The seed of David
becoming the Son of God
speaks of the process
of Christ’s being designated
the firstborn Son of God
by resurrection:
Paul said
that he was separated
unto the gospel of God
concerning God’s Son,
which indicates
that the gospel of God
is a gospel of sonship
for the reality
of the Body of Christ.
Romans 1:3-4
is the fulfillment
of the prophecy
in typology in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a,
unveiling the mystery of God
becoming man
to make man God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead:
By incarnation,
Christ,
the only begotten Son of God in His divinity,
put on the flesh, the human nature,
which had nothing to do with divinity;
in His humanity
He was not
the Son of God:
Jesus in His humanity
was the seed of David,
a human seed
belonging to
the old creation (the old man)
of God.
When Christ died on the cross
as the seed of David
in His humanity,
He crucified the old man
with the old creation,
destroyed the devil,
condemned sin in the flesh,
and judged the world.
In resurrection
His humanity was deified, sonized,
meaning that He became the Son of God
not only in His divinity
but also in His humanity:
In resurrection
He was designated the Son of God,
made the firstborn Son of God,
possessing both divinity and humanity.
Crucifixion was
the best way
for Him
to be designated, glorified, resurrected:
If a seed dies
by being buried in the soil,
it will eventually sprout, grow, and blossom,
because the operation of the seed’s life
is activated simultaneously
with its death.
The divinity, the Spirit of holiness, in Christ
became operative in His death,
and in resurrection
He “blossomed” as the Son of God.
According to His flesh,
Christ was crucified,
but in His resurrection
God the Spirit as Christ’s divinity
was made strong, very active,
to put divinity
into the humanity of Christ
to make it divine;
this is
what it means
to designate,
and this is
to sonize.
The humanity of Christ
was designated, marked out, uplifted,
by the Spirit of holiness, the divinity of Christ,
into divinity;
that is,
Christ was begotten again
in His humanity
to be the firstborn Son of God:
Christ was
the first one
regenerated in resurrection:
His humanity
was born in His mother’s womb;
that was human
and could not be considered
the Son of God
but the Son of Man.
Christ’s resurrection
uplifted His humanity
and put His divinity
into this humanity;
so by this resurrection
His humanity
was born again
to be a part
of the Son of God.
The prototype
is the firstborn Son of God,
and the reproduction
is the many sons of God,
the members of the prototype
to be His Body,
which consummates in the New Jerusalem.
The seed of David
becoming the Son of God
speaks of the process
of our being designated
the many sons of God
by resurrection:
Christ has already been designated
the Son of God,
but we, the human seeds,
are still in the process of designation,
the process of being sonized, deified.
The life of the Son of God
has been implanted
into our spirit:
Now we,
like the seed
that is sown into the earth,
must pass through the process
of death and resurrection.
This causes the outer man
to be consumed,
but it enables the inner life
to grow, to develop,
and ultimately, to blossom;
this is
resurrection.
The more we grow in life
for our transformation in life,
the more we are designated
the sons of God:
In order to grow,
we need a heart
turned to the Lord
and a heart
that is pure toward Him.
In order to grow,
we need to feed on
the guileless milk
and the solid food of the word.
In order to grow,
we need the watering
of the gifted members.
Through all the things in our environment
and by our failures,
our ugly self
is torn down,
and the Lord
has a greater opportunity
to work within us.
In resurrection
Christ in His humanity
was designated the Son of God,
and by means of such a resurrection
we also are in the process
of being designated sons of God:
The process of
our being designated, sonized, deified,
is the process of resurrection
with four main aspects
—sanctification, transformation,
conformation, and glorification.
The key to the process of designation
is resurrection,
which is the indwelling Christ
as the rising-up Spirit,
the designating Spirit,
the power of life
in our spirit:
We urgently need to learn
how to walk according to the Spirit,
to enjoy and experience
the designating Spirit.
The more we touch the Spirit,
the more we are
sanctified, transformed, and glorified
to become God in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead
for the building up of the Body of Christ
to consummate the New Jerusalem.
The more we grow in life
and pass through
the metabolic process of transformation,
the more we are designated
the sons of God:
This metabolic process
is the building up of the church
as the Body of Christ
and the house of God
by the building of God into man
and man into God.
