In this message we shall cover some deep and profound matters concerning Christ’s person in reproduction and resurrection.
Christ has a reproduction, and in His reproduction He is a grain of wheat. John 12:24 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Here the Lord Jesus indicates that He, as a grain of wheat, will fall into the ground and die in order to produce many grains as His reproduction. In Christ’s resurrection we are His reproduction. Concerning this, Peter says, “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). When Christ was resurrected, we, His believers, were all included in Him. We were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). In His resurrection Christ imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is in life and nature to be His reproduction. He was a grain of wheat falling into the ground to die. When He grew up in resurrection He produced many grains. The many grains are His reproduction, His multiplication, and this reproduction is His propagation. Through His death and resurrection He has been multiplied and propagated. This propagation is for the producing of the church. Through His death and resurrection He has produced the church as His reproduction.
In resurrection Christ is the Firstfruit of resurrection. First Corinthians 15:20 says, “Christ has been raised from among the dead, the firstfruit of those who have fallen asleep.” In verse 23 of the same chapter Paul goes on to say, “Each one in his own order: the firstfruit, Christ; after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.” In these verses Christ is set forth as the Firstfruit of resurrection. Christ was the first one raised from among the dead as the firstfruit of resurrection. This was typified by the firstfruits in Leviticus 23:10 and 11, offered to God on the day after the Sabbath, the day of resurrection (Matt. 28:1).
As the Firstfruit of resurrection, Christ is the Firstborn from among the dead: “He is the Head of the Body, the church; who is the beginning, Firstborn from among the dead” (Col. 1:18). Christ being “the Firstborn from among the dead” is for the new creation in resurrection, which is the church, the Body of Christ. As the first in resurrection Christ is the Head of the Body. He is the One who has the first place, the preeminence, in the church.
In resurrection Christ is the Son of God designated in power. In Romans 1:4 Paul says that Christ “was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead.” Before His incarnation and resurrection, Christ already was the Son of God. After He became incarnate, however, His divine nature was concealed by the flesh. But when He entered into resurrection, He was designated in power as being the Son of God. Therefore, resurrection was Christ’s designation as the Son of God.
Christ first passed through the process of incarnation to become flesh. Then He passed through the process of death and resurrection. By means of the second step of this process He was designated the Son of God out of resurrection. Although Christ already was the Son of God before the incarnation, He still needed to be designated the Son of God out of resurrection because by incarnation He had put on an element, the human nature, that had nothing to do with divinity. Christ was already the Son of God in His divinity, but that part of Him which was Jesus with the human nature born of Mary, was not the Son of God. By His resurrection Christ sanctified and uplifted His human nature, His humanity, and He was designated out of resurrection as the Son of God with this human nature. In this sense He was begotten the Son of God in His resurrection (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5).
Although Christ was the Son of God, this could not be recognized easily. By being “sown” into death and growing up in resurrection, He “blossomed.” By this process He was designated the Son of God, and by this process He uplifted the human nature. Christ did not put off His human nature when He entered into resurrection. Instead of putting off humanity, He sanctified it, uplifted it, and transformed it, and He had Himself designated with this transformed humanity the Son of God with the divine power. When He was the Son of God before His incarnation, He did not have human nature. Now in resurrection He is the Son of God with humanity uplifted, sanctified, and transformed.
Those responsible for the death of Christ did not realize that crucifixion was a step on the way for Him to be designated the Son of God in resurrection. Satan expected that the crucifixion would mark His termination, but the Lord Jesus knew that this was actually the beginning, that it would lead to His designation according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection from the dead.
As the designated Son of God, Christ still has two natures, divinity and humanity. However, the humanity He now has is not a natural humanity but a humanity uplifted in resurrection. Even His human nature has been designated the Son of God. He has been designated the Son of God with both divinity and humanity.
Through designation in resurrection the Christ who was already the Son of God before His incarnation became the Son of God in a new way. Before His incarnation He was the Son of God only with divinity. But now, through His resurrection, He has been designated the Son of God both with divinity and humanity. If Christ had not put on human nature, there would have been no need for Him to be designated the Son of God, for in His divinity He was already the Son of God, even from eternity. But having put on humanity through incarnation, He was designated the Son of God with humanity in resurrection.
Romans 1:4 says that this designation was according to the Spirit of holiness. There is a distinction between the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of holiness. Holiness refers to the divine essence, the substance of God’s being. The Spirit of holiness is the Spirit of the divine essence, whereas the Holy Spirit is the Person of the Spirit. As the Son of God, Christ is constituted of the Spirit of holiness; the Spirit of holiness is His very element. It was according to the Spirit of holiness that Christ was designated the Son of God in resurrection.
The Spirit of holiness is the life-essence within the Lord Jesus. When He lived on earth in the flesh, He had this divine life-essence within Him. As a flower is designated according to the life-essence within it, so Christ was designated by resurrection according to the divine life-essence in Him. When He resurrected from among the dead, He was designated in power by resurrection according to the Spirit of holiness that was in Him. Now He is the Son of God in a way that is more wonderful than before, for now He has both the divine nature and the resurrected, transformed, uplifted, glorified, and designated human nature.