Deification: God is making Man the same as Him in Life and Nature, not in the Godhead

If we connect Rom. 1:3-4 and Rom. 8:29 together with 2 Sam. 7:12-14, we will realize that there’s a diamond in the Bible: deification, which implies that God’s intention in His economy is to make Himself man so that we may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. Hallelujah!

It is wonderful to know that the Lord as a man was resurrected to be the firstborn Son of God and that He brought His humanity into His divinity and was designated the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness.

But what does this have to do with us? Yes, on His side, He did all this – He was incarnated, lived a perfect human life in which He did everything in the Spirit and by the Spirit, died on the cross, and was resurrected to be the firstborn Son of God, but what do all these have to do with us?

In His resurrection, He not only was designated to be the Son of God in His humanity, but He also became a life-giving Spirit to come into us and regenerate us to make us the many sons of God.

Right now, all believers in Christ have the divine life in them, and the Spirit of holiness operates in them to make them sons of God in full.

The Lord operates not only through and in our environment to arrange all things to work together for good; He also works Himself into us and operates in our being as the power of resurrection so that we may be conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God. Hallelujah!

May we welcome His inner searching and infusing.

May we welcome the inner working of God, allowing Him to dispense Himself into us to make us a little more like Him both inwardly and outwardly.

Even as He became the firstborn Son of God and was designated to be the Son of God in His humanity, so we are in the process of being designated sons of God, and we’re being conformed to the image of Christ.

What happened to Him, will also happen to us, to you and me as the many sons of God.

We will have the resurrected, transformed, uplifted, glorified, and designated human nature through the Lord’s working of Himself into us to make us the same as He is; this is deification.

And when He returns, we don’t know what we will be like, but we know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him even as He is! Hallelujah!

Even our human body will be transfigured, glorified, to manifest the uplifted humanity of Christ in resurrection, and we will be designated to be sons of God in full!

What a glorious destiny awaits us – deification is our destiny!

We as the many brothers of Christ are being Conformed to the Image of Christ to be His Reproduction

We need to connect Rom. 1:3-4 and 8:29; in the first portion we see how Christ was designated the Son of God in power, and in the latter, we are being conformed to the image of Christ.

On one hand, Christ was designated the Son of God in power through His resurrection according to the Spirit of holiness.

On the other hand, we were predestinated by God to be conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God.

We were foreknown by God in eternity past, and He predestinated us; this is our destiny, to be conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God.

And we are being conformed to the image of Christ by being saved in His life much more; we need to be saved from self-likeness.

We need to be saved in the divine life to such an extent that we are saved in the oneness in the divine glory – no more self is expressed, only God in Christ is expressed through everyone!

This is the oneness that the Lord prayed for in John 17.

On one hand, we are being saved in the life of Christ (Rom. 5:10); on the other hand, the goal of salvation in life is so that we may be conformed to the image of Christ so that He may be the Firstborn among many brothers.

What God wants is to make Christ the prototype and we all to be the mass reproduction of Christ.

God wants Christ to be the Firstborn among many brothers, and we as His twins are His duplication, His reproduction.

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 now being conformed to His image (Heb. 2:10-11; Rom. 8:29).

We need to pray for this both personally and corporately; we need to ask the Lord to conform us to His image so that He may have a corporate expression in and through His Body.

We pray this not only so that we have a reward in the kingdom but of Him to get His heart’s desire!

We pray that we are conformed to the image of Christ so that we may be designated sons of God so that He would gain a corporate expression of the glorified Christ in this universe.

And we pray for the saints in the same way, that all the saints would be conformed to the image of Christ so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

In Rom. 1:3-4 we see Christ, the Son of God, as the prototype; in Rom. 8:29 we see the many brothers, 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 of God. This is so wonderful!

We will be saved from our self-likeness, from the expression of the self, to be conformed to the image of Crist, the firstborn Son of God!

Christ is the prototype, and we are the mass production, the reproduction of Christ.

With Him, the Spirit of holiness was within Him before His death and resurrection; with us, the Spirit of holiness is within us after our regeneration and operates in us to conform us to the image of Christ.

All believers in Christ have the divine essence of holiness in their spirit; the Spirit of holiness is joined to and mingled with our spirit.

And the Lord is arranging all things, all people, all situations, and all matters to help us be conformed to the image of Christ.

The outward arrangement in God’s economy, His sovereign arrangement, cooperates with the inner work of the Spirit to saturate our entire being with the essence of God. Hallelujah!

Hallelujah, we were foreknown by God in eternity past to be conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God! Praise the Lord, we are regenerated with the life of God, and God is working to save us in life to the uttermost! Amen, Lord, save us much more in Your life today. Conform us more to Your image today. Keep us and keep all the saints in the process of being saved in life from self-likeness until we fully express You. Amen, Lord, make us the mass reproduction of Christ, the firstborn Son of God! May all things, persons, matters, and situations around us work out for good, for us to be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ!

