As believers in Christ, we are branches in the true vine of the Son and the new child of the Spirit, growing to be the new man – a full-grown man.
The incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers in resurrection issues in the Father’s house, the Son’s vine, and the Spirit’s child, as seen in John 14, 15, and 16.
In John 14:2 we see the house of the Father, a house that is universally vast and has many abodes. We as believers in Christ are the many abodes in the Father’s house.
We were prepared by Christ through His going through death and resurrection. Before His death and resurrection, the Father’s house was just for the Triune God; only the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were part of the Father’s house.
However, through His death and resurrection, Christ made a way for many people – the believers in Christ – to be incorporated in the divine-human incorporation.
Through His death, Christ released the divine life, the glory of His divinity, and in His resurrection He imparted this released divine life into all the believers in Christ to regenerate them for His Body.
Hallelujah, we all were regenerated through Christ’s resurrection to be the many sons of God, the many abodes in the house of the Father.
And we are being built into this house by one very sweet thing: the constant visitation of the Triune God.
As we spend time with the Lord in His word, contacting Him and loving Him as we abide in His word, the Father and the Son with the Spirit come to visit us and make an abode with us.
How wonderful!
Every morning we need to come to the Lord in His word and contact Him, enjoy Him, and partake of Him.
We just need to open to the Lord as we come to His word, and He will visit us; His visitation is His building, for He is building Himself into us to make us the many abodes in the Father’s house.
The Christian life is not about learning and keeping doctrines, nor is it about obeying some rules and maintaining certain traditions and ways of doing things.
The Christian life is a life of contacting the Lord moment by moment so that we may live because of Him and partake of His riches to be constituted with Him and be united, mingled, and incorporated with Him.
We need to have an uplifted appreciation of our time with the Lord. We need to realize how important is our Bible reading in the Lord’s presence.
Even though we may feel tired and unworthy, even though we fail so much and we think we cannot make it, we can still come to the Lord as we are, and we can contact Him in His word to be inwardly supplied with His riches.
As we come to Him, He comes to us, He visits us, and He makes an abode with us.
We are the Branches in the True Vine of the Son to be the Organism of the Triune God
![I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman...Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:1, 4-5](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/I-am-the-true-vine-and-My-Father-is-the-husbandman-1-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman...Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:1, 4-5")
John 15 shows us the second aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers in resurrection: the true vine of the Son (see John 15:1-8, 16).
Christ is the true vine and His Father is the husbandman.
The Lord did not liken Himself to a tall, majestic, upward-growing pine tree or even a palm tree; rather, He said that He is the true vine.
The true vine of the Son is the issue of the incorporation of the processed God with the regenerated believers. Christ as the vine grows and spreads throughout the earth.
A particular thing about the vine tree is that it spreads, grows, and goes everywhere.
Christ as the universal vine needs the whole globe for its spreading.
He is spreading around the globe in many countries, including Russia, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, and India.
The true vine is a sign of the all-inclusive Christ as the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God.
The branches of Christ as the true vine are the believers in Christ; we are the many branches in the true vine.
We were by nature branches of the wild olive tree and have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree (Rom. 11:17, 24) through our believing into Christ (John 3:15).
By nature, we were branches in the olive tree, but through repentance and faith into Christ, we were cut off from that old source and were grafted into Christ, the cultivated olive tree.
We were in Adam, but we were cut off from Him and were grafted contrary to nature into the cultivated olive tree.
Being grafted contrary to nature means that we were grafted contrary to the self; everything in Christ and of Christ is contrary to the self.
We were in Adam, part of the old man, and we are now in Christ, part of the organism of the Triune God to be one with Christ, even to be Christ. Hallelujah!
We as the branches have been regenerated with God’s life, the divine life, and we were brought into the life-union with the crucified and resurrected Christ.
![You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and [that] your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you. John 15:16 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a fellow partaker of the root of fatness of the olive tree. Rom. 11:17](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/You-did-not-choose-Me-but-I-chose-you-and-I-set-you-that-you-should-go-forth-and-bear-fruit-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and [that] your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you. John 15:16 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a fellow partaker of the root of fatness of the olive tree. Rom. 11:17")
Furthermore, by our abiding in the Lord and by His abiding in us, we are being incorporated with the processed and consummated Triune God. Hallelujah!
Our God is not someone who merely wants worship and fear from the side of His creatures; He wants to be one with man, mingled with man, and even incorporated with man.
