enjoying Christ

The Apostle Paul saw the Lord’s resurrection in Psa. 2:7 and quoted this verse when he preached the gospel in Acts 13, for he realized that resurrection was a birth to the Lord Jesus – He was begotten by God to be His firstborn Son in His humanity in His resurrection. Hallelujah!

How wonderful is our dear Lord Jesus, who is both our life and our Savior and our pattern!

First, Christ created all things; He was the active instrument through which all things were created, and all things came into being through Him.

Then, He Himself became one of His creatures; He was incarnated to be a man.

Why did He become a man? One of the purposes of His incarnation was to bring God into man so that man would be brought into God.

Another purpose was to redeem man; through His incarnation, Jesus Christ took on human flesh and blood so that He may redeem man and bring man back to Himself. Praise the Lord!

May the Lord unveil us to see the wonderful truth of Christ’s incarnation so that we may realize what are the implications of God becoming a man.

May we see what it means for Him to live a human life, a perfect human life, and then die on the cross.

Even more, may we have a fresh unveiling from the Lord to see what are the implications of Christ’s resurrection and all the wonderful things He accomplished in His resurrection.

May all these matters be not just some truths or doctrines to us but something so real, so living, and so enjoyable.

God became a man in order to be joined and mingled with man so that He may make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.

He has become what we are so that we may have a way not only to come back to God but even more, become what He is.

Of course, we will never become God in His Godhead, for the Godhead is only His; however, we have the divine life and nature to be the same as He is in life, nature, expression, and function. Praise the Lord!

For this, God became man; the Son of God was incarnated to be the seed of David.

He entered into the human lineage, the genealogy, of king David, and He was born to be a man with flesh and bones.

Then, He lived a perfect human life on earth, did the work the Father gave Him to do, and died on the cross to redeem us. Three days after His death, Christ resurrected and became a life-giving Spirit!

Even more, in His resurrection, He was begotten by God to be the firstborn Son of God in His humanity, and we also were begotten of God to be the many sons of God. Praise the Lord!

Christ’s Resurrection was His Birth as the Firstborn Son of God in His Humanity

In Psa. 2:7-8 we read, You are My Son; today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give the nations as Your inheritance and the limits of the earth as Your possession.

The apostle Paul was able to see the Lord’s resurrection in these verses, and he preached the gospel in Acts 13 and mentioned in v. 33 this very verse, saying that Jesus Christ as the Son of God was raised by God and in His resurrection He was begotten by God. Wow!

Christ is the Son of God, and He was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God.

Paul applied Psa. 2:7 to the Lord Jesus, specifically, to the day of His resurrection.

This means that Christ’s resurrection was His birth as the firstborn Son of God. Wow!

Christ was already born to be a man; He was begotten of God with His divine seed, His essence, and with the human essence of Mary also.

This begetting, however, was for Him to become flesh.

It is amazing to see that God – who is unapproachable, divine, holy, righteous, and glorious – one day became flesh! Wow!

One day, God was incarnated in humanity to be Jesus Christ, the first God-man; the Word became flesh and made His tent among us (John 1:1, 14).

Then, Christ was cut off (Dan. 9:26) on the cross; He died on the cross.

Many around Him thought that this was the end of Christ, but this is not what God thought.

Rather, three days after His death, Christ was raised by God – He resurrected!

Christ as God’s anointed One was resurrected to be begotten in His humanity as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29; Heb. 1:5-6).

Jesus, the Son of Man whom He became through incarnation, was born to be the Son of God through being raised up from the dead. Amen!

Therefore, God raising up Jesus from the dead was His begetting of Him to be His firstborn Son. Hallelujah!

This is the truth as revealed in the Bible, and this is the gospel that we preach to those around us.

God became man through incarnation, and Jesus Christ was killed on the cross; then, three days after His death, He was raised by God and He resurrected to become God’s firstborn Son. Praise the Lord!