This building
will consummate in the New Jerusalem
as a great, corporate God-man,
the aggregate, the totality, of all the sons of God.
One day
this process will be completed,
and for eternity
we will be the same
as Christ, God’s firstborn Son,
in our spirit and soul and body.
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7 replies on “The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Resurrection (2) The Seed of David Becoming the Son of God by Resurrection”
Prophecy note, 8 March 2015
Because Christ is the Spirit,
He can dwell in us,
and we can fellowship with Him
in our spirit.
We should look to Him,
behold Him,
and reflect Him,
opening to Him
the three layers of our being
—our spirit, our heart, and our mouth.
Then
we will spontaneously reflect Him
as a mirror
and gradually be transformed
into His glorious image
from glory to glory.
As a result,
we will have the same image
that He has.
This is
altogether from the Lord, the Spirit.
In this way
the Lord Jesus
makes us
like Him
and even makes us
Him.
When we look unto Him,
He impresses Himself
into our being.
Then
we become
His reflection.
What we reflect
is nothing less than
the Lord Himself.
This is
the transformation.
Transformation
is a metabolic process
that changes us
by adding some new element
into our being
and discharging the old element.
God’s economy
is just to work Himself into us
that we may experience
such a metabolic process
of spiritual digestion and assimilation
that produces
a gradual, intrinsic change
in life.
God’s building Himself into our being
is altogether an organic matter.
In order for such a building
to take place,
we need to receive, digest, and assimilate
an organic element.
Our spiritual food and drink
is the organic, pneumatic Christ,
the Christ
who is the life-giving Spirit.
Christ has already been designated
the Son of God,
but we are
still in the process of designation.
We all
have the sense within
that today
our sonship
is not yet full.
However,
it will get fuller and fuller
until it reaches the peak
at the time of our glorification,
when we shall be fully resurrected
and designated the sons of God
in nature and in appearance.
One day
this process will be completed,
and for eternity
we shall be the same as
Christ, God’s firstborn Son.
Both in name and in reality
we shall be
the sons of God
in spirit, in soul, and in body.
Day 6
In this process of resurrection
there are four aspects:
sanctification, transformation,
conformation, and glorification.
In Romans 12:2
Paul speaks of transformation,
saying that we
should not be conformed to this age
but that we should be transformed
by the renewing of the mind.
In 8:29
Paul speaks of conformation,
and in the next verse,
of glorification.
Our future glorification
will be
the ultimate step
of resurrection;
it is resurrection
as applied to the body.
We all
have the sense within
that today
our sonship
is not yet full.
However,
it will get fuller and fuller
until it reaches the peak
at the time of our glorification,
when we shall be fully resurrected
and designated the sons of God
in nature and in appearance.
Both in name and in reality
we shall be
the sons of God
in spirit, in soul, and in body.
Because Christ is the Spirit,
He can dwell in us,
and we can fellowship with Him
in our spirit.
We should look to Him,
behold Him,
and reflect Him,
opening to Him
the three layers of our being
—our spirit, our heart, and our mouth.
Then
we will spontaneously reflect Him
as a mirror
and gradually be transformed
into His glorious image
from glory to glory.
As a result,
we will have the same image
that He has.
This is
altogether from the Lord, the Spirit.
In this way
the Lord Jesus makes us like Him
and even makes us Him.
When we look unto Him,
He impresses Himself
into our being.
Then
we become
His reflection.
What we reflect
is nothing less than
the Lord Himself.
This is
what the New Testament
calls transformation.
Transformation
is a metabolic process
that changes us
by adding some new element
into our being
and discharging the old element.
God’s economy
is just to work Himself into us
that we may experience
such a metabolic process
of spiritual digestion and assimilation
that produces
a gradual, intrinsic change
in life.
God’s building Himself into our being
is altogether an organic matter.
In order for such a building
to take place,
we need to receive, digest, and assimilate
an organic element.
Our spiritual food and drink
is the organic, pneumatic Christ,
the Christ
who is the life-giving Spirit.
In and through resurrection
Christ, the firstborn Son of God,
became the life-giving Spirit.
