The central thought of the whole Bible is that God wants to have many sons for His expression. In order to accomplish this, God must firstly have a model, a prototype. This prototype is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. When Christ came the first time, He came as the Only Begotten Son of God. As the Only Begotten Son of God, He became a genuine man in the flesh. Although He was a real man with the human nature, He was still the Only Begotten Son of God. When He was on earth, He often called Himself either the Son of God or the Son of Man (John 10:36; 5:25; 1:51; Matt. 8:20). When the demons met the Lord Jesus, they addressed Him as the Son of God (Matt. 8:29), but He commanded them not to say this. The Lord seemed to be saying, “You demons, the followers of the Devil, must realize that I am here as the Son of Man. I have come as a man in the flesh to deal with the Devil and with you.” It was by His death in the flesh that Christ destroyed the Devil (Heb. 2:14). Therefore, the Devil and all the demons were afraid of Him as the Son of Man. When the Devil tempted the Lord in the wilderness, he said, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread” (Matt. 4:3). The Lord Jesus replied, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). The Lord seemed to be saying, “Satan, you must know that I am here not as the Son of God, but as the very man promised in the book of Genesis. I have come as a man to bruise your head.”
In today’s Christianity there are the so-called modernists. In ancient times there were the ancient modernists, called the Sadducees, who believed neither in angels, nor in demons, nor in resurrection (Acts 23:8). Today’s modernists are followers of those Sadducees. The Sadducees, along with the Pharisees, thought of the Lord Jesus simply as a Jew whose parents were Mary and Joseph. When Jesus came to such a person, He always stressed that He was the Son of God (John 5:17-18, 25). While the demons are afraid of Jesus being the Son of Man, the modernists, under the inspiration of the Devil, do not confess that He is the Son of God. Once the demons admit that Jesus is the Son of Man they are destroyed, and once a man confesses that Jesus is the Son of God he is saved (John 20:31). Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God and the Son of Man. To us, He is the Son of God, and to the enemy, He is the Son of Man.
Recently, two young men, aged eighteen and twenty-one, came to me with an argumentative spirit, saying, “John 3:16 says that Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God, and Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. How can you say that the Only Begotten became the Firstborn? This means that Jesus has changed. But the Bible says that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Before His incarnation, Christ was only the Son of God; He was not a man. Was not His incarnation a great change? According to the Greek, John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh.” This certainly indicates a change. If Christ had never had such a change, we would still be in a pitiful situation. If He had not become a man but had forever remained only as the Son of God with divinity, how could we have been saved? Christ has changed. He changed from being just the Son of God into a man. Consider the Lord’s incarnation. Before His incarnation, He was the Son of God, and He did not have the human nature. He was solely, singly, and absolutely the divine Son of God, having only divinity. He had no flesh and blood. But by His incarnation He changed radically. In making this radical change, He did not put off His divinity. No, keeping His divinity, He took on humanity. Hence, in His incarnation, He had divinity plus humanity. Many Christians today have only been taught that Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God. They have never learned that this Only Begotten Son has become the Firstborn Son.
John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh, and 1 Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. Here in 1 Corinthians 15:45 we have another “became.” Firstly, Christ was the Son of God. In His incarnation He became flesh, and then, as a man in the flesh, He became the life-giving Spirit. We believe John 1:14 which says that the Word became flesh, and we believe 1 Corinthians 15:45 which says that the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. I have been condemned as a heretic for saying that Jesus became the Spirit. According to their old, traditional teaching of the Trinity, the opposers say that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Spirit is the Spirit. But now they are troubled, for 1 Corinthians 15:45 says that Christ became the life-giving Spirit. How many Spirits are there? There is only one. Is Christ the Son or the Spirit? He is both the Son and the Spirit and also the man. This does not mean that when Christ became the man He was no longer the Son of God, nor that when He became the Spirit He was no longer the man and the Son of God. He is all-inclusive.
