Hebrews 9:26 shows us that through the offering up of Christ as a sacrifice, He dealt with the sinful nature, that is, the singular “sin” within man. Verse 28 follows by saying that by His offering up of Himself once, He took care of the consequence of “sin,” which is the outward sinful acts, that is, the plural “sins,” of man. Romans 6:6 says that the death of Christ on the cross took care of our old man. Hebrews 2:14 says that through death, Christ destroyed him who has the might of death, that is, the Devil. John 12:31 says that when Christ was lifted up on the cross, Satan was judged and the world which hangs upon Satan was also judged. Furthermore, Ephesians 2:15 says that when Christ was crucified, He abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances. John 12:24 shows us even further that Christ was like a grain of wheat which fell into the earth and died to release the divine life. All these were accomplished by the all-inclusive death of Christ.
Another great act of Christ was His resurrection. The death of Christ terminates, while the resurrection of Christ germinates. First, through the resurrection of Christ, Jesus the Nazarene was born the firstborn Son of God (Acts 13:33). Second, His resurrection regenerated the ones chosen by the Father to become God’s many sons (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:29). Eventually, the firstborn Son and the many sons are constituted the church (Heb. 2:12). Hence, the church is produced through the resurrection of Christ.
Christ accomplished ascension, and in His ascension He was inaugurated as the Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Head of the kings of the earth, and the Savior of all mankind (Acts 2:36; 5:31). In this way, He is able to inherit all and to fulfill God’s commission, which is to rule and to exercise sovereignty over the whole earth by His authority. By this, God’s chosen ones are enabled to receive God’s salvation in a proper way. All these were accomplished by Christ in His ascension.
Christ has also accomplished the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the producing of the church. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was based upon Christ’s accomplished process of becoming flesh, dying an all-inclusive death, resurrecting, and ascending. After Christ passed through these processes, He was ready to pour Himself out upon all His believers and to baptize them into the Body, which is the church (Acts 2:33; 1 Cor. 12:13). By this, He accomplishes His heavenly ministry on earth and fulfills God’s New Testament economy.
The important items of God’s New Testament economy, from the Triune God becoming flesh to the producing of the church, are fully accomplished facts. Now all we have to do is to acknowledge, receive, enjoy, and experience by faith these accomplished divine facts.
Among the divine facts we receive by faith, one primary item is our dying and living together with Christ (Gal. 2:20). In Christ we are already dead. But now in Christ we are made alive. Through the death of Christ, we are dead in Him. And now through His resurrection, He is living within us. In this way, we can live Christ and have Him as our center and everything in our daily life. Christ and we, we and Christ, both have one life and one living.