Now let us examine a few obvious and important verses concerning this profound principle of living through dying.
First, Galatians 2:20a says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” According to God’s economy, when Christ was crucified on the cross, I was also included in Him. Through the death of Christ, I am dead in Him; and now through His resurrection, He lives within me. This shows us the principle of living through dying.
Second, Romans 8:13b says, “But if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” What we need to put to death is not the body itself, but the practices of the body. These practices do not refer only to the sinful things, but also to all the things done by our body outside of the Spirit. When we take the initiative to put to death the practices of the body, the Spirit will apply the effectiveness of the death of Christ to those practices and terminate them so that we may live.
Third, Galatians 5:24-25 says, “But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Verse 24 speaks about death. Our old man and the “I” were crucified on the cross. This is a fact accomplished by Christ on the cross. The crucifying of the flesh with the passions and the lusts is our practical experience of this fact. The experience of this fact can be fulfilled only by our carrying out through the Spirit the crucifixion accomplished by Christ. Verse 25 speaks of living. In our Christian life, God does not want us to keep the law by the flesh, but to live Christ by the Spirit. Living by the Spirit implies that our living depends on the Spirit and is regulated by the Spirit. This again shows us that the Christian experience of life is one of living through dying.
Here we see that the way of death revealed by the Bible is not a way of committing suicide. Rather, it is a way of believing and receiving the fact accomplished by Christ at the cross. When Christ was crucified on the cross, we who were in Him were also crucified together with Him. The ark is a type in the Old Testament which illustrates this matter. Noah and his household of eight members were saved in the ark by passing through the flood waters (Gen. 7:1, 7; 1 Pet. 3:20). Similarly, we who are in Christ passed through death with Him. We were buried with Him and were resurrected with Him. We do not experience crucifixion, burial, and resurrection alone, but experience them with Christ by being in Him. What He passed through was suffering and death; what we pass through is enjoyment and deliverance. This is our living through dying in Christ. The death of Christ is not the goal; rather, it is an initiation into resurrection. In Adam, death is fearsome; in Christ, death is lovable. The death in Adam leads to perdition; the death in Christ leads to resurrection. Let us now consider the outline of this chapter.
The Triune God becoming flesh is an extraordinary thing in the universe. Man’s body was originally created by God. Due to the fall of man, Satan’s elements were added into man’s body, and the body was changed in nature to become the flesh. One day God became a man. The Bible says that He not only took on a body, but also became flesh (John 1:14). By this, the fall of man and sin are involved. But this does not mean that the sinful nature, or Satan, were in the body of Christ. Romans 8:3 clearly says, “God sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin.” This shows that although Christ became flesh, He had only the likeness of the flesh. He did not have the satanic elements in the flesh which is sin. Therefore, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that Christ has no sin and even has no knowledge of sin.
Concerning this matter, not only is there a clear revelation in the New Testament, but there are illustrative types in the Old Testament as well. When the Israelites sinned against God and were bitten by the fiery serpents, God commanded Moses to lift up the brass serpent to bear the judgment of God for them. Whoever beheld that brass serpent was made alive (Num. 21:4-9). In John 3:14 the Lord Jesus applied this type to Himself. He said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” This word indicates that when He became flesh He was in the likeness of the flesh of sin, that is, in the form of the brass serpent, with the form of the serpent yet without its poison. This is indeed a marvelous thing. The Triune God, the Lord who created the heavens and the earth, entered into man and joined Himself with the fallen man, the flesh, and even became flesh. The only thing that He did not have in Him was the nature and poison of sin.