As such a Spirit
He enters into God’s chosen people
to dispense, to build, Himself
as life
into their being
to be their inner constitution.
In this way
He makes them
God-men,
the many sons of God,
the mass reproduction of Himself
as the firstborn Son of God.
Thus,
they, the human seeds,
become the sons of God with divinity
through the metabolic process of transformation.
This metabolic process
is the building up of the church
as the Body of Christ and the house of God
by the building of God into man
and man into God,
that is,
by the constituting of
the divine element into the human element
and the human element into the divine element.
This building
will consummate in the New Jerusalem
as a great, corporate God-man,
the aggregate, the totality, of all the sons of God.
Christ has already been designated
the Son of God,
but we are
still in the process of designation.
One day
this process will be completed,
and for eternity
we shall be the same as
Christ, God’s firstborn Son.
Day 5
We are being designated
as sons of God
by resurrection.
We are daily undergoing
the process of designation,
and this designation
is by resurrection.
We all need to see
that what the Lord
is doing within us today
is a matter of designation.
A carnation seed
is designated,
not by being labeled,
but by being sown into the earth
and by growing gradually
into a mature, blossoming carnation plant.
The seed
is designated
as it grows.
The more it grows,
the more it is designated.
When it reaches full bloom,
it will be designated
in a complete way.
This means
that the full blossoming of a carnation flower
is its full designation.
Like the carnation seed,
we all are
in the process of designation.
The more we grow and are transformed,
the more we are designated
the sons of God.
According to the flesh,
we all are troublesome,
both to the church
and to those
with whom we live.
The husbands trouble the wives,
and the wives trouble the husbands.
But we do not need
to have our being
according to the flesh,
for we have the option
of being according to the Spirit.
When the brothers and sisters
have their being according to the Spirit,
they are wonderful and glorious.
Whether you have your being
according to the flesh
or according to the Spirit
depends on the choice
you make.
By your own will
you may decide
either to have your being
according to the flesh
or according to the Spirit.
May the Lord be merciful to us
so that we may choose
to live according to the Spirit.
We urgently need to learn
how to walk
according to the Spirit.
If we walk according to the flesh,
the church life
will be most unpleasant.
But if we walk according to the Spirit,
the church life
will be in the heavens.
The sonship is realized
by resurrection
and in the Spirit.
The Spirit who dwells in us
is the rising-up Spirit
and the designating Spirit.
Day by day,
this Spirit is designating us
the sons of God.
Most of us today
may not have the confidence
to say
that we are
the sons of God.
We do not yet have
the appearance, the expression,
of God’s sons.
We are like the carnation plant
that has not yet produced flowers.
Nevertheless,
we are under the process of designation
by resurrection,
and, eventually,
after we have been fully processed,
all will know
that we are sons of God.
The entire creation
is waiting and groaning for this.
We also groan
because we do not yet have
the appearance
we should have.
We know
that we are
still short in so many respects
and wrong in many things,
and we still have failures.
But under the Lord’s sovereignty,
even our failures
are used as
part of the process.
The Lord allows us
to fail
time after time
so that we may be processed.
By our failures,
our ugly self
is torn down,
and the Lord
has a greater opportunity
to work within us.
Praise the Lord
for the divine process!
We are
on the way of resurrection.
Not only have we been grafted into Christ
that we
may have a vital union with Him
in His death,
but we also enjoy His resurrection.
We all are presently in the process
of being designated sons of God
by means of resurrection.
Designation is by resurrection,
which includes sanctification, transformation,
conformation, and glorification.
All these wonderful things
are in the Spirit.
By touching the Spirit,
we enjoy resurrection
and everything included in it.
Resurrection is
not a matter of doctrine;
it is
absolutely a matter of touching the Spirit.
The most simple way
to contact the Spirit
is to call on
the name of the Lord Jesus.
The more we touch the Spirit,
the more we enjoy resurrection
and the more we are sanctified,
transformed,
and glorified.
Day 4
The humanity of Christ
became divine in Christ’s resurrection.
Christ’s divinity
had the power
to uplift His crucified humanity,
to resurrect that humanity.
