When the liberal theologian looks at the cross of Christ, he sees little more than a demonstration of the unconditional love of God. He believes that the greatest effect of the cross is to give us a warm feeling inside so that we will donate canned goods to a food pantry. When an evangelical looks at the cross, he sees little more than the payment for his sins. Getting people into heaven is the goal of 95% of our evangelical sermons. But the cross of Christ is much bigger than what you will hear preached on any given Sunday. Our hymns proclaim the potency of the cross for cleansing us from our sins, but Christ accomplished so much more than that in his death and resurrection. In fact, He did nothing less than end life as we know it and inaugurate a completely new universe of existence contained within His own self. He said that if he would be lifted up, he would draw "all" to himself. He did not say "all men," but literally "all"–without qualification–indicating everything. He put an end to the old creation and became a New Creation in and of Himself. But what does that mean? It means that this New Man is made of different stuff, operates on completely different principles, and works toward totally different aims than anything else in this world.

The Old Man and His World

To understand how completely this New Creation differs from the old, let us look for a moment at the development of the old creation. Adam, who is the personification of the Old Man, was banned from the Garden and the Tree of Life, because he submitted himself to the serpent, over whom Man was meant to rule. The serpent convinced the Man that he should develop his natural abilities to know what is right and wrong without receiving into himself the Life of God from the other tree. With that act of judgment, God declared that the Old Man, together with the old creation, would have no part in the ultimate fulfillment of His eternal purpose. Genesis and Exodus trace the parallel development of God's people alongside the more wicked descendants of Cain, and then of Ham. In this account we learn that, from earliest times, mankind lived naturally in families and tribes. But the descendants of Cain sought to network their strengths and resources in order to supersede their human vulnerability, organizing cities in which to live (Gen. 4:17). In other words, civilization sprung from the fleshly activities of the wicked descendants of Cain. This civilization surfaced first in Babel, but was disintegrated by God (Gen. 11:8).

In Egypt, this monster revived until it was so large that it swallowed up the people of Israel and enslaved them for 400 years. Notice at this point the world system's obsession with building great and beautiful buildings as a testimony of its own greatness. Babel had their famous tower, and Egypt had great temples, statues, and pyramids. Notice also that civilization is built on the sweaty backs of slaves. This creation developed from the misguided minds and desires of fallen men. Their intent was to build something good, not something evil. But good and evil are inseparable, as long as fallen flesh remains the origin of the activity.

The next great expression of the world system was Babylon. Once again God's people were taken over and enslaved by a tightly organized, smoothly run system. In Babylon we learn how civilization works: by chain of command (Daniel 3:2, 6:7). As long as every man has a supervisor directing and organizing those under his charge, everything operates like a well-oiled machine. Regardless of whether the subsystem is educational, cultural, commercial, political, or military, the same process of organization improves functionality in proportion to how tightly (and unquestioningly) it is systematized. All one has to do is glance at any large military outfit to discover the origin of this concept. Where would mankind have learned to put commanders over lesser ranks, grouped in hundreds, then tens, with generals on top? You can draw your own conclusions on that one.

God's intentions for His people with regard to fallen civilization were always clear. He first called Abraham out of it, then later insisted that Abraham's descendants not mix with the groups of the world system. When Israel finally reached their promised land, their two fundamental weaknesses were their desire to imitate the world's religions, and to imitate their methods of growth, protection, and self-preservation. They wanted a king over them, like the other nations had, while God said He was their only King (1 Sam.8:6-7). Once they had their king, it was time for a massive special building project, which God initially pointed out was not His idea (2 Sam.7:5-7). As God's final judgment was falling on Israel, the prophets criticized that Israel had come to define her entire faith by that special building (Jer.7:4). This was but one symptom of a larger sickness: they were corporately eating from the wrong tree. This is the Old Man living by the ways of the old creation.

At this point you may ask, "But aren't these civilizations merely good human creations gone bad? Didn't God intend for mankind to become civilized?" God did intend for mankind to learn and mature as a race, but not along the lines upon which the fallen creation has developed. We need to recognize that there is a mixture of motives issuing from within us. Some desires originate in our flesh—our "selves" when operating independently of the indwelling Spirit of God—and other desires originate within our spirits, which are one with the Spirit of Christ (1 Cor.6:17). Perhaps a new definition of our "selves" will correct our faulty ways of understanding what we do. In the end, this new view of humanity should also affect the way we do "church".

