GENERAL SUBJECT

EXPERIENCING, ENJOYING, AND EXPRESSING CHRIST (2)

Message One
The Seed of David Becoming the Son of God

Scripture Reading: Acts 13:23, 33; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29

I.　In Acts 13 Paul said that from David's seed "God, according to promise, brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus" (v. 23), and that "God has fully ful filled this promise…in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, 'You are My Son; this day have I begotten You'" (v. 33):

A.　In verses 32 and 33 we see that Christ as the Firstborn of God was promised to the fathers, and God fulfilled this promise by raising up Jesus.

B.　Resurrection was a birth to the man Jesus:

1.　He was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God among many brothers—Rom. 8:29.

2.　He was the only begotten Son of God from eternity—John 1:18; 3:16.

3.　After His incarnation, through resurrection He was begotten by God in His humanity to be God's firstborn Son—Heb. 1:6.

C.　Paul was able to see the Lord's resurrection in Psalm 2:7: "You are My Son; . Today I have begotten You":

1.　Paul applied the word today to the day of the Lord's resurrection.

2.　This means that Christ's resurrection was His birth as the firstborn Son of God.

3.　Jesus, the Son of Man, was born to be the Son of God through being raised up from the dead; therefore, God's raising up Jesus from the dead was His begetting of Him to be His first-born Son—Acts 13:33.

D.　Through incarnation God's only begotten Son put on humanity and became the God-man (John 1:14, 18; Luke 1:35); then in resurrection this God-man was born of God to be His Firstborn (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:6; Rom. 8:29):

1.　Before incarnation God's only begotten Son did not have the human nature; He had only the divine nature.

2.　In resurrection God's firstborn Son has the human nature as well as the divine nature.

E.　Through His resurrection Christ was born to be the firstborn Son, and at the same time all His believers were born to be the many sons of God—1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 2:10:

1.　Among these many sons, only the Firstborn is God's only be-gotten Son—John 1:18; 1 John 4:9.

2.　This only begotten Son of God, in His resurrected humanity, is also the first born Son of God—Rom. 8:29.

3.　The Firstborn has both divinity and humanity, and we, His believers as God's many sons, also possess both the human nature and the divine nature—2.Pet. 1:4.

II.　We need to know Christ in His resurrection designated as the Son of God in power with His human nature—Rom. 1:3-4:

A.　Before His incarnation and resurrection, Christ was the Son of God, the only begotten Son—John 1:18; 3:16.

B.　Although Christ already was the Son of God before the incarnation, He still needed to be designated the Son of God out of resurrection because by incarnation He had put on the human nature, which had nothing to do with divinity—1:1, 14; Rom. 8:3:

1.　After the Son of God became incarnate, His divine nature was concealed by the flesh.

2.　Christ was already the Son of God in His divinity, but the part of Him that was Jesus with the human nature, born of Mary, was not the Son of God—Luke 1:31-32, 35.

3.　By His resurrection Christ sanctified and uplifted His human nature, His humanity, and He was designated out of resurrection as the Son of God with this human nature; in this sense He was begotten the Son of God in His resurrection—Rom. 1:3-4; Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5.

4.　This designation of the Son of God was "in power," the power of Christ's resurrection, the reality of which is the Spirit— Rom. 1:4; Phil. 3:10; Eph. 1:19-20.

C.　Through designation in resurrection the Christ who was already the Son of God before His incarnation became the Son of God in a new way—Rom. 1:4:

1.　Before His incarnation He was the Son of God only with divinity; through His resurrection He was designated the Son of God with both divinity and humanity—v. 4.

2.　If Christ had not put on human nature, there would have been no need for Him to be designated the Son of God, for in His divinity He was already the Son of God, even from eternity— John 1:18; 17:5.

3.　Having put on humanity through incarnation, He was designated the Son of God with humanity in resurrection—1:14; Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; Heb. 2:14:

a.　As the designated Son of God, Christ has two natures, divinity and humanity; the humanity that He now has is not a natural humanity but a humanity uplifted in resurrection—Rom. 1:4.

b.　Even Christ's human nature has been designated the Son of God, for He has been designated the Son of God with both divinity and humanity.

D.　The designation of Christ as the Son of God with humanity was "according to the Spirit of holiness"—v. 4:

1.　The Spirit of holiness is the life essence within the Lord Jesus; when He lived on earth in the flesh, He had this essence within Him—Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35.

2.　When the Lord Jesus was resurrected from among the dead, He was designated the Son of God in power by resurrection according to the Spirit of holiness that was in Him—Rom. 1:4.

3.　Now He is the Son of God in a way that is more wonderful than before, for now He has both the divine nature and the resurrected, transformed, uplifted, glorified, and designated human nature—6:4; Luke 24:26; John 17:5; Acts 3:13.

E.　We need to connect Romans 1:3-4 and 8:29:

1.　Through His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, Christ, the Son of God, became the firstborn Son, and the many sons, who are the brothers of Christ, are being conformed to His image—Heb. 2:10-11; Rom. 8:29.

2.　In Romans 1:3-4 Christ, the Son of God, is the prototype, whereas in 8:29 the many brothers are those who have been "mass-produced" from the prototype and, by being saved in life, will be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son.

3.　This brings us to the matter of deification and implies that God's intention in His economy is to make Himself man so that, in Christ, we, the believers in Christ and children of God, may become God in life, in nature, and in constitution (but not in the Godhead); such an implication is exceedingly great, and eventually, the Bible consummates with this matter—Rom. 8:29; 1:3-4; John 1:1-13; 1 John 3:1; Rev. 21:2, 10-11.