomplished an all-inclusive death.
Not only did the Triune God pass through the death of the cross in humanity, but He was also raised from among the dead with a resurrected body in humanity. The constituents of this God-man are the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the Man Jesus. When He was put to death on the cross, His spirit was not put to death, but His flesh was put to death (1 Pet. 3:18). He was likened to a grain of wheat (John 12:24). The Man Jesus was the shell of the grain of wheat, within which were the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. While He was suffering death, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were doing the work of resurrection in Him. This was the beginning of the resurrection of Christ. Then, His divine resurrection power set His soul free from Hades and enabled His body to leave the tomb; hence, His whole being—spirit, soul, and body—was resurrected. Therefore, His resurrection began with His spirit, passed through His soul, and consummated in His body.
Thus, through death and resurrection God caused His only begotten Son to be born as the Firstborn of God (Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29) in His humanity in resurrection. Christ was the only begotten Son of God; then in His incarnation He was born of a virgin to be the Son of Man (John 1:14; Matt. 1:23; Luke 19:10). According to His divinity, He was the Son of God; according to His humanity, He was the Son of Man. His humanity was not a part of Him as the Son of God; it was a part of Him as the Son of Man. Therefore, His humanity needed to be begotten as the Son of God through death and resurrection that He might be the firstborn Son of God among many brothers. At the same time, in the resurrection of the firstborn Son of God all those who believed into Him were regenerated to become the many sons of God to form the house of God for the kingdom of God and to constitute the Body of Christ as the corporate expression of the Triune God in the Son.