Of Two, One New Man

By the cross of Jesus, the righteous decrees of God against us - for our rebellion against His authority as our Creator - were abolished. Jesus fulfilled God's Law for mankind perfectly – not for Himself, but for us. By His solitarily sinless life, its demands were met and satisfied, such that it had no more claims it could ask. By His own crucified flesh, as He offered Himself as our substitute for the punishment we deserved (of eternal separation from God, our Father), the enmity between us and God was annulled, the hostile dividing wall between us was broken.  The apostle Paul wrote that Christ Jesus did this so that “He from the two might create in Himself one new man.” (Ephesians 2:15)

In His resurrection, Jesus has constituted the origin and head of a new race, a new quality of humanity – the race of regenerate men.  All who believe in Him are born into that new humanity – the race of His resurrection life and power. This “new man” (versus “the old man”, the merely human) is now made of two intertwined lives: the human and the life of the risen Son of God.

Originally we were created in God’s image, in His likeness. But in Adam’s fall, we all who share the aptness toward sin that ran through Adam's nature, fell from that original type. We greatly marred that image in ourselves, and to an indescribable degree lost it.

In His cross, Jesus Christ restored to us what we were created to be. We shall again be like Him, fully "in His image"! We shall know the ineffable pleasure of the fellowship of like natures, of oneness with our God - His Father and our Father (John 20:17). We shall be where we belong.