Now we also, as His many brothers, have the same life and nature, for we were also begotten of God through the resurrection of Christ.

The processes the Lord went through are not something that are unrelated to us.

Paul said in Gal. 2:20 that he was crucified with Christ; when Christ was crucified, we all were crucified.

By faith in Christ, we share in His crucifixion, and we partake of all that He has accomplished and attained in His death.

Hallelujah, we were crucified with Christ!

When Christ was resurrected, we also were resurrected with Him, and when Christ was begotten by God as His firstborn Son in His resurrection, we also were begotten by God to be the many sons of God in the same resurrection!

Thank the Lord for the processes that He went through!

Thank the Lord for the apostle Paul, who not only appreciated the Lord Jesus and the things He went through but saw that all these apply to our Christian life today!

God knows each one of us; He knows our situation, and He wants us to be in Christ, with Christ, and even enjoy and experience Christ so that we may express Christ.

So today, we can exercise our spirit over the word of God and say amen to His word, and we can enjoy and experience Christ in His death and resurrection in our daily living.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your death on the cross and praise You for Your resurrection! Hallelujah, Jesus Christ was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God in His humanity! Amen, Lord, we praise You for Your resurrection, which was also Your birth as the firstborn Son of God! Praise the Lord, God’s anointed One, Christ, was resurrected to be begotten by God in His humanity as the firstborn Son of God! Hallelujah, we believers in Christ were also begotten by God in the resurrection of Christ to be the many sons of God! Amen, Lord, today we are the many sons of God and the many brothers of Christ. We want to be one with You in all things. We want to enjoy and experience this wonderful Christ in all that He is, all that He has, and all that He has passed through so that we may also express Christ! Oh Lord, may we experience and enjoy Christ in His human living, in His death, and in His resurrection today! Keep us in our spirit in all things, joined to You, so that we may experience and enjoy You!

Through Incarnation God’s Only Begotten Son put on Humanity and in Resurrection this God-man was Born of God to be His Firstborn

In John 1:1 and 14 we see an amazing fact: God, who was from eternity and is to eternity, became a man, even more precisely, God became flesh.

When the Bible speaks of flesh, it is not something positive, for it is related to Satan, sin, and death.

But the Lord Jesus came to be incarnated as a man in the flesh.

According to the flesh, He was the seed of David (Rom. 1:3).

The gospel of God concerns the Son of God who became flesh; He became the seed of a man according to the flesh.

But this man, this man in the flesh, was designated to be the Son of God! Praise the Lord!

What the Gospels reveal to us is that, through incarnation, God’s only begotten Son put on humanity and became the God-man (John 1:1, 14, 18; Luke 1:35). Praise the Lord!

Before Christ came, man was man, and God was God; the two could not be intimately joined or related.

But when Christ came, the only begotten Son of God became flesh to put on humanity, and He was the first God-man.

Then, He went through human living, death, and resurrection, and in His resurrection He became the firstborn Son of God.

In Rom. 1:3-4 we see that Christ as the seed of David according to the flesh was designated to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness!

In resurrection this God-man, Jesus Christ, was born of God to be His Firstborn Son (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:6; Rom. 8:29). Hallelujah!

Why did Jesus Christ have to be born of God? Wasn’t He already the Son of God from eternity?

He was the Son of God, and He will always be the Son of God, even the only begotten Son of God; however, He put on humanity, and in His humanity He was not the Son of God.

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

But in resurrection God’s firstborn Son has the human nature as well as the divine nature!

In His resurrection Christ was designated the Son of God in His humanity; He was the Son of God in His divinity but now He was the Son of God in a new way!

If Christ had never put on human nature, there would have been no need for Him to be designated the son of God, for He was always the Son of God.

But through incarnation He put on the flesh, the human nature, and in this human part He had to be designated the Son of God, that is, begotten of God to be His Son.

God was incarnated and became a partaker of the flesh; He did not partake of the sin in the flesh but only of the flesh of sin.

God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin (Rom. 8:3).

