In resurrection Christ became the firstborn Son of God and the divine life was dispensed into all His believers to bring forth the propagation of the divine life that is embodied in Him.
God made a promise to the fathers that He will bring forth a seed out of David that will be the Son of God, and this One will be a Savior to His people and will build the house of God. This seed is Jesus Christ, who is the incarnated God. God became a man, and in incarnation the only begotten Son of God became a Son of man.
Now there was such a person on earth as Jesus Christ, who was not just man and not just God, but a God-man, a mingling of God with man, a human being with two natures, divinity and humanity.
This One lived a perfect human life on earth, died an all-inclusive and all terminating death on the cross, and after three days in Hades He resurrected. The resurrection of Christ is one of the most amazing events in the universe, and the implications and results of His resurrection still affect us today.
In His resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit (see 1 Cor. 15:45), He was begotten by God to be the Firstborn Son of God in His humanity (Rom. 8:29), and He regenerated many believers to be part of His Body (1 Pet. 1:3).
Christ was always the Son of God in His divinity, for from eternity to eternity He was, is, and always will be the only begotten Son of God. However, God’s desire is to have many sons, many people who have His life and nature, with His image, who would express Him corporately.
For this purpose, God in Christ went through a process and in resurrection Christ was begotten by God to be the Firstborn Son of God. Now Christ is not only the only Begotten Son of God according to His divinity, but He is also the firstborn Son of God in His humanity.
In other words, a man was begotten of God to be the Son of God, and He is the firstborn, which means that all believers are the many brothers of Christ, the many sons of God!
In Christ’s resurrection there was a universally great delivery, for millions of believers were begotten of God to be the many sons of God, with Christ as the Firstborn Son.
All the many believers in Christ have the same divine birth date as the Firstborn Son of God, who was begotten by God in His resurrection in His humanity. This date is the date of resurrection.
When in time we believe into the Lord, we receive the divine life and we become a son of God, and we enter into the divine family of God through regeneration. We are regenerated with God’s life to be a child of God, part of the family of God, for God to have a corporate expression on earth.
The firstborn Son of God leads us into glory by transforming us into His image in all the parts of our being, so that we may be glorified sons of God, part of God’s glorious expression. Hallelujah!
Christ Became the Firstborn Son of God for the Divine Life to be Dispensed and Propagated into us
Why did Christ become the firstborn Son of God? Why did He go through such a long process so that, at the consummation, He would be begotten by God to be the Firstborn Son of God?
When Christ was incarnated, He was the only begotten Son of God becoming man, and as a man He embodied the divine life. In Him was life, and the divine life in Christ wanted to spread, increase, and propagate.
Throughout His life and ministry on earth we see that Christ wanted to release the divine life, but the shell of His humanity hindered it. Through His death, His human shell was broken and the divine life within Him was released, and in His resurrection this released divine life was imparted into the many believers in Christ.
This is the reason for which Christ as the only begotten Son of God became the firstborn Son of God – for the dispensing of the divine life within Him, for the propagation of life.
First, Christ was the only begotten Son of God as the embodiment of life, but in His resurrection He became the firstborn Son of God for the propagation of the divine life. Hallelujah, Christ became the firstborn Son for the propagating of the divine life, for God to gain many sons!
This is the gospel that we preach, the gospel of the firstborn Son of God, so that God may be propagated and dispensed as life into man to regenerate man and make man into many sons of God.
We need to go to the Lord and ask Him to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see this, so that this firstborn Son may be wrought into our being.
When we see God’s desire being fulfilled by Christ becoming the firstborn Son of God, we will be filled with the longing to propagate Christ as the Firstborn Son of God for God to gain an increase on earth, the church as the Body of Christ, for His corporate expression!
In Acts 13 Paul was preaching not the only begotten Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father, but the firstborn Son of God, who was begotten by God in resurrection to lead the way for many sons of God to enter into glory.
God made the promise to David and the patriarchs that He will send a seed, who will be the Son of God, and here He is – Christ came, He was a genuine man with the divine life in Him, and through resurrection He became the firstborn Son of God for the propagation of the divine life into all those who believe into the Lord Jesus.