When Paul said
that Jesus Christ
was designated the Son of God,
this means
that Christ’s resurrection
uplifted His humanity
and put His divinity
into this humanity.
So by this resurrection,
His humanity
was born to be
a part of the Son of God.
This is
why Acts 13:33 tells us
that in resurrection,
Christ as the Son of Man
was born to be
the Son of God.
As the Son of God with humanity,
He is the God-man.
This composition
of divinity and humanity
becomes a God-man,
and this God-man
is a prototype
to produce something.
In His resurrection,
all His believers
were born, regenerated, with Him
as His millions of “twins”
to make all these twins
the same as He is.
The prototype
is the firstborn Son of God,
and the reproduction
is the many sons of God.
The Firstborn indicates
that more sons
are coming.
If there were not more sons
to follow,
He would remain
merely the only Begotten.
Now
He is the God-man,
with humanity
mingled with divinity,
including His death and His resurrection.
He is
such a prototype
to produce millions of God-men.
These millions of God-men
are the mass reproduction
who are
exactly the same as
the wonderful person Jesus Christ.
This mass reproduction of the prototype
becomes the members of the prototype
to be His Body, the Body of Christ,
and this Body of Christ
consummates in the New Jerusalem,
which is
the corporate expression of the Triune God,
processed and consummated in Christ
and becoming the life-giving Spirit.
Christ was designated
the Son of God
“out of the resurrection of the dead” [Rom. 1:4].
In 6:5
Paul says
that “we will also be
in the likeness of His resurrection.”
Christ was designated by resurrection,
and we shall be
in the likeness of this resurrection.
As we share Christ’s resurrection,
we undergo the process
of being designated
the sons of God.
We are designated,
in fact, by resurrection.
To designate something
is to mark it out,
not merely to label it.
As sons of God,
we are designated by resurrection,
that is, by a change in life.
Most people cannot tell the difference
between a carnation seed
and other kinds of seeds.
Some may think
that the way to tell
which among many seeds is a carnation seed
is to label the carnation seed.
This, however, is
not the way of life.
According to the way of life,
the carnation seed
is designated
by being put into the earth
so that it can grow
into a blossoming carnation plant.
When a carnation plant
is still a tiny sprout,
it is very difficult
to recognize
that it is a carnation,
for it looks the same as
other kinds of sprouts.
But the more the carnation plant grows,
the more it is designated.
Eventually,
by its blossom,
we all can recognize
that it is a carnation.
In the same principle,
we are designated
the sons of God
by a change in life
through the process of resurrection.
The day is coming
when we shall reach
the stage of “full blossom.”
That will be
the time of
the redemption, the glorification, of our body,
which is
the full sonship.
The life of the Son of God
has been implanted
into our spirit.
Now we, like the carnation seed
that is sown into the earth,
must pass through
the process of death and resurrection.
This causes the outward man
to be consumed,
but it enables the inner life
to grow, to develop,
and, ultimately, to blossom.
This is resurrection.
Praise the Lord
that we are
daily being put to death
so that we
may share Christ’s resurrection
in a practical way.
Hallelujah,
we shall be designated sons of God
by resurrection!
Day 3
In Romans 1:4
the Spirit of holiness
refers to the Spirit
as God’s essence, God’s nature.
First Peter 3:18 says
that when Christ
was being put to death on the cross,
His flesh
was being put to death,
not His Spirit.
His Spirit, at the same time,
was very active, was made alive.
One person was crucified
on the cross.
According to His flesh,
He was crucified,
but according to His Spirit,
He was very active, made strong.
While Christ was on this earth
before His resurrection,
a part of Him, His humanity,
was not divine.
That human part
was the Son of Man,
not the Son of God.
In His death
His human part was crucified.
Then
in His resurrection
God the Spirit
as Christ’s divinity
was made strong, very active,
to put divinity
into the humanity of Christ
to make it divine.
This is the same principle
of our regeneration.
Before Christ’s resurrection,
Christ’s humanity
was just human.
But in Christ’s resurrection,
His divinity as the Spirit
was made strong
to impart Himself
into His humanity
to make it divine.
Thus,
Christ became
the Son of God
in His humanity.
The Son of God in resurrection
is different from
the only begotten Son of God.
