How I understand the One New Man that Christ created in Himself
How I understand the One New Man that Christ created in Himself
The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Hence, when a man first commits sin, he must die so he can pay for his own sin he committed, for it is only through death that he can be freed from sin.
KJV Romans 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
But if man himself dies for his own sin, he would have paid for the sin God hates, but God would have eternally lost the sinner He loves, having died separate from Him because sin separates man from God (Isa 59:2). Hence God, made a way whereby man could pay for his own sin and at the same time given another shot at life eternal.
God did this through the One New Man that Christ created in Himself: the Head is Christ, the Body is humanity - Jews & Gentiles - with all its sins, as Scriptures declare:
NAS 1 Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
When the Head died, the Body likewise died:
NKJ 2 Corinthians 5: 14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
1. That death reconciled us - His Body - to God:
NKJ Romans 5:10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
2. That death washed us clean from sin:
NKJ Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood
3. That death caused us to be forgiven from all sins:
KJV Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
NAS Colossians 2:13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions
4. That death sanctified or made us holy:
NKJ Hebrews 10:10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
NIV Hebrews 10:10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
5. And having been sanctified, He perfected us forever:
KJV Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
6. Through that death, He became the Mediator of the New Covenant:
NKJ Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
7. And under the New Covenant, God promises to remember our sins NO MORE:
NKJ Hebrews 10: 16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," 17 then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
Our dying together with Christ, was even more emphasized by the apostle Paul when in writing to the Galatians he said that he was crucified with Christ:
KJV Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Please take note that Paul was converted a couple of years AFTER the crucifixion, yet his statement blatantly tells us of his being crucified with our Lord, an event that occurred BEFORE he became a believer.
Therefore, our being in Christ having been created In Him through the creation of the One New Man did not result from our conversion, just like the experience of the apostle Paul who said he was crucified with Christ long before his conversion on the road to Damascus.
Having died together with Christ, the Bible says that we were made alive together with Him.
NAS Colossians 2:13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions
The 4-word English phrase "made alive together with" is from a single Greek word "suzoopoieo". To be made-alive-together-with Christ simply means that when Christ resurrected, we also were resurrected together with Him, being His body when He died - the Body of the One New Man, and hence, precludes the idea of being made alive one-at-a-time, as in, as each one believes. And through that resurrection, God caused us to be born again:
NAS 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
Created in Christ through the One New Man that Christ created in Himself, crucified with Christ and made alive TOGETHER WITH Him Who is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, we all are physically born into this world ALREADY in Christ, already part of His Body - the Church, already members of the family of God!!!
Born in sin, and hence born lost? No, we are born In Christ. And to be born in Christ Who is THE Only Way, is to be born NOT lost. Our Savior Himself emphasized this truth in the parables of the lost (Luke 15:1-24):
1. Before the sheep got lost, it was in the sheepfold with its shepherd.
2. Before the coin was lost, it was with its owner in the house.
3. Before the son went lost, he was at home with his father.
So with us all. We are born NOT lost. Sadly, we all like sheep went astray (Isa 53:6). Hence, we are admonished to repent, otherwise we perish (Luke 13:3, 5).
The command for people to repent is the same command that God made in the old testament (Ezek 18:30); the same command God now wants all people everywhere to obey (Acts 17:30); the same command our Lord made in the Gospel that He preached (Mark 1:14, 15); the same Gospel He wanted preached to the world before He comes again (Matt 24:14).
Repentance is from the Greek 'metanoia' - change of mind, from evil to that which is good. Faced with opportunity and about to do evil, one changes his mind and does good instead. IOW, repentance is overcoming evil with good. This is why we are enjoined to overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21).
Our Savior Himself assures us that overcomers will not be blotted out from the book of life (Rev 3:5) and will be seated with Him on His throne as He Himself likewise overcame and sat down with the Father on His throne (Rev 3:21).
When Christ comes again to reward every man according to what each has done (Matt 16:27; Rev 22:12; Rom 2:5-11), all whose names remained written in the book of life will be allowed entry into the heavenly portals (Rev 21:27); all others will have their portion in the lake of fire (Rev 20:15).
