I.　God's economy is to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that they may become His masterpiece, the new man, to express His infinite wisdom and divine design—Eph. 2:10; 1:9; 3:9-11:

A.　The heavens, the earth, and man created by God are not God's masterpiece.

B.　Only the new man is God's masterpiece, which was created by Christ through the mingling of God and man—2:14-15:

1.　Christ created the one new man with God's nature wrought into humanity:

a.　In the old creation God did not work His nature into any of His creatures, not even into man.

b.　In the creating of the one new man, however, God's nature was wrought into man to make His nature one entity with humanity.

2.　The church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (1:23), the corporate and universal new man (2:15), is a masterpiece—v. 10.

II.　The new man was created in Christ as the divine element—v. 15:

A.　Christ is the Creator of the one new man:

1.　Christ is the sphere in which and the means by which the one new man was created.

2.　Christ is the element of the new man, making God's divine nature one entity with humanity.

B.　The essence of the old man was sinful, but in Christ there is a wonderful essence in which the one new man has been created:

1.　When we were the old man, we had the human element but did not have the divine element.

2.　Since Christ has imparted God Himself into us, we now have the divine element in us.

III.　The new man was created through the death of Christ on the cross—vv. 15-16:

A.　The new man was created by Christ with two kinds of materials—the redeemed created man (including the Jews and the Gentiles) and the divine element; on the cross Christ put these materials together to produce a new man.

B.　First our natural man was crucified with Christ, and then through the crossing out of the old man, Christ imparted the divine element into us, causing us to become a new entity—Rom. 6:6; 2 Cor. 5:17:

1.　In His crucifixion Christ terminated us in His flesh; then in resurrection He put us in Himself to create us into the one new man with His divine essence.

2.　Only in and by the divine essence can we be created into the one new man.

IV.　The new man is for the Body of Christ—Eph. 2:16; 4:12-16:

A.　The one new man created through the creating death of Christ equals the Body formed in Christ's resurrection and ascension; hence, the one new man and the Body are synonymous terms and may be used interchangeably—2:15-16; Col. 2:19; 3:10-11:

1.　The creating death of Christ created not the Body but the new man; the Body was formed in Christ's resurrection and ascension.

2.　Eventually, the new man created by the creating death of Christ equals the Body formed in Christ's resurrection and ascension.

B.　The new man is not an individual but a corporate man:

1.　The one new man is a corporate God-man, the aggregate of all the God-men; when we put all the God-men together, we have the one new man.

2.　The many God-men as the constituents of the new man must be raised up by growing up (Eph. 4:15) to build up the Body of Christ—vv. 12, 16.

C.　The Body of Christ is the one new man for the accomplishment of God's eternal purpose—1:9, 11; 3:9; Rom. 8:29; 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 2:15-16; 4:22-24.