The Church is a Living Composition of the Sons of God, the many Brothers of Christ

Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.The book of Hebrews reveals that we are the many brothers of Christ, who is the Firstborn Son of God, and the church is a living composition of the many sons of God, who are the many brothers of Christ. Hallelujah!

The book of Hebrews is full of encouragement, first of all to remain with the Lord and in the church life, and secondly to go on to maturity and experience the deeper and higher aspects of Christ in His heavenly ministry.

Our Christ in His heavenly ministry is the Minister of the true, the heavenly, tabernacle; this tabernacle is not made with the hands of man but made by God, and today we are practicing the church life under the ministry of such a Christ.

He is in the heavenly Holy of Holies interceding for us and bearing us before God; at the same time, He’s the Mediator of the new covenant and its Executor, wanting to make real to us all the bequests of the New Testament.

In His heavenly ministry Christ is a Priest, and His ministry is transmitted into us to supply us with all that we need and to sustain us to live a life for God’s purpose.

Our Christ is not a historical Christ, a Christ who once lived and did many things and died for us, and now He’s in heaven far away; our Christ is the present Christ, who is now in the heavens as our Minister.

He is ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power, and He is sustaining us to live a heavenly life on earth, a reproduction of the life that He lived when He was here. We need to let the Lord minister to us, opening to Him, and enjoying His sufficient grace to us.

He is serving us non-stop: He served us when He was on earth, He’s serving us in His heavenly ministry, He will serve us in the coming kingdom, and for eternity He will constantly supply us as the river of water of life and the tree of life in the New Jerusalem.

Today we can experience Christ ministering Himself to us as our food, as our life supply, in the way of dispensing. Whatever He carries out as the heavenly Minister, He applies to us as the Spirit; when we exercise our spirit, we receive the divine transmission, the heavenly supply, the divine dispensing, to be supplied and sustained to live a heavenly life on earth for God’s purpose.

This is our destiny: to live a normal life under the divine dispensing for the fulfillment of God’s purpose!

In His Heavenly Ministry Christ is Serving God’s People with the Blessings of the New Testament

Heb. 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as He is also the Mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises.One of the functions of Christ in His heavenly ministry today is that He, as the Minister of the true tabernacle, is serving us – God’s people – with the bequests, the blessings, of the new testament (see Heb. 7:22; 8:6; 9:15).

Christ not has a more excellent ministry, carrying out the new covenant – which is a better covenant; He does this by making the facts of the new covenant effective. Every fact in the new covenant is made effective by the heavenly Minister with His more excellent ministry.

He knows that we may be distracted from Him and from His promises, so He Himself is making sure that we enjoy all the bequests and blessings of the new testament.

The new covenant which He enacted by His blood is full of divine, wonderful, and spiritual facts; these facts became bequests to us when He died, and the covenant became a testament. All the divine facts in the new covenant have been bequeathed to us in the new testament, and Christ as the Minister is making sure we enjoy all these bequests.

Christ knows that we are not bold enough to claim the bequests; He knows that we rather beg Him than claim the bequests in the new testament which are rightfully ours.

So instead of condemning us, Christ ministers to us little by little so that we may realize that we are heirs of God, and we have the right to enjoy God and to claim that God would forget all our failures! Hallelujah!

Whatever is in a covenant is a fact, but whatever is in a testament is a bequest. What were facts in the covenant have now become legally designated for us as bequests in the testament. There are four facts of the new covenant which have become bequests in the new testament: the propitiation for unrighteousness and forgiveness of sins; the imparting of the law of life; the blessing of having God and of being His people; and the inward ability of knowing the Lord. In His work in His heavenly ministry Christ is now serving us with these bequests. Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 827We may be haunted by memories of things we have done or said, and the enemy may attack us, but Christ forgives our sins and He forgets them! As our heavenly Minister with a more excellent ministry, Christ is carrying out the better covenant; He does this by making the facts of the new covenant effective and real in our daily life.

