«　WEEK 3　DAY 5　»

　　Eph. 4:22 That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit.

　　24 And put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.

　　God's intention in creating man was to have a vessel to express Himself and to exercise His dominion. However, not long after man was created, he fell….It was the intention of God's enemy that, through man's fall, man would be divided and scattered. Chapter 3 of Genesis begins to speak of the fall of man, but it does not show us the significance of man's fall. The significance of man's fall is revealed in chapters 10 and 11. There we can see clearly what Satan's intention was in causing man to fall. It was to make man useless in God's purpose by dividing and scattering mankind.

　　After the flood, mankind was divided into nations and was also scattered in different directions to different lands. Around the time of the building up of Babel, mankind was divided according to their families, their genealogies, their languages, their lands, and eventually, according to the nations (10:5, 20, 31). (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” p. 476)

　　The function of any vessel, when it is divided and scattered, is annulled and voided. A vessel should not be broken; a vessel should not be divided and scattered. Man, as a vessel to contain God, to express God, and to exercise God's dominion, should be one. He should not be divided or scattered. However, in Genesis 10 and 11 this vessel was shattered into pieces and was scattered. The entire Old Testament is simply a record of the divided mankind.

　　From Genesis 10 and 11 we must go on to Acts 2. By the time of Acts 2 the Triune God had passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The God-man Jesus had been enthroned in the heavens to be the Lord of lords. Now something further happened in Acts 2. After creation and the fall of man this wonderful One—who was incarnated, who was God living a life in humanity on this earth, and who was crucified, resurrected, ascended, and enthroned—came down. His coming down was a wonder among all wonders. This coming down of such a wonderful One brought forth the church.

　　The church was brought forth not just with one people but with many peoples. In Acts 2:9-11 at least fifteen nationalities speaking at least fifteen dialects were represented. Although all these were Jews (v. 5), under God's sovereignty all…were not of one language….They were divided and scattered. However, when the time came for the church to be brought forth, they were all gathered together, and in that gathering, the church was produced. This indicates that what was divided and scattered in the old man was fully recovered in the new man. In the old man, man was divided and scattered, but in the new man, man is gathered and made one.

　　Without Paul's Epistles we could not see the light concerning the one new man. Ephesians 2:13 says, “Now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near in the blood of Christ.” To become near is to become near not only to God but near to the believers. Verse 14 says, “For He Himself is our peace, He who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity.” The middle wall of partition is the division, the dividing factor, between different peoples. This factor was torn down by Christ on the cross. By this, Christ has created one new man of two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles. Ephesians 4:22 says, “That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit.” To put off the old man is to put off the divided and scattered man. To put on the new man (v. 24) is to put on the gathered and one new man, “which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality” (v. 24). (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” pp. 476-477)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” ch. 2