As the many Sons of God, we’re being Conformed to the Image of the Firstborn Son of God

Hallelujah, we as the many sons of God are being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, Jesus Christ!

The New Testament reveals that Christ as the only begotten Son of God became man, put on human nature, and was begotten by God in His humanity to be the Firstborn Son of God; at the same time, we were begotten of God to be the many sons of God having both the human life and nature and the divine life and nature. Hallelujah!

This is something beyond our human comprehension; people may write dissertations and books on Acts 13 without seeing that God raise up Jesus from the dead to be the Firstborn Son of God among many brothers, and all those who believe into Him are children of God!

May we be open to the Lord and receive the divine revelation in His word; may the eyes of our heart be enlightened so that we may know Him, see Him, and appreciate Him.

And may we receive the Lord’s mercy and grace as we come to His word so that the veils from our eyes may be removed and we would see this glorious Christ in what He is! He is God becoming man so that we, men, would become the same as He is.

Psa. 2:7 prophesies concerning this saying, You are My Son; Today I have begotten You. Paul applies this to the resurrection of Christ; in His resurrection, Christ was begotten by God to be His firstborn Son.

God wants not just one Son; yes, He is delighted in His only begotten Son, and in Him, He has found all His delight, but He wants many sons who are just like Christ, many sons who are conformed to the image of Christ.

So God the Son became a man; He put on humanity, clothing Himself with the human nature, and lived a perfect life on earth for thirty-three and a half years.

Then, He went to death to deal with all the problems related to man’s fall, including the flesh, sin, sins, Satan, and death – everything was crucified there.

After passing through death, He was raised on the third day, and in His resurrection, three wonderful things happened.

First, He was begotten by God in His humanity to be the Firstborn Son of God; He was the only begotten Son, but in His humanity, He was not yet God, so God begot Him.

Second, He regenerated us, the many believers in Christ, to be the many sons of God, those born of God with His life and nature.

Third, He was transfigured, transformed, to be a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) so that He would have a way to enter into us to regenerate us and make us the same as He is for His corporate expression on earth.

Now whoever calls on the name of the Lord, whoever opens to the Lord and receives the gospel, he receives the life of God and becomes one of the many sons of God composing the organic Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah!

And our daily life is a life of being transformed inwardly and conformed outwardly to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God.

May we cooperate with His inner work of transformation and outward work of conformation today so that He may obtain what He is after!

The Only Begotten Son of God passed through Death and Resurrection to become the Firstborn Son of God, and we’re His many brothers!

Through incarnation, God’s only begotten Son put on humanity and became a God-man (John 1:14, 18; Luke 1:35); throughout His human living, Christ was the only begotten Son of God with the human nature, the God-man.

Then, in His resurrection, this God-man was born of God to be His Firstborn Son (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:6; Rom. 8:29). Before His incarnation, Christ was the only begotten Son of God without the human nature – He only had the divine nature.

But after He was incarnated, He put on the human nature and, through His resurrection, He was begotten by God to be the firstborn Son of God in His humanity. Wow!

Even more, at the time of His resurrection, we all as believers in Christ were begotten of God to be the many sons of God. The date of our regeneration was the date of Christ’s resurrection!

When He was resurrected from the dead, we all were resurrected with Him, for we were regenerated through the resurrection of Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 1:3). Hallelujah!

In other words, Christ’s resurrection was a universally great delivery, a great birth, for He was born of God in His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God, and we were also born of God to be the many sons of God.

Christ is the first God-man, having the divine life and nature and the human life and nature, and we are the many God-men, having both the divine life and nature and the human life and nature.

Now God has many sons with Christ as the Firstborn Son; we all are the many brothers of Christ, and only Christ as the Firstborn is His Only Begotten Son.

In a wonderful yet mysterious way, Christ is both the only begotten Son of God and the Firstborn Son of God at the same time. And we are the many brothers of Christ, the many sons of God, who partake of and possess the divine life and nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

From eternity to eternity, Christ was, is, and will be the only begotten Son of God; when He was sent by God into the world, He was still the only begotten Son of God (1 John 4:9; John 1:14; 3:16).

By passing through death and entering into resurrection, Christ’s humanity was uplifted into His divinity, and He was born in resurrection as God’s firstborn Son (Acts 13:33).

At the same time we, the many believers in Christ throughout the ages, were raised together with Him in His resurrection and were begotten together with Him as the many sons of God (1 Pet. 1:3).

Now we are the many brothers of Christ to be the many members of the Body, part of the corporate expression of God in Christ. We need to see who we are, what we are, and what is our real source; we are not just men, nor are we just so-called “Christians” who follow Jesus.

We are sons of God, born of God with His life and nature, for everyone who believes into Him, that is, receives Him, has the right to be called a son of God, a child of God, born of God (John 1:12-13).

If we see who Christ is, the process He went through, and the accomplishments and attainments He had, we will be enthralled with this One, and we will open to Him much more to just enjoy Him and allow Him to work Himself into us.

