One of the most mysterious and wonderful things that happened in the world is that a man called Jesus resurrected from the dead – He was raised by God from the dead, and He now lives forever! Even though this is so amazing, resurrection means and involves much more than this.
According to the revelation in the Bible, before He died the Lord Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify Him (John 17:1, 5) – and the Father did glorify Him by raising Him from the dead (see Acts 3:13). The people of Israel betrayed Jesus and delivered Him to Pilate to crucify Him, but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the God of resurrection) has raised Jesus from the dead and thus He glorified Him!
Christ was glorified in His resurrection; glorification is not merely “praises and glory ascribed to Him!” but the release of the divine life from within the constraining and concealing shell of His humanity. In His resurrection Christ was glorified; such a glorification was a transfer, transferring Christ from the stage of His incarnation (as a man in the flesh) into the stage of His inclusion (He is now the Spirit).
In His resurrection Christ changed His state: He was a man in the flesh, but now He is a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). His entire being was pneumatized, transfigured into the Spirit, and now He’s the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the Spirit of reality, the life-giving Spirit. Wow!
Furthermore, through His glorification in His resurrection, Christ became the firstborn Son of God and He regenerated us to be the many brothers of Christ and sons of God (1 Pet. 1:3).
First, through His glorification in resurrection, Christ became a life-giving Spirit, then He was born again of God in His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God, and finally He regenerated us – millions of believers – to be the members of the Body of Christ, the brothers of Christ, and the sons of God. Christ’s resurrection is so wonderful and so full of meaning!
Christ was Glorified in His Resurrection by the Father and He Became a Life-Giving Spirit
If we read the Gospel of John – which is also called “the gospel of life” – on the one hand we will enjoy the many things related to the divine life embodied and expressed through Christ, and on the other hand we will be puzzled concerning the many mysteries of the divine life revealed in this book.
If we were to focus on Christ’s resurrection, for example, before Christ went to the cross He prayed in John 17 that the Father would glorify Him so that the Son may glorify the Father (v. 1, 5). This prayer was answered by the Father by raising Him from the dead; Christ’s resurrection from the dead was His being glorified by the Father (see Acts 3:13).
Glorification here means not merely praise and glory being given to Him by others but the release of the divine life concealed within the shell of Christ’s humanity. When God became a man, God’s life with His glory were concealed, constrained, and hidden within the “shell” of Christ’s humanity; through His death, this human shell was broken, and in His resurrection the divine life was released and expressed fully – this was His glorification.
The God of resurrection – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – answered His Son’s prayer by resurrecting Him so that His Son may be glorified and thus glorify the Father. The resurrection was the process, and the glorification was the goal; through His resurrection Christ has been glorified by the Father, that is, God’s divine life from within Christ was released and expressed, and thus the Father was glorified.
Such a glorification is a transfer – Christ was transferred from the stage of being a man in the flesh (which He was for 33.5 years) into the stage of being the Spirit; He was transferred from the stage of incarnation to the stage of inclusion.
In the stage of His inclusion, Christ became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45). He is now no longer merely a man but the Spirit: He was transfigured, “pneumatized”, made Spirit!
Christ’s glorification in His resurrection afforded Him a great transfer from one state to another state to have a new essence, element, and nature; now Christ is the Spirit, and all that He is, has, and has attained is included in this wonderful compound life-giving Spirit! Christ is now no longer in the flesh; He is now in the Spirit, and He is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of the glorified Jesus!
Praise You Lord for Your resurrection through which the Father has glorified You! Through Your resurrection You were not just brought back to life but You released the divine life from within the shell of Your humanity so that the Father may be glorified and You may become the life-giving Spirit! Praise the Lord, now Christ is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, the Spirit that always imparts life into us!
In His Resurrection Christ became the Firstborn Son of God and He Regenerated us for His Body
There are three main things that happened in Christ’s resurrection: first, He was begotten of God to become the firstborn Son of God possessing both divinity and humanity, then He became the life-giving Spirit, and finally He regenerated millions of believers for His Body.
