The Death of Christ

More Quotes on the Death of Christ

Christ's Redeeming Death

In the last three hours, in the eyes of God Christ was made sin. It was then on the cross that God condemned sin in the flesh of Christ. Romans 8:3 says that God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin (as the brass serpent in the form of a serpent --John 3:14), condemned sin in the flesh. Sin was condemned. Sin was judged on the cross. Not only did Christ bear our sins; He was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21) and was judged by God once for all.

(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 25)

On the cross Christ bore our sins. Three verses are very clear regarding this: 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:3, and Hebrews 9:28. These verses all say that Christ bore our sins. According to Isaiah 53:6, when Christ was on the cross God took all our sins and put them upon this Lamb of God.

If you read the four Gospels concerning Christ's death, you will see that He was crucified from nine o'clock in the morning, the third hour (Mark 15:25), till three o'clock in the afternoon, the ninth hour (Mark 15:33; Matt. 27:46). In the midst of these six hours there was noontime, the sixth hour (Mark 15:33). The noontime divided these six hours into two periods of three hours each. Man's persecution took place in the first three hours. Man nailed Him to the cross, mocked Him, and afflicted Him in every possible way. Then in the final three hours God came in to judge Him (Isa. 53:10). This is indicated by the darkness that came over the whole land at noontime. God put all the sins of mankind upon Him.

(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 24-25)

The Lord Jesus was lifted up on the cross. Sinners, look at His blood-like sweat! Look at His forehead, bleeding from the piercing of thorns! Look at the blood on His back from the stripes! Look at the blood on His hands and feet! Look at the blood beneath His arms! Look at the blood from His whole body! Oh, look at the blood from His very heart! "Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Heb. 9:22b). This bleeding Savior can forgive your sins. Why do you delay? Do not be cheated by thinking that He bled and suffered only as a pattern for man. The Lord Jesus Himself said, "For this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins" (Matt. 26:28). Please do not misunderstand; He shed His blood in your stead, and He was crucified in your place. All the suffering He endured was to bear your sins. "For Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God" (1 Pet. 3:18). "Who Himself bore up our sins in His body on the tree" (2:24). Sinners, if you are oppressed by sin, where are your sins? Will you bear them by yourself or hand them over to Christ? You must remember well: the death of Christ is a death for you. He loves you. Do not harden your heart. You should consider His sufferings so that, on the one hand, you may know His love and, on the other hand, realize the suffering of the coming judgment if you do not believe in Him.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 1, Vol. 6, 677)

The Lord Jesus, when He died on the Cross, shed His Blood, thus giving His sinless life to atone for our sin and to satisfy the righteousness and holiness of God. To do so was the prerogative of the Son of God alone. No man could have a share in that. The Scripture has never told us that we shed our blood with Christ. In His atoning work before God He acted alone; no other could have a part. But the Lord did not die only to shed His Blood: He died that we might die. He died as our Representative. In His death He included you and me.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 33, 28-29)

Since God loves the world, He has to be concerned about man's need. Hence, He must do something for man. We are sinners. We have no other choice but to go to hell, and no other place to be except in the place of perdition. But God loves us, and He will not be satisfied until He has saved us. When God says, "I love you," His love will step up to bear all our burdens and remove all our problems. Since God loves us, He must provide a solution to the problem of sins; He must provide the salvation that we sinners need. For this reason, the Bible has shown us this one great fact: the love of God is manifested in the death of Christ. Since we are sinners and are unable to save ourselves, Christ came to die in order to solve the problem of sin for us. His love has accomplished something substantial, and this has been put before us. Now we can see His love in a substantial way. His love is no longer merely a feeling. It has become a thoroughly manifested act.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 28, 30)

It is true that God is full of grace, but you do not have to be saved by His grace. You can be saved by His righteousness. The grace of God is based upon His love towards us. It makes Him willing to save us. But His righteousness is based upon His Son's death for us. It makes Him unable not to save us. Before Jesus died, God was free either to save or not save us. But once Jesus died, God was bound! He is absolutely obligated to save whoever comes to God by the blood of Jesus! Have we read this? It is impossible for Him not to forgive us!

This is salvation according to His righteousness. Before the death of Christ, if He had forgiven any of our sins or had acquitted us from the punishment for sin, He would have made Himself a sinner. Now He has caused His Son to be crucified on the cross. The judgment of sins has been accomplished. The problem of sin is solved. God can no longer reject anyone who comes to Him by the blood of Jesus. Now He will make Himself a sinner and an unrighteous one if He does not forgive.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 27, 114)

We now come to see the redemption accomplished by the vicarious death of the processed Triune God (Rom. 3:24). His death satisfied the requirements of God's glory, holiness, and righteousness (signified by the cherubim, the flame, and the sword in Genesis 3:24), and opened up for us the way to the tree of life. He opened up anew for us a way that we may come before God and draw near to God by the blood of Jesus. Originally, when we were created, we had the position to receive God as life, but we became fallen. Now the death of Christ has brought us fallen people back to the position to receive God as life so that we can receive Him as our life. This is what was accomplished for us by His vicarious death.

(Witness Lee, Conformation, 18-19)

There are at least three reasons why Christ had to be crucified. First, man was fallen, and creation was corrupted by the enemy. Therefore, both man and creation must be judged. Man is contradictory to the holiness and righteousness of God and has "come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), and creation is subject to vanity under the bondage of corruption (Rom. 8:20-21). Man and creation must be dealt with by God.

Let us look at it from another direction. God had a plan. Satan came in to frustrate and stop God's plan from being accomplished, but he could never succeed. He can frustrate and delay, but he can never stop God's eternal plan from being realized. God will certainly accomplish what He has purposed. So the question is, how would God accomplish His eternal purpose when man was fallen and creation corrupted? The answer is --by redemption through judgment. That is why Christ had to die on the cross. That is why He had to be judged on behalf of fallen humanity and the corrupted creation. Through judgment God could redeem fallen humanity and recover the corrupted creation. Thus, the death of Christ on the cross is on one hand the judgment of God, and on the other hand redemption. Herein lies the wisdom of God. God seized hold of the work of Satan and turned it to His own account.

We all know that we were sinners (Rom. 5:19). We were born sinners, for we are children of Adam. In this country, the children of foreigners born here are automatically Americans. They do not need to be naturalized; they are born Americans. So it is with us --we were born sinners. No matter how good our parents were or how good we are, we are all sinners by birth and we "all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23). God must judge sinners. But where and by what were we judged? We need to be redeemed, but where and by what were we redeemed? We must answer these questions before God and to ourselves. We must have full assurance that we have already passed the judgment of God and have been redeemed. We must be able to say that this day we are free from God's judgment and redeemed by Him! Brothers and sisters, not only were we judged two thousand years ago on the cross in Christ, but we were likewise redeemed then by Christ. Praise the Lord! Christ, by His death, was judged on our behalf (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18), and by this judgment God has redeemed us. Whatever God judges, He is able to redeem. God only redeems that which He has judged. No sinner can be redeemed without the judgment of the cross. But, praise the Lord, since Christ suffered the judgment, He likewise accomplished redemption for us (Heb. 9:12; Rom. 3:24). The moment we were judged in Christ on the cross, we were also redeemed. God judged both sinful man and the corrupted creation and at the same time redeemed them back (Col. 1:20-22). Why? Because God needs both humanity and creation to fulfill His eternal purpose. This is why Christ had to die.

(Witness Lee, Major Steps, 13-15)

Whereas Isaiah 53:10 says that God put Christ to death, making His soul an offering for sin, verse 12 says that "He poured out His soul unto death." If Christ merely put Himself to death on the cross, and God did accept Him as an offering for sin, Christ's death would not have been a vicarious death for us; it would have been only martyrdom. Likewise, if God was pleased to put Him to death, and He was not willing to die, then His death would not have been a vicarious death. The vicarious death of Christ depends on God's being pleased to put Him to death and on Christ's being willing to die in such a way. Moreover, if Christ had sinned, His death could not be counted as a vicarious death; He would have had to die for Himself, and He could not have died for us.

Isaiah's writing in this chapter presents a clear defense in the heavenly court, testifying that God was pleased to put Christ to death, that Christ was willing to die for others, and that He was altogether sinless (v. 9). Thus, His death was truly a vicarious death.

(Witness Lee, LS of Isaiah, 184-185)

By reading the four Gospels carefully, we can see that Christ hung on the cross for six hours, from nine o'clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon (Mark 15:25, 33-37; Matt. 27:45-50; Luke 23:44-46). During the first three hours, from nine o'clock until noon, all that Christ suffered was inflicted by man. Then, at noon God came in to cause all the iniquities of His chosen people to fall upon that dying One. Immediately the sky became dark. This was a sign of God's dealing with His chosen people's sin. Then Christ shouted, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46). It must be a fact that at that juncture God forsook Him. God had been with Christ continuously until that time. In John 16:32 the Lord said, "I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." But at noon on the day of His crucifixion, God caused all the iniquity of His chosen people to fall upon Christ, taking Him as our Substitute, legally, according to God's law. God removed all the iniquities from us and put them on Christ, making Christ the unique sinner. Then God forsook Him because at that time He was our Substitute. Thus, Christ died a vicarious death, a death that was recognized and approved by God's law.

If a man dies while attempting to rescue someone who is drowning, that death can be considered a bold death but not a vicarious death. Something that is vicarious must be related to the law. The bold death of a rescuer is not a death that can be recognized by God's law. But Christ died a vicarious death that was legal according to God's law and was recognized by God. That death of Christ was recognized by God legally, according to His law, as the vicarious death of the One who was the Substitute for us, the sinners.

(Witness Lee, LS of Isaiah, 396-397)

"In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, /Jehovah our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6). This verse reveals that the name of this Shoot is called "Jehovah our righteousness," indicating that Christ, as a descendant of David, is not merely a man but is the very Jehovah who created the heavens and the earth, selected Abraham, set up the race of Israel, and was the Lord of David, the One whom he called Lord (Matt. 22:43). At Jeremiah's time there was no righteousness among God's people. But Jeremiah prophesied that Christ would come as a Shoot who is Jehovah Himself to be the righteousness of God's chosen people (1 Cor. 1:30). Thus, while God was condemning, punishing, and chastising His people, He intended to be incarnated as a Shoot unto David so that He could be His people's righteousness. Based on Christ's coming as Jehovah to be their righteousness, the evil race of Israel can be restored. In order to be His people's righteousness, Christ first had to die for them. He had to shed His blood to wash away their sins and accomplish redemption, for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). Based on the redemption accomplished through the death of Christ on the cross, God can justify His people. God's people are justified by standing on the redemption of Christ and receiving Christ as God to be their righteousness. We have no righteousness in ourselves. "All our righteousnesses are like a soiled garment" (Isa. 64:6). Although in ourselves we do not have any righteousness, we have One who is God Himself as a man and who died on the cross to shed His blood to accomplish redemption for us. With this redemption as the basis, we can believe in Him to receive God's forgiveness, and God can justify us, make Christ our righteousness, and clothe us with the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:10).