A New Definition of "You"

Following our Greco-Roman intellectual tradition, we tend to think of ourselves as made up of two parts: body and spirit. In terms of substances (for the lack of a better word), this may be correct. We have a physical being and a non-physical being. But Paul distinguished between two non-physical parts of a person: the spirit and the mind (1 Cor. 14:15) or soul (1 Thess. 5:13). The writer of the book of Hebrews seems to have done the same thing (Heb.4:12). Plato's view of man doesn't allow for such a three-fold conception of humanity; and since "western" Christian theology follows Neo-Platonic thought "religiously," a majority of Christian theologians have always asserted the more simplified dualistic view of man. Because the Bible does not often lend itself to rigorous systematization, both opposing viewpoints find biblical support. But the more popular body/soul distinction doesn't acknowledge that there are things that originate in our souls (the seat of emotion, will, and intellect) that are not spiritual (i.e. not directed by our spirits, which move with the indwelling Spirit of God). The simpler view cannot explain Paul's argument that the "natural man" (literally the "soulish" man) cannot understand the things of God because they are only understood with the spirit (1 Cor.2:14-15). Our thinking must allow for the possibility that many of our "Christian" activities are really not "Christian" at all, because they originate with "the flesh."

But then we need to reconsider what we mean by "the flesh." The New Testament writers did not typically use the term "flesh" to denote only the body. There are times in the New Testament where the term "flesh" and "soul" seem almost interchangeable (1 Cor.2:14, John 12:25). "Flesh" in Scripture means our whole self viewed from a perspective: independent of the leadership of the Spirit. When we are acting independently of the Spirit, even thoughts, ideas, desires, and emotions that we have can be "of the flesh." And these desires may appear to be right and good. But the flesh occupies itself with doing good just as often, perhaps much more often, as with doing evil. Recall how quickly Jesus disowned goodness (Mark 10:18) as if it were not his goal at all. To locate goodness in the self is the essence of sin and the fruit of the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. On the other hand, doing evil is only a byproduct of the human self operating independently toward the end of "being good." The name of that tree tells us that these two opposite things are just two sides of the same sinful coin. Both doing good and doing evil are activities that belong in this realm—the Old Creation.

The New Man and His World

Jesus was the First Fruit of the New Creation, and He withstood the temptation to live by his emotion, his will, or his intellect. He lived by His spirit, indwelt by the Spirit of his Father. He did not allow his "soul," his natural faculties, to gain the ascendancy over the rest of him. Just as the serpent had deceived the first Adam in the Garden, the Accuser came to the wilderness to tempt the last Adam to live by his natural reasoning. "You're hungry. Turn this rock into bread and eat something." But Jesus was already eating from a tree that the enemy could not see. Jesus was living by his spirit to the point that spiritual food was more real to him at that moment than the physical food he was encouraged to create. He would also not put on a show of his divinity by jumping off of the Temple roof. Most importantly, he would not accept the civilizations of the world from the ruler of it all because he knew God's judgment, and that a cross must precede His rule over all things. Only a New Creation would do, and only an all-inclusive cross would obliterate the Old Creation.

In the death and resurrection of Christ, God inaugurated the New Creation. Christ took upon himself on the cross the Old Man—the corporate Adam—including your flesh and mine. That Old Man and that Old Creation perished on the cross with Christ. Your eyes deceive you into believing that both are still alive. But in your spirit, which does not feel the limitations of time and space, this New Creation is pressing forward to be manifested. This is the resurrected life of Christ in you.

And Now For Something Completely Different

When the New Testament church exploded onto the scene in the 1st century, the world had never seen anything like it before (primarily because it wasn't an "it" at all!). This new thing obviously did not belong to the Old Creation. The first-century Church was not driven by the flesh, but by the spirit. They did not have the polish or glamour of the religious ways of the flesh. These people were largely uneducated and illiterate, with no particular giftings that would propel them to the vitality that they experienced. They did not utilize the standard paraphernalia by which the world understood religions. Other religious groups employed professional clergy, funded massive building projects, used lots of "toys" like altars, fires, and special costumes, and observed formalized, time-honored rituals that made them feel like they were accomplishing something, rendering them better than they were before they entered their meetings. But these Christians had none of these things. The first-century Church was obviously not of this world.

