Our Representative – by Desmond Ford

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May 23, 2016 2535

When our Lord Jesus Christ was baptised, he was baptised for the whole world. He confessed for the whole world. He was penitent for the whole world. Everything our Lord did was representative. There is not a private act of Christ’s in the book. Not one. Everything he did has an infinite significance, and an infinite depth. The essence of the gospel is that it represents him as representing the world.
God could have dealt with us one by one. One by one, as we came into the world, he could have presented before us the Tree of Knowledge and said, ‘Make your choice. Stay away from it and live forever. Eat it, and die.’ God didn’t do that. God dealt with us on the basis of representation.

Adam represented the human race. If Adam had been a victorious overcomer, so would all his successors have been. His children, his grandchildren. You and I would have been, because he represented us.

But Adam failed. He threw us all into the Jordan. We were ruined on the principle of representation.

Through Jesus, we are saved on the principle of representation. You cannot understand the story of Jesus unless you see that. Because he was the representative of the whole world, the Bible says, ‘We are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died’ (2 Cor 5:14). Please note, it does not say, ‘If one died for all, everybody need not die.’ If it was only the principle of substitution, that is what it would say.

Never forget. You died on the cross of Calvary in your representative, Jesus.

– Des Ford. Rom 8:27-32. Adapted from “The Crises of Christ: His Baptism ”