(Witness Lee, Life-study of Jeremiah, Lamentations, 133-134)

(Watchman Nee, Christian Faith, 114)

In His salvation He has redeemed us from our sinfulness and has terminated us in our sinful constitution. Redemption, forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation are all included in His salvation. We were sinners and enemies toward God. We were sinners not merely by committing sins; we were sinners by constitution (Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:21). We became a constitution of sin and were the totality of sin. Thus, we needed not only to be forgiven but also to be terminated. Christ's death on the cross did a wonderful job of terminating our sinful constitution and taking away all our sinfulness. Based on such a death we have redemption and forgiveness, and as God's enemies we were reconciled to God. Now there is no contradiction between us and God; the situation between us and God has been altogether appeased. God is satisfied with the all-inclusive death of Christ, and this death also has satisfied us. Now we can thank Him for His all-inclusive death that has terminated our sinful constitution and has redeemed us from our sinfulness. Through such a redemption we have been forgiven, and God has justified us and even reconciled us, His enemies, to Himself. In such a situation the problem between us and God has been fully cleared up.

(Witness Lee, Organic Union, 43)

Through the death of Christ, we are reconciled to God. This includes redemption and justification (Rom. 3:24). We are saved in the life of Christ. This is the full and rich saving of God in Christ. Redemption plus saving equals the gospel of God, His full and rich salvation.

(Witness Lee, Salvation in Life, 12)

The second accomplishment of Christ's crucifixion is that sin in the flesh was condemned by God through Christ who was made sin on the cross for the believers (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3). To take away sin is one thing, but to be made sin is another. First, Christ took away sin, and, second, Christ was made sin. First, Christ came as the Lamb of God to take away the load of sin from fallen man. But this fallen man is still sin. Fallen man not only carries a load of sin, but the fallen man himself is sin. Therefore Christ as the Lamb of God first took away the load of sin; but to deal with the fallen man himself Christ had to do a further work. This further work was for Christ to be made sin (2 Cor. 5:21).

Fallen man is sin because fallen man is flesh (Rom. 3:20). Therefore, in order to condemn sin Christ became flesh (John 1:14). But when Christ became flesh, He came only in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3), just as the brass serpent was only in the form of the serpent (John 3:14). Christ became flesh in the likeness of the flesh of sin. He Himself was not the flesh of sin, but He was in the likeness, the form, of the flesh of sin. It was in this likeness of the flesh of sin that He was made sin. He was not a serpent in nature, in poison, but only in form. He had no sin (Heb. 4:15). Second Corinthians 5:21 even says that He knew no sin. He was only in the form of the sinful flesh. While He was in the form, the likeness, of the sinful flesh, He was made sin and died in this flesh. By His dying in the flesh, sin was condemned by God (Rom. 8:3). This means that He terminated both sin and the flesh. Sin was condemned through Christ who was made sin on the cross for the believers.

(Witness Lee, Secret of Experiencing, 35-36)

The first accomplishment of Christ's crucifixion was that He took away sin by being killed as the Lamb of God (John 1:29). John 1:29 says, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Do you realize how heavy is the load of the sin of the world? The load of sin is like a great mountain, but Christ's death as the Lamb of God removed this mountain of sin. This was a great work accomplished by Christ in His death. The word sin in John 1:29 denotes the aggregate, the totality, of sin and of sins. In the Bible sin in the singular denotes our inward sinful nature (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26), whereas sins in the plural number denotes our outward sinful deeds (1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:3; Heb. 9:28). Within man there is a sinful nature called sin, and outwardly there are many sinful activities called sins. The word sin in John 1:29 denotes the aggregate, the totality, of sin within and sins without. This totality of sin is a great load. Yet Christ took the load away. He removed this high mountain by being the Lamb of God dying on the cross. He was killed on the cross as the Lamb of God to be the greatest offering, the sin offering for sin and the trespass offering for sins. As the Lamb of God He was killed as the sin offering and as the trespass offering to remove the totality of sin and of sins from the world. Since Christ has done such a marvelous work, we must announce such a glad tiding, that sin has been removed.

(Witness Lee, Secret of Experiencing, 34-35)

Romans 5:10a says, "For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son..." We, who were once enemies of God, have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son, Christ. This is a great thing. The death of Christ redeemed us and laid a foundation upon which God could justify us. Through Christ's death, God also reconciled us to Himself. We were not only sinners who were forgiven and justified, but we were also enemies who were reconciled to God. We were in sin and death and in a situation of enmity toward God. We were lost to such an extent that we became God's enemies. Christ's death redeemed us back to God and reconciled us to God. We all have experienced this reconciliation. Through His death, all the problems have been solved, and we are at peace.

(Witness Lee, Tripartite Man, 55)

Two Aspects of Christ's Death

John 19:34 tells us that two substances came out of the Lord's pierced side: blood and water. Blood is to wash away our sins for redemption, and water is to dispense the divine life into us for life impartation. We need to praise the Lord for the blood and the water. All the negative things have been dealt with, and God has been dispensed into us as the eternal life. The blood was typified by the blood of the passover Lamb (Exo. 12:7, 22; Rev. 12:11), and the water by the water that flowed out of the smitten rock (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4). The blood formed a fountain for the washing of sin (Zech. 13:1), and the water became the fountain of life (Psa. 36:9; Rev. 21:6). Based upon the cleansing blood we can now enjoy the eternal life as the living water.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 57)

We all need to clearly distinguish these two aspects of Christ's death. One is for redemption, while the other is not for redemption. The first aspect of His death deals with all that happened after man's fall in Genesis 3. Since man fell, Christ came to redeem us in order to bring us back to the original purpose of God's creation of man. But the other aspect of His death has nothing to do with sins. It is entirely for the releasing of His life, that His life may be imparted into us.

Because of these two distinct aspects in the death of Christ, the Bible uses two different substances to typify them. Blood is used for redemption; water is used for the non-redemptive aspect. May God open our eyes to see the importance of this matter. The blood is for redemption, and the water is for the imparting of His life. Because we have committed sins and are sinful before God, the blood is ever before Him, speaking for our sins. But the water typifies the Lord Himself as life. John 19:34 says that the water flowed out from Him, and in chapter twenty, the Lord pointed out His side to His disciples. John 20 is not a chapter dealing with redemption. The Lord said, "I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God" (v. 17). This is a matter of imparting life.

(Watchman Nee, Glorious Church, 37-38)

We have already seen that Eve was not made of dust, but of Adam; Adam was the material of which Eve was made. Likewise, Christ is the material for the church. God used Christ to make the church. Now we will see how Eve was made, and how the church was made.

Let us read Genesis 2:21-23. "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

God brought forth the church out of the death of Christ. Regarding the death of Christ, the words in Genesis 2 are very special. It says, "The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam" (v. 21). This verse does not say that God caused Adam to die, but that He caused him to fall into a deep sleep. If death had been mentioned, then sin would be involved, because verse 17 in the preceding passage says that death and sin are related. Adam's sleep typifies the aspect of Christ's death which was not related to redemption. In the death of Christ there was an aspect which was not related to redemption but to the release of Himself. We are not saying that the death of Christ is not for redemption --we truly believe that it is --but His death involved an aspect which is not related to redemption. This aspect is the releasing of Himself for the creation of the church. It has nothing to do with sin. God is taking something out of Christ and using it to create the church. Therefore, "sleep" is used to typify His death through which man receives life.

Redemption and the receiving of life are two distinct things. Redemption involves a negative aspect of dealing with our sins. We have sinned and deserve to die; therefore, Christ came to bear our sins. His death accomplished redemption for us. This aspect of His death is related to sin. But there is another aspect of His death which is not related to redemption: It is the imparting of Himself to us so that through His death we may receive life.

(Watchman Nee, Glorious Church, 35-36)

The Lord gave Watchman Nee specific revelation concerning the death and resurrection of Christ. He saw that Christ's death has two aspects: the objective aspect, which dealt with our sin, sins, the world, Satan, and the powers of darkness; and the subjective aspect, which dealt with our flesh, our self, and our old man. He also saw that in the death of Christ the old creation was terminated. This was the negative side of the cross. On the positive side, the divine life of Christ was released to germinate the new creation. In our Lord's resurrection, His divine life was released to regenerate the believers and make them members of the Body of Christ. From His resurrection the church came into existence, and also in His resurrection the Body of Christ is being built up. It is also in the power of His resurrection that believers are able to bear the cross and, in the fellowship of His sufferings, be conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10). While enjoying the resurrection life of Christ, the Lord's people are empowered to live a holy and heavenly life while they are walking on this earth. This resurrection is just the resurrected Christ Himself, and the Spirit of Christ is its reality.

(Witness Lee, Seer of the Divine Revelation, 157-158)

Christ's All-Inclusive Death

We can never exhaust all that He[Christ] is! God is the Creator, and man is the creature. In Him, therefore, is the Creator and the creature. We must also realize that in Him is the creation. And while on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, He experienced human living. Therefore, He not only has humanity, but also the experience of human living. After this, He was crucified and went into death. He suffered death, He conquered death, and He came out of death. So in Him is the element of the effectiveness of death. Every one of us naturally fears death. Death is an awful thing. But for us the death of Christ is a great deliverance and release. We need this death not only in an objective way for our redemption, but also in a subjective way for our deliverance. The death brought in by Adam is a real damage to us, but the death of Christ is a great deliverance. The death of Christ, as a great deliverance to us, is a killing element, killing our selfish, natural life and so many negative things.

There are medicines today that contain many different elements. In some doses of medicine there is a germ-killing element as well as nourishing elements. On one hand they kill the germs, and on the other hand they nourish the body. In Christ we not only have the effectiveness of His death that kills all negative things, but the resurrection life that nourishes us and the resurrection power that releases and empowers us. And with the resurrection, we have the glorification that transforms us and the ascension that uplifts us. Now He is the transcendent One in the heavens, enthroned with authority and established as the Head and Lord of all (Eph. 1:20-22; Acts 2:32-36). Thus, with Him is also the Kingdom.

We cannot exhaust all that Christ is! In Him we have the Creator, the creature, the creation, the divine nature, the human nature with the human living, the effective death, the resurrection, the glorification, the ascension, the enthronement, the headship, the lordship, the authority and the Kingdom. All these are in Christ! They are all included in this one great Dose, which is Christ Himself.

