Christ in His Humanity was Begotten by God to be the Firstborn Son of God in Resurrection

The Lord Jesus is the Root and the Offspring of David, and He was begotten in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God in His humanity, with us as the many sons of God to follow. Hallelujah!

The Lord Jesus Christ is a mysterious yet wonderful Person who deserves not only our prayerful study but also our appreciation, worship, and adoration.

God is hidden, dwelling in unapproachable light, but He has made Himself known in the Son, Jesus Christ, who came to be incarnated to be the seed of David.

Even from the time of David, God promised that Christ would come; He prophesied through Nathan the prophet that David will have a seed, and this seed will be called the son of God, for God will be his father. Wow!

And David, in spirit, called Him, Lord. Based on all this, the Lord Jesus asked the Pharisees the greatest question in the universe: What do you think concerning the Christ: whose son is He?

According to the flesh, He was the son of David, the seed of David; according to His divinity, He was the Lord of David.

We need to know Christ and have a clear revelation of who He is; the more we see Him and have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, the more we can experience Him in a proper way and the more we can give up all things so that we may gain Him.

In Eph. 3:8 Paul said that he counted all things to be loss – everything that was precious to him, he counted loss, on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ his Lord.

He had such an excellent knowledge of this wonderful One that everything else was dung, refuse, rubbish.

We need to see Christ, have a vision of the wonderful Christ, and then we can experience Him; finally, the issue will be that we will give up all other things on account of just knowing Him and enjoying Him.

We need to have this excellent knowledge of Christ that comes from the vision and revelation of Christ.

May we come to the Lord in His word day by day, turning our heart to Him and exercising our spirit to contact Him, so that He may shine on every letter, every word, and every verse, thus infusing us with His very element and causing us to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.

Christ is the Root and the Offspring of David; in His Divinity, He’s the Root and in His Humanity, He is the Offspring of David

In Rev. 22:16 the Lord Jesus said that He is the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright morning star.

This is right toward the end of the Bible, and the Lord said that He is both the root and the offspring of David – He is both the origin of David and the descendant of David. How can this person be both?

In His divinity, Christ is the Root, the source, of David; in His humanity, Christ is the Offspring, the issue, of David. Christ is the Lord as the Root of David, and He’s also the son, the shoot of David to be the Offspring of David.

As the Offspring of David, the Lord Jesus is a man that came out of David, being David’s descendant.

Similarly, as the Root of David, David came out of Him. This is amazing; Christ is really the most unique person in the universe.

In Rev. 22:16 Christ Himself acknowledged that He is man as well as God, that He has both the human nature and the divine nature.

All the churches and all the saints in the local churches need to know that He is both human and divine, that He is both the Root and the Offspring of David.

Christ is the God-man who, as man, is the Offspring of David, and as God, is the Root of David. Hallelujah, Christ as a Man He is the offspring of David and as God, He is the Root of David (Matt. 22:42-45; Rom. 1:3; Jer. 23:5)!

He has two lives and two natures; He has both the divine life and the human nature.

And this is what we are also through regeneration; we have the human life and human nature through our birth from our parents, and we have the divine life and the divine nature through our being born of God. Praise the Lord!

Praise You, Lord Jesus, for being both the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright morning star! Hallelujah, Jesus Christ is both God and man, both the source of David and the descendant of David! Praise the Lord for this God-man who came to be both the root and the offspring of David! And thank You, dear Lord, for regenerating us with Your divine life to make us God-men, those who are born of God to have the divine life and nature besides our human life and nature. Amen, Lord, live in us today. Keep us turning to You and living because of You, even living by the divine nature in our spirit!

The Gospel of the Firstborn Son of God – Christ was Begotten by God to be His Firstborn Son in Resurrection!

In Acts 13 we see an extremely important matter in the Bible, the gospel of the firstborn Son of God. Paul was in Antioch and was preaching the gospel in a very particular way.

The Apostle John in his gospel emphasized Christ as the only begotten Son of God, and in his first Epistle, he emphasized this even more.

If anyone says, Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God; eternally in His Godhead, Christ is the only begotten Son of God.

But there is another aspect of Christ, which is central to Paul’s ministry; as he was preaching the gospel in Antioch, he was proclaiming Christ as the firstborn Son of God.

This involves a lot, especially the matter of propagation and reproduction, for as the firstborn Son, Christ has many brothers.

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 fulfilled this promise…in raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm, You are My Son, this day have I begotten You.

God made this promise to David in 2 Sam. 7:12-14 that He will raise up his seed to be the son of God; also, in the second Psalm, He spoke concerning Christ being begotten of God.

Paul connects 2 Sam. 7:12-14 with Psa. 2 and preached the gospel of the firstborn Son of God, who wants to be propagated and gain many sons for God.

This is God’s goal, to gain many sons, many children of God, who are the constituents of the organic Body of Christ to be the composition of the New Jerusalem, a corporate God-man.