God created man in His image and according to His likeness because He wants to dispense Himself into man and flow in man so that the believers in Christ would be the many branches of the organism of the Triune God spreading all over the earth.
The true vine of the Son, the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God, is for the unlimited Triune God’s multiplication as the increase of the immeasurable Christ!
Hallelujah, Christ wants to increase and expand, for God wants to be multiplied and spread in humanity and through humanity – He must increase and we must decrease (vv. 29-30)!
The true vine of the Son is for the universal spreading of the Triune God through the fruit-bearing of the believers of Christ as the branches in the true vine.
As we abide in Christ faithfully, enjoying Him and partaking of His rich supply, we bear fruit in a spontaneous way; this fruit is for the glorification of the Father by our abiding in the Lord (John 15:4-5, 8, 16). Hallelujah!
We simply need to abide in the Lord as the vine, enjoy Him, and partake of His riches, and we will be joined, mingled, and incorporated with the processed Triune God to further His spreading all over the earth!
Lord Jesus, thank You for grafting us into Yourself as the cultivated olive tree. Hallelujah, through repentance and faith in Christ, we were cut off from Adam, the wild olive tree, and were grafted into Christ! Praise the Lord, we are now branches in Christ the true vine! Amen, Lord, we want to abide in You today. We just want to abide in You and enjoy the rich supply coming from You. Thank You for regenerating us with Your divine life to be brought into the life-union with the resurrected Christ. Amen, Lord, we abide in You today for You to abide in us for the incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with the regenerated believers. Keep us abiding in You today so that You may have a way to multiply Yourself, increase Yourself, and spread Yourself throughout the earth! Hallelujah for Christ, the universal vine, the true vine, spreading all over the earth through us, the believers in Christ who faithfully abide in Christ to bear fruit for the glorification of the Father!
We are the New Child of the Spirit, the New Man, Growing to be a Full-Grown Man to Express Christ
John 16:21 is a mysterious verse requiring many portions of the word of God for its interpretation.
As the Lord was speaking of His going to the Father, the disciples being sad for His going, and His returning to be another Comforter for them (the Spirit of reality), He suddenly spoke of a child being born.
This new child, which is the new man, was born by the consummated Spirit (John 16:21, 13-15).
The third aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers in resurrection is the new child of the Spirit (John 16:13-16, 19-22).
The Lord Jesus was going to be crucified, so He told His disciples that they will not see Him for a while, and they will weep and lament, yet the world will rejoice.
The disciples will be sorrowful, but that sorrow will be turned to joy.
This is just like a woman who, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her hour has come, but once the baby is delivered, she is filled with joy and forgets all the sorrow for a new man has been brought into the world. Hallelujah!
A woman in labour has much pain and sorrow to deliver the baby, but once the baby is born, she is filled with joy because a new man has been born into the world.
This new child here in John 16 refers to the new man born by the consummated Spirit in resurrection; this new child, the new man, was created by Christ on the cross by abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances (Eph. 2:15).
The new man was created by Christ on the cross in His body, for there He abolished all the ordinances and anything that separates the Jews and the Gentiles, thus creating in Himself the one new man. While Christ was dying on the cross, He was creating this new man.
This new man was regenerated by the Father with the resurrected Christ in His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 1:4) and born by the Spirit into the believers’ spirit (John 3:6).
We were born of God through the resurrection of Christ, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Wow!
So we as believers in Christ were born of the Spirit in Christ’s resurrection to be the new child of the Spirit, the new man. Amazing!
The first group of believers in Christ, the disciples of Christ, suffered Christ’s departure through His death; they were like the delivering woman.
![Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, [so] making peace. Eph. 2:15 And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all. Col. 3:10-11](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Abolishing-in-His-flesh-the-law-of-the-commandments-in-ordinances-that-He-might-create-the-two-in-Himself-into-one-new-man-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, [so] making peace. Eph. 2:15 And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all. Col. 3:10-11")
The Christ who returned in His resurrection was the newborn child to be the new man (Col. 3:10-11). Wow, praise the Lord!
The new man created in Christ on the cross is the masterpiece of God (Eph. 2:10).
We are God’s masterpiece, the one new man.
We are not a mess-terpiece, as we many times think we are; we are God’s masterpiece, the new child of the Spirit, to be the new man through our growth and maturity in the divine life.
We need to put on the new man day by day by being renewed in the spirit of our mind to consummate the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:23-24).