(Witness Lee, All-Inclusive Spirit, 12-13)

We have seen that Christ's incarnation, human living, conception, and ministry are all related to God's economy. The man Jesus was a composition of the Triune God, the embodiment of the entire Triune God. He was with the Father, and He was fully constituted by the Holy Spirit. He was the embodiment of the Triune God, the very embodiment of life as the tree of life for us to eat that God may dispense Himself into us, His eaters. In this chapter, we want to fellowship concerning another crucial, excellent, and marvelous matter in the New Testament --the all-inclusive death of Christ. The death of Christ was not a common death but an all-inclusive death because Christ Himself is all-inclusive. As the all-inclusive One, He died an all-inclusive

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 49)

We may ask why there was the need of such an all-inclusive death. When Christ came with the Father and by the Spirit there were many negative things existing in the universe. God's intention is to dispense Himself into man, but man was occupied, surrounded, and even utilized by negative things.

There are at least eight negative things in the universe which Christ needed to deal with on the cross. The first item of these negative things is Satan, the Devil, God's enemy, God's adversary. Man was created by God, and God intended to dispense Himself into man. But man was captured, taken over, and usurped by Satan. Satan took man as his captive and is keeping man under his usurping hand. Along with Satan, there is the negative item of the world. The world is a satanic system and organization that occupies God's people. The third item is sin. In this universe and on this earth, within and among men, is something personified, something living, and something powerful and very evil. This is sin. The fourth negative item is the flesh. Our flesh is evil, rotten, corrupted, ugly, and rebellious against God. The fifth negative item is the old man. Regardless of how young we are, we are still a part of the old man. The old creation is another negative item that Christ had to deal with through His death. All the items in the universe have become old. We can see the corruption in the entire creation; everything is dying or decaying. Seventh, on this earth among mankind there is no unity, no peace. There is an organization called the United Nations, but the nations are altogether not united. The nations of the world are fighting against one another, and this division comes from Babel. The final negative item, which is the last enemy (1 Cor. 15:26), is death. As the people made by God for His own purpose, we were all occupied, surrounded, and taken over by these eight things. For God to dispense Himself into man, He surely had to clear up and rid the universe of these eight items.

The only way that God could clear up these eight items was by Christ's marvelous death. This wonderful person, Jesus Christ, the very embodiment of God, died to rid the universe of all these negative things. By His death, He cleared up all these negative things, and this is why His death is all-inclusive. His death destroyed Satan, judged the world, condemned sin, crucified the flesh, crucified the old man, terminated the old creation, and abolished all the ordinances that caused divisions in the human race. His death has even destroyed death. Hallelujah for such an

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 49-50)

The second step of bringing God into man is through the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God. In order to understand the second stage of the economy of God, we need to know what Christ is. What are the elements that make up Christ? What are the ingredients combined together that constitute Christ?

There are seven basic elements that entered into this wonderful Person, which were added through His history. First, Christ is the divine embodiment of God. This first element in Christ is God's divine essence and nature.

The second element, His incarnation, is the mingling of His divine nature with the human nature. Through His incarnation He brought God into man and mingled the divine essence of God with humanity. In Christ there is not only God, but also man.

The third element which was added to His divine and human natures was His human living. This glorious God-man lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years and experienced all the common and ordinary things that make up the daily human life. The Gospel of John, which emphasizes that He is the Son of God, also tells us that He was tired, hungry, thirsty, and that He wept. His human sufferings were also part of His daily life, which included many earthly troubles, problems, trials, and persecutions.

His experience of death is the fourth element. He went down into death. But He not only stepped into death, He passed through death. This produced a very effective death. The death of Adam is terrible and chaotic, but the death of Christ is wonderful and effective. The death of Adam enslaved us to death, whereas the death of Christ released us from death. Although the fall of Adam brought many evil elements into us, the effective death of Christ is the killing power within us to slay all the elements of Adam's nature.

Therefore, in Christ there is the divine nature, the human nature, the daily human life with its sufferings and also the effectiveness of His death. But there are three additional elements in Christ. The fifth element is His resurrection. After His resurrection, Christ did not put off His manhood to become solely God again. Christ is still a man! And as man He has the additional element of resurrection life mingled with His humanity.

The sixth element in Christ is His ascension. By His ascension to the heavens, He transcended over all enemies, principalities, powers, dominions, and authorities. All are under His feet. Mingled with Him, therefore, is the transcendent power of His ascension.

Finally, the seventh element in Christ is His enthronement. Christ, the man with the divine nature, is enthroned in the third heaven as the exalted Head of the whole universe. He is in the heavenlies as the Lord of lords and the King of kings.

We need to remember, then, the seven wonderful elements that are in Him: the divine nature, the human nature, the daily human life with its earthly sufferings, the effectiveness of His death, the resurrection power, the transcendent power of His ascension, and the enthronement. All these elements are mingled in this one marvelous Christ.

(Witness Lee, Economy of God, 11-13)

We have seen the reasons for Christ's death; now let us go on to another point regarding His crucifixion --the all-inclusiveness of His death. About thirty years ago, I heard a servant of God ministering. He said, "If you ask the Jewish people who was crucified on the cross, they will tell you it was a little man. To them, He was just a little man by the name of Jesus. If you come to believers and ask them who died on the cross, they will tell you it was their Savior, their Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you ask the improved Christians, those who know the Lord more deeply, they will tell you, `It is not only my Lord Himself who died there, but I and all other Christians were crucified there too.'" That servant of the Lord went on to say, "If you go to God and ask Him to tell you who it was that was crucified on the cross, He will reply, `All creation, everything, was crucified on the cross.'"

At that time it was rather difficult for me to comprehend this. I asked, How could this be? Then the Lord showed me what transpired with the ark of Noah. The ark was surrounded by deep waters. It passed through the judgment of the flood. And while the ark was passing through the flood, everything in the ark passed through the judgment also. If we were to go to Noah and ask him if he passed through the flood, he would surely answer, "Yes, I passed through the flood in the ark!" If we could go to the cattle and all the living things, they would tell us the same thing.

The ark typifies Christ, and the eight persons of Noah's family typify us. The living things in the ark typify the whole creation. All the redeemed people and all the creation were in Christ, passing through His death. When Christ was crucified on the cross, all things contained in Him passed through death also. His death is an all-inclusive death.

Let me give you another illustration. When Christ died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn from the top to the bottom. On that veil cherubim were embroidered. Thus, when the veil was torn, the cherubim were torn also. That veil is also the type of Christ, and the cherubim are a type of the living creatures. All the living creatures were torn in Christ on the cross. The death of Christ on the cross is an all-inclusive one. You died there, I died there, and the whole creation died there.

Brothers and sisters, we must realize that this all-inclusive death of Christ on the cross is the settlement of all the problems in the universe between God and His creation. The problems of Satan, sin, sickness, death, the world, and the fallen human nature --all problems --were solved at the cross. We have sinned, and from sin come sickness and death. In the universe is Satan with all his hosts: the principalities, powers, dominions, authorities, and evil hosts in the air. There is ourselves, the biggest, most subjective problem of all. There is also the world, which is the kingdom of Satan, as our environment. These are not only our problems, but also God's problems. These are the problems which frustrated God in the accomplishing of His eternal plan. God, therefore, had to deal with them and settle them all. How? By the death of Christ.

(Witness Lee, Major Steps, 17-19)

Now we need to see all the factors that required the death of this wonderful Person. The first factor was sin (John 1:29). In this universe sin came in (Rom. 5:12) between God and man. Out of sin came many sins (1 Pet. 2:24). Besides these two factors, another factor is that there was an enemy, who is not only the enemy of God, but also the enemy of man. This enemy is the Devil, Satan (Heb. 2:14). Satan produced a system called the world, which usurped the man whom God created for His purpose (John 12:31). The world is another factor that required the death of the God-man, Jesus. When this wonderful Man lived on this earth, He confronted the satanic system, the world. In addition to these factors, there is the old creation. Whatever God had created became old. When the Bible says old it denotes corruption. God's creation became corrupted because the factor of death invaded and corrupted the creation. All theitems in the universe became deteriorated through the invasion of death, causing every thing to become old. Theuniverse was created by God, but it was ruined by Satan and made old by death. This old creation included mankind (Rom. 6:6). We belong to the oldcreation. Another factor requiring the wonderful death ofChrist is the religious regulations, rituals, and ordinances (Eph. 2:15). The religious ordinances became a separating factor between men. The Jews had many ordinances which separated them from the Gentiles.

The last factor requiring the death of Christ is a positive factor. He died in order to release the divine life (John 12:24). If His death had only taken away the six negative factors, it would have cleared up the entire universe, but the result would have just been emptiness. If sin and sins are gone, Satan is over, the world is finished, the old creation is terminated, and all religious ordinances are taken away, all that is left is emptiness. However, there is a wonderful, positive factor. The death of Christ released the divine life for the divine dispensing. If the divine life had never been released, it could never have been dispensed. Once the divine life is released, it is good for the divine dispensing. Sin, sins, Satan, the world, the old creation, the religious ordinances, and the release of the divine life are the seven factors requiring the wonderful death of Christ.

(Witness Lee, NT Economy, 38-39)

The next step of the process of the Triune God was the all-inclusive death of Christ. Through His death Christ redeemed God's chosen people, terminated the old creation, and released the divine life from within the "shell" of His humanity.

(Witness Lee, LS of Job, 99)

In the first message, we saw six points concerning Christ being the mystery of God: the Word in the beginning which was God, His becoming flesh, and His passing through human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. All these seem simple and familiar. But every one of these points is a mystery. I will only mention one of these items. For example, I can prove my point by fellowshipping with you concerning Christ's death. Not only among us but also among common Christians in Christianity, the death of Christ is known, emphasized, and constantly brought into consideration. According to the revelation in the Bible, the death of Christ is all-inclusive and profound. When this Christ died on the cross, He bore at least seven statuses. When He died as one man, seven things were accomplished through His death. First, He is the Lamb of God who bore away the totality of our sin, that is, the inward sin and the outward sin, solving the problem of the singular sin and the plural sins, the root of sin and the fruits of sin. Second, He was a man in the flesh, condemning sin in the likeness of the flesh of sin, dealing with the evil nature of sin within us, which is the embodiment of Satan, and also taking care of the sin-poisoned body.

Third, He is the last Adam. In other words, He is the last man in the old creation. Adam was the first man, the head of the old creation. Christ is the last Adam, the end of the old creation. Before Adam, there was no man. After Christ, there also follows no other man. Christ died on the cross in this status and terminated us, the men in the old creation (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20). Christ brought us along when He was crucified on the cross and dealt with our old man. Fourth, He is the Firstborn of all creation. He was crucified on behalf of all creation. By this He terminated the whole old creation, so that all created things are reconciled to God. Fifth, He is the brass serpent, with the outward appearance of the serpent, but without its poison. When He was hung on the cross, He destroyed the old serpent, Satan, and judged the world that belongs to him.

