BEING A VESSEL UNTO HONOR, A FULLY EQUIPPED MAN OF GOD, BY BEING EMPOWERED IN THE GRACE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS TO FULLY ACCOMPLISH OUR MINISTRY IN THE UNIQUE MINISTRY OF GOD'S ECONOMY
Message Four
Christ Nullifying Death and Bringing Life and Incorruption to Light, and Our Remembering Jesus Christ, the Seed of David, Raised from the Dead
Scripture Reading: 2 Tim. 1:10; 2:8; Acts 2:24; Heb. 2:9, 14; 7:16
I. "Our Savior Christ Jesus, who nullified death and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel"—2 Tim. 1:10:
A. In 2 Timothy 1:10 Paul tells us that Christ nullified death:
1. This means that Christ made death of none effect through His devil-destroying death (Heb. 2:14) and death-swallowing resurrection (1 Cor. 15:52-54).
2. Christ not only defeated death—He nullified it—2 Tim. 1:10.
3. Christ was manifested to nullify death and to bring in eternal, indestructible life—Heb. 7:16.
4. Through His resurrection, death has become of none effect; death has lost its power, even its taste—2:9; Acts 2:24.
5. Christ could nullify death because He destroyed the devil, the one who has the might of death—Heb. 2:14:
a. By overcoming Satan and nullifying death, the Lord Jesus also defeated Hades and the grave—Rev. 1:18.
b. Therefore, Christ's resurrection was not only God's vindication and the Lord's success but also His victory over death, Satan, Hades, and the grave— 20:14.
B. Having nullified death through His death, the Lord Jesus brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel in His resurrection—2 Tim. 1:10:
1. The last part of 2 Timothy 1:10 speaks of Christ Jesus who brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.
2. In the gospel the revelation is brought to us that Christ has nullified death and has brought us eternal, indestructible life—v. 10.
3. Life in 2 Timothy 1:10 refers to the eternal life of God, which is given to all believers in Christ (1 Tim. 1:16) and which is the main element of the divine grace given to us (Rom. 5:17, 21):
a. This life has conquered death (Acts 2:24) and will swallow up death (2 Cor. 5:4).
b. Life is the divine element, even God Himself, imparted into our spirit; incorruption is the consequence of life's saturating our body, giving life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells us.
c. This life and incorruption are able to counter death and corruption—2 Tim. 1:10.
II. "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel"—2:8:
A. The Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead—v. 8:
1. In 2 Timothy 2:8 the word raised indicates Christ's victory over death by His divine life with its resurrection power.
2. Regarding the Lord Jesus as a man, the New Testament tells us that God raised Him from the dead—Rom. 8:11.
3. Regarding the Lord Jesus as God, the New Testament tells us that He Himself rose from the dead—Acts 10:41; 1 Thes. 4:14.
4. Christ's being raised from the dead and His raising Himself from the dead indicate His dual status—human and divine:
a. The Lord Jesus is God and also resurrection (John 1:1; 11:25), possessing the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16).
b. Because Christ is the ever-living One, death was notable to hold Him.
c. He delivered Himself to death, but death could not detain Him.
d. Rather, death was defeated by Him, and He rose up from it—Acts 2:24.
5. On the day of His resurrection, early in the morning, the Lord Jesus ascended to satisfy the Father; the freshness of His resurrection was first for the Father's enjoyment, as the firstfruits of the harvest were, in type, brought first to God— John 20:17; cf. Lev. 23:10-11; Exo. 23:19a.
6. Another aspect of Christ's work in His resurrection is His rising on the first day of the week to germinate the new creation—2 Cor. 5:17:
a. The fact that Christ arose on the first day of the week indicates that the entire universe has a new beginning in Christ's resurrection—John 20:1-9.
b. Christ's resurrection ushered in a new period, a new age.
c. In the sight of God, the entire old creation was crucified with Christ and buried with Him; then on the first day of the week there was a new beginning.
d. Whereas the Lord's death was the termination of the old creation, His resurrection was the germination of the new creation—2 Cor. 5:17.
B. The expression seed of David indicates Christ's dignified human nature, which was exalted and glorified along with His divine nature—Rom. 1:3-4:
1. The prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a says that the seed of David would be the Son of God, and God would be His Father.
2. In other words, a human seed would become the divine Son—v. 14a.
3. The word concerning your seed in verse 12 and My son in verse 14 implies that the seed of David would become a divine Son:
a. This word corresponds to Paul's word in Romans 1:3-4 concerning Christ as the seed of David being designated the Son of God in His humanity in resurrection.
b. It also relates to the Lord's question in Matthew 22:41-45 concerning how the Christ could be both the son of David and the Son of God as David's Lord—a wonderful person, a God-man with two natures, divinity and humanity.
c. These verses clearly unveil that a seed of man—that is, a son of man— can become the Son of God.
d. God Himself, the divine One, became a human seed, the seed of a man, David.
e. This seed was Jesus, the God-man, Jehovah the Savior (1:18-21; 2 Tim. 2:8), who was the Son of God by virtue of His divinity (Luke 1:35).
f. Through His resurrection He as the human seed became the Son of God in His humanity—Rom. 1:3-4.
g. In Christ God was constituted into man, man was constituted into God, and God and man were mingled together to be one entity, the God-man.
h. This implies that God's intention in His economy is to make Himself man in order to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead— John 3:6, 16; Rom. 1:3-4; 2 Pet. 1:4.