Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12a, 14a; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:28-30; Heb. 2:10-12; 1 Cor. 15:31, 36
Ⅰ
“I will raise up your seed…I will be his Father, and he will be My son”—2 Sam. 7:12a, 14a:
A
This word corresponds with Paul’s in Romans 1:3-4 concerning Christ as the seed of David being designated the Son of God in His humanity in resurrection.
B
The intrinsic significance of 2 Samuel 7 is that the Triune God is working Himself in His processed and consummated Trinity into His chosen people.
C
According to Hebrews 1:5b, which quotes 2 Samuel 7:14a, David’s seed is Christ as God’s firstborn Son, who has both divinity and humanity—Heb. 1:5a, 6.
D
Your seed in 2 Samuel 7:12a and My son in verse 14a imply that the seed of David would become the Son of God, that is, that a human seed would become a divine Son—Rom. 1:3-4.
E
This implies that God’s intention in His economy is to make Himself man in order to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
F
This word concerning the seed of David becoming the Son of God is continued and developed strongly in the New Testament—Matt. 22:41-45; Rev. 22:16.
Ⅱ
In Acts 13 Paul says that from David’s seed “God, according to promise, brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus” (v. 23), and that “God has fully fulfilled this promise…in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; this day have I begotten You’” (v. 33):
A
In verses 32 and 33 we see that Christ as the firstborn Son of God was promised to the fathers, and God fulfilled this promise by raising up Jesus.
B
Resurrection was a birth to the man Jesus:
１
He was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God among many brothers—Rom. 8:29.
２
He was the only begotten Son of God from eternity—John 1:18; 3:16.
３
After His incarnation, through resurrection He was begotten by God in His humanity to be God’s firstborn Son—Heb. 1:6.
C
Paul was able to see the Lord’s resurrection in Psalm 2:7: “You are My Son; / Today I have begotten You”:
１
Paul applies the word today to the day of the Lord’s resurrection.
２
This means that Christ’s resurrection was His birth as the firstborn Son of God.
３
Jesus, the Son of Man, was born to be the Son of God through being raised from the dead; therefore, God’s raising up Jesus from the dead was His begetting of Him to be His firstborn Son—Acts 13:33.
D
Through incarnation God’s only begotten Son put on humanity and became the God-man (John 1:14, 18; Luke 1:35); then in resurrection this God-man was born of God to be His Firstborn (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:6; Rom. 8:29):
１
Before incarnation God’s only begotten Son did not have the human nature; He had only the divine nature.
２
In resurrection God’s firstborn Son has the human nature as well as the divine nature.
E
Through His resurrection Christ was born to be the firstborn Son, and at the same time all His believers were born to be the many sons of God—1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 2:10:
１
Among these many sons, only the Firstborn is God’s only begotten Son—1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 2:10.
２
This only begotten Son of God, in His resurrected humanity, is also the firstborn Son of God—Rom. 8:29.
３
The Firstborn 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.
Ⅲ
The seed of David becoming the Son of God speaks of the process of Christ’s being designated the firstborn Son of God by resurrection—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:3-4; Matt. 22:45; Rev. 22:16:
A
Paul says that he was separated unto the gospel of God concerning God’s Son, which indicates that the gospel of God is a gospel of sonship for the reality of the Body of Christ—Rom. 1:1, 3-4; 8:28-30; 12:5.
B
Romans 1:3-4 is the fulfillment of the prophecy in typology in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a, unveiling the mystery of God becoming man to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead:
１
By incarnation, Christ, the only begotten Son of God in His divinity (John 1:18), put on the flesh, the human nature, which had nothing to do with divinity; in His humanity, He was not the Son of God:
ａ
Jesus in His humanity was the seed of David, a human seed belonging to the old creation (the old man—Rom. 6:6) of God—Col. 1:15b.
ｂ
When Christ died on the cross as the seed of David in His humanity, He crucified the old man with the old creation, destroyed the devil, condemned sin in the flesh, and judged the world—Rom. 6:6; Heb. 2:14; Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; John 3:14; 12:31.
２
In resurrection His humanity was deified, “sonized,” meaning that He became the Son of God not only in His divinity but also in His humanity—Rom. 1:3-4:
ａ
In resurrection He was designated the Son of God, made the firstborn Son of God, possessing both divinity and humanity—8:29.
