Scripture Reading: Acts 5:14; 1 Tim. 4:12; 2 Cor. 6:14-15; John 3:16; 20:31
Ⅰ
Certain verses in the New Testament speak of the believers—Acts 5:14; 10:45; 16:1; 2 Cor. 6:14-15; 1 Tim. 4:12; 6:2.
Ⅱ
The believers are those who have believed in Christ as the Son of God according to God's New Testament economy of faith—1:4; John 3:15-16, 36; 20:31:
A
A believer is one who believes in Christ as the Son of God—9:35-38.
B
Because Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, we need to believe in Him as the Christ and as the Son of God—20:31:
１
Christ is the title of the Lord Jesus according to His mission and denotes His work to accomplish God's purpose—Matt. 16:16.
２
The Son of God is the Lord's title according to His person.
３
The Lord's person is a matter of God's life, and His mission is a matter of God's work; He is the Son of God to be the Christ of God.
４
The Lord Jesus works for God by the life of God so that by believing in Him we may have the life of God to become children of God—John 1:12-13; Acts 13:48.
C
Our believing in Christ as the Son of God is according to God's New Testament economy of faith—1 Tim. 1:4:
１
Faith is to stop our doing and to trust in the Lord—Gal. 2:16.
２
The principle of God's salvation is that of believing in God and in all that He has done and intends to do; this principle of faith should govern our entire Christian life—Heb. 11:6.
３
To have faith is to receive all that God has planned for us, all that God has done for us, and all that God has given to us.
４
The dispensing of the processed and consummated Triune God into us is altogether by faith—Eph. 3:16-17a.
５
God's economy to dispense Himself into His chosen and redeemed people is in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regeneration by faith in Christ—Gal. 3:23-26:
ａ
By faith we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him—John 1:12-13.
ｂ
By faith we are put into Christ to become the members of His Body, sharing all that He is for His expression—1 Cor. 1:30; 12:13, 27.
６
Faith is our reaction toward God caused by the divine infusion, which permeates and saturates our being—Heb. 12:1-2.
７
We believe in Christ by the Lord Jesus Himself as our faith—Rom. 3:22.
Ⅲ
The believers are those who have received Christ as their generating life for them to become children of God—John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:16:
A
Believing in Christ equals receiving Him—John 1:12-13; 1 John 5:10:
１
When we believe in Christ, we receive Him.
２
We receive Him by believing in Him.
B
The authority for us to become children of God is Christ Himself as the gener-ating life that makes us children of God for His multiplication and expression— 3:1, 23; 5:13.
C
As the life-giving Spirit, the Lord is receivable—1 Cor. 15:45b; 4:7; John 7:37-39; 20:22:
１
Our spirit is our receiving organ; we receive the Lord Spirit into our spirit by believing in Christ—2 Cor. 3:18.
２
When we believe in Him, He, as the Spirit, enters into our spirit, and we are regenerated by Him, the life-giving Spirit, and become one spirit with Him—1 Cor. 6:17.
Ⅳ
The believers are those who have believed into Christ as the Son of God to have an organic union with Him—John 3:15-16, 18, 36:
A
John 3:16 speaks of believing into the Son of God; the preposition into here signifies union with Christ by believing into Him:
１
When we believe in the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, we believe into Him— vv. 15-16, 18, 36.
２
By believing into Christ as the Son of God, we enter into Him to be one with Him organically, to partake of Him, and to participate in all that He has accomplished for us.
３
By believing into Christ, we are identified with Him in all that He has accomplished, attained, and obtained—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 2:11-13; 3:1-3.
B
The way for us to be regenerated is to believe in the Lord Jesus, even to believe into Him as the Son of God—John 3:3, 5-6, 15-16:
１
It is by faith in the Lord Jesus, by believing into Him, that we receive the forgiveness of sins, the release from God's condemnation—Luke 24:47.
２
It is by faith in the Lord Jesus, by believing into Him, that we receive eternal life, the life of God, the divine life, for our regeneration—John 3:16.
C
By believing into Christ as the Son of God, we have an organic union with Him, becoming one spirit with Him—1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Cor. 5:17:
１
Faith works to bring us into an organic union with the Triune God in Christ, and through this union God is continually infused into us.
２
The Lord is now seeking to develop this organic union, and He will cause it to be developed to the uttermost.
３
The more the organic union is developed, the more we will enjoy the dis-pensing of the Triune God as life into our tripartite being—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.