As a result, all the negative things have been dealt with by the death of Christ. Sin and the nature of sin are gone. The flesh, the man in the old creation, together with the whole old creation are gone. Even the old serpent, Satan, together with the world, has been terminated. As the Lamb, the man in the flesh, the last Adam, the Firstborn of all creation, and the brass serpent, the God-man, Christ, has dealt with all the negative things in the universe on the cross.

In addition, there are two positive statuses in Christ's crucifixion. One is the Peacemaker. He came to make peace. The other is the Life-dispenser. He came to dispense life. Through His death, He annulled all the commandments in ordinances and made peace, creating one new man as a result. This new man needs the life of God. Hence, this crucified Christ became at the same time a grain of wheat. The purpose of His death was not only for our redemption to deal with sin or for the destruction of Satan, but also for the release of the divine life within Him and the dispensing of it into all the believers, that they may become the many grains, just as He Himself.

(Witness Lee, Mysteries, 32-34)

Crucifying the Old Man

In addition, when Christ was crucified, all His believers were crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20). When He was incarnated, He took us upon Himself. He put on blood and flesh. Therefore, when He was crucified, we were crucified with Him. From God's viewpoint, before we were born we were crucified in Christ. When Christ was crucified, not only were our sins dealt with and not only was our sin dealt with; we ourselves were crucified. Hence, Romans 6:6 says, "Our old man has been crucified with Him."

Besides this, the entire creation was also crucified there. When Christ died, the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom (Matt. 27:51). From top to bottom indicates that it was not man's doing, but God's doing from above. God rent that veil into two pieces. On the veil there were cherubim embroidered (Exo. 26:31). According to Ezekiel 1:5, 10 and 10:14-15, cherubim were living creatures. The cherubim on the veil, then, indicated the living creatures. Upon the humanity of Christ were all the creatures. When the veil was rent, all the creatures were crucified. By this we can see that the death of Christ was all-inclusive. It dealt with our sins, with our sin, with our self, our old man, and with the entire old creation. Sins, sin, man, and the entire creation were all dealt with on the cross.

(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 25)

The Lord Jesus also died on the cross as the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45b). After Him there was no more Adam. As the last Adam, He terminated Adam. Adam was terminated in Him because He was the end of Adam. As the last Adam, as a man in the old creation, He died on the cross for us in the old creation, crucifying our old man on the cross (Rom. 6:6). As the very God He became flesh, and that flesh was the old man not the new man. Man was created by God and was very good in God's eyes (Gen. 1:27, 31), but due to the fall man became old. The old man is the flesh. When Christ died on the cross, He crucified the old man.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 53)

We reign in life first in dying with Adam. Dying with Adam is not a doctrine; rather, it is a matter of our being in an organic union with Christ.

Our Natural Life Needing to Be Terminated with Adam in Our Co-death with ChristOur natural life needs to be terminated with Adam in our co-death with Christ (Rom. 6:3, 4a, 5a, 6-8a; Gal. 2:20a; Eph. 4:22). We were created by God in His image and after His likeness. However, due to Adam's fall, our life became the natural life of the old creation in Adam.

There are two main elements in our natural life of the old creation. The first element is sin and the second is death. Romans 5 7 shows us that in Adam there are only sin and death. Through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and through sin, death (5:12). Thus, sin reigned in us through death (v. 21a; 6:12), and death reigned over us through the offense of the one, Adam (5:17a, 14). Therefore, in Adam we did not reign in life; rather, we were under the ruling of sin and death. However, as the last Adam, Christ died an all-inclusive death on the cross, and through such a death He brought everything of the adamic life to the cross and had a great ending there (6:6).

How can we be delivered out of the reigning of sin and death? It is not by our struggling and striving; rather, it is through the all-inclusive death of Christ that we allow the life of Christ to reign in us instead of sin and death. Thus, it is no longer sin and death that reign in us; rather, it is grace and life that reign in us (5:21).

(Witness Lee, Experience of God's Organic, 46-47)

Not only in Romans, but other places in the Bible say that we are crucified with Christ. Galatians 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." It is no longer I who live, because the "I" has been crucified with Christ on the cross.

Read Galatians 5:24 again. "But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts." We do not do the crucifying; we are crucified already with Christ.

We have seen that Christ bore our sins on the cross. Now we see that He also bore our very person on the cross. He has become a substitute for our sins as well as our person. On that day on the cross, there were not only our sins, but also our person. God has included both our sins and our person in Christ. When Christ was crucified, so were we. If we see this one point, the rest will be clear.

A hymn describes well this fact:

I am crucified with Christ,And the cross hath set me free;I have ris'n again with Christ,And He lives and reigns in me.Oh! it is so sweet to die with Christ,To the world, and self, and sin;Oh! it is so sweet to live with Christ,As He lives and reigns within.

(Hymns, #482, verse 1)

(Watchman Nee, Christian Faith, 125-126)

When the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, not only did He die for the sinners, opening a living way for sinners to obtain eternal life and to come to God, He also died with the sinners on the cross. If the effectiveness of the cross were merely in the aspect of substitution so that sinners would have eternal life and be saved from perdition, God's way of salvation would not be complete. This is because a person who is saved by believing in Jesus Christ (see Acts 16) still lives in this world; there are still many temptations. Moreover, the devil often cheats him, and the sinful nature within him operates continually. Although he has received salvation, he is not yet free from sin in this age. He does not have the power to overcome sin. Therefore, in His salvation the Lord Jesus had to accomplish both aspects: to save man from the punishment of sin and also to save man from the power of sin. When the Lord Jesus died for the sinners on the cross, He delivered man from the punishment of sin --the eternal fire of hell. When the Lord Jesus died with the sinners on the cross, He delivered man from the power of sin --the old man is dead, and he is no longer a slave of sin. Sin does not come from without but from within. If sin were to come from without, then it would not have much power over us. Sin dwells in us. Therefore, it is deadly to us. Temptation comes from without, while sin dwells within. Since everyone in the world is a descendant of Adam, everyone has Adam's nature. This nature is aged, old, corrupted, and filthy; it is a nature of sin. Since this "mother" of sin is within man, when outside temptations come, that which is within responds to that which is without, and the result is the many sins. Because we have pride inside (though hidden at times), as soon as outside temptation comes, the opportunity to be proud comes, and we become proud. Because we have jealousy inside, as soon as outside temptation comes, we see others better than we are, and we become jealous. Because we have a quick temper inside, as soon as outside temptation comes, we lose our temper. All the sins that man commits come from the old man within. This old man is truly worthless, irreparable, unchangeable, incorrigible, and incurable. The way God deals with the old man is to crucify him. God wants to give us something new. The old man has to die. God's words charge us to wash away all of our sins in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." "Who loves us and has loosed us from our sins by His blood." The sins here refer to the acts of sins committed by a person outwardly. The Bible never tells us that the old man within is to be washed. God's word never says that the old man should be washed. (The blood of Jesus Christ washes our sins, not the old man.) The old man needs to be crucified. This is the word of the Bible.God does everything in this age through the Lord Jesus Christ. He needs to punish sinners, yet He punished the Lord Jesus instead because the Lord Jesus stood in the position and on behalf of sinners. God wants the old man to die, but He caused the Lord Jesus to die on the cross instead. By doing so, He brought all the sinners along with the Lord onto the cross. First there is a substituting death, then a participating death. This is the clear word of the Bible. Jesus Christ is the One who "died on behalf of all; therefore all died."

(Watchman Nee, Word of the Cross, 1-2)

What is the result of crucifying the old man? The result is "that the body of sin might be made of none effect." In the original Greek, "none effect" means "unemployed." This means that, without the old man, the body of sin cannot do anything anymore. Formerly, the body of sin functioned daily according to the old man's order. It seemed as if to sin had become its occupation. All it did was commit sins. The old man loved sin exceedingly; it wanted to sin, craved for sin, and was fond of doing sinful things; the body followed after the old man to sin and became the body of sin. Now after the old man is dealt with by the Lord and is crucified, the body of sin becomes unemployed; there is no more work for it to do. When the old man was alive, it was the profession and the occupation of the body of sin to commit sins every day. Thank the Lord, this hopeless old man has been crucified! The body of sin has also lost its job! Even though sin still exists and still tries to be the master, yet I am no longer its slave. Although time and again sin tries to energize the body to commit sin, it cannot break through because the Holy Spirit has become the Master within the new man. As a result, sin is unable to activate the body to commit sin anymore. Hence, the goal of the crucifixion of the old man and the unemployment of the body of sin in Romans 6:6 is that "we should no longer serve sin as slaves."

(Watchman Nee, Word of the Cross, 3-4)

Dealing with Sin

Christ's redemption solves God's two problems.

(1) Christ's redemption has dealt with the rebellious Satan. What overcomes Satan is not the cross but the blood. Satan knew that if his poison were injected into the first couple, this poison would spread to all their descendants. Satan committed spiritual fornication with our forefather and put this sinful poison of lying into his soul. The life of the soul is in the blood. Man's life is passed on through the blood (Acts 17:26). Consequently, the sinful poison of this first couple has passed on to us through the blood.

Christ's blood has no poison; it is precious and incorruptible. He bore the sins of many on the cross and died, emptying all of His blood. When He resurrected from the dead, He was without blood. After His resurrection He had bones and flesh, but no blood. "He poured out His soul unto death" (Isa. 53:12). In Christ, our blood has been poured out. Satan has no ground to work in us. Christ's blood has destroyed and dealt with Satan and all he has.

(2) Christ's redemption has dealt with man's sins. Our sins need Christ's death. The substitutionary death of Christ abolished all the records of our sins before God. The representative death of Christ, the Head, has delivered us from our sins.

Christ's death accomplishes God's two goals and solves God's two problems. This is Christ's victory. This victory has already been accomplished. God keeps us on the earth to maintain this victory and to preach it to every creature (Col. 1:23). Our baptism and the breaking of bread are to display the victory of Christ's death to the angels, the devil, the nations, and all things.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 1, Vol. 11, 741-742)

The Lord Jesus as God became flesh. He joined Himself to fallen and sinful humanity, yet He was without sin (Heb. 4:15). We realize from the Word that flesh is not something good but something bad. John says that God became flesh (John 1:1, 14), but Romans 8:3 tells us that Jesus was only in the likeness of the flesh of sin. The Son of God did indeed become flesh; however, He was only in the likeness of the flesh and had no participation in the sin of the flesh (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). This is exactly like the brass serpent lifted up by Moses for the sinful Israelites, which was in the form, the likeness, of the actual serpent, but without its poison. Jesus died on the cross as the brass serpent to condemn sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3). Through His death on the cross, the flesh of sin was condemned, the old serpent, Satan, was destroyed, the power of death was judged, and even death itself was destroyed. The world was also destroyed on the cross. His death on the cross as the Lamb of God took away sin with sins. His death on the cross as a serpent was to judge the flesh of sin, to destroy the old serpent, Satan, to condemn the world, and to destroy the power of death. In the eyes of God He was sin. Second Corinthians 5:21 tells us that God made Him sin on our behalf. God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 52-53)

John 3:14 tells us that Jesus also died on the cross as a serpent: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." The Lamb of God is a figure of speech, and the serpent is also a figure of speech. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He was in the form of the serpent in the eyes of God. This is because we sinners have all become serpents. We all have been poisoned by the old serpent, Satan. When the children of Israel sinned against God, they were bitten by serpents (Num. 21:4-9). God told Moses to lift up a brass serpent on their behalf for God's judgment, that by looking upon that brass serpent all may live. As descendants of Adam, we have been poisoned by the old serpent, and the serpent's nature is within us.