Yes, He is the only begotten Son of God with divinity but no humanity, self-existing and ever-existing as God is, but He became a man, and in resurrection, He was begotten of God to be the firstborn Son of God in His humanity.

Hallelujah! And we’re becoming just like Him, being conformed to His image!

Hallelujah, we believers in Christ have the divine life and nature besides our human life and nature! Praise the Lord, by believing into Christ, that is, by receiving Him, we were given the right, authority, and privilege to be called children of God, those who are born of God with His life and nature! Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, our elder brother, for opening the way for us all to be regenerated and become sons of God! Hallelujah, Christ as the only begotten Son of God became man and, in His resurrection, He was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God, and we were begotten to be the many sons of God! Hallelujah, we are children of God, bonafide sons of God, born of God with His life and nature! We are partakers of the divine nature and enjoyers of the divine life!

As Sons of God, we are being Conformed to the Image of the Firstborn Son of God

If the Lord is merciful on us and unveils us to see the truth concerning who we as believers in Christ are, we will realize that our whole Christian life is a life of being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.

God wants to gain a counterpart, a bride; however, He cannot marry someone who doesn’t have His life and nature, someone who doesn’t match Him in every possible way.

He wants to gain a bride composed of many human beings who are regenerated, transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. This is what the Bible ends with: a marriage between the Spirit and the bride.

For this bride to be gained, there needs to be the building up of the Body of Christ, and for the Body to come in, there has to be the many sons of God being regenerated with God’s life and nature.

So Christ has done everything: He was incarnated, He died to redeem us and terminate everything negative in the universe, and He resurrected to become the firstborn Son of God, regenerate us with His life, and become a life-giving Spirit.

Now we can see Him, appreciate Him, receive Him, and be filled with Him. And the reason He is the Firstborn Son is so that He may have many brothers who are being conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son of God.

Christ becoming the firstborn Son of God and we being the many sons of God is more than just teaching or a doctrine; it has to be real to us.

We need to see that, whatever we go through, is for the purpose of being transformed inwardly with His life and nature, and conformed to His image to be just like Him.

According to Rom. 8:29, we believers in Christ have been predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ, the Firstborn Son of God.

Our destiny as believers in Christ, as determined by God in eternity past, is to be conformed to the image of Christ; we are created for this, we are regenerated for this, and this will happen.

Daily, we are in the process of being transformed and conformed into His image.

On one hand, He works Himself into us to change our inward essence and nature; He is reconstituting our inner being with Himself so that we may be like Him in constitution.

On the other hand, we are being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, for even our outward form will change to match the glorified image of Christ, the God-man!

He as the Firstborn Son is the prototype, and we as the many sons of God are the mass reproduction.

He arranges all things and persons and matters around us for the unique purpose of transforming us and conforming us to the image of Christ.

There’s a change happening in us inwardly: the law of the Spirit of life operates in our being (Rom. 8:2) to change us in constitution, and the Lord is conforming us to the image of Christ.

We do not know what we will be and how we will look like, but we know one thing: one day we will be like Him, for we will see Him even as He is (1 John 3:2).

Even as He is, we will be.

He starts from our spirit, causing our spirit to be zoe life (Rom. 8:10), and continues by making our soul-life (v. 6) and even our body will be swallowed up by life so that our entire being would be filled with the divine life and express Christ in full.

The consummation of the process we are going through is that we become the bride of Christ, beautiful, spotless, without any wrinkles, the beloved who matches Christ in every possible way.

When Christ sees the church consummated as the bride, He will exclaim, This time this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Hallelujah!

Today we’re in the process of the bride making herself ready, for we as the many components of the bride are the many sons of God being transformed and conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You today to be transformed and conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God. May today be a normal day of growth in the divine life, a day in which the law of the Spirit of life operates in us to saturate us with the element of God. Amen, Lord, work Yourself into us, build Yourself into us, and transform us inwardly so that we may match You in our constitution. Conform us more to the image of Christ so that we may match Him in every possible way. Gain Your bride, Lord, the one who matches You for Your marriage life for eternity! Amen, Lord, keep us in the process of being transformed and conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God, until we become the same as He is!

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, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 293, 295, 435 (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:
  – Thou art the Son beloved, / The image of our God; / Thou art the saints’ dear portion, / Imparted thru Thy blood. / Among all God’s creation / Thou art the firstborn One; / By Thee all was created, / All for Thyself to own. (Hymns #189)
  – All our spirit, soul and body / Unto Christ conformed must be; / This will be accomplished fully / When our glorious Lord we see. / By our body’s full redemption / Shall adoption be complete; / By the final transformation / All God’s purpose we shall meet. (Hymns #741)
  – We’re Thy total reproduction, / Thy dear Body and Thy Bride, / Thine expression and Thy fulness, / For Thee ever to abide. / We are Thy continuation, / Thy life-increase and Thy spread, / Thy full growth and Thy rich surplus, / One with Thee, our glorious Head. (Hymns #203)