Scripture Reading: Eph. 2:10, 14-17; 4:22-24; 1:9; 3:9-11
Ⅰ
God's economy is to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that they may become His masterpiece, the new man, to express His infinite wisdom and divine design—Eph. 2:10; 1:9; 3:9-11:
A
The heavens, the earth, and man created by God are not God's masterpiece.
B
Only the new man is God's masterpiece, which was created by Christ through the mingling of God and man—2:14-15:
１
Christ created the one new man with God's nature wrought into humanity:
ａ
In the old creation God did not work His nature into any of His creatures, not even into man.
ｂ
In the creating of the one new man, however, God's nature was wrought into man to make His nature one entity with humanity.
２
The church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (1:23), the corporate and universal new man (2:15), is a masterpiece—v. 10.
Ⅱ
The new man was created in Christ as the divine element—v. 15:
A
Christ is the Creator of the one new man:
１
Christ is the sphere in which and the means by which the one new man was created.
２
Christ is the element of the new man, making God's divine nature one entity with humanity.
B
The essence of the old man was sinful, but in Christ there is a wonderful essence in which the one new man has been created:
１
When we were the old man, we had the human element but did not have the divine element.
２
Since Christ has imparted God Himself into us, we now have the divine element in us.
Ⅲ
The new man was created through the death of Christ on the cross—vv. 15-16:
A
The new man was created by Christ with two kinds of materials—the redeemed created man (including the Jews and the Gentiles) and the divine element; on the cross Christ put these materials together to produce a new man.
B
First our natural man was crucified with Christ, and then through the crossing out of the old man, Christ imparted the divine element into us, causing us to become a new entity—Rom. 6:6; 2 Cor. 5:17:
１
In His crucifixion Christ terminated us in His flesh; then in resurrection He put us in Himself to create us into the one new man with His divine essence.
２
Only in and by the divine essence can we be created into the one new man.
Ⅳ
The new man is for the Body of Christ—Eph. 2:16; 4:12-16:
A
The one new man created through the creating death of Christ equals the Body formed in Christ's resurrection and ascension; hence, the one new man and the Body are synonymous terms and may be used interchangeably—2:15-16; Col. 2:19; 3:10-11:
１
The creating death of Christ created not the Body but the new man; the Body was formed in Christ's resurrection and ascension.
２
Eventually, the new man created by the creating death of Christ equals the Body formed in Christ's resurrection and ascension.
B
The new man is not an individual but a corporate man:
１
The one new man is a corporate God-man, the aggregate of all the God-men; when we put all the God together, we have the one new man.
２
The many God as the constituents of the new man must be raised up by growing up (Eph. 4:15) to build up the Body of Christ—vv. 12, 16.
C
The Body of Christ is the one new man for the accomplishment of God's eternal purpose—1:9, 11; 3:9; Rom. 8:29; 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 2:15-16; 4:22-24.