Suppose you have a glass of pure water. When you add tea into it, you do not eliminate the water, do you? When you add milk, you still have the water and the tea. The water, the tea, and the milk make an all-inclusive drink. When we drink the water, we drink the tea and the milk. Basically, this drink is plain water, but it has been enriched with the elements of tea and milk. Who is Jesus today? He is the life-giving Spirit who includes divinity and humanity. Our Savior today is not the same as He was before the incarnation, nor the same as He was when He was on earth. Before His incarnation, He was purely divine, having no human element. When He was born of Mary in the manger at Bethlehem, He was mingled with humanity and put on human nature. While He was on earth, He was both divine and human. Being the Son of God and the Son of Man, He was both God and man. By His resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit. This absolutely does not mean that He is no longer the Son of God nor the Son of Man; it means that as the Son of God He has brought the Son of Man into the Spirit.
When I was young, I was only taught that the man Jesus Christ was the Son of God. I was never told that through resurrection this wonderful God-man became the life-giving Spirit. I was only told that He died on the cross for our sins, resurrected from the dead, and ascended into heaven where He is now sitting as the Savior who is living, mighty, and able to save us to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25). But, being a thoughtful young man, I wondered how Jesus could save me to the uttermost. I said to myself, “How can this be? He is sitting on the throne in heaven far away from me, and I am here on earth far away from Him. How can He save me to the uttermost?” Although I tried to solve this problem, I could not do it. Undoubtedly, Jesus is now sitting on the throne in heaven. How then can He save us to the uttermost? He can do it because He is not only in heaven but also in our spirit. This wonderful One is in heaven and in our spirit at the same time. I have often used the illustration of electricity. The electricity which we use in our homes is also in the power plant. The same one electricity is in both places at the same time.
Christ is the life-giving Spirit. Within this life-giving Spirit there is the powerful, indestructible divinity, and there is also the proper, uplifted humanity. No humanity is as right and proper as the humanity of Jesus. Both this wonderful divinity and this uplifted humanity are now in the Spirit, just like both the tea and the milk are in the water. When we drink the water, we get the tea and the milk, and when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, who is the life-giving Spirit, we get His divinity and humanity.
God’s way is firstly to have a prototype, a model. This prototype is God the Son who came to be a man. This man, the embodiment of God, lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years, tasting and passing through all the sufferings of human life. Then He went to the cross and died. Through His death, the old creation was terminated, the problem of sin was solved, and all the enemies and adversaries of God were destroyed. His death on the cross was an all-inclusive death accomplishing everything for God’s economy. But this was not the end, for He was resurrected with His divinity and humanity. His divinity was expressed, manifested in full, in His resurrection, and His humanity was transformed from a physical form into a spiritual form. This is very mysterious, and no human words can explain it. After His resurrection, He became such a wonderful One. I cannot adequately explain all the aspects of this wonderful Person. In this wonderful Person, who today is our Savior, we have the eternal, powerful, unlimited divinity; the uplifted, transformed humanity; the proper human living; the all-inclusive death that solved the problem of sin, defeated the enemy, and terminated the old creation; and the resurrection. How much we have in Him! He now expresses God in the proper humanity. Sin is under His feet, Satan has been defeated, and the old creation has been terminated. This is the prototype, the model of the expression of God.
Can you imitate such a One? We cannot even make imitation tea. We should not try to produce an imitation tea, but simply drink real tea. Every imitation is a falsehood. In Christianity, people are taught to imitate Christ, but it is impossible to imitate Him. We are all familiar with artificial flowers. As plastic imitations of real flowers, they have the same color, shape, and appearance as genuine flowers. When they first came out, I liked them. But after awhile I came to hate them because they have no life. Man can imitate, but he cannot create. Praise the Lord that while we cannot imitate Christ, He has a way of reproducing Himself in us.