This means that we need to live in the spirit. We need to exercise our mingled spirit, and our spirit will spread into our mind; in this way, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind.
May we see what happened on the cross and in the resurrection of Christ and may we realize that we are the new child of the Spirit who grows to be the full-grown man by enjoying Christ, eating Him, growing in life unto maturity, and by being renewed in the spirit of our mind.
As we do this, as we cooperate with the Lord to grow in the divine life day by day, we are being incorporated with the processed God to be part of the divine-human incorporation.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for creating the new man on the cross by abolishing in Your flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances. Hallelujah, a new child, a new man, was born by the consummated Spirit, through the death and resurrection of Christ! Amen, Lord, praise You for making peace between us on the cross. Hallelujah, the Father regenerated us with the resurrected Christ in His resurrection to make us children of God and members of the one new man! Praise the Lord, we were born by the Spirit in our spirit to be the newborn child of the Spirit, the new man! Amen, Lord, we want to grow in life day by day by enjoying You and eating You in Your word. We put on the new man through the renewing in the spirit of our mind. May we all grow in life unto maturity and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to consummate the Body of Christ, the church, and to bring in the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord for the divine-human incorporation of the consummated God and the regenerated believers in Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory,” pp. 352-354, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 11, entitled, The Divine-human Incorporation of the Consummated God with the Regenerated Believers – the Issue of Christ being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– The Triune God and the branches in John 15, a portion from, The Mending Ministry of John, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
– The vine – God’s economy, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
– Living in the Divine Trinity (1) Abiding in Christ as the True Vine, a portion via, Church in New York City.
– The function of the true vine as a sign of the Son, a portion from, The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
– My Experience Growing up in the Church Life with Spiritual Fathers and Mothers, article via, Living to Him.
– The Father is Leading Many Sons into the Glory of New Jerusalem, article via, New Jerusalem blog. - Hymns on this topic:
– Thou art the true and heav’nly vine, / And we in Thee are branches; / In Thee abiding, Thou in us, / We share in all Thy riches. (Hymns #187 stanza 23)
– He’s the vine and we’re the branches, / We should e’er abide in Him, / And let Him abide within us / As the flow of life within. / In the vine, in the vine, / In the vine, in the vine, / We would know Thee, Lord, / more deeply, / E’er abiding in the vine. (Hymns #1163 stanza 1 and chorus)
– New man of new creation, / Born through her risen Lord, / Baptized in God the Spirit, / Made holy by His Word; / Christ is her life and content, / Himself her glorious Head; / She has ascended with Him / O’er all her foes to tread. (Hymns #824 stanza 2)
About aGodMan
CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory,” pp. 352-354
We are daily being incorporated with the processed God to be the divine-human incorporation: the Father’s house, the Son’s vine, and the Spirit’s child.
We were grafted into Christ to be the branches in the true vine, part of His multiplication and spreading throughout the earth.
We were born by the Spirit in our spirit to be the new child of the Spirit, the new man, and we are growing in life unto maturity to be a full-grown man.
Brother Christ is the house, the vine and the new man.
Praise the Lord we are grafted into this vine, we are members of this household, and we are part of the new man which is Christ Himself.
Praise the Lord brother, for the three aspects of the universal incorporation of the processsed and consummated Triune God with us regenerated believers!
Here we see Christ as the house, the tree and the little child – being one new man, the one who is all the members and in all the members.
He is our dwelling place, the true vine in whom we are in union with as the many branches, born of Him as the resurrected Christ having been regenerated by the Father to become one new man through the renewing of our mind!
Hallelujah!!
The Lord’s “going” to the cross and His “coming” in resurrection is to “prepare” a place for you and me in the Father’s house.
This is one aspect of the divine and human incorporation.
The other two are the Son’s true Vine and the Spirit’s child.
Thank and praise the triune God that we were once hopeless, homeless, and wandering around but now we are back to the Father’s house as a place of enjoyment, rest, and satisfaction.
We were one part of the wild olive tree but now we have been grafted to the well cultivated tree, grafted into the vine for multiplication through fruit bearing, increase, and spread.
We were once dead, in the old of the old creation but now we have been made alive, in the new man in the new creation of God for His expression, representation, and dominion.
Hallelujah! 😃🙋🏽 Amen! 🙏
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
Rom. 11:17, footnote 1 on “grafted”, Recovery Version Bible