God fulfilled the promise He made to the fathers in raising up Jesus on the day of His resurrection, so that this Jesus Christ would be the firstborn Son of God among many brothers.
God was happy with what Christ has done and what He has accomplished, and He raised Jesus from the dead for our justification and also for our regeneration.
We can only praise the Lord and come to Him to be infused with Him as the firstborn Son of God, so that we may also have the desire to propagate Him for God’s increase and enlargement on earth.
Our elder brother, Christ, is the firstborn Son of God who is leading us, the many sons of God, into glory, and He also is being reproduced in us and through us on earth for the propagation of life in humanity. Hallelujah!
Thank You Lord Jesus for becoming the firstborn Son of God to propagate the divine life and regenerate us for Your Body. Hallelujah, we all were regenerated in the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and we all are sons of God, brothers of Christ! Lord, grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Christ as the Firstborn Son of God, so that we may be filled with the divine life, transformed in our soul, and motivated to preach the gospel for God to have a multiplication of Christ on earth!
Christ was Given to us in Resurrection as the Holy Things of David, the Faithful Things
The first result of Christ becoming the firstborn Son of God is that God gave Christ to us as the holy things of David, the faithful things (Acts 13:34).
In Greek the word for holy things is plural, and the same word is used for Holy One in the next verse, but in the singular. This word for holy is the Greek equivalent of the word translated from Hebrew as “mercies” – see Isa. 55:3; 2 Chron. 6:42; Psa. 89:1, both in the Septuagint and in the King James version.
This Holy One is Christ – the Son of David, in whom God’s mercies are centered and conveyed, and He was given to us as a gift, a present. The holy things of David, the faithful things here, they refer to the resurrected Christ (as proven by the context here).
Paul’s thought in his preaching the gospel here in Acts 13:33-34 is very deep, for here he mentions both the firstborn Son of God, the resurrection, and the holy and faithful things. Faithful here means trustworthy.
The resurrected Christ is not only our Savior bringing us salvation, and He is not only the Firstborn Son of God leading many sons into glory – He is also the holy and faithful things of David given to us by God.
It’s easy to understand that Christ is our Savior; it is a bit more difficult to grasp the fact that Christ is the Firstborn Son of God, but it is very difficult to understand what it means that the resurrected Christ is the holy and faithful things given to us by God.
Christ is so vast, so immense, so rich, and so wonderful, that the Bible tells us that He in resurrection is the holy and faithful things given to us by God as a present for our enjoyment. Hallelujah!
Our Savior God has raised up the seed of David – Christ in His resurrection – to become the holy and faithful things to us. This is His title, and this is what He is to us today – Christ is the holy and faithful things of David to us.
Christ came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, He was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, and He became the faithful and holy things to us for our enjoyment!
Thank You Lord Jesus for coming out of the seed of David according to the flesh and being designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead. Thank You for being not only the Firstborn Son of God for the propagation of the divine life but also the faithful and holy things of David for our enjoyment. Lord, we open to You and we want to enjoy You as the faithful and holy things. You are so rich and so wonderful – we come to You, Lord, to enjoy You in all that You are in Your resurrection!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1980, vol. 2, “The Secret of Experiencing Christ,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 1, Propagating the Resurrected Christ as the Firstborn Son according to the Promise Made to the Fathers.
- Hymns on this topic:
# If there is no resurrection, / Life imparting would be stayed. / And so would regeneration / With renewing pass away. / But there is a resurrection / Which is the vitality, / Both the life pulse and the lifeline / Within God’s economy. (Song on, If there is no resurrection)
# We experienced regeneration / When we opened to this living One. / We were born again; another life came in. / Now it floods us till we’re full of Him. / He within us is the living Spirit / In our spirit, flowing out of it / Into all our heart, transforming every part / By the life which He Himself imparts. (Hymns #1193)
# We know Thee, Lord, as risen, / Thou Firstborn from the dead; / We see Thee now ascended / The church’s glorious Head: / In Thee by grace accepted, / The heart and mind set free / To think of all Thy glory, / As now made one with Thee. (Song on, We know Thee, Lord, as risen)
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