Romans 8:29 says, “Whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He should be the Firstborn among many brothers.” The Greek word rendered “predestinated” can also be translated “marked out beforehand.” Marking out beforehand is the process, whereas predestination is the purpose to determine a destiny beforehand. Before the foundation of the world, God marked us out to a certain destiny-being conformed to the image of His Son. Concerning this conformation, the model or prototype is not the only begotten Son, who only has divinity, not humanity, but the firstborn Son, who has both divinity and humanity. We have been predestinated to be conformed to the image of God’s firstborn Son.
God’s purpose is to produce many brothers of His firstborn Son for His corporate expression. The Firstborn is the prototype, and we are the mass production. Christ is the model, the mold, the pattern. God has put us into Him so that we may be molded into His image. Eventually, we shall all be conformed to the mold. This is even higher than transformation. Transformation is inward, a matter of essence, but conformation is outward, a matter of form. Christ has a form, and we need to be conformed to it. In this process we are conformed to the image of Christ.
To be conformed to the image of the Firstborn is to be saved from self-likeness, saved from the expression or appearance of the self. This means that to be saved from self-likeness is to be made a son of God and a brother of Christ in reality. Because in many respects we do not yet look like sons of God, we still need to be saved from self-likeness in order to bear the appearance of brothers of Christ.
Being conformed to the image of the Firstborn depends on the divine life we received through regeneration. Every kind of life has four basic features: the life-essence, the life-power, the life-law, and the life-shape. Conformation denotes the shaping of life. As the divine life grows within us and transforms us, it spontaneously shapes us into the image of the firstborn Son of God. However, some of us may try to shape ourselves into the likeness of Christ. Such self-effort never works. Concerning this only one thing is prevailing-the divine life that grows in us, sanctifies us, transforms us, and shapes us. There is no need for us to shape ourselves, to perform, or to strive to improve our behavior. What we need is a fuller experience of the divine life with its essence, power, law, and shape.
As those who are undergoing the process of transformation, we are being shaped gradually into the image of the Son of God by the function of the all-inclusive, divine life. By growth and transformation we are being conformed to the image of Christ. Eventually, we shall be completely conformed to His image. Through the shaping function of the divine life we, Christ’s brothers, shall be fully conformed to His image.
The believers as brothers of Christ were born through the resurrection of Christ. This means that resurrection was a birth both for Christ as the Firstborn and for us as His brothers. As the Son of God, Christ has passed through two births. The first birth took place at His incarnation, and the second, in His resurrection. In the first birth He was born as a son of man. After living on earth for thirty-three and a half years, Christ was crucified. Then in the second birth in resurrection He was born as the firstborn Son of God. It was in Christ’s second birth that we were born to be His brothers. When Christ was resurrected, we were resurrected with Him and in Him. Through His resurrection He was born as the firstborn Son, and we also were born as God’s many sons and Christ’s many brothers with Christ and in Him. Therefore, the resurrection of Christ was a universal birth, for in that birth He was born as the Firstborn and we also were born into the divine sonship to be His brothers.
First Peter 1:3 reveals that we were regenerated through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. We were regenerated when Christ was resurrected. Since His resurrection was our regeneration, we were regenerated before we were born. This means that before we became part of the old creation, we were already part of the new creation through Christ’s resurrection. Now we are the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God in His resurrection. God is our Father, and the Firstborn is our Brother.
Now we can see the significance of the Lord’s word to Mary in John 20:17: “Go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” Prior to His resurrection, the Lord Jesus never called His disciples brothers. The most intimate term the Lord used to call His disciples was “friends” (John 15:14-15). But after His resurrection He began to call them brothers, for through His resurrection His disciples had been regenerated with the divine life released by His life-imparting death, as indicated in John 12:24. It was through His resurrection that the Lord imparted Himself as the Spirit into His disciples. By receiving His life they were reborn, regenerated, and became His brothers, having the same life as the Lord. Hence, in His resurrection the only begotten Son became the Firstborn among many brothers, those who have been regenerated through His resurrection with the divine life released by His life-imparting death.
Furthermore, Christ’s many brothers, as the many sons of the Father, are the church (Heb. 2:10-12) to be a corporate expression of God the Father in the Son. Therefore, the many brothers are the propagation of the Father’s life and the multiplication of the Son in the divine life for the corporate expression of God the Father in the Son. This is God’s ultimate intention.
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