Matthew 16:23 tells us that the Lord Jesus rebuked Peter, saying to him, "Get behind Me, Satan!" Peter was not a bad man, and he was trying to show love to the Lord Jesus. After the Lord told the disciples that He had to pass through suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection, Peter "began to rebuke Him, saying, God be merciful to You, Lord; this shall by no means happen to You!" (v. 22). Even when Peter was loving the Lord Jesus, he was a serpent. The Lord rebuked him by calling him Satan. Not only when we do evil things but also when we do good things, we may be like Satan. Satan is the rebellious one against God, and this rebellious nature of Satan is in our fallen nature. When we do bad things, we are against God. When we do good things, we may also be rebellious against God. It is not a matter of bad or good, but a matter of our nature. According to our fallen nature, we all are serpents.

The serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness was a brass serpent. It had the form of the serpent without the poison of the serpent. In Romans 8:3 Paul told us that God sent His own Son "in the likeness of the flesh of sin." The flesh of sin is the serpent. We all have the flesh of sin, and we are still living in the flesh of sin. This flesh of sin in God's eyes is a serpent because in the nature of the flesh of sin is the evil nature of Satan. The flesh of sin in nature is the same as Satan. Thus, Satan is the serpent, and our flesh of sin is also the serpent.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 51-52)

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.

(Watchman Nee, Christian Faith, 140)

Judging the World

The flesh was crucified with Christ. Because the flesh is related to Satan, in crucifying the flesh Christ destroyed Satan. This is why Hebrews 2:14 says that through His death He destroyed the Devil. From John 12:31 we know that when Christ was crucified, He cast out Satan, the ruler of the world, and He judged the world.

Around 1935 I heard a message given by Brother Watchman Nee in Shanghai. He said that if you went to a young believer and asked him who died on the cross, he would say that his Redeemer had died on the cross for both his sins and his sin. If you went to another one who was more advanced and asked him who had died on the cross, he would say that Christ died there, bearing his sins, sin, and himself (Gal. 2:20). Someone still more advanced in the Christian life would tell you that Christ died on the cross for his sins, sin, and himself with all of creation. A fourth category of Christians would say that Christ died on the cross not only for their sins, sin, and themselves will all of creation, but also in order to destroy Satan and judge the world.

Later I began to see that there was the need for further advancement in realizing the death of Christ, that is, the abolishing of the ordinances. All the ordinances --the habits, customs, traditions, and practices among the human race -- were abolished on the cross. Christ's crucifixion was the universal termination of all negative things. Hallelujah for such a termination!

(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 27-28)

Slaying the Ordinances

In Ephesians 2:15 Paul tells us that through His death on the cross, Christ abolished the law of the commandments in ordinances. In the Old Testament there were many ordinances. The main one was circumcision, which divided the Jews from Gentiles. The Jews even used the term "uncircumcision" in referring to the Gentiles, while they considered themselves the circumcision. Circumcision was, therefore, a mark of separation. The Jews also kept the seventh day, another ordinance which made them different from the Gentiles. Both these ordinances Christ abolished on the cross (Col. 2:14, 16).

Other ordinances of the Jews were the dietary regulations. In Acts 10, however, while Peter was praying on the housetop, a vision came to him (vv. 9-16). The Lord told Peter to eat the animals that he considered common and unclean. Thus, circumcision, the Sabbath, and the dietary regulations were all abolished. These ordinances had been a strong and high wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles, but now it was torn down. There is no longer any separation. The Jews and the Gentiles can be built together as the Body of Christ.

The ordinances have been abolished, but what about the differences between the races, such as the difference between blacks and whites? In Christ's complete redemption all these differences have also been abolished. He has done away with all the enmity. Yet many do not live according to this. The Jews still keep circumcision, the Sabbath, and the dietary regulations. Even many Christians still have enmity.

Through His one death Christ took away our sins and sin, He crucified the old man, He terminated the old creation, and He abolished the differences between the races. Now we are not in ourselves --we are in Christ. In Him there are no sins. In Him there is no sin. In Him there is no old man and no old creation. The church is simply Christ (1 Cor. 12:12). The very content, the constituent, of the church is Christ (Col. 3:10-11). In the new man there is no Greek and no Jew, no social rank, no racial distinctions, no national differences; Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11). In Christ sins, sin, the old man, the old creation, and all the ordinances are done away.

(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 26-27)

Through His death, Christ abolished the ordinances that the two, Israel and the Gentiles, might be created into one new man in Christ, thus making peace (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14). The main ordinances among the Jews were the keeping of the Sabbath, circumcision, and the dietary regulations. The Jewish religion is built upon these three pillars. These became a strong factor of separation, separating the Jews from all the Gentiles.

Furthermore, all of the different cultures have their ordinances. The Japanese and the Chinese have their specific ordinances. The Texans have their ordinances, and the Yankees have their ordinances. But all of these ordinances have been crucified. The middle wall of partition, the wall of separation, has been torn down by Christ's death. Now regardless of our race or culture, we all can be one in Christ.

With all of the ordinances, we could have never been the one new man. How can the Chinese and the Japanese, and the whites and the blacks be one new man? They can be one new man because Christ slew all the ordinances and crucified all the natural persons on the cross. Now in the new man, there is room only for Christ. In the new man, Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11).

(Witness Lee, Christian Life, 72-73)

The cross of Christ is the negative consummation of the work of Christ (1 Cor. 1:17-18; Gal. 6:12). The cross of Christ has put away sin (Heb. 9:26), has destroyed the devil, Satan (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15), has crucified the world and us (Gal. 6:14b; 2:20a), and has crucified our old man (Rom. 6:6). The cross of Christ has also abolished the ordinances of the law (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14). The top ordinances among the Jews were those concerning circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, and the holy diet. There are also countless ordinances in the human race. Ordinances are the forms or ways of living and worship. All of our ordinances have to go to the cross. Then we can have a genuine oneness with harmony in Christ for the Body of Christ. In the universe there is such an all-inclusive death that has killed all the separating ordinances among men. But sometimes these separating ordinances may creep into the church life. This is why we need the all-inclusive death of Christ. We have to realize that our destiny is to be crucified, and we must take a crucified way. Whatever we are, has to be crucified.

(Witness Lee, Spirit, 116-117)

Destroying the Devil

Colossians 2:15 says, "Stripping off the rulers and the authorities, He made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in it." This is a very deep verse concerning the death of Christ. While Christ was dying on the cross, He did a work to strip off the evil angelic rulers and authorities of the rebellious angels, and made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross.

When Christ was being crucified on the cross, there was a visible scene and an invisible scene. The Roman soldiers were seen by the disciples nailing Christ's physical body to the cross where He suffered and died. This was the visible scene. Behind this visible scene, there was an invisible scene. Man could not see this scene, but the angels could see it. In that invisible scene, Christ was stripping off the rebellious angels, the rulers and authorities in the air, coming to bother Him. When Christ was crucified on the cross, He was not only damaged by the physical soldiers of the Roman Empire, but in the invisible scene, the rulers and the authorities, the fallen angels from the air, came to trouble Him. Christ stripped them off, just as a person would strip off a jacket.

Even though Christ was in the likeness of the flesh of sin, He still had the flesh. The rulers and the authorities of the rebellious angels came to get that flesh, and they tried to remain on that flesh. Thus, He had to strip them off, indicating that this was a battle. This can be compared to a person trying to strip off a jacket while someone else is trying to keep this jacket on him. Christ, however, overcame these rebellious angels by stripping them off and making a display of them openly in the cross. This means that He shamed them openly. Man could not see this invisible scene, but all the angels, both good and bad, saw it. Christ triumphed over these rebellious angels

(Witness Lee, Christian Life, 68-69)

When Christ was lifted up on the cross, Satan, the devil, the old serpent, was dealt with (John 12:31-33; Heb. 2:14). This means that the serpentine nature within fallen man has been dealt with by the death of Christ. We may use the illustration of a mousetrap. Mice are a nuisance and they are difficult to catch. However, you may catch them if you use a trap and some bait. When a mouse comes out of hiding seeking for something to eat, he will see the bait, walk into the trap in an attempt to seize the bait, and immediately be caught. In this way the mouse is caught and destroyed. In the universe there is a little "mouse," Satan. Humanity became a trap in which he was caught. Adam became both the trap and the bait. Satan seized the bait, thinking that he had gained the victory by injecting himself into man's body, but he did not realize that in doing so he became trapped. He was trapped, located in man's flesh. One day the Lord Jesus put on the likeness of this flesh of sin. Then He brought this flesh to the cross and crucified it. By crucifying the flesh, He destroyed the devil who had injected himself into man. Now we can understand Hebrews 2:14 which says, "He took part of flesh..that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the Devil." Christ destroyed Satan in the flesh by His death. If we do not understand all of these verses, it will be difficult to have the proper meaning of Hebrews 2:14. How did Christ destroy Satan on the cross? By taking on the likeness of the flesh of sin and by bringing this flesh to the cross. There, through His crucifixion, Satan was destroyed.

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 113)

In man's eyes, to die is not a work; but concerning Christ, His dying was a great work, a great accomplishment. While He was on the cross He was working, and when He entered Hades He was also working. Although it was unseen to human eyes, Satan with all the evil spirits knew that while Christ was dying on the cross, He was truly doing a great work. His working on the cross eventually became a battle, with God "stripping off the rulers and the authorities..triumphing over them" (Col. 2:15). While Christ was dying on the cross, Satan was there fighting. Whenever the police go to arrest a robber, there is always a struggle and a fight. The death of Christ on the cross was the arrest of Satan. In Genesis 3, God promised that Christ would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), and when Christ died on the cross, He destroyed the Devil (Heb. 2:14).

(Witness Lee, Secret of Experiencing, 34)

Terminating the Old Creation

Christ's death terminated the old creation, which is related to the world. Galatians 6:14 says that the world was crucified on the cross. Then verse 15 says, "For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is what matters." This shows that the crucifying of the world is related to the new creation. If we do not go through the cross, we cannot be a new creation. On one side of the cross is the old creation, and on the other side is the new creation. When we pass through the cross, the old creation becomes the new creation.