The Church was not a part of Satan's civilization. This living, organic, New Man did not operate under a chain of command, and was not organized by the methods of fallen creation. Even leadership within this New Creation did not function like leadership within the old. In the Church, leadership developed organically, growing slowly according to the fluid needs and demands of daily life in the Church. So in a sense, everyone shared leadership at different times and under different circumstances. In those few roles of leadership which endured over long periods of time, men and women were not put "over" others in positions of official authority, rather they were alongside them, or else under them, serving in their capacity only to the extent that they were exhibiting the character of Christ.

Think of the way a human body functions. The members of a human body do not take direction from other parts of the body but rather directly from the head. The same principle applies to the Body of Christ. Human leadership must not displace or rival the headship of Christ among his people. Therefore, the New Testament concept and practice of church guidance, nurturing, and leadership rests on Christ alone, daily guiding and directing each of the members of his Body in corporate fashion. "You do not need anyone to teach you, because the anointing you have received from him abides in you" (1 John 2:27). No one defers to any individual or group for teaching or leadership within the fellowship, because to do so would usurp the place of Christ in the life of the Body.

What About Your Church?

Allow me to bring this home to where you live. Does the church to which you belong depend on organization provided either by a single man or a small handful of people? If so, then the world system will comfortably accept this and rest easy because your "church" works just like they do. You church does not challenge the authority of the serpent in the slightest. You might pay lipservice to the Lordship of Christ (applied strictly on the individual level anyway), but even the very seating arrangement of your "worship services" attests to the true focus of your meeting: the "minister". Remove him from your meetings and your whole system would collapse. And do not naively assume, simply because the word "pastor" appears (once!) in the New Testament, that the guy in the expensive suit standing on a platform in front of your (very expensive) auditorium fits the New Testament concept of a "shepherd". What you actually have there is a mixture of elder, apostle, president, and CEO. Just like an institution of the world, we believe that this man should dominate our church because he holds a degree from an academic institution. Must we always slavishly imitate the ways of fallen man?

Can your church or denomination be represented with an organizational flow chart? Is it organized on a charter, with bylaws and articles of incorporation? Does it run on salaried administrative labor? Can you accurately predict the program of worship for any Sunday morning over the next ten years? Have you attributed sacred status to inanimate objects or rituals associated with your regular meetings (e.g. the "sanctuary," the baptistry, the pulpit, the pews, the windows, etc)? Have you ever referred to the building in which you meet as "God's House"? Are sound and lighting an important factor in your times of worship? Are your choir members instructed to always smile when singing? All of these things indicate closer similarity to the fleshly ways of fallen man than to the New Creation. Does this not bother you? If not, then wake up! But if so, then why do you keep supporting it? Do not hold as sacred anything which can be destroyed by fire.

There must be on this earth an expression of the New Man, who is not subject to the dominion of the Old Creation. As long as God's eternal purpose continues, there will be those who leave the institutional church for open ground upon which God may build His House. This house is made up of materials that are foreign to this world. Those who build it can only build with gold and precious stones (1Cor.3:10-15), which speak of the presence of Christ himself. Only these precious stones can withstand the fires of God's judgment, which will consume everything that is not of His Spirit (1 Peter 3:7, 10-13). This great house is comprised of lives that have been shattered, crushed, melted, and rebuilt together as only those called to His purpose can be. This is no place for natural strengths and abilities, where gifted individuals can shine through their own natural talents. Christ himself is the only acceptable material, passed through the disabling blow of the cross on the human soul, and risen again according to the indomitable power of God.

In the Old Testament, the altar always preceded the House of God. Calvary preceded Pentecost. Today, a subjective experience of the cross of Christ precedes the building of His house. This New Man lives by resurrected life, which implies previous crucifixion by God. For this reason, we must now turn to discuss the place and function of brokenness in the lives of those who are "in Christ."

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