«　WEEK 1　DAY 3　»

　　John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

　　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 difference between the only begotten Son of God in eternity past and the firstborn Son of God in resurrection is that in eternity past, before His incarnation, He possessed only divinity without humanity. But through the process of incarnation, He put on humanity. He passed through human living, entered into death, and came out in resurrection. In resurrection He still remained the Son of God according to His divinity, but there was something more; He also possessed the humanity that He obtained through incarnation. The humanity that He put on in incarnation was also brought into resurrection to share in the sonship. This is why Acts 13:33 says that on the day of resurrection Christ was begotten of God to be God's Son. It means that resurrection "sonized" His humanity, made it also the Son of God. According to Acts 13:33, Christ's resurrection was a birth, making Him not only God's only begotten Son with divinity but also God's firstborn Son with both divinity and humanity. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, "The Secret of Experiencing Christ," p. 471)

　　Today Christ is the Son of God in two respects: He is God's only begotten Son, and He is also God's firstborn Son. However, if He were only God's only begotten Son, He could not have any brothers. To have us as His brothers, He must possess humanity, but as God's only begotten Son in eternity past, He possessed only divinity, not humanity. Nevertheless, in His incarnation Christ put on humanity, and through resurrection He brought this humanity into sonship. In this way He became God's firstborn Son with both divinity and humanity. Then, as the life-giving Spirit, He entered into us to make us also sons of God. Now we are the many sons of God being conformed to the image, not of God's only begotten Son but of His firstborn Son. Therefore, as God's firstborn Son, Christ has many brothers.

　　On the day of His resurrection Christ was begotten by God in His humanity. He became the firstborn Son of God in order to produce many sons of God. We need to realize that the date of our regeneration was the date of Christ's resurrection. When Christ was resurrected from the dead, we, all the believers, were resurrected with Him (1 Pet. 1:3). Through His resurrection He was born to be God's firstborn Son, and at the same time all His believers were born to be the many sons of God. On the day of Christ's resurrection, all God's chosen people were resurrected and were born to be God's many sons. Now God has many sons with both divinity and humanity. But among these many sons, only the Firstborn is His only begotten Son. This only begotten Son of God, in His resurrected humanity, is also the firstborn Son of God. As the firstborn Son of God, He has both divinity and humanity, and we His believers as God's many sons also possess both the human nature and the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Now day by day we are being conformed to the image of God's firstborn Son (Rom. 8:29). (CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, "The Secret of Experiencing Christ," pp. 471-472)

　　As the only begotten Son of God, the Lord is the embodiment of the divine life. The Gospel of John emphasizes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that as the Son of God He is the embodiment of the divine life (1:4). Through resurrection Christ became the firstborn Son of God as the life-dispenser for the propagation of life. First, He was the only begotten Son as the embodiment of life; now He is the firstborn Son for the propagation of life. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 2994)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, "The Secret of Experiencing Christ," ch. 4