The believers become children of God through their receiving of the Son of God by believing in His name. John 1:12 speaks of receiving the Lord and also of believing in His name. Believing in the Lord Jesus is equal to receiving Him. As long as we can say, “Lord Jesus,” from the depths of our being, this proves that we believe in Him. Furthermore, if we believe in Him by calling on His name, this is a proof that we have received Him. And since we have received Him, we have received the authority to become children of God. The authority to be God’s children is Christ Himself as life to us. Having received the Lord Jesus by believing in Him, we have been born of God and now are children of God.
As believers we have been born of God to have eternal life-the life of God with the divine nature (John 3:15-16; 2 Pet. 1:4). The life of God is the content of God and God Himself. All that is in God and all that God Himself is are in the life of God. All the fullness of the Godhead is hidden in the life of God. The nature of God is also contained in the life of God. All that He is-whether truth, holiness, light, or love-is derived from His life. Because the life of God is the content of God, in it is hidden the fullness of God, and in it is contained the nature of God Himself. Therefore, when we receive the life of God, we receive the fullness of God, and we have the nature of God.
John 3:15 and 16 speak of having eternal life by believing in the Lord Jesus. Eternal life is the divine life, the uncreated life of God, which is not only everlasting with respect to time but also divine and eternal in nature. For us today this life is actually the resurrected, indwelling Christ. Along with the divine life we also have the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Thus, through our receiving of the Son of God by believing in His name we were born to have eternal life, which is the life of God with the divine nature. Now, as believers, we are children of God with the divine life and nature.
First, the believers are children of God, and then they gradually grow up to become sons of God. In His salvation God makes sinners into sons. The central thought of the book of Romans is that in His salvation God is making sinners His sons with His life and nature so that they may become constituents of the Body of Christ for His expression. Romans 8, in particular, emphasizes sonship. Verse 14 says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” This indicates that we may know that we are sons of God by the fact that we are led by the Spirit. The leading of the Spirit marks us out as being the sons of God in the growth of life. Verse 19 continues, “The anxious watching of the creation eagerly expects the revelation of the sons of God.” This verse speaks of the manifestation or the appearing of the sons of God.
Galatians 3:26 says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Faith in Christ brings us into Christ and makes us one with Christ in whom is the sonship. We must be identified with Christ through faith so that in Him we may become sons of God.
When we believed in Christ, the processed Triune God entered into our being to be our life. This life is divine, spiritual, heavenly, and holy. Entering into us, it caused a spiritual birth to take place, and this birth brought about an organic union between us and the Triune God. Because God has been born into our being, we have become sons of God.
According to the Bible, it is a divine fact that human beings can become sons of God. When we believed in Christ, the divine life with the divine nature-in fact, the divine being of the Triune God Himself-entered into us, and we were born of God to become sons of God. Just as a man’s son partakes of his life and nature, so we as God’s sons partake of the divine life and nature. God’s offspring are His sons possessing the divine life and divine nature.
It is a matter of tremendous significance for the divine life to be imparted into us. This impartation of the divine life causes an organic union that makes us the sons of God. This organic union takes place exclusively in Christ. In Christ we enjoy the wonderful organic union with the Triune God. In this union we are the sons of God. Christ is the unique sphere in which this takes place. When we enter into this sphere, we become sons of God. Our true status is that in Christ and by the organic union we are sons of God.
Galatians 4:6 says, “Because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!” God’s Son is the embodiment of the divine life (1 John 5:12). Hence, the Spirit of God’s Son is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). God gives us His Spirit of life because we are His sons. As the sons of God, we have the position with the full right to participate in the Spirit of God, who has the bountiful supply of life.
According to the entire revelation of the New Testament, God’s economy is to produce sons. Sonship is the focal point of God’s economy, God’s dispensation. God’s economy is the dispensing of Himself into His chosen people to make them His sons. Christ’s redemption is to bring us into the sonship of God that we may enjoy the divine life. It is not God’s economy to make us keepers of law, which was given only for a temporary purpose. God’s economy is to make us sons of God, inheriting the blessing of God’s promise, which was given for His eternal purpose to have many sons for His corporate expression (Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:29).
Revelation 21:7 says, “He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be God to him, and he shall be a son to Me.” Here to overcome means to overcome by believing, as in 1 John 5:4 and 5. This overcoming qualifies all believers for participation in the New Jerusalem with all its enjoyment as a common portion of God’s eternal salvation. “Son” in Revelation 21:7 refers to the believer who will dwell in the New Jerusalem. The sons of God in the New Jerusalem are the constituents of the New Jerusalem. They are the regenerated believers who have the divine life and nature and who are built together through transformation to be the corporate expression of the Triune God. The New Jerusalem is constituted of all these sons who have been born of God. Because the sons of God are the constituents of the New Jerusalem, they will also dwell in the New Jerusalem. Furthermore, the sons of God will participate in all the enjoyment of the New Jerusalem, especially the enjoyment of the water of life (Rev. 21:6).
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