The believers are those who have received Christ as their generating life for them to become the children of God. Believing in Christ equals receiving Him. When we believe in Christ, we receive Him. We receive Him by believing in Him.
John 1:12 and 13 say, “As many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Here we see that believing in the Lord Jesus is equal to receiving Him. If a person truly believes in the Lord’s name, in some way or other he will say, “Lord Jesus.” As long as we call on His name from the depths of our being, we believe in Him. If we believe in Him by calling on His name, this proves that we have received Him. Furthermore, since we have received Him, we have received the authority to become children of God. This authority is Christ Himself as the generating life that makes us children of God for His multiplication and expression.
We have emphasized the fact that to believe in the Lord Jesus is to receive Him. The Lord is receivable. He is now the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), with His complete redemption, waiting for and expecting us to receive Him. Our spirit is the receiving organ. We receive the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18) into our spirit by believing in Christ. Once we believe in Him, He, as the Spirit, enters into our spirit. Then we are regenerated by Him, the life-giving Spirit, and become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).
The believers are those who have believed into Christ as the Son of God to have an organic union with Him. However, certain people believe Christ, but they do not believe in Christ. Genuine believers are those who believe in Christ, even into Christ. Those who merely believe Christ are not believers in the New Testament sense, for they take the Lord Jesus as a pattern, an example, a model, for them to imitate and follow to do certain works for the benefit of society. Because such people do not believe into Christ, they have not entered into the organic union with Christ. We, the genuine believers in Christ, have an organic union with Christ.
John 3:36 says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life.” Literally translated, the phrase “believes in” in verse 36, as well as in verses 15, 16, and 18, should be “believes into.” When we believe in the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, we believe into Him. By believing in Him, we enter into Him to be one with Him organically, to partake of Him, and to participate in all that He has accomplished for us. By believing into Him, we are identified with Him in all that He is and in all that He has passed through, accomplished, attained, and obtained. As we become one with Christ by believing into Him, we are saved and regenerated by Him as life. Therefore, it is by believing into Him that we partake of Him as life and are regenerated in Him.
The Lord’s word in John 3:15, 16, 18, and 36 tells us clearly and definitely that the way for us to be regenerated is to believe in the Lord Jesus, even to believe into Him. To believe in the Lord is the only way for us to receive salvation and to experience regeneration. It is absolutely a matter of faith. No matter how much we can work or how good our work may be, we cannot be saved and regenerated by our work. Our work does not count in this matter. Only faith counts. Salvation and regeneration must be by faith. It is by faith in the Lord, by believing into Him, that we receive forgiveness, the release from God’s condemnation negatively. It is also by faith, by believing into the Lord, that we receive eternal life, the life of God, the divine life, positively for our regeneration. The Lord Jesus has accomplished the redemptive work for us. By His redemptive death on the cross, He has met all of God’s righteous demands on us and has fulfilled all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory for us. By His death on the cross in the form of the serpent, the Lord has even destroyed Satan, the Devil who usurps us and enslaves us, so that we may be delivered from the evil one’s slavery and power of death (Heb. 2:14). All negative things have been solved by Christ’s all-inclusive death on the cross. Therefore, we do not need to do anything except believe in the Lord Jesus and in what He has accomplished. He has not left any room for our work. There is no need of our work, only of faith in Christ’s finished, completed, and all-inclusive redemptive work.
After passing through death, the Lord, by resurrection and in resurrection, has released His life and has become the life-giving Spirit. Now in resurrection He is the Spirit of life, with all the virtue of His redemptive work, waiting for us to believe into Him. Once we believe into Him, we receive not only the forgiveness of sins and the deliverance from Satan’s evil power of darkness but also the Spirit of life, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, with the eternal life of God. In this way we are saved, regenerated, and enter into an organic union with Christ.
By believing into Christ as the Son of God we have an organic union with Him. When we believe in Him, we believe into Him and thereby become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). This is what we mean by the expression “organic union.” By faith we are brought into an organic union with the Triune God. Now the Lord is seeking to develop this organic union, and He will cause it to be developed to the uttermost. The more this union is developed, the more we shall enjoy the dispensing of the Triune God.
Home | First | Prev | Next