In our life-study of the book of Daniel, I pointed out that the crucifixion of Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One (Dan. 9:26), is a landmark between the old creation and the new creation. The old creation was terminated on the cross at Christ's death, so Christ's death becomes a landmark between the old creation and the new creation. We were the old creation, yet we have all been brought to the cross. On the cross we were terminated, and this termination ushered us into Christ's resurrection in which we all have been germinated to become the new creation. The new creation needs the crossing out of the old creation.

(Witness Lee, Christian Life, 70)

The second reason for Christ's death is deeper than the first. Christ had to die in order to bring the old creation, including mankind, to an end. Only then could He produce a new creation. In the universe, there is such a principle: the old must go that the new may come. The old humanity and the old creation must pass away so that the new may be ushered in. How could this be accomplished? By the death of Christ. And who is this Christ? He is the Head of all creation (Eph. 1:22). All creation subsists in Christ (Col. 1:17); He is the Head, He is the center, He is the representative of the whole creation. Christ's death on the cross, therefore, means that the whole creation as represented in Christ was brought to an end. Through, by, and in the death of Christ we and the whole creation were terminated.

The economy of God is that Christ must bring to death all creation. In God's economy, we were crucified (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; 5:24) even before we were born! Perhaps you were born just fifty years ago, but you were crucified two thousand years ago. In man's reckoning such a thing could not be, but in God's economy it is so. The whole creation was brought to an end by the crucifixion of Christ. That is why Christ had to die.

(Witness Lee, Major Steps, 15-16)

Christ's Life-Releasing Death

Christ's death was not only a terminating but also a releasing death. His death released the divine life concealed within Him (John 1:4). John 12:24 says that a grain of wheat remains alone unless it is sown into the earth. If it is sown into the earth, it dies and then grows up to become many grains. This illustrates the releasing death of Christ. His death not only terminates all negative things; it also releases the divine life --the unique positive thing in the whole universe.

When Christ died, a soldier pierced His side and out came blood and water (John 19:34). These are symbols. Blood signifies redemption, and water signifies life. Blood and water are symbols of the two aspects of Christ's death. The negative aspect is redemption, and the positive aspect is the release of the divine life. He died, and the life within Him was released. Through His death not only did the redeeming blood flow out; the divine life also flowed out from Him. Today when we believe in Him, we receive the blood and obtain the living water, the divine life. We receive redemption and we obtain eternal life.

(Witness Lee, Basic Revelation, 28)

The death of Christ on the cross was also a part of the divine dispensing. The death of the incarnated Son released the divine life within Him for the divine dispensing (John 12:24; 19:34). John 12:24 says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Within the shell of a grain of wheat is the life of the wheat. For the grain of wheat to die is to release the life within its shell. The life within the shell cannot be released until the shell is broken, and when it is broken, the life within is released to produce many grains. First, it is one grain alone; then it becomes many grains. This is the dispensing of the inner life of the one grain into the many grains. Jesus as the grain of wheat was the divine seed. The divine life was concealed in His "shell." When Jesus went to the cross and was put to death, He broke through the shell to release His inner life, the divine life, into His many

(Witness Lee, Divine Dispensing, 45)

The final item of Christ in His death on the cross is in John 12:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Here the Lord Jesus likened Himself to a grain of wheat. If the grain of wheat does not fall into the earth and die, it remains one grain. But if it dies, it grows up into many grains. All the foregoing six items of Christ's death are involved with clearing up the negative things in the universe. This last item is altogether on the positive side to release the divine life. His death on the cross as a grain of wheat released the divine life from within Him to impart, to dispense, this life into all His believers. He died as the first six items to clear up the universe and to clear up the way that He might impart, that He might dispense, the divine life into you and me.

This grain of wheat is a grain of the eternal life. If He had died on the cross only as a man and not as God, He could not be such a grain of wheat. He died on the cross as the God-man. This man was the shell of the grain, and God was the inner life within the grain. Thus, the God-man is a grain of wheat having both the shell and the life within. He died as the grain of life to release the divine life from within Him to dispense God into all of us as the divine life. His all-inclusive death is altogether for the dispensing of God into His redeemed people.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 54-55)

A third reason for Christ's death is that He might impart Himself to us as our life-supply. Have we ever realized that every meal we have eaten is composed of things that have passed through death? Take, for example, a fish. Would we eat it alive? No, the fish must die. Everything we eat must die, even an apple or an orange. Day by day, while we are eating, we are killing, for we must chew the food. We kill the fruit, we kill the fish, we kill the cattle! Nothing can be our food unless it is dead. A little grain of wheat if put into the earth will grow, for there is life in it. But if we would take the grain as our food, we must kill it by eating it. We must realize that Christ had to pass through death in order to impart Himself to us as our life-supply. Even if we were not sinful, Christ still must die for us. He had to die that He might be our life-supply.

In some parts of the world it is the women who kill the chickens to prepare them for food. Do they kill them because they are sinful? Do they say, "O chicken, I am a poor sinner; so you must die for me"? Of course not. The chicken's dying has nothing to do with their sin. The reason for its dying is that they may be supplied with life.

Christ is the food of life from heaven. We can only take Him into us by the way of death. What He said in John 6:53-56 regarding Himself as the bread of life to us indicates death. He had to die --and He did die, praise the Lord! Every time we come to the Lord's table, we see the symbols, a piece of bread and a cup of wine. The bread signifies the body of Christ, and the wine signifies His blood. The blood is separated from the body, signifying death. At the Lord's table we show forth His death (1 Cor. 11:26). Christ died in order to give Himself to us as our life-supply. This is the deeper reason why Christ had to die.

(Witness Lee, Major Steps, 16-17)

The central point, the goal, of God's redemption is not merely to redeem us from our sins and from the condemnation of sin (eternal perdition), but to release, that is, to dispense, God Himself as the divine life into His redeemed ones. John 12:24 says that Christ in His incarnation as a grain of wheat fell into the ground and died. Just as there is life in a grain of wheat, within the human shell of Christ's physical body there was the divine life. When He was on earth in the flesh, the divine life within Him was concealed in the shell of His human body. He went to the cross and died, and the death of the cross broke this human shell and released the divine life to produce many grains. This is to release the divine life into all these grains. Also, John 19:34 says that when Christ died on the cross, two elements, blood and water, flowed out of Him. Blood is for redemption, and water is for the releasing of the divine life. Thus, the redeeming death of Christ

(Witness Lee, LS of Job, 206)

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.

(Watchman Nee, Christian Faith, 139-140)

The seventh accomplishment of Christ's crucifixion was to bring forth many grains. He did this by being put to death as a grain of wheat (John 12:24). The first six items --to take away sin, to have sin condemned, to destroy Satan, to have the old man crucified, to terminate the old creation, and to abolish all the ordinances between different peoples --are all on the negative side. But there is also a positive side, the bringing forth of His believers as many grains. Christ accomplished this by being put to death as a grain of wheat. On the one hand, a grain of wheat sown into the earth dies. But, on the other hand, while the grain is dying, it is growing. While the grain is dying in its outward shell, it is growing in its inner life. By its dying and growing, it sprouts; something tender, green, and living rises up to bring forth many grains. While Christ was dying on the cross, He was working, He was growing, and He was bringing forth many grains. Hallelujah! Now, we are the many grains to form one loaf, one Body (1 Cor. 10:17).

(Witness Lee, Secret of Experiencing, 38)

The Death of the God-Man

Now we need to see who it was that died on the cross. We may realize that Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and Savior died on the cross, but we need to go deeper to realize that He died on the cross as the God-man. His constitution is divine and human. He is a living constitution of two essences and of two elements with two natures, so He was the God-man. As such a One, He died on the cross.

In the first century while the Apostle John was still on this earth, there was a great heresy invented by Cerinthus, telling people that when Jesus died on the cross, Christ left Him. That would have meant that when Jesus died on the cross, He was purely and merely a man with no divine essence, no divine element. This heresy is addressed by John in 1 John 2:22 which says, "Who is the liar if not he who is denying that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who is denying the Father and the Son." The divine essence was a part of Christ's constitution. You can take a person's belongings, but you cannot take away his human nature since this is an intrinsic part of his being. Jesus is constituted with the divine essence and the human essence, and these essences could never be taken away from Him since they are an intrinsic part of His divine and human being. We should not forget that the One who died on the cross for us was both God and

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 51)

We have seen that when Jesus was conceived and born of the Holy Spirit, He was constituted essentially with the divine essence. This essence as a part of His constitution can never be separated from Him. He went to the cross as such a person constituted with both the divine essence and the human essence. When He was twelve years old, He was a person of such a constitution; when He was thirty years old, He had such a constitution; and when He went to the cross to die, He still had such a constitution. It was the God-man who died on the cross. This is essential. But economically when He was thirty years old, after His baptism, the Father spoke from the heavens and the Spirit came to descend upon Him (Matt. 3:16-17). That was not essential but economical. When He went to the cross, He went essentially with the divine essence and with the human essence.

He was nailed on the cross for six hours. Mark 15:25 tells us that it was at the third hour, which is 9 a.m., that they crucified Him. He was on the cross from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Mark 15:33). These six hours are divided into two periods of time. The first period of time was from 9 a.m. to noon. In those three hours man persecuted Him, mocked Him, and ridiculed Him. That was His martyrdom, not His redemption. Man nailed Him on the cross, and for the first three hours, He suffered martyrdom. At noon, the sixth hour, "darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour" (Mark 15:33). At noon the entire universe became dark, which was a sign that God came in to judge Him (Isa. 53:4b, 10). In the final three hours of His crucifixion, this God-man in the eyes of God was the Lamb, the serpent, a man in the flesh, the last Adam, the Firstborn of all creation, and the Peacemaker. It was in these three hours that God condemned sin in the flesh, destroyed the serpent, and judged the power of death. It was during that period of time that God forsook Him economically, so at the ninth hour Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?" (Mark 15:34). Essentially, the divine essence could never leave this God-man. That divine essence had been constituted into His being and was part of His constitution. But economically God left Him. After His baptism, while He was standing in the water, the Spirit as a dove descended upon Him not essentially but economically. In the same way God forsook Him economically in the last three hours on the cross while God was judging Him as sin and as the brass serpent.

The One who was dying on the cross as our substitute was the God-man. The One who shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins was the God-man. First John 1:7 says, "The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." To say the blood of Jesus is not adequate. First John 1:7 refers to the blood of Jesus His Son, the blood of Jesus, the Son of God. As our substitute to redeem us, Jesus died on the cross as a man. Only man's blood can redeem man. Jesus was a man, and His blood was the genuine human blood. But if He were only man, the efficacy of His blood is limited. He could have only died for one person and not for millions upon millions of people. How could the blood of the man Jesus redeem millions of people? Because He was not only man, but He was the God-man. Man is limited, but God is eternal. In time and space there is no limitation with God. As the God-man, He shed the genuine blood of man to redeem man, and yet this blood was God's own blood (Acts 20:28) to insure that the efficacy of His redemption is unlimited and eternal. The eternal efficacy of His blood is secured by the divine essence.