Deification: God’s Intention is to make Himself man so that we become God in Life and Nature but not in the Godhead

If we put together 2 Sam. 7:12-14, Rom. 1:3-4, and Rom. 8:29 we will realize that the Bible speaks about deification.

There’s a “diamond” in the “box” of the Bible – God became man to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.

We are not presumptuous when we say this, neither do we say this having Lucifer’s ambition to be like God; we simply state the facts in the Word of God.

In His economy, God became a man so that man would become the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.

In Christ, God has been constituted into man and man has been constituted into God. In Christ, God has been mingled with man and man has been mingled with God.

This is deification: 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) – see Rom. 8:29; 1:3-4; 1 John 3:1; John 1:1-13; Rev. 21:2, 10-11.

God promised David that his seed will build the temple of God, and He said, “I will be his Father, and he will be My son.”

Here we see that the seed of David becomes the Son of God. Wow, the seed of a man, the son of a man, can become the Son of God!

This is unveiled in the New Testament, where we see Christ as God incarnated to be a man – God mingled with man, God in man and man in God.

Then we see that the New Jerusalem, the consummation of God’s economy, involves God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.

In the New Jerusalem, we see both God and man, but they are mingled and joined together to be one entity.

If we see this, if we realize that there’s a diamond in the Bible, everything in the word of God will make sense, for in His intention God wants to make Himself us so that we become Him in every possible way.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of today’s believers neglect the crucial point in the Bible that in Christ God has become man in order to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead!

Many Christians believe mainly one aspect of this crucial point – that God became a man named Jesus, but they don’t believe the other aspect – that man is becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.

In the book of Romans, there is a deep, divine thought that God is becoming man and man is becoming God.

Rom. 8:3 says that God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, so that sin may be condemned on the cross. This is God becoming man.

Then in Rom. 1:3-4, we see the seed of David becoming the Son of God. May we not disregard the high peak of the divine revelation; may we not be “pragmatists”, those who only want to see results.

We may think that the truth regarding deification is too lofty, but actually, this high peak of the divine revelation leads to the God-man living that issues in the mutual shepherding for the building up of the Body of Christ.

May we those who are infused with the truth that God took a journey to become man, lived thirty-three and a half years on earth, suffered death on the cross, and was raised to become the firstborn Son of God so that many people who believe into Him would become sons of God being conformed to the image of Christ.

Hallelujah, we are now in the process of being deified, and God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose!

Thank You, Lord, for the price You paid to lay aside Your splendor in Your Godhead, empty Yourself and become a man, even a slave. Thank You for becoming a man of sorrows and pouring Yourself out, pouring out Your blood on the cross for our redemption. Thank You, Lord, You released the divine life within You, and in resurrection You became not only the life-giving Spirit but also the firstborn Son of God. Amen, Lord, we love You now in a way that we never quite loved You before – we love You not only as the only begotten Son of God but also as the firstborn Son of God! We open to You, we turn our whole being to You and we want to cooperate with the process of deification going on in our being. Give all of us the experiences we need to be conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God. Make us part of the bride of Christ who is making herself ready for Your return. Amen, Lord Jesus, come back quickly. Fulfil your heart’s desire and accomplish Your will in us and through us. Amen, Lord, keep on saving us in life day by day until we have been conformed to the image of the firstborn Son and are ready for rapture and designation as sons in glory!

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 1&2 Samuel, pp. 203-205 (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.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Deification – Becoming God in life and nature but not in the Godhead (Life-study of 1&2 Samuel, ch. 25);
  – The purpose of incarnation: To Make God Man So That Man May Become God in Life and Nature but Not in the Godhead (The Move of God in Man, ch. 2)
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God’s eternal economy / Is to make man the same as He is / In life and nature, / But not in the Godhead / And to make Himself one with man / And man one with Him / Thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression / That all His divine, that all His divine / Attributes may be expressed in human virtues. (Song on, God’s eternal economy)
  – This Spirit shall transform our natural life, / Save us from self, build us in one new man, / Till we’re conformed to be like Jesus Christ, / Thus finishing our God’s eternal plan. / Life is our God and life is Christ our Lord. / Life is the Spirit. Life’s the only way— / Till we’re transfigured and redeemed to God. / We’re waiting, looking forward to that day! (Hymns #1195)
  – Jerusalem, the ultimate, / Of visions the totality; / The Triune God, tripartite man— / A loving pair eternally— / As man yet God they coinhere, / A mutual dwelling place to be; / God’s glory in humanity / Shines forth in splendor radiantly! (Song on, What miracle! What mystery!)