The only begotten Son of God
was only divine,
without humanity.
But the Son of God in resurrection
is both divine and human,
so this Son of God
is not the only Begotten
but the Firstborn among many brothers.
Thus,
we may say
that Christ in His humanity
was the first one
regenerated,
so He became our firstborn Brother,
and we became His many brothers.
He and we all
were regenerated in His resurrection.
Those responsible for
the crucifixion of Christ
did not realize
that crucifixion
was the best way
for Him
to be designated, to be glorified.
If a seed is put to an end
by being buried in the soil,
it will eventually sprout, grow, and blossom.
In the same principle,
through death and resurrection
Christ “blossomed”
as the Son of God.
Without death,
there can be
no resurrection.
Hallelujah,
in resurrection
Christ was designated
the Son of God
in power!
Acts 13:33 says,
“You are My Son;
this day
have I begotten You.”
Is the Son here
the only begotten Son
or the firstborn Son?
If He were the only begotten Son
who was already there in eternity,
there would have been
no need of begetting again,
but on the day of resurrection,
the humanity of the Lord Jesus
was born again.
His humanity was born
the first time
in His mother’s womb;
that was human
and could not be considered
the Son of God
but only the Son of Man.
Hence,
He was called
the Son of Man.
By resurrection
He was begotten again
in His humanity
and designated
the Son of God.
It is through death
that life operates.
His being killed
afforded Him
a great opportunity
for the divinity in Him
to become operative.
It was then
that He was designated in His humanity
to be the Son of God
by the Spirit of holiness (the divinity of Christ)
in resurrection.
Through resurrection
the humanity of Christ
was marked out, uplifted,
by the Spirit of holiness, the divinity of Christ.
In this way
the humanity of Christ
was uplifted
into divinity;
that is,
Christ was begotten again
in His humanity.
Day 2
Christ as the seed of David
is a human seed
belonging to
the old creation (the old man)
of God.
So in the essence
of the person of Christ
in His humanity,
the first thing
you have to remember
is that Christ in His humanity
was of the old creation, the old man.
If I say
that Christ is of the new creation, the new man,
we will absolutely agree.
But we need to see here
that the essence of Christ
is first that He
belongs to the old creation.
He is of the old man.
Being a man, a real man, a genuine man,
Jesus Christ
does have humanity,
and this humanity
was the flesh.
The Word became flesh,
not in a positive sense,
but indirectly
in a negative sense.
This flesh, however,
was only in the likeness
of the flesh of sin,
without the poison of sin.
Still,
we must realize
that Christ became flesh.
In His flesh
He was an “old man”.
Thus,
He belonged to
the old creation.
The flesh
had been poisoned by Satan,
corrupted with sin, Satan’s nature,
and usurped by the world, Satan’s cosmos.
As such an all-inclusive person,
Christ died on the cross.
When He died on the cross,
all six items
—the old creation, the old man, the flesh,
Satan, sin, and the world—
were crucified on the cross.
Thus,
in the eyes of God,
after Christ’s crucifixion,
the entire universe
has been cleared up.
Christ was dying on the cross
as a human seed
belonging to the old creation
and as an old man.
This old man
includes you and me.
Actually,
we died with Christ on the cross
nearly two thousand years ago,
even though we were not yet born.
We were there
because we were in Adam.
Many actually came to the United States
a few centuries ago
when their forefathers came,
because they came in them.
In the same way,
we were also
in Adam as the old man
when he was being crucified
on the cross.
Christ also died on the cross
in the flesh.
One thing in the whole universe
that offends God to the uttermost
is the flesh.
The flesh is
the embodiment of Satan.
Satan and the flesh
are one.
Christ, of course,
was only in the likeness
of the flesh of sin,
without the poison of sin and Satan,
but because Christ
died on the cross in the flesh,
the flesh also
died there.
Not only so,
when Christ died,
Satan was destroyed.
Hebrews 2:14 tells us
that Jesus partook of blood and flesh
to die on the cross
to destroy the devil.
Three things
are the most ugly things in the universe:
the flesh, sin, and Satan.
The flesh is
the embodiment of Satan,
and sin is
the nature of Satan.
