Regarding the Son of God there are two aspects: the aspect of the only begotten Son of God and the aspect of the firstborn Son of God. Before His resurrection Christ was the only begotten Son of God. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” This verse speaks of Christ as the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. From eternity until the time of His resurrection Christ was the only begotten Son of God. However, this does not mean that after His resurrection Christ is no longer the only begotten Son of God. In a sense, He still is the only begotten Son. Nevertheless, as we shall see, from the time of His resurrection He became the Son of God in another sense, in the sense of being the firstborn Son of God.
Before His incarnation Christ was the only begotten Son of God, but through resurrection He was born to be the firstborn Son of God. As the only begotten Son of God Christ did not have humanity; He only had divinity. Therefore, before His resurrection He was the Son of God in His divinity. That was unique. But by His incarnation He entered into humanity and took on human nature as part of His being. However, His humanity was not “sonized,” that is, designated the Son of God (Rom. 1:4), until His resurrection. This is the reason Paul says in Acts 13:33, “God has fully fulfilled this promise to us their children in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second psalm, You are My Son; today I have begotten You.” This verse indicates that resurrection was a birth to the man Jesus. He was begotten by God in His resurrection to be the firstborn Son of God among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). He was the only begotten Son of God from eternity. After incarnation through resurrection He was begotten by God in His humanity to be God’s firstborn Son. Through resurrection His humanity was sonized to make Him the Firstborn among many sons.
If it were not for Paul, I do not think that we would be able to see that Psalm 2 speaks of the resurrection of Christ. Paul saw the Lord’s resurrection in the word “You are My Son; today I have begotten You.” Paul applied the word “today” to the day of the Lord’s resurrection. This means that Christ’s resurrection was His birth as the firstborn Son of God. Jesus, the Son of Man, was born to be the Son of God through being raised up from the dead. Therefore, God’s raising up of Jesus from the dead was His begetting of Him to be the firstborn Son. It is crucial for us to realize that the Lord’s resurrection was His birth.
The Lord Jesus had two births. First, He was born of Mary to be the Son of Man. Then thirty-three and a half years later He was crucified, buried, and raised from among the dead. Through resurrection He had a second birth, for as a man He was born in His resurrection to be the Son of God. Therefore, in His first birth He was born of Mary to be the Son of Man, and in His second birth He was born of God in resurrection to be the Son of God.
Romans 8:29 and Hebrews 1:6 both speak of Christ as the Firstborn. First, He was God’s only begotten Son; second, He is now God’s firstborn Son. The words “only begotten” indicate that God has only one Son. John 1:18 and 3:16 speak of the only begotten Son of God. Eternally speaking, Christ was the only begotten Son of God. This was His eternal status. But through resurrection He, as a man, was born to be the firstborn Son of God. The word “firstborn” indicates that God now has many sons (Heb. 2:10). We who believe in Christ are the many sons of God and the many brothers of the Lord, the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God.
Before His incarnation, Christ as a divine person already was the Son of God. Romans 8:3 says that God sent His Son. By incarnation Christ put on an element, the flesh, the human nature, that had nothing to do with divinity. That part of Him which was Jesus with the flesh, the human nature, born of Mary, was not the Son of God. That part of Him was human. By His resurrection Christ sanctified and uplifted that part of His human nature, His humanity, and He was designated out of this resurrection as the Son of God with this human nature (Rom. 1:4). In this sense, the Bible says that He was begotten the Son of God in His resurrection (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5).
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 as the Son of God He is the very embodiment of the divine life (John 1:4). Through resurrection Christ became the firstborn Son of God as the life-dispenser for the propagation of life. Through His becoming the firstborn Son of God in resurrection, the divine life has been dispensed into all of His believers to bring forth the propagation of the very life that is embodied in Him.
Not only was Christ born in resurrection, but all His believers were born with Him at that time. Hence, that birth in resurrection was a corporate birth. We were regenerated in Christ’s resurrection, when His humanity was born of God. This birth in resurrection included us. We all were born with Christ in His resurrection to be the many sons of God and His many brothers.
In this message we have seen that in the Godhead Christ is the complete God and also the Son of God. Christ’s being the complete God and the Son of God, the only begotten Son and the firstborn Son, are for the dispensing of God into His chosen people so that they may be His corporate expression.