Through His glorification in His resurrection, Christ became the firstborn Son of God; He was always the Only Begotten Son of God possessing divinity from eternity, but through incarnation, He “picked up” humanity, and through His resurrection He was begotten of God to be the Firstborn Son of God possessing both divinity and humanity (see Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29).
The only begotten Son of God – whom God sent to us to redeem us, see John 3:16 – possessed only divinity, but the firstborn Son of God possesses both divinity and humanity; He is the complete God and the perfect man, the God-man.
Through incarnation Christ didn’t put away His divinity but had it concealed in the shell of His flesh; He picked up humanity, and through death and resurrection He brought His humanity into His divinity so that He as a man was born of God, born again, to be the Firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29).
Wow! This is beyond our wildest imagination and even beyond our human comprehension, but a man was born of God and humanity was brought into divinity!
The fact that He is the firstborn Son of God means that there are many brothers; we as the many believers in Christ were all regenerated in Christ’s resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). We were called by God and saved by Him in time – each in our own situation and environment, but all the millions of believers were regenerated at the same time, in the resurrection of Christ from the dead!
We are now not only men born of our parents with our human life and nature, but by believing into Christ we become sons of God, God-men, those who have both the divine nature and the human nature. We are Christ’s brothers, His increase and duplication in His resurrection.
As the life-giving Spirit – which He became through His resurrection – He came into us to regenerate us and make us the many sons of God and the many members of the Body of Christ.
Praise the Lord, we all were regenerated on the same day with the disciples, the apostles, the church fathers, our spiritual fathers, and all the believers in Christ – we were regenerated in Christ’s resurrection, and now we are God-men, the brothers of Christ, and the members of the Body, those possessing both divinity and humanity! Praise the Lord for such accomplishments in His resurrection!
Praise You Lord for Your resurrection through which You became the firstborn Son of God and we became the many sons of God! Lord, You became the life-giving Spirit to regenerate us as the many sons of God and the many members of the Body of Christ. Thank You for coming into us as the life-giving Spirit to bring God into us; now we have both the divine nature and the human nature, and we possess both divinity and humanity. Oh Father, we praise You as Your many sons! Praise You for such a glorious resurrection! Praise You for regenerating us with Your divine life to make us sons of God and brothers of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory, ch. 2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Resurrection and Ascension, week 1 / msg 1, The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Resurrection (1) – The Universal Incorporation of the Consummated Triune God with the Regenerated Believers in the Resurrection of Christ.
- Hymns to strengthen the burden in this article:
# Jesus Christ the Lord is living now in us / As the wonderful Spirit within. / He has been transfigured, we enjoy Him thus, / As the life-giving Spirit within. (Hymns #1113)
# In the second stage of inclusion: / To be begotten as God’s firstborn Son, / To become the life-giving Spirit, and / To regenerate the believers for His Body. (Song on Christ in His resurrection)
# 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)
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How could Christ, who was the only begotten Son of God from eternity, become the firstborn Son of God? This is a mystery which has not been covered adequately by traditional Christian theology. The firstborn Son of God and the only begotten Son of God are the same one person, but there is nevertheless a difference between the firstborn Son and the only begotten Son….The only begotten Son of God has divinity but not humanity, whereas the firstborn Son of God has both divinity and humanity. The only begotten Son of God is God, but the firstborn Son of God is both God and man. When Christ, who is the very God, became a man, He did not set aside His divinity. Rather, He retained His divinity, but, as Philippians 2 indicates, He concealed His divinity within His humanity (vv. 6-7). Through His incarnation He became the God-man, the One who is both the complete God and a perfect man. Before His incarnation He was the only begotten Son of God, and as such He had nothing to do with man. However, when He was incarnated, He became a man, and thus was no longer just God but was both God and man.
Furthermore, in His resurrection He regenerated all His believers to be God’s children, God’s species. In His incarnation He, the very God, became a man, and in His resurrection He regenerated His believers, who are men, and thereby made them the children of God. (Witness Lee, The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory, pp. 22-23)