He came in the likeness of the flesh of sin but without sin.

He was the fulfillment of Num. 21:8-9 where we see the bronze serpent; this serpent had the same likeness as the fiery serpents biting the children of Israel but did not have its poison.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was in the form of the flesh but without the sin in the flesh.

He clothed Himself with the flesh, putting on the human nature, and was subject to the same temptations and sicknesses like us.

He needed His human nature to be designated the Son of God in power, and this happened at the time of His resurrection.

We human beings do not like death; death in Adam is terrible, and it is very sad and sorrowful.

But the death of Christ is wonderful, for it accomplished many things, and it opened the way for Him to be brought into resurrection!

Praise the Lord, through resurrection Christ was transfigured and designated the Son of god!

On the negative side, through His death Christ terminated all the negative things; on the positive side, in His resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit and was designated to be the Son of God in His humanity.

What a miracle! What a mystery!

First, God was incarnated to be a man, and then, man was brought into God, even was deified! And we as believers in Christ not only believe in this fact: we are also in the process of being deified!

When we will be resurrected, when our body is resurrected, we don’t know how we will be like, but we know that we will be like Him, having a glorious body like Christ! Praise the Lord!

This is our hope based on the word of God (see 1 Cor. 15).

How we thank and praise the Lord for the processes He went through in order to not only bring us redemption and regeneration but even more, to make us the same as He is in every possible way so that God and man, man and God, may be joined, mingled, and incorporated together for His building!

Lord Jesus, thank You for being incarnated to be a man in the flesh having the human nature. Hallelujah, through incarnation God’s only begotten Son put on humanity and became the God-man! Wow, there was such a person on the earth who was both God and man! Thank You, Lord, for coming in the likeness of the flesh of sin but without sin. Thank You for terminating everything negative through Your death on the cross. Hallelujah, sin is judged, old Adam is finished, and Satan has been destroyed on the cross! Amen, Lord, praise You for Your wonderful resurrection! Hallelujah, in resurrection, Christ as the God-man was born of God to be His firstborn Son and we have been begotten by God to be the many sons of God! Hallelujah, we now are children of God, and we can enjoy and experience Christ in order to become the same as He is! Hallelujah!

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 Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Romans, msgs. 52-53, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2) (2024 December Training), week 13, The Seed of David Becoming the Son of God.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The new man born in resurrection, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 47, by Witness Lee.
  – Christ’s Birth in Resurrection, via, Living to Him.
  – Christ as the seed of David becoming the Son of God, a portion from, The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – How Jesus’ Second Birth Made Him God’s Firstborn Son, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Three foundational truths and why they matter, article via, Shepherding Words.
  – 3 Wonderful Things That Happened in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, via, Bibles for Europe blog.
  – The Firstborn of the New Creation, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Reflections on the Gospel of John – the only begotten Son and His brothers, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – What does it mean to be saved by Jesus? Video sharing via, CSOC UT Austin: Christian Students on Campus, youtube channel.
  – How can Christ be both the only begotten Son of God and the firstborn Son of God? Read more via Joshua Davis medium blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – O Lord, Thou art the Son of man, / Our human nature Thou didst take; / Begotten of a virgin true, / Of flesh and blood Thou didst partake. / In bondman’s form, with lowliness, / Thou walkedst on this earth of woe; / The human living Thou didst have / And all its suff’rings undergo. (Hymns #61 stanzas 1-2)
  – By Thy death and resurrection, / Thou wast made God’s firstborn Son; / By Thy life to us imparting, / Was Thy duplication done. / We, in Thee regenerated, / Many sons to God became; / Truly as Thy many brethren, / We are as Thyself the same. (Hymns #203 stanza 2)
  – God ordained us unto sonship, / Ere creation’s work was done, / To conform us by His Spirit / To the image of His Son; / That His only dear Begotten / Might become the firstborn One, / And by Him with many brethren / His expression full be won. (Hymns #741 stanza 1)