Every fact in the new covenant is made effective by the heavenly Minister with His more excellent ministry (see Heb. 9:15; 8:6). Whatever is a fact in the new covenant is a bequest in the new testament, and Christ – the heavenly Minister – is executing the bequests in the new testament (Heb. 9:15-17; 10:16-18).

Some of the facts in the new covenant which have bequests in the new testament are: the propitiation for unrighteousness and forgiveness of sins; the imparting of the law of life; the blessing of having God and of being His people; and the inward ability of knowing the Lord.

Christ as the heavenly Minister serves us and ministers to us so that we may enjoy forgiveness of sins (based on Christ’s propitiation), the law of life within us, being God’s people and having Him as our God, and inwardly knowing God in a personal way.

Thank You Lord for being the Minister of the true tabernacle who serves us with the bequests and blessings of the new testament. Thank You for coming to us in Your more excellent ministry to carry out the better covenant and make sure we enjoy all the blessings of the new testament. Thank You Lord for making propitiation for us so that we may enjoy forgiveness of sins. Thank You for imparting the law of life within us. Thank You for making us Your people and for You being our God. Thank You for giving us an inward ability to know the Lord.

The Church is a Living Composition of the Sons of God, the many Brothers of Christ

Heb. 2:12 Saying, “I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.”In the Epistle to the Hebrews there are various aspects of the church revealed; what we see in this epistle is Christ in His heavenly ministry being everything to us for the practice of the church life in its many aspects.

According to Heb. 2:10-12, the church is a living composition of the many sons of God, who are the many brothers of Christ brought forth in His resurrection (see Rom. 8:29; John 20:17; Heb. 1:5; 5:5; Acts 13:33; 1 Pet. 1:3).

On the one hand, from eternity Christ is the only begotten Son of God in His divinity; on the other hand, in His resurrection Christ was begotten by God again to be the Firstborn Son of God, the Son of God in His humanity.

As the only begotten Son of God, Christ has only divinity; after He put on humanity and accomplished redemption, Christ brought His humanity into divinity, being begotten in His resurrection in His humanity as the firstborn Son of God.

At the same time, in His resurrection we all as believers in Christ were begotten of God to be the many sons of God, the many brothers of Christ. We are the same as the firstborn Son of God – He is divine and human, and we are human and divine. He has divinity and humanity, and we also have humanity and divinity.

We are wonderful people: we are not just men, born of human parents, but God-men, men born of God having God’s life and nature. We are not only sons of men but sons of God, the many brothers of Christ; we are the many sons of God the Father and the many brothers of the Firstborn Son of the Father.

This is our reality. And the church is a living composition of the many sons of God, who are the many brothers of Christ brought forth in His resurrection. God is our divine Father, and we are His divine sons born of His divine life with His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4; John 1:12-13; Gal. 3:26).

When we believed into the Lord, we were given the right and the authority to be children of God, sons of God; we were begotten not of the will of man (our will or the will of the one who helped us get saved) but of God – we are the many sons of God and the many brothers of Christ.

The church is a living composition of the many sons of God, who are the many brothers of Christ brought forth in His resurrection. God is our divine Father, and we are His divine sons born of His divine life with His divine nature. As the many brothers of Christ, we are the same as the firstborn Son; He is divine and human, and we are human and divine (Heb. 2:11; 1:6; Rom. 8:29). 2017 spring ITERO, outline 7As the many brothers of Christ, we are the same as the firstborn Son – He is divine and human, and we are human and divine (Heb. 2:11; 1:6; Rom. 8:29).

When He returns, He will return not only as the only begotten Son but as the Firstborn, with us as the many brothers of Christ with Him. This is a profound truth found in the book of Hebrews.

The church is a living composition of all the sons of God; the church is a living corporation of all the brothers of the firstborn Son of God. After His resurrection, we all became His brothers, and together we are the church as a living composition of the many sons of God.

This truth is very profound, but the application is very simply; we may not “feel like a son of God” or live like one, so we can ask the Lord to work Himself into us and make us in reality His sons living out Christ.

