Praise the Lord, our old man is buried with Christ and our resurrected new man is living and working one with the Triune God!
Our baptism into the death of Christ leads us into the resurrection of Christ to enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive good land, walk in Him, and be built up in Him; as we are experiencing the resurrection from death, we become a new man in the resurrection, the old man remains in the death of Christ, and our resurrected new man is living and working with the Triune God as one. Hallelujah!
The crossing of the river Jordan by the children of Israel in Josh. 3-4 doesn’t signify our crossing of the river of death to enter into heaven; rather, it signifies our experience of Christ in His death to enter into resurrection as a new man to possess and enjoy the good land.
Before the children of Israel entered into the land to fight the tribes there and take it, they had to cross the river Jordan; the way they did it is according to God’s instruction, not according to their idea.
First, it was the priests who bore the ark that stepped into the river, and they stayed in the river until the whole people passed through.
This signifies that we need to bear the testimony of God as we experience Christ in His death and resurrection.
The priests who bore the Ark of the covenant were one with God, for they bore God’s testimony.
We believers in Christ today need to become one with the Triune God and even be one corporate person, doing all things one with God even as He does all things in us.
And for us to cross the river Jordan is to experience the death and resurrection of Christ.
Christ Himself took the lead to go through death into resurrection, and we follow Him; we follow in His footsteps by experiencing Christ in His death and resurrection.
As we experience Christ in His death and resurrection, we are qualified to take the land, that is, to fight the spiritual warfare so that we may enjoy the all-inclusive Christ.
The crossing of the people of Israel over the river Jordan typifies not the believers’ physical death but the believers’ experience of the death of Christ in which the old man is terminated and buried; the result is that a new man is produced – the resurrected new man who is qualified to fight the battle and take the good land.
When we baptize someone, we need to have the realization that we are putting Him into the Triune God, into Christ, into the Body of Christ, and especially into the death of Christ to be terminated in his old man.
And when we rise up from the death waters of baptism, we are a new person who walks in the newness of life. Daily, our living needs to be under the cross, under the application of the death of Christ, so that His life may also be manifested in our mortal body.
Our Baptism into the Death of Christ Leads us into His Resurrection to Enjoy Christ as the All-inclusive Land
The crossing of the Jordan River led the children of Israel on the other side, in the realm of resurrection, after they passed through the river of death.
Our baptism into the death of Christ leads us into the resurrection of Christ (Rom. 6:3-6; Col. 2:12).
The death of Christ is not the end – it is the passageway for us to be ushered into His resurrection.
In God’s New Testament economy, death and resurrection always go together; if we experience the death of Christ, we will be ushered into His resurrection, and His resurrection always follows His death.
In the aspect of burial, baptism is the termination of our old man. In the aspect of resurrection, baptism is the germination of our spirit so that we may be made alive in Christ with the divine life (John 3:6, 15; Rom. 8:10).
Here, in the realm of resurrection, after our baptism in the death of Christ, we enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive land in which we walk and even are being rooted and built up (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:7).
It is in the realm of resurrection that we enjoy Christ as the good land for the accomplishment of the economy of God.
When we enter into the realm of resurrection, we are walking in the newness of life; we enter into resurrection through our experience of Christ in His death.
Resurrection happens after the crucifixion; when we’re in the realm of resurrection, we are spontaneously in the reality of the good land, and we walk in the newness of life.
Israel’s crossing the Jordan and entering into the good land is related to Israel’s possessing and enjoying the good land, which typifies the believers’ practical experience of the riches of the blessings in Christ as revealed in the book of Ephesians (Josh. 4:1).
It is in the good land that they experienced the enjoyment of the riches and the inheriting of all the blessings, and they also fought the spiritual warfare to defeat all the forces in the heavenlies.
There is no other way for us to possess Christ as the all-inclusive land and defeat God’s ultimate enemies except by our experience of Christ’s death and resurrection.
We see this portrayed in Song of Songs; in the beginning of the book we see that she had a bundle of myrrh, and later in 4:6 she says that she is on the mountain of myrrh on the hill of frankincense.
Myrrh signifies the sweet death of Christ, and frankincense signifies the sweet resurrection of Christ. Initially, we experience Christ in His death and resurrection, but as we advance with Him, we realize our deeper need for more of the experience of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Our entering into the good land and possessing it by fighting the spiritual warfare is not by our reading more of the Bible, the spiritual books, or the life-studies to get more knowledge; it has to do with our passing through the experience of Christ in His death and resurrection.
In v. 8 the Beloved calls His lover to come with Him from Lebanon, to look from the top of Amana and Senir and Hermon, from the lion’s dens, from the leopard’s mountain.
Her experience of the death and resurrection of Christ ushered her in the realm of ascension, signified by Lebanon, and she is engaged in spiritual warfare.
