LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Glory of the Heavenly Man
At the end of the original creation, as a culmination of it, God created man. Of all that was created, man was the most important. However, shortly thereafter, he fell; sin entered the world through him, and through sin, death. Thus, God's masterpiece was distorted. When man fell, there was a distorted development of his personality. His soul took on disproportionate proportions; his spirit died, and from then on, man was a being who lives by his soul.
In spite of that, man is the king of creation; especially for the scientist or the humanist, who are still dazzled by the perfection of his being, by the incredible potential of his mind. Who is not amazed by the capacity of a scientist like Einstein or a musician like Beethoven? In them, human capacity shines in all its splendor.
However, for God, man is not the ultimate; that is to say, he is not the glory of his creation. Man, plunged in sin, enslaved by the devil, the enemy of God, has lost the glory of God, to plunge into condemnation.
When Christ died on the cross, the old man, Adam, with his decaying glory, was judged. That is why Scripture calls Christ "the last Adam". With him an old, sinful, distorted creation was closed. But when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, a new creation arose, a new man, uncontaminated, perfect, heavenly. Christ's death put an end to the old, while his resurrection introduced the new.
The Bible says that, on the cross, the Lord Jesus "created in himself" a new man (Eph. 2:15). The old man was created by God with his hands, by taking clay and molding it. The new man, on the other hand, was created "in himself", in Christ, as a son is formed in his mother's womb. The former was created externally; the new man, within Christ, just as Eve was created from Adam - in that precious figure of Christ and the church.
The new man is infinitely superior to the old. The former was made an individual being; the latter is a collective being, composed of many men and women who have become one in Christ and with Christ. The glory of God in the second man consists in making the many -many wills, intelligences and sentiments- into one.
How is it possible for the many to become one? That is the wonder of the work of the cross. The objective cross -of Christ, in which he included us- and the subjective cross applied to each child of God, in which each one is broken in his individualism, to become one with all the children of God.
When all things shall cease to be - the heavens and the earth shall pass away, with all the glory of the old man - then there shall be one thing left standing: Christ and the church, this new man, the heavenly man, one being, one mind, one feeling. Praise the Lord for this, his masterpiece!