Hebrews 9:14 tells us that in His death He offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. As the God-man He was offering Himself to God, but He did it through the eternal Spirit. This is economical. When He began to minister, He needed the power of the Spirit, so the Spirit descended upon Him economically. Now He was going to die. For such a great commission He needed the power of the eternal Spirit to offer Himself as an offering to God.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 55-57)

Hebrews 9:14 says that Christ offered Himself through the eternal Spirit. Jesus, in Himself alone, could not accomplish His crucifixion. To die on the cross as an offering to God, the Son needed the Spirit. Jesus did not die on the cross alone and separate from the Spirit. The Spirit was one with the Son. The Son died on the cross with the Father and by the Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all involved in the Son's crucifixion. The death of Christ was not only the death of the man Jesus but also the death of the Son with the Father and by the Spirit. Because Christ offered Himself through the eternal Spirit, His death is eternally effective. Our co-crucifixion with Christ on the cross (Gal. 2:20) is realized in the eternal Spirit who indwells us.

(Witness Lee, Living In and with, 12)

The Peacemaker

Ephesians 2:14-16 tells us that Christ died on the cross as the Peacemaker to abolish all the separations among the human race. This is why today in the church life we do not have any separation. All the different races are now one in Christ. We do not need the United Nations. The United Nations does not work to break down the separating walls, but the church life works. In the church life there are people from all colors, races, and countries that are enjoying the divine oneness. Christ died on the cross as the Peacemaker, and now we have the oneness and peace in the church life.

Thus far, we have seen that the Lord Jesus died on the cross as the Lamb, a man in the flesh, the brass serpent, the last Adam, the Firstborn of all creation, and the Peacemaker. Do not say that I teach these things, but that the Bible teaches these things. By using the verses in the Scripture reading, you can present Christ's death on the cross as these six items.

(Witness Lee, Divine Economy, 54)

Christ's Creating Death

According to Ephesians 2:14-15, Christ's death was to make peace among all peoples. This is the sixth accomplishment of Christ's crucifixion. Christ was crucified as the Peacemaker to make peace among all peoples by abolishing all the ordinances, the differences, among them. Ephesians 2:14-15 say, "For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity, having abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, making peace." In these verses, Christ is both our peace and the Peacemaker. Because of the fall, the entire human race has been divided into many nations. No two nations are able to be one, especially the Jewish nation and the Gentile nations, because of many differences, many ordinances. The ordinances are the habits, the customs, the ways of living, and the ways of religion among people.

Through His death on the cross, Christ abolished all the differences among the peoples of the earth. By making peace He brought the different nations, the different peoples, together into oneness. Today we can see many different peoples from different nations as brothers in the church. This peacemaking is to produce the Body of Christ which is the new man. Christ abolished all the differences, the ordinances among the different peoples, in order to create one new man out of so many believers from different nations. Today in the testimony of the local churches we see such a reality. For example, in the United States we recently had a meeting of approximately one thousand people, with representatives from more than thirty nationalities. In the church, although there are people of many different races, all are brothers, all are members, all are components of this one new man! Hallelujah! Who did this? Christ did this on the cross, by dying in the flesh to abolish all the ordinances. Christ died as such a Peacemaker.

(Witness Lee, Secret of Experiencing, 37-38)

Christ's Death Issuing in the Church

When Adam awoke from his sleep, he immediately discovered that Eve, who was builded with His rib, was present. Likewise, when Christ was resurrected from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20), the church was brought forth with His divine life. Through His death the divine life within Him was released and through His resurrection this released, divine life was imparted into us who believe in Him. So, the Bible says that through His resurrection we were regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3). He was the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died and produced many grains (John 12:24). We are the many grains who have been regenerated with His resurrection life. As regenerated ones who have Him as life and who live by Him, we compose His church, the real Eve in resurrection.

(Witness Lee, LS of Genesis, 220-221)

One day the real Adam was put to sleep on the cross where He slept for six hours, from nine o'clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon (Mark 15:25, 33). This was signified by the phrase in Genesis 2 which said that "God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam" and that "He took one of his ribs" to build him a wife (Gen. 2:21). That sleep of Adam's was a type of Christ's death on the cross for producing the church. This is the life-releasing, life-imparting, life-propagating, life-multiplying, and life-reproducing death of Christ, which is signified by a grain of wheat falling into the ground to die and to grow up in order to produce many grains (John 12:24) for the making of the loaf which is the Body, the church (1 Cor. 10:17). By producing the church in this way God in Christ has been wrought into man as life. Firstly, God became a man. Then this man with the divine life and nature, was multiplied through death and resurrection into many believers who become the many members to compose the real Eve to match Him and to complement Him. It is through this process that God in Christ has been wrought into man with His life and nature that man in life and nature can be the same as He is in order to match Him as His complement.

(Witness Lee, LS of Genesis, 219)

Experiencing the Death of Christ

In Matthew 16:24 the Lord said, "If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." The self needs to be crossed out. For dealing with the self, we need to bear the cross. This means that we must remain under the killing of the death of Christ for the terminating of our self. The self is so living, active, and aggressive, so we need to apply the cross every day and all day long.

(Witness Lee, Lessons on Service, 149)If we do not know the all-inclusive death of Christ, and if we do not experience His death in our daily life, we cannot live the Christian life. Without experiencing His death, we can live at best only an ethical life. We may live an ethical life according to our culture in the Chinese way or in the American way. Ethics are always different from country to country. We may live a life which is good in the eyes of people, but such a living has altogether nothing to do with the Christian life.

The Christian life is to live Christ, but to live Christ, we must die. If you do not know that you have been crucified before you were born, you can never live the Christian life. We have to realize that not only many negative things but also many of our natural positive things need to be dealt with subjectively by the cross of Christ. For example, we may always gossip about others. Some saints are the "information desk of the church." If people come to this "desk," they can find out all the information about the saints in the church. This is negative. Things like this need to be dealt with by the cross because they are of the flesh. And the good things, the ethical things, which are by our natural life, even though they are positive, also need to be dealt with by the cross of Christ because they are not something by Christ and cannot be considered something of the Christian life. In order to live the Christian life, we must be under the killing of the cross of Christ in the subjective experience of His all-inclusive death.

(Witness Lee, Christian Life, 64)

Chapters three and four [of Joshua] are on Israel's crossing of the river Jordan. The people of Israel were ready to enter into the good land and to take it as their possession. However, in their old man they could not gain the victory. Their old man had to be buried so that they could become a new man. This corresponds to the New Testament economy of God. The children of Israel were buried in the death of Christ and then they were resurrected in the resurrection of Christ. This indicates that even in the Old Testament time the children of Israel were identified with Christ and were one with Him. Because they were one with Christ, passing through Christ's experiences, His history became their history. In particular, they passed through Christ's death to bury their old man and to become a new man in Christ for the fighting of the spiritual warfare.

We need to realize that our natural man, our old man, is altogether not qualified to fight the spiritual warfare for the gaining of Christ. God's intention is to join us to Christ to have an organic union between us and Christ, making us one with Christ, that His history might become our history. His history is our story, and our story is His history. We have been identified with Christ to experience what He has gone through. In union with Christ, His experiences become ours. He died on the cross, and we died with Him. He was buried, and we were buried with Him. He was resurrected from the dead, and we were resurrected with Him. Now because we are persons in Christ, we are no longer the old man but the new man.

(Witness Lee, LS of Joshua, 19)

Sometimes when a child needs medicine, his wise mother will hide the medicine in a drink. When the child takes the drink, he gets the medicine. There is medicine in the all-inclusive Spirit. This medicine is the killing death of Christ that is in the Holy Spirit today. The more you say, "O Lord Jesus," the more you receive the all-inclusive Spirit. After a few minutes, you may feel the Spirit killing your temper, pride, selfishness, and other negative things. Have you ever tried to reckon yourself dead according to Romans 6? If you have, then you know that the more you reckon yourself dead, the more you are alive. However, within the all-inclusive Spirit is the killing of the cross. The death mentioned in Romans 6 is now included in the Spirit as revealed in Romans 8. So, this all-inclusive Spirit constantly puts you on the cross as mentioned in Romans 8:13. The killing effect of the death of Christ is not merely on the cross, for, if it were, it would not be prevailing for us. That killing effect today is in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. As this Spirit moves within us, the killing effect of the cross penetrates into our being. He will kill every negative element in our being. Furthermore, in this all-inclusive drink there is the nourishing ingredient. In this Spirit is all that we need.

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 220-221)

We gain Christ and are found in Christ by knowing Christ as our all and by knowing the power of His resurrection to be conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10). Paul indicated in Philippians 3 that he was a person pursuing Christ (vv. 12, 14). The Greek word for "pursue" is the same word for persecute. Paul did two kinds of persecuting. The first kind of persecuting was a negative kind of persecuting. Paul persecuted Christ in this way when he was Saul of Tarsus. But after he was saved, he began to persecute Christ in a positive sense. To persecute Christ in a positive way is to press toward Christ, to follow after Christ. Paul realized that in order to pursue Christ, to persecute Christ, he needed the power of Christ's resurrection, a power that can overcome death, subdue death, defeat death, and bring us out of death's usurpation.Paul aspired to know Christ and the power of His resurrection so that he could be conformed to Christ's death. A.B. Simpson said, ``'Tis not hard to die with Christ, when His risen life we know'' (Hymns, #481). When we have resurrection as our enjoyment, this enjoyment enables us to be conformed to the death of Christ. Christ's death is a model, a mold, and we are like pieces of dough that are put into this mold so that we can be conformed to the image of this mold. The mold that we are being conformed to is the death of Christ.

Each one of us has a certain amount of problems and sufferings. We may have sufferings related to our health, our finances, or our children. Who has no suffering? No one is in a situation in which everything is complete, perfect, satisfactory, fine, and in the third heavens. Who has a perfect, complete, satisfactory, and heavenly marriage? There is not such a marriage on this earth. Even marriage can be a real suffering. No one can escape suffering. These sufferings should be a mold. After we have been saved, God's sovereignty puts us into this mold. This is the mold of the death of Christ. We need the power of resurrection to be conformed to the death of Christ. We need to be in the image of Christ and also in the image of His death. For this we need the power of His resurrection, not our natural power.

(Witness Lee, Living In and with, 125-126)

How can we die? The answer again goes back to this one fact: God has put us into Christ. God has caused Christ to die, and when we are in Him we died also. We have said that the forgiveness of sin is because we are in Christ. God has put us into Christ. God has caused Christ to die, and since we are in Him, we died also. When God judged Christ, He judged us also. By this judgment our sins are forgiven. We cannot put ourselves to death. The death of Christ, in which God has included us, makes us dead with Him.