ｂ
Crucifixion was the best way for Him to be designated, glorified, resurrected:
⑴
If a seed dies by being buried in the soil, it will eventually sprout, grow, and blossom, because the operation of the seed’s life is activated simultaneously with its death—John 12:23-24.
⑵
The divinity, the Spirit of holiness, in Christ became operative in His death, and in resurrection He “blossomed” as the Son of God.
⑶
According to His flesh, He was crucified, but according to His Spirit, He was made strong, very active, to put divinity into the humanity of Christ to make it divine; this is what it means to designate, and this is to sonize—1 Pet. 3:18.
ｃ
The humanity of Christ was designated, marked out, uplifted, by the Spirit of holiness, the divinity of Christ; in this way the humanity of Christ was uplifted into divinity; that is, Christ was begotten again in His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God—Acts 13:33:
⑴
Christ was the first One regenerated in resurrection—Rom. 8:29:
⒜
His humanity was born in His mother’s womb; that was human and could not be considered the Son of God but the Son of Man.
⒝
Christ’s resurrection uplifted His humanity and put His divinity into this humanity; so by this resurrection His humanity was born again to be a part of the Son of God.
⑵
The prototype is the firstborn Son of God, and the reproduction is the many sons of God, the members of the prototype to be His Body, which consummates in the New Jerusalem—1 Pet. 1:3.
Ⅳ
The seed of David becoming the Son of God speaks of the process of our being designated the many sons of God by resurrection—Heb. 2:10-11:
A
Christ has already been designated the Son of God, but we are still in the process of designation, the process of being sonized, deified—Rom. 8:28-29.
B
The life of the Son of God has been implanted into our spirit—v. 10:
１
Now we, like the seed that is sown into the earth, must pass through the process of death and resurrection—John 12:24-25.
２
This causes the outer man to be consumed, but it enables the inner life to grow, to develop, and ultimately, to blossom; this is resurrection—1 Cor. 15:31, 36; 2 Cor. 4:10-12, 16.
３
The more we grow in life for our transformation in life, the more we are designated the sons of God:
ａ
In order to grow, we need a heart turned to the Lord and a heart that is pure toward Him—3:16, 18; Matt. 5:8; 2 Tim. 2:22.
ｂ
In order to grow, we need to feed on the guileless milk and the solid food of the word—1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-14.
ｃ
In order to grow, we need the watering of the gifted members—1 Cor. 3:6b; John 7:37-39; Prov. 11:25.
ｄ
Through all the things in our environment and by our failures, our ugly self is torn down, and the Lord has a greater opportunity to work within us—Rom. 8:28-29.
ｅ
One day this process will be completed, and for eternity we will be the same as Christ, God’s firstborn Son, in our spirit, soul, and body—1 John 3:2; Rom. 8:19, 23; Hymns, #948, stanza 2.
C
In resurrection Christ in His humanity was designated the Son of God, and by means of such a resurrection we also are in the process of being designated sons of God—Rom. 8:11:
１
The process of our being designated, sonized, deified, is the process of resurrection with four main aspects—sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification—6:22; 12:2; 8:29-30.
２
The key to the process of designation is resurrection, which is the indwelling Christ as the rising-up Spirit, the designating Spirit, the power of life in our spirit—John 11:25; Rom. 8:10-11; Acts 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:36; 5:4:
ａ
We urgently need to learn how to walk according to the spirit, to enjoy and experience the designating Spirit—Rom. 8:4, 14.
ｂ
The more we touch the Spirit, the more we are sanctified, transformed, and glorified to become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:12; 8:15-16; Gal. 4:6.
Ⅴ
God’s purpose is to produce many brothers of His firstborn Son for His expression:
A
Romans 8:29 tells us that God predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He may be “the Firstborn among many brothers.”
B
It is a wonderful fact that the Firstborn has many brothers—Matt. 28:10; John 20:17.
C
Christ is the Firstborn with divinity and humanity, and we are His many brothers with humanity and divinity; both the Firstborn and the many sons are born of the same Father God in resurrection.
D
Hebrews 2:11 says, “He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers.”
E
The Firstborn is the prototype, and we are the mass production; Christ is the model, the mold, the pattern, and God has put us into Him so that we may be molded into His image.
F
As His many brothers, we are now in the process of maturity, being conformed to His image.
G
Hebrews 2:12, a quotation from Psalm 22:22, says, “I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.”
H
According to Hebrews 2:12, the church is a corporate composition of the brothers of the firstborn Son of God with two natures and two lives combined and mingled.