On one hand, we need to experience Christ in His death and resurrection, and on the other hand, as we do this, we are ushered into the realm of resurrection, where we take the good land by enjoying the all-inclusive Christ and we fight the spiritual warfare to defeat God’s enemy.
This is what Gen. 1:26 speaks about – God’s eternal purpose to gain man for His expression and dominion.
Israel’s entering into the good land after crossing the Jordan typifies the believers’ experience of taking over the heavenlies, where Satan and his power of darkness are (Eph. 2:2; 6:12).
Lord Jesus, we want to experience Christ in His death and resurrection so that we may be ushered into the realm of resurrection to enter the good land. Amen, Lord, bring us all the way through death and resurrection into the good land to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ and fight the spiritual warfare to defeat God’s enemy. Hallelujah, in the realm of resurrection we enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive land in which we walk, we are rooted, and we’re built up! Amen, Lord, give us the experiences we need for us to enter into the enjoyment and experience of the all-inclusive Christ and defeat God’s enemy for the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose in creating man!
Our Old Man is Buried with Christ, our Resurrected New Man is Living and Working with the Triune God as one
As the children of Israel were crossing the Jordan, Joshua told them to take twelve stones out of Jordan to the other side, and take twelve stones from outside the river and put them in the riverbank (Josh. 4:3-9).
This is very significant in our Christian experience.
The twelve stones taken from the Jordan signify the twelve tribes of Israel; the stones raised up from the waters of the Jordan river signifies resurrection from death.
In other words, these twelve stones were a sign, showing that the “resurrected” new Israel would be a testimony of the crossing of the death water (vv. 6-7, 21-24).
These twelve stones that were taken from the riverbed and put together became a memorial; they were once in the riverbed, now they are on the shore, signifying a new Israel, a resurrected Israel.
These stones signify the believers’ experiencing with Christ the resurrection from death; it is not only the experience of death but also the experience of the resurrection of Christ with Christ (Rom. 6:3-4).
The other twelve stones, those erected in the middle of Jordan, signify the twelve tribes of Israel in their old life and in their old nature (Josh. 4:9).
So twelve stones were taken out of the river bed and put on the shore, while twelve stones were taken from outside the river and brought into the riverbed.
Joshua erected these twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan where the Ark was, signifying that the Lord wanted Israel in their old nature to remain under the death water of the Jordan.
This typifies that the old man of the believers should remain in the death of Christ (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10).
In our experience death and resurrection always go together; resurrection and crucifixion go together continually.
We live as we die, we die as we live. We experience resurrection in the death of Christ, and we experience the death of Christ in His resurrection.
The two sets of twelve stones signify that our old man has been buried and our resurrected new man is living and working with the Triune God as one; this corresponds with the revelation in Ephesians 2:1, 4-6, 15, and 10.
Our old man has been crucified with Christ; we should simply allow it and let it remain in the death of Christ.
We have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live, for the old man is in the tomb.
However, we still live, yet it is not the old man but the new man, the resurrected new man with Christ, and the life we now live it is in faith, in the organic union with Christ.
We who have been identified with Christ in His death and resurrection, who have been resurrected with Christ to become the new man, should leave our old man under His death.
We need to see this and even declare, that our old man has been crucified and buried with Christ, and it remains under the death of Christ; now the life that we live is in the new man, the resurrected new man one with Christ.
No matter what happens to us, no matter what befalls us, we are not troubled anymore, for our old man has been buried with Christ, and our resurrected new man is working with the Triune God.
The Triune God is with us; we and He are living together and working together.
This is the result of our experience of Christ in His death and resurrection; we become the new man, God’s masterpiece. Hallelujah!
Hallelujah, our old man has been crucified and buried together with Christ in His death. Praise the Lord, it is no longer we who live, for we have been crucified with Christ! But it is Christ who lives in us, and the life that we live is in faith, in the organic union with Christ. Thank You, Lord, we have been raised with You to live and walk in the newness of life. Thank You for our resurrected new man who is working with the Triune God. Hallelujah, we now live in resurrection, and no matter what befalls us, we are not troubled, for the Triune God is with us! Praise the Lord, the Triune God is with us, we are in God, and He and we are living together and working together! Praise the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Truth Lessons – Level Three, vol. 2, lsns 29 and 33, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 3, Crossing the Jordan River and Being Prepared for Battle.
- Hymns on this topic:
– My old man has been crucified with Him, / With all its foul corruption deep within; / And buried too its nature serpentine, / Completely finished—this great fact is mine, / I hold it fast. (Hymns #1179)
– Crucified with Christ my Savior, / To the world and self and sin; / To the death-born life of Jesus / I am sweetly ent’ring in: / In His fellowship of suff’ring, / To His death conformed to be, / I am going with my Savior / All the way to Calvary. (Hymns #481)
– Buried with Christ, and raised with Him too; / What is there left for me to do? / Simply to cease from struggling and strife, / Simply to walk in newness of life. / Glory be to God! (Hymns #483)
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