In a factory, a company firstly manufactures a prototype. Then the mass production is according to that prototype. In a good sense, our wonderful Christ is a prototype. God’s way is to put this prototype into us. This living model is a living Person including divinity, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Such a model, consisting of all these marvelous elements, has come into our being. The human, religious way is to correct or improve us from without. God’s way is to put Christ into us. Who is Christ? He is the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the life-giving Spirit. God has put this wonderful Person into the very center of our being. If we agree and cooperate with this wonderful One, opening up to Him, He will spread outward into our soul from our spirit. This is not imitation; it is the spreading of the prototype within our being. This is what the Bible calls sonship. Christ has come into us as the Son to be the life of the Son in us. According to Romans 8:15, we have the spirit of sonship. We have the sonship which makes us real sons. This sonship is actually the wonderful model Himself, the Firstborn Son of God. We have the life of the Son, the Spirit of the Son, and the sonship within us.
Consider once again the illustration of a tea bag placed in a glass of water. The more we stir the water, the more it will be saturated with the tea. The tea will spread into and mingle with the water until it becomes tea-water. No one can imitate Jesus. If we could imitate Jesus, then a monkey could imitate a boy. Christ is such a wonderful Person. How can we imitate Him? It is not a matter of imitating Jesus; it is a matter of being saturated with the sonship, just as water is saturated with tea. The Son, as the very sonship, has come into us. As the sonship, He is the life, the Spirit, the position, and the right of the Son. This sonship is now waiting for our cooperation that He might spread throughout our being.
In both Hebrews and Romans the matter of sonship is covered. In Hebrews we are told that, after His first coming, Christ eventually became, through resurrection, the Firstborn Son (1:5-6). Before His incarnation He was the Only Begotten Son of God, but through resurrection He was born the Firstborn Son of God. When I read the Scriptures years ago, I was bothered by Psalm 2:7, which says, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” This verse is quoted both in Acts 13:33 and in Hebrews 1:5. Being troubled by this, I asked myself, “Wasn’t Christ the Son of God already? Since He already was the Son of God, why did He need to be born of God in order to be the Son of God?” Later I realized that before His incarnation, Christ was the Son of God without human nature. When He was incarnated, He put on humanity. His divine element was the Son of God, but His human element was not. Hence, He had to be resurrected that His human element might be born of God. Through this birth, the Only Begotten Son of God became God’s Firstborn Son. In other words, the Only Begotten Son did not have the humanity which had been begotten of God. When He became the Firstborn Son of God, His humanity was born of God. In this way He became the Firstborn Son of God, and this Firstborn Son became the prototype, the model. This is what it means to say that Christ is the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). The Firstborn Son is the prototype, and the many brothers are the mass production. This model today is a living Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the totality of the divine sonship. When this living Person comes into us, we have the sonship and become a son of God. Now we are the sons of God, and the Lord Jesus as the model is working and moving in us.
Although we have become sons of God by having the sonship in us, we still do not look like the Son of God. Suppose I put a tea bag in a five-gallon jar of water. The tea may be in the center of the jar, but the water does not yet have the appearance of tea. The tea must spread into and saturate the water. Gradually, all the water will be teaified and become tea. In like manner, we have been born of God by having Christ come into our spirit. But after coming into us, He has not had much opportunity to spread Himself into our being. This is not a matter of outward behavior; it is a matter of inward saturation.
Hebrews tells us that the Only Begotten Son has become the Firstborn. This Firstborn Son has regenerated many sons and now He is the model in perfection, completion, and glorification. Although He is perfect and complete, we, the many sons with the sonship within us, have not yet been perfected, completed, and glorified in this sonship. Presently, we are in the process of perfection, completion, transformation, and glorification.
The book of Romans, especially chapter eight, speaks of the same thing. Many Christian leaders have written a great deal on Romans 8. However, they mainly emphasize the Spirit. They have more or less neglected the law of life and the conformation to the image of the Firstborn Son of God. It is difficult to find a Christian book which deals with the subject of conformation. Nevertheless, conformation is necessary for the completion of the sonship, for the completion of the many brothers of the Firstborn. Although we are brothers of God’s Firstborn Son, we do not resemble Him very much. We may not look much like Him today, but we are in the process of being conformed to His image. How much the sonship is completed in us depends on how willing we are to be conformed to the image of Christ. This is not a question of outward doing, but of whether or not we are willing to be conformed to the image of the Firstborn.