Let us read again Romans 6:6: "Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves." There is no alternative for our old man but to die. There is no choice left for him to take. However, it is not a simple matter to die. God had to include us in Christ and then crucify Him on the cross. When Christ died on the cross, we were all included. From that moment on, we were no longer ourselves; we no longer existed. We never can or will crucify ourselves. It is our co-crucifixion with Him that took care of the old man. This is the basic solution to the problem of sin.

(Watchman Nee, Christian Faith, 125)

When Christ was about to depart from the world, He spoke of His relationship with His disciples. He said, "I am the vine; you are the branches" (John 15:5). "Abide in Me and I in you" (v. 4). He told them that the branches that abide in Him would bear much fruit. Christians are not individuals. They are part of one tree, Christ. The branches and the tree are joined as one. The tree supplies the sap to the branches, and the branches draw life from the tree.

Since we Christians are so utterly identified with Christ, the obedience of Christ becomes our obedience, the death of Christ becomes our death, the living of Christ becomes our living, and the glory of Christ becomes our glory. Everything of Christ is ours. This is the intimacy of the relationship between Christ and us Christians.

(Watchman Nee, Christian Faith, 92)

The cross of Christ is applied to us by the Spirit (Rom. 8:13b).

In the Spirit, there is the killing element of the cross. When we live by the Spirit, the Spirit within us will kill all the negative things, such as sin, Satan, the world, me, the old man, and all the differences due to ordinances. We need to apply the cross of Christ to our flesh with the passions and the lusts through the cooperation with the Spirit (Gal. 5:24). The experience of the cross of Christ issues in the abundance of the Spirit of life. According to Galatians 2:20, the more we experience the cross of Christ, the more Christ lives in us. John 12:24 shows that the Lord's death as a grain of wheat issued in much fruit. When we experience the death of Christ, the issue is the multiplication of life. Furthermore, we boast in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14a). The cross was really an abasement,

(Witness Lee, Spirit, 117)

Only the Holy Spirit can make a believer spiritual. The work of the Holy Spirit is to make a man spiritual. In the arrangement of God's way of redemption, on the negative side, the cross carries out a destructive work, destroying everything that is from Adam. The Holy Spirit, on the positive side, carries out a constructive work, building up everything that is from Christ. The cross makes it possible for the believers to be spiritual, and the Holy Spirit makes believers spiritual. Being spiritual means belonging to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit strengthens the human spirit so that He may rule over the whole person. Therefore, if we pursue being spiritual, we should not forget the Holy Spirit and not put the cross aside, because the cross and the Holy Spirit work as the left and right hands. Neither can be spared and neither of these two work independently. The cross always guides man to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit always guides man to the cross. A spiritual believer must have experiences in his spirit with the Holy Spirit. If he wants to become a spiritual man, he must have several steps of experience. Paying attention to these steps does not necessarily mean proceeding from step one to step two and from step two to step three. For the sake of writing, however, they have to be written in sequence, although in actual experience they often occur simultaneously.

(Watchman Nee, Spiritual Man, 233-234)

To take the way of the cross, to apply the cross of Christ to us, for experiencing the divine life, we need to abide in the anointing of the Spirit (1 John 2:27b). The anointing never ceases in us. Our need as believers is to abide in this anointing. As we abide in this anointing, we must learn also not to reject the killing which is exercised on us in this anointing. We should happily say "amen" whenever the Spirit wants to kill some negative things in us. The cross and the Spirit, the death of Christ and the Spirit, both go together. If we have the cross, we have the Spirit. If we have the Spirit, we have the death of Christ. To experience the divine life, we need to experience Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, the Spirit as the realization of Christ, and the cross of Christ, the death of Christ, as the way.

(Witness Lee, Tripartite Man, 79-80)

To live by Christ as life, one must see the subjective aspects of Christ's death. Watchman Nee received the revelation that he had been crucified with Christ, that it was no longer he that lived, but Christ that lived in him. He also saw that to experience the death of Christ in a subjective way, he needed to bear the cross. He was crucified with Christ, but he had to remain in Christ's crucifixion. To remain in Christ's crucifixion is to bear the cross, not letting the old man or the flesh leave the cross. He realized that for him to have such an experience, God must sovereignly arrange his environment, making it a practical cross for him to bear. This is exactly what God did. From the very beginning of his ministry, God arranged situations in which he could deny his self by bearing the cross and living by Christ as life.Throughout the years he was a person under the cross, willing to be opposed, rejected, criticized, and condemned. He would not vindicate himself, excuse himself, reason with people, or explain things in order to reduce his sufferings. He always shunned disclosing things about himself which would let people know what good work he had done for the Lord or what good things he had done for others. He truly lived a crucified life.

(Witness Lee, Seer of the Divine Revelation, 73)

The way one receives the substitutional death of the Lord Jesus is the same way he dies together with Him. Through faith, not works, one shares the result of the Lord Jesus' substitutional death, which is deliverance from eternal punishment. In the same way, through faith, one shares the result of dying with the Lord Jesus, which is freedom from sin. It is a fact that the Lord Jesus has already died for you. It is also a fact that you have already died with the Lord Jesus. If you do not believe in Christ's death for you, you cannot partake of the effectiveness of this death --deliverance from punishment. If you do not believe in your death with Christ, you will likewise not be able to receive the effectiveness of death with Him --freedom from sin. All those who believe in the substitutional death of Christ are saved, and all those who believe in their death with Christ have overcome. To share in the death of the Lord Jesus --whether it be the substituting or the participating death --requires faith. God requires that we believe. We need to believe in the Lord's death for us and His death with us. Romans 6:11 says, "So also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin." The word "reckon" is extremely important. Oftentimes we like to "sense" if our old man has died. We like to "feel" if our old man has died. If we try to sense or feel, our old man will never die in our experience. Our old man does not die from our "sensing" or "feeling." The more we "sense," the more we notice that our old man is not dead, and the more we "feel," the more we see that our old man is still alive. The old man is not crucified by "sensing" or "feeling." The old man experiences crucifixion through "reckoning." What is reckoning? "Reckoning" is an act of faith; "reckoning" is the application of faith; "reckoning" is the judgment of the will and the execution of the will. "Reckoning" is completely contrary to "sensing" and "feeling." "Sensing" and "feeling" have to do with one's feelings, while "reckoning" has to do with faith and the will. Therefore, the crucifixion of our old man is not something we have to feel. It is wrong to say, "I do not feel that my old man is dead." Whether the old man has died or not does not depend on your feeling; it depends on whether or not you have reckoned it.

(Watchman Nee, Word of the Cross, 4-5)

The Cross and the Spirit

The cross of Christ is applied to us by the Spirit (Rom. 8:13b). In the Spirit, there is the killing element of the cross. When we live by the Spirit, the Spirit within us will kill all the negative things, such as sin, Satan, the world, me, the old man, and all the differences due to ordinances. We need to apply the cross of Christ to our flesh with the passions and the lusts through the cooperation with the Spirit (Gal. 5:24). The experience of the cross of Christ issues in the abundance of the Spirit of life. According to Galatians 2:20, the more we experience the cross of Christ, the more Christ lives in us. John 12:24 shows that the Lord's death as a grain of wheat issued in much fruit. When we experience the death of Christ, the issue is the multiplication of life. Furthermore, we boast in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14a). The cross was really an abasement,

(Witness Lee, Spirit, 117)

Christ's Death typified by the Jordan River

Twelve representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel took up twelve stones from the place where the priests' feet stood firm in the middle of the Jordan and brought them over and laid them down in the place where Israel lodged that night (4:1-5, 8). The twelve stones signify the twelve tribes of the new Israel. Their being raised up from the waters of the Jordan signifies resurrection from death. The twelve stones raised up from the water were a sign, signifying that the resurrected new Israel would be a testimony of the crossing of the death water (vv. 6-7, 21-24). This typifies the believers' experience with Christ of the resurrection from death (Rom. 6:3-11).

(Witness Lee, LS of Joshua, 21)

Joshua 5 covers four matters of intrinsic significance. The first item is circumcision. Circumcision is a continuation of the burial in the death of Christ. By crossing the river Jordan, Israel's old man was buried and they came out to become the new man. This was an objective work done by God. Israel still needed to apply it to their flesh. Therefore, they prepared knives of flint to cut off their foreskins. This cutting was their application of what God had done in the crossing of the river Jordan. By cutting off their flesh to roll away the reproach of Egypt, they were buried and resurrected, both actually and practically.

In the New Testament circumcision means the constant application of the Lord's death to our flesh. Romans 6:3-4 says that we have been baptized into the death of Christ and buried with Him, but Romans 8:13 and Galatians 5:24 tell us that we should apply the circumcision of the cross to our flesh by the Spirit. In fact, our flesh has already been crucified, but in practicality we need to crucify the flesh day by day. This is the reality and practicality of remaining in the death and burial of Christ, and this is the significance of circumcision.

(Witness Lee, LS of Joshua, 25)

Joshua erected twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark had stood (Josh. 4:9). These were another twelve stones, signifying the twelve tribes of Israel in their old life and in their old nature. Joshua erected these twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the ark was, signifying that the Lord wanted Israel in their old nature to remain under the death water of the Jordan. This typifies that the old man of the believers should remain in the death of Christ (Rom. 6:6; Col. 2:20). We who have been identified with Christ in His death and resurrection, who have been resurrected with Christ to become the new man, should leave our old man under His death. We in the church life should all be able to declare that our old man has been buried with Christ and remains under the death of Christ and

(Witness Lee, LS of Joshua, 21-22)

Producing the New Jerusalem

In the New Jerusalem we have God the Father in His nature as the base and the street, God the Son as the Creator through His death and resurrection and with Himself as the element producing the gates, God the Spirit with His transforming and building work building the wall with its foundations, and the Old and New Testament saints as the materials. When we put all this together, we have the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. This is the New Jerusalem.

How can the materials, from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, be consummated and built to become the New Jerusalem? The answer to this question is that we must pass through the death and resurrection of Christ to have our fallen humanity terminated and to have our original, God-created humanity redeemed and recovered so that Christ can use us as the materials. Through the death of Christ on the cross, our fallen humanity was terminated and our original humanity was redeemed that the divine life released in His death could be dispensed into this redeemed humanity. Then in Christ's resurrection the Spirit dispenses the released divine life into the redeemed humanity to regenerate us. This is the creation of the New Jerusalem. Now, in the consummation, the regenerating Spirit works as the sanctifying, renewing, transforming, conforming, and glorifying Spirit to consummate the entire building.

I hope that through this review you will have a clear view of what the New Jerusalem is. The New Jerusalem is the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with the believers through Christ's death and resurrection and the Spirit's regenerating, sanctifying, renewing, transforming, conforming, and glorifying work.

(Witness Lee, God-Men, 94-95)

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