We are here not merely trying to save sinners from the lake of fire so that their sins are forgiven and they would go to heaven and be saved.

We preach the gospel of the firstborn Son of God for Him to be multiplied and reproduced in many human beings for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

Paul received direct revelation from God to write such a matter; he not only researched the Scriptures but also had the shining of the divine light to see a heavenly vision of Christ.

Christ as the Firstborn of God was promised to the fathers in the Old Testament, and God fulfilled this promise by raising up Jesus.

When Christ was raised up from the dead, when He was resurrected, that was a birth to the man Jesus. Yes, He was the only begotten Son from eternity and to eternity; but as a man, He was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God in His resurrection.

Many theologians debate regarding this, for they naturally understand that Jesus was born of Mary and that’s it.

But praise the Lord, Christ had another birth to become the firstborn Son of God in His humanity, and that birth was in His resurrection.

And even more, we also were born of God at the same time with Him, for the firstborn and the many sons were born at the same time, in Christ’s resurrection!

Christ was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God among many brothers (Rom. 8:29).

And we have been chosen and predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son of God so that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.

The Firstborn Son of God makes us all a duplication of Himself; we are His twins.

As the firstborn Son of God, Christ is the prototype; He is in us as the prototype, as the life-giving Spirit, as the law of the Spirit of life, and He is reproducing Himself in us to make us the many sons of God.

If we see this, we will pray for ourselves, for our spouse, and for all the saints that we all would be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.

We need to be saved in life to such a degree that we are saved from self-likeness and self-expression and be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God!

This One, Christ as the Root and the Offspring of David, the Firstborn Son of God, was the only begotten Son of God from eternity (John 1:18; 3:16), and this cannot change, for He will always be the only begotten Son of God in eternity.

After His incarnation, through resurrection, He was begotten by God in His humanity to be God’s firstborn Son (Heb. 1:6).

When God sent His only begotten Son, He came alone, and there was no one like Him. When He comes again, He will come in the status of the firstborn Son, and He won’t be alone – He will come with His overcomers.

Don’t you want to be there, among the glorified sons of God that are saved in life to the uttermost during our journey on earth in space and time? Amen!

We want to be matured and conformed to the image of the firstborn Son through all the situations that the sovereign God arranged so that we may become part of the bridal army.

When the Firstborn comes to claim His inheritance, the whole earth, He will not come alone.

Paul was able to see the Lord’s resurrection in Psa. 2:7, “You are My Son; / Today I have begotten You”. He received revelation directly from God, he wrote this in the Epistles, and we say amen to the Word of God.

Paul applied the word “today” to the day of the Lord’s resurrection; Christ’s resurrection was a birth to Him as the firstborn Son of God.

Wasn’t Christ already the Son of God? Yes, He was – He was the only begotten Son of God in His divinity, but in His humanity, He was not the Son of God, so through resurrection, He was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God.

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 firstborn Son (Acts 13:33).

The Lord’s resurrection was an amazing event, for it was not only God raising a man from the dead but even more, it was a universally giant delivery: Christ was begotten of God to be the firstborn Son of God, and we as His many brothers were born to be the many sons of God. Hallelujah!

In 1 Pet. 1:3 we are told that we all were regenerated in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. In time, we were all regenerated at different times, but in God’s eyes, all believers in Christ were regenerated at exactly the same time: at the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

God is not bound by time and space; when the Lord was resurrected, we were begotten of God and Christ was begotten to be the Firstborn among many brothers.

This is what the Lord Jesus testified to Mary, as she was weeping and seeking Him at the tomb. He told her that He ascends to His Father and their Father, His God and their God. Hallelujah!

May we be those who are filled and constituted with the gospel of the firstborn Son of God, and may we speak this gospel for the propagation of God into man so that He may gain an increase, a multiplication, the many sons of God as the organic members of the Body of Christ consummating the New Jerusalem!

Praise the Lord for not only becoming a man but also being begotten of God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God! Hallelujah, we as the many believers in Christ are the many sons of God born of God at the time of the Lord’s resurrection! Amen, Lord, we praise You for the process You went through. Thank You for paying the highest price to redeem us and for raising us from the dead to regenerate us to be the many sons of God! Hallelujah, we are now brothers of the Firstborn Son and sons of God, and we are the many members of the organic Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas, and portions from, Life-study of Acts, msgs. 37-38 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of 1 and 2 Samuel (2021 winter training), week 8, entitled, The Seed of David Becoming the Son of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, Thou art the “Seed of David,” / For the kingdom Thou wast raised; / For God’s glory and His building / On the throne Thou hast been placed. / Truly Thou art “David’s offspring,” / Yet “my Lord” he calleth Thee, / For Thou art his “root” and fountain, / ”Lord of all” eternally. (Hymns #191)
  – 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)
  – 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)