If we would know how to be conformed to Christ’s image, we must read Romans 8 again and again. This chapter is a treasure chest in a treasure store. All the riches are here. In this chapter we have the law of life, the sonship, and the conformation. Verses 14 through 16 speak clearly about sonship. Verse 14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Recovery Version), and verse 15 says that we have received “a spirit of sonship.” We know that we have received a spirit of sonship because the “Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God” (v. 16). Deep within, we have a strong witness, a strong testimony, that we are the children of God. Many of us can confidently say, “I know that I do not look like Christ, but I have the full assurance that I am a son of God. I don’t care how much you criticize or belittle me, I have no doubt that I have been born of God.”
We have this witness in our spirit, not in our mind. If you turn to your mind, you will begin to doubt, saying to yourself, “Probably I have not been born again. If I have been regenerated, why am I still the same? I need to say, ‘O Lord, be merciful to me. If I have not been born again, cause me to be born again right now.’ ” In the past, I did this very thing. But while we are doubting in our mind, we have the witness deep in our spirit that we have been born of God. This is not a teaching; it is our experience. Whoever has called on the name of the Lord Jesus has been regenerated, and the spirit of sonship, that is, Christ Himself, is in his spirit witnessing to the fact that he is one of God’s children. However bad we may be or however defeated we are in our Christian life, we still have the witness in our spirit that we are sons of God. This is a fact, and no one can argue with it. It is not a small thing to be born again.
However, we should not stop with the mere fact of being born again. Romans 8 mentions the Spirit of life in verse 2, sonship in verses 14 through 16, and conformation in verse 29. We are now in the process of being conformed to the image of God’s Firstborn Son. How can we be conformed? The way is found in Romans 8:6 — by setting our mind on our spirit. The mind set on the spirit is life. In whatever we do and say, we must be sure that our mind is on our spirit. When our mind is off our spirit, we are like an electrical appliance which has been disconnected. If we sense that our mind is not on our spirit, we should stop and call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Many of us can testify that after simply calling on the name of the Lord Jesus, we had the sense deep within that, once again, our mind was on our spirit. Although this is a simple matter, it is very serious.
I would ask the sisters to consider their experience in shopping. Many times when you went shopping in a department store, you sensed that your mind was not on your spirit, but you still bought something. If you look back on that experience, you will realize that your mind was altogether off your spirit. If in going shopping you sense that your mind is on the spirit, you may go ahead. But if you sense that it is not on the spirit, you should stop. This is exactly what it means to walk, to have our being, according to the spirit.
Today the Spirit is not far away in the heavens; He is within our very being. Romans 8:6 implies that the Spirit in our spirit can be sensed. How do we know that setting our mind on the flesh is death? We know it by the inner sense. Deep within, we sense that we have been cut off and that we are dead. Whenever we have our mind set on the flesh, we have this sense within. We do not need anyone to tell us this; we can sense it ourselves. A married brother may say to his wife, “While I’m arguing with you, I’m in the spirit. Can’t you realize this?” While he is saying this with his mouth, deep within he can sense that his mind is not on his spirit. I understand this quite well because I have experienced so much of it myself. Although we may tell others that we are right, in our spirit we know that we are wrong, for the sense of life does not stand with us, nor does it justify what we are doing. According to our deep inner sense, we know that we have been cut off. This is a red light in our spiritual driving. Whenever we see a red light, we must stop. When we have the sense that the inner light is green, we may then proceed. This is what it means to follow the Spirit within and to live, walk, and have our being according to the inner sense of life.
The way to be conformed to the image of Christ is by keeping our mind on our spirit. The mind of a fallen person is the representative of his whole being, for such a person does everything according to his mind. It is the same with the believers who do not walk in spirit. Thus, when our mind is on our spirit, it means that our whole being is on our spirit. In our daily living, in all that we are and do, we must have the assurance that our mind is on the spirit. To have our mind, our whole being, on the spirit is life. This is according to the working of the law of life.