This sin
was condemned and terminated
by the death of Christ.
Romans 8:3 says
that God sent His Son
to condemn sin.
The One who died on the cross
also judged
the world, the satanic cosmos, the evil system,
which systematizes
all the descendants of Adam.
John 12:31 says
that on the cross
Christ would judge the world
and cast out
Satan, the ruler of this world.
Thus,
Christ’s death on the cross
as the seed of David in His humanity
was with these six items:
the old creation, the old man, the flesh,
Satan, sin, and the world.
This is
why His death
is the all-inclusive death.
We should treasure
such a message
which unveils to us
who Jesus Christ was.
He was a man,
but what kind of man
was He?
He was
the seed of David.
This seed
was of the old creation and the old man.
This seed
had the flesh,
which is involved with
Satan, sin, and the world.
So when Jesus Christ
died on the cross,
He brought all these items with Him
to be crucified there.
His all-inclusive death
cleared up the entire universe.
Day 1
David had the heart
to build
a house for God,
but God indicated to David
that this was
neither what he needed
nor what God needed.
God told David
that He would build One
to be David’s seed
and that this seed
would be called God’s Son.
This seed
would be both divine and human.
Hebrews 1:5 indicates
that this refers to Christ
as God’s firstborn Son.
Furthermore
Romans 1:3-4,
which corresponds to 2 Samuel 7:12-14a,
tells us
that in resurrection
the seed of David
was designated
the Son of God.
In their intrinsic significance,
2 Samuel 7:12-14a
and Romans 1:3-4
reveal to us
a human and divine person.
What David needed
is what we need today.
We need God
to build Himself in Christ
into our humanity.
This means
that we need God
to work Himself
in Christ
into us
as our life, our nature, and our constitution.
As a result,
we are
not simply a man
according to God’s heart
—we are God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead.
In order to accomplish this,
God in Christ
became a man
and went through some processes
that this man
could be designated
something divine.
In resurrection
He was designated
the firstborn Son of God.
In and through resurrection
Christ, the firstborn Son of God,
became the life-giving Spirit,
who now enters into us
to impart, to dispense, Himself
as life
into our being
to be our inner constitution,
to make us a God-man
just like Him.
He was
God becoming man,
and we are
man becoming God
in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead.
In Romans 1:1
Paul said
that he was “separated
unto the gospel of God,”
and then
he goes on
to say
that the gospel of God
concerns God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
This indicates
that the gospel of God
is a gospel of sonship.
The goal of this gospel
is to transform sinners
into sons of God
for the formation of
the Body of Christ.
The seed of David
in His humanity
was sonized,
was made
(“designated”—Rom. 1:4)
the Son of God.
Jesus in His humanity,
in that part,
was not the Son of God.
He was of
the old creation, the old man,
having the flesh,
which is involved with
Satan, sin, and the world.
So this part
had to be made divine,
to be sonized,
designated,
that it might become
a part of
the Son of God.
It is very hard
to say
what the word designated
means in Romans 1:4.
Christ is
a wonderful person.
He has two parts:
the man-part, the part of man,
and the God-part, the part of God.
The part of man
is human.
The part of God
is divine.
The human part
is in the flesh,
involved with the negative things,
and the divine part
is marvelous.
How could this human part
in such a flesh
be made a part
of the Son of God?
It was in His resurrection
that Christ made His humanity, divinity.
His resurrection
uplifted the humanity of Jesus
into the level of divinity.
Here is
the essence of
the person of Christ.
This is very, very deep.
Jesus’ divinity
is the Spirit of holiness,
having the divine power
and the divine element
to transform Jesus’ humanity,
making it divine.
This is
what it means
to designate,
and this is
to sonize.
This is
the fulfillment
of the prophecy
in typology
in 2 Samuel 7:12-14.
In this fulfillment
we have seen
the essence of Christ’s person
as the seed of David
in His humanity.
Jesus was
a God-man.
There was
a part within Him
that was God;
that part
was the only begotten Son of God [John 1:18].
But in His incarnation
He put on the flesh,
and that flesh was
His human nature,
which had nothing
to do with divinity.
He was designated
the Son of God
in power
through His resurrection.