The vision and experience of christ in his resurrection and ascension
Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:1, 3-4; 8:28-30; Heb. 2:10-11; 1 Cor. 15:31, 36
I. 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—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:3-4; Matt. 22:45; Rev. 22:16:
A. 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—Rom. 1:1, 3-4; 8:28-30; 12:5.
B. 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:
1. By incarnation, Christ, the only begotten Son of God in His divinity (John 1:18), put on the flesh, the human nature, which had nothing to do with divinity; in His humanity He was not the Son of God:
a. Jesus in His humanity was the seed of David, a human seed belonging to the old creation (the old man—Rom. 6:6) of God—Col. 1:15b.
b. 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—Rom. 6:6; Heb. 2:14; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; John 3:14; 12:31.
2. 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—Rom. 1:3-4:
a. In resurrection He was designated the Son of God, made the firstborn Son of God, possessing both divinity and humanity—8:29.
b. Crucifixion was the best way for Him to be designated, glorified, resurrected: (1) 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—John 12:23-24. (2) The divinity, the Spirit of holiness, in Christ became operative in His death, and in resurrection He "blossomed" as the Son of God. (3) 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—1 Pet. 3:18.
c. 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—Acts 13:33: (1) Christ was the first one regenerated in resurrection—Rom. 8:29: (a) 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. (b) 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. (2) 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—1 Pet. 1:3.
II. The seed of David becoming the Son of God speaks of the process of our being designated the many sons of God by resurrection—Heb. 2:10-11:
A. 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—Rom. 8:28-29.
B. The life of the Son of God has been implanted into our spirit—v. 10:
1. Now we, like the seed that is sown into the earth, must pass through the process of death and resurrection—John 12:24-26.
2. 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—1 Cor. 15:31, 36; 2 Cor. 4:10-12, 16.
3. The more we grow in life for our transformation in life, the more we are designated the sons of God:
a. In order to grow, we need a heart turned to the Lord and a heart that is pure toward Him—3:16, 18; Matt. 5:8; 2 Tim. 2:22.
b. In order to grow, we need to feed on the guileless milk and the solid food of the word—1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-14.
c. In order to grow, we need the watering of the gifted members—1 Cor. 3:6b; John 7:37-39; Prov. 11:25.
d. 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—Rom. 8:28-29.
C. 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:
1. The process of our being designated, sonized, deified, is the process of resurrection with four main aspects—sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification—6:22; 12:2; 8:29-30.
2. 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—John 11:25; Rom. 8:10-11; Acts 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:26; 5:4:
a. We urgently need to learn how to walk according to the Spirit, to enjoy and experience the designating Spirit—Rom. 8:4, 14.
b. 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—1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:12; 8:15-16; Gal. 4:6.
D. The more we grow in life and pass through the metabolic process of transformation, the more we are designated the sons of God—2 Cor. 3:18; cf. vv. 6, 16; 5:4, 9, 14-15; 12:7-9:
1. 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—Rom. 12:2; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:20-22.
2. This building will consummate in the New Jerusalem as a great, corporate God-man, the aggregate, the totality, of all the sons of God—Rev. 21:7.
3. 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—1 Thes. 5:23; 1 John 3:2; Rom. 8:19, 23 (Hymns, #948, stanza 2).