We may not be mature in life to express Christ, but we can ask the Lord to keep us open to Him so that we may be made divinely-human even He is.

Thank You God for regenerating us in Christ’s resurrection to make us the many sons of God, the many brothers of Christ, and thus be the church! Hallelujah, we are born of God – we are brothers of Christ, sons of God the Father, having the divine life and nature in us! Lord, cause us to grow in life unto maturity until we all express You corporately as the church. Give us the experiences we need to be matured and become Your overcoming brothers, Your reproduction on earth. Keep us open to Your ministering to us to make us divinely-human and humanly divine.

References and Hymns on this Topic
  • Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Hebrews, msgs. 12, 56, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ (2017 Spring ITERO), msg. 7 (week 7), Practicing the Church Life under the Ministry of Christ as the Minister of the True, the Heavenly, Tabernacle.
  • Hymns on this topic:
    # “I will impart My laws into their mind,” / Our covenanting God revealed to mankind; / “I will inscribe My laws upon their heart,” / God’s highest law of life in us to impart. / Christ is the title-deed of all God is; / Christ is a testament with all its bequests; / Now the New Testament is ours to claim, / As we, in spirit, call upon His name. (Song on the bequests of the new covenant)
    # Yes, we’re holy brothers with Christ, / No higher could any man be. / This highest of all gospels is; / This gospel each human must see. / Partakers of this heavenly call, / Could any this gospel reject? / With Christ sitting far above all— / This highest of all gospels yet! (Hymns #1292)
    # We’ve become the Lord’s dear brothers / Through His resurrection pow’r; / He desires many brothers / Sharing in His triumph hour! / Jesus is our Elder Brother, / First-born of God’s sons is He; / He came forth in resurrection, / From religion He is free! / As His church we come together; / Oldness, form, and self deny; / Just to meet with our Big Brother, / Him alone to glorify! (Hymns #1280)
About aGodMan

A God-man is a normal believer in Christ; the author of this article is one who is learning to be a normal Christian, a daily enjoyer of Christ, a living and functioning member in the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, make us such ones for the building up of the Body of Christ!

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brother L.
brother L.
7 years ago

What is the church? The church is a corporate composition of the brothers of the firstborn Son of God. Do you still remember the difference between the only begotten Son of God and the firstborn Son of God? The only begotten Son of God had divinity without humanity. Although He had the divine nature, He did not have the human nature. But the firstborn Son of God has both the divine nature and the human nature. The brothers are not the brothers of the only begotten but the brothers of the firstborn Son of God. We are the same as the Firstborn. He is divine and human, and we are human and divine. The firstborn Son has humanity as well as divinity and all of His brothers are the same as He is….He is first divine and then human, and His brothers are first human and then divine. Eventually, He and we, we and He, are the same. We are wonderful people. We are not only human—we are also divine. Do you realize whose son you are? You are God’s son. God is our divine Father, and we all are His divine sons because we all have been born of His divine life with His divine nature. We are the many sons of the Father and the many brothers of the firstborn Son of the Father. This is not a dream. This is reality.

It is in such a profound way that the church is revealed in this book. The church is a living composition of all the sons of God, a living corporation of all the brothers of the firstborn Son of God.

As the many sons of God, we are the many brothers of Christ who is the firstborn Son of God. He was born to be the firstborn Son of God through His resurrection (Acts 13:33), and we have been produced to be His many brothers in His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). It was after His resurrection that He called His disciples His brothers (John 20:17). Our new birth was not a physical birth but a birth in resurrection. (Life-study of Hebrews, pp. 134, 137, by Witness Lee)

Hanah B.
Hanah B.
7 years ago

Amen!

Peter A.
Peter A.
7 years ago

Amen.

Larry S.
Larry S.
7 years ago

Praise the Lord I am a son of God!

Klazien B.
Klazien B.
